Award-winning actress and playwright Isabella Ragonese will bring us on an emotional journey in between literature and theater featuring some of the greatest Italian authors like - Andrea Camilleri, Elsa Morante, Goffredo Parise, Nicola Ammaniti, Pier Vittorio Tondelli, and others.. “On a Solitary Beach” evokes the Italian coasts, the sea, the transience of people’s lives and social changes. In Italy, the shore, the sea, the beach, are a condition and a place that characterizes the way of living, the society, the thoughts and the actions of its inhabitants. Literature had often placed by the sea, existential fragments inspired by the division in between the accessible and the inaccessible.
The event is organized in collaboration with Umanism NYC and the I&APP (The Italian & American Playwrights Project)
Special thanks to Journalist and theater critic Graziano Graziani, for the precious help with the selection of the readings.
Event in Italian
Isabella Ragonese. Actress and playwright, she debuted on the silver screen in Italy with Nuovomondo by Emanuele Crialese. She then played the lead role in Paolo Virzì’s movie Tutta la vita davanti, for which she won the Nastro d’Argento award for best actress. She has been directed by Silvio Muccino, Daniele Lucchetti (she won another Nastro d’Argento for her interpretation in his film La nostra vita – 2010), Giorgia Cecere, Carlo Mazzacurati, Fabio Volo, Mario Martone, Sergio Rubini, and Daniele Vicari. Isabella Ragone’s professional path has been always intertwined with theatre, both as an actress and an author. Among her most prominent shows are Lady Grey by Will Eno (2010), La commedia di Orlando by Emanuela Giordano (2012), Taking care of baby by Dennis Kelly (2013), African Requiem by Stefano Massini (2014) and Louise e Renée by Sonia Bergamasco (2017), performed at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano. She wrote, directed and starred in many of her original pieces, such as Che male vi fo e Bestino. She won many competitions for emerging artists. In 1998 she ranked 1st in the national competiton - INDA (Istituto Nazionale Dramma Antico). As an actress she also works for many TV series projects.
The Week of the Italian Language in the World, is under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic and is an event promoted yearly by Italy’s cultural and diplomatic network abroad in the third week of October. This 19th edition’s main theme is “Italian language on the stage”: one full week enriched by book presentations and staged reading where language and literature will be at the centre of the scene.
