The New York City-based Kairos Italy Theater along with the Italy-based KIT Italiana and Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU will present the eighth annual In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY, a festival of Italian theater taking place in all five boroughs of NYC (participating venues to be announced), April 27-May 11, 2020. Admission to all shows and events in the festival will be FREE. All shows are in Italian with English supertitles. For more information please visit www.inscenany.com.

Each year In Scena! presents a survey of the best Italian theater from Italy, in New York City. The festival features full productions that have already toured in Italy as well as readings of Italian plays in translation, lectures and exchanges between Italian and International artists. The goal is to promote greater awareness of Italian theater and Italian artists among New York theatergoers, and to build a bridge between the artistic scenes in Italy and New York.

EXILE - CONFINO
Written & Performed by Alessandro Tampieri
A story told in 18 scenes about the life of the fictional character, Angelo P. who is arrested and exhiled under Fascism in Italy for being gay. Angelo is a fictional character who speaks of all homosexuals persecuted everywhere.

THE CONFESSION - LA CONFESSIONE
Written & Performed by Alberto Traversa
Presented by AT / Babele
Based on the book by journalist Marco Politi The Confession - a gay priest tells his story . The Confession is the first show in Italy that deals with homosexuality in the church. The protagonist is a man who is a priest, but it is struggling with the discovery of his own sexuality.

THE GREAT WAR OF THE GUMMY BEARS
LA GRANDE GUERRA DEGLI ORSETTI GOMMOSI
Written & Directed by Angelo Trofa
Performed by Valentina Fadda & Leonardo Tomasi
Presented by Batisfera
“Theater on a table”, for just 25 audience members per show. The nation of the Gummy Bears starts a war without hope as they attack the neighbouring nation of the Dinosaurs. The winner will easily be the Dinosaurs, and the army of the Gummy Bears, and its nation, will be permanently erased.

THE BAREFOOT WIDOW - LA VEDOVA SCALZA
Written & Directed by Maria Virginia Siriu
Based on the book by Salvatore Niffoi (Campiello Award 2006)
Performed by Carla Orrù, Fabrizio Congia & Marco Secchi
Presented by Theandric
A performance in the very ancient sardinian language from the Barbagia area. 1930s, life is ordered by traditional rules and the Fascist ones. The protagonist, Mintonia, is an out of the ordinary woman as she reads great books and chooses her own spouse. Something will happen that will dramatically change Mintonia’s life. She will show that she is no victim.

MUBARAK’S NIECE - LA NIPOTE DI MUBARAK
Written by Valentina Diana, Directed by Vinicio Marchioni
Performed by Marco Vergani
Presented by Anton
Egypt: a country quite far for politics and traditions from the Western ones. An ordinary person, "invisible to the world", who works as a radio speaker becomes friends with Abdul, an Egyptian who prepares and sells kebabs in his shop full of postcards from his country. In the background the Tahrir Square Revolution. Slowly their friendship and the events following will show many possible versions of each story. Where is the truth?

LUISA
Written & Performed by Bruna Braidotti
Presented by Compagnia di Arti e Mestieri
Luisa is a lonely woman in a bathroom, standing alone on a stool in front of a mirror. She retraces her life and her childhood appears in flashes of memory. The sexual violence by her own father. The ghost of the past in every man she meets. Only the memory of her mother will bring her some relief.

WE, PUPPETS Story of a life shattered by racism
NOI, PUPAZZI Storia di una vita sconvolta dal razzismo
Written & Performed by Marco De Simone
Production Associate Campania Danza
The puppeteer Saul makes the inhabitants of his country dream with the fairy tales he invents and stages for them. The advent of the racial laws of '38 upsets his life and the lives of thousands of people, but his puppets continue to tell his stories to the people who flee and hide with him, offering them the opportunity to distract themselves, be moved, and smile. Despite the unacceptable reality that surrounds them.

SMALL FUNERALS - PICCOLI FUNERALI
Written by Maurizio Rippa
Performed by Maurizio Rippa (voice) and Amedeo Monda (guitar)
Presented by 369gradi
Inspired by Spoon River by Edgar Lee Masters and Postcards by the Dead by Franco Arminio, the performance stages small funerals through a dramaturgical and musical score that alternates a small funeral rite with a sweet memory. Text, songs and music welcome pain and turn it into a rebirth.

In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY In 2013 Kairos Italy Theater, the preeminent Italian theater company in New York City, created In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY, the first Italian theater festival to take place in all five New York City boroughs and beyond. The festival’s first edition was part of 2013 Year of the Italian Culture in the United States. The festival has since become an annual event. www.inscenany.com