LA CANTATA DEI PASTORI: Neapolitan Christmas Concert. Special benefit performance and concert featuring music, dance, and dinner. Wednesday December 12 from 19:30 to 22:30 EST. Capri Ristorante - 145 Mulberry St, New York 10013 (In the Downstairs Performance Lounge). Please join me, Alessandra Belloni, to help my non profit organization, I Giullari di Piazza, continue to present our powerful musical productions. WE NOW NEED ALL THE HELP OF OUR SUPPORTERS!

We will present by popular demand, the Neapolitan Renaissance Christmas show LA CANTATA DEI PASTORI, (The Shepherd's Cantata). Only performance this season, don't miss us! This fantastical, engaging show is enacted by masked commedia dell'arte characters, puppets, devils, the Archangel Gabriel on stilts, and full of lush live music, song and dance.  Songs are sung in Italian and old Neapolitan dialect; the costuming and music instrumentation is traditional Southern Italian; the narration is in English by the remarkable magical good witch: La Befana!

I play a very strong Mary who is devoted to defeating the Devil by playing my drum! The authentic Italian traditional arts we are dedicated to are in danger of being forgotten, particularly in the USA where Italian communities have fully assimilated into the cultural mainstream. Please attend our benefit concert, or a monetary contribution to help us keep South Italian folk music, theater, and dance alive. Join us on Dec. 12th in the heart of Manhattan's historic Little Italy! Some of my books, and musical CDs and DVDs will be available for sale. Handmade, upcycled art ormanents by Art in Little Italy will also be for sale. They are contemporary folk art takes on the tradition of the Neapolitan presepio. Invest in artists this holiday season.

YOUR CONTRIBUTION AND YOUR PERKS:

Tickets to our special benefit concert are $85, and include dinner & wine! Purchase here: https://www.everbutton.com/pay/3749 If you cannot attend the fundraiser you can still make a contribution by donating online or by check. *You can make a contribution from $25.00 to $1,000.00 and you will receive beautiful perks in exchange!*

$25 - our sincere gratitude for your support! https://www.everbutton.com/pay/3923

$75 - includes a listing on the program https://www.everbutton.com/pay/3750

$85 - General Admission to the fundraising concert, which is a festive evening of dinner and performance in historic Little Italy https://www.everbutton.com/pay/3749

$100 - includes a program listing and a CD of your choice https://www.everbutton.com/pay/3751

$150 - includes a program listing, CD & Book https://www.everbutton.com/pay/3752

$300 - A drum from my signature series of tambourines that I design with REMO https://www.everbutton.com/pay/3924

$500 – Book, DVD & tambourine & CD https://www.everbutton.com/pay/3925

$1,000 - attendance at my healing dance and percussion workshop in Hawaii in January. https://www.everbutton.com/pay/3927

You will experience the power of the tarantella with each perk!

WHY WE NEED FUNDING:

We need the support of our fans and friends like you to be able to put on this beautiful show, fulfill our winter season, and to properly pay our artists, technicians and staff. Your contribution also pays for publicity, promotion, flyers, rehearsal studio rental, and sound and lighting engineers. We have been denied a vital grant from the NY State Council on the Arts special Arts Services. We also lost our on-going educational children's program at the Caramoor Center, due to changes that came with a new director.

We are launching this fundraising campaign now because I Giullari di Piazza is facing a crucial moment, and needs your support to survive. We are a non-profit organization under the (501) c 3 code. All donations are tax-deductible. This campaign will help raise funds to meet our deficit and to pay production costs of our holiday season. Total cost of winter production is $ 8,000. Estimated income $3,000. We need to raise $ 5,000 by December 31st, 2018.

COMPANY MISSION: I Giullari di Piazza educates and entertains audiences both young and old, in the historic legacies and regional traditions of Italy. Through our productions, Italian Americans can experience music and dance that may very well have been enjoyed or performed by their ancestors. Our performances have become a family tradition, particularly our holiday shows.

ABOUT ME: I was born in Rome, Italy but have called NYC home for many years. I am internationally known as a singer, dancer, award winning percussionist, teacher and author. Many of the traditional songs and dances I perform are deeply connected to ancient Greek and Mediterranean women’s rituals of honoring Mother Earth, and the feminine aspects of nature. They are empowering as healing ceremonies of both body and mind for the next generations. With Gratitude, Alessandra Belloni

MORE ABOUT OUR SHOW: YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE ITALIAN TO LOVE "LA CANTATA DEI PASTORI!” The original title of the play is THE TRUE LIGHT WILL SHINE IN THE DARKNESS. It has a strong message of peace as Good Triumphs Over Evil! The true meaning of the Holidays!

The play is set during Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem, during which the Devil has dispatched demons to stop the birth of Jesus. Along the way, the holy couple's escapades are entwined with the hapless Commedia dell'Arte character called Razzullo, a comedic, mischievous Neapolitan scribe who is always hungry and looking for something to eat. The demons will conjure up tempests, dragons, and they can do to stop the birth. But all are under the protection of the Archangel Gabriel. (Played here, in traditional style, by Mark Mindek, a well known stilt dancer who has appeared in Metropolitan Opera productions,)

Mary and the lead character Pulcinella experience funny, outrageous, and dangerous adventures before they finally reach Bethlehem, where Good triumphs over Evil! Songs are sung in Italian and old Neapolitan dialect; costuming and music instrumentation is traditional Southern Italian; narration is in English by the remarkable magical good witch, LA BEFANA!