The New York based Kairos Italy Theater and the Italy-based KIT Italia will present the seventh annual In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY, a festival of Italian theater taking place in all five boroughs of NYC, April 29-May 13. 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, conferences, 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. All shows will be presented in Italian with English supertitles, unless otherwise noted.

Participating venues will include The Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance (BAAD! – 2474 Westchester Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461), Goddard Riverside’s Bernie Wohl Center (647 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY 10024), The Brick Theater (579 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211), Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU (24 West 12th Street, New York, NY 10011), Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce Street, New York, NY 10014), College of Staten Island (2800 Victory Blvd, Staten Island, NY 10314), Italian Cultural Institute (686 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10021), La Scuola Guglielmo Marconi (406 East 67th St, New York, NY 10065), St. John’s Lutheran Church (81 Christopher Street, New York, NY 10014), and TheaterLab (357 West 36th Street, New York, NY 10018), with more venues TBA. Admission to all shows and events in the festival will be FREE. Reservations will open on Sunday, March 10 at www.inscenany.com.

As White as Fennel in a Salad (Bianca Come I Finocchi in Insalata)
Written & Directed by Silvia Marchetti, Performed by Andrea Ramosi
Presented by Compagnia del Calzino
Bianca’s life as a dull elementary school teacher is boring and frustrating until Antonino, the school’s dean, enters it. The hope of an improbable love affair illuminates a life of solitude, injustice, and denial.
Tuesday, April 30 at 7pm @ BAAD!; Saturday, May 4 at 7pm @ Bernie Wohl Center (65 min)
Category: Women (50% or more of the creative team); LGBTQ

Spanker Machine
Written & Directed by Tiziana Troja, Performed by Michela Sale Musio
Presented by Lucidosottile
Anita’s everyday life masks a hidden 'otaku.' Marked by a difficult past, she finds refuge at home, where her contradictions coexist with her controversial sexuality.
Tuesday, April 30 at 8:30pm @ BAAD!; Saturday, May 4 at 8:30pm @ Bernie Wohl Center (50 min)
Category: Women; LGBTQ

What Remains – on mobbing, shocking, and other amenities
(Quel Che Resta– A proposito di mobbing, shocking e altre amenità)
By & With Monica Faggiani
Assistant Director Silvia Soncini
Presented by Teatro dell’Allodola - Le Irriverenti
A story of “ordinary madness” concerning mobbing and other power dynamics, told by a woman. With self-irony, the protagonist tries to understand the participation in such dynamics and what is needed to avoid them.
Wednesday, May 1 at 7:30pm @ Bernie Wohl Center; Friday, May 3 at 6pm @ Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimó (55 min)
Category: Women

A Cottage of One’s Own (Un Cottage Tutto Per Sè)
Written & Performed by Natalia Magni, Directed by Sonia Barbadoro
Presented by Magnitudo Nove
Orsetta, a 40-year-old single woman, pressed by her mother and worried friends, decides to make her dream come true: move to a country cottage with a husband and children, to paint. In twelve snapshots, Orietta will discover her true worth in between speed-dating, therapists, ex-boyfriends and unexpected gifts. Presented in English.
Wednesday, May 1 at 9pm @ Bernie Wohl Center; Friday, May 3 at 8pm @ Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimó (55 min)
Category: Women

A Passion (Una Passione)
Written by Valentina Diana, Directed by Vinicio Marchioni, Performed by Marco Vergani
Presented by Anton
An actor appears on an empty stage. The blockbuster production he’s in has been canceled, and no one has told him. He has always been an extra and tonight, alone, he will perform for you the story of the Passion of Christ.
Tuesday, May 2 at 8pm @ Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimó; Sunday, May 5 at 4:30pm @ St. John’s Lutheran Church (50 min)

The Tightrope Walkers (Le Funambole)
Adapted & Directed by Rosario Sparno
Performed by Antonella Romano & Rosario Sparno
Installation by Antonella Romano
A project by Bottega Bombardini
Produced by Associazione Casa del Contemporaneo - Centro di produzione teatrale
Adapted from the novel Maruzza Musumeci by Andrea Camilleri, author of Montalbano, Le funambole is a story where the sky meets the sea. Based on Sicilian legends from 1800 and 1900, the story is told in the form of the “cunto”, a theater form typical of the Sicilian tradition, with roots in the Ancient Greece of Homer.
Monday, May 6 at 8pm @ The Brick; Tuesday, May 7 at 6pm @ Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimó (50 min)

The Last Day of Sun (L’Ultimo Giorno Di Sole)
Text & Music by Giorgio Faletti, Directed by Fausto Brizzi
Performed by Chiara Buratti
Produced by Orlantibor
A "novel on stage" by the late writer/actor Giorgio Faletti. Seven monologues and eight songs. The story of a woman who, before the end of the world, returns to where she was born to review her life and her dreams. In the end, she must choose to either exorcise the dark, or learn to embrace it.
Tuesday, May 7 at 8pm @ Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimó; Sunday, May 12 at 7pm @ Cherry Lane Theatre (95 min)

Orlando in One Furious Act (L’Orlando In Un Atto Furioso)
Written by Michele Gandolfi, Directed by Angela Pepi & Ilaria Marcelli
Performed by Andrea Cicero, Ilaria Marcelli, Ivano Calafato, Matteo Castellino & Angela Pepi, Set by Marco Gandolfi, Costume by Andrea De Chiara
Presented by Fratto due production - Esperimenti teatrali
Orlando, the most valorous French paladin, abandons the war against the Moors to follow the beautiful Angelica, whom he loves deeply. When Angelica rejects him, Orlando begins a journey that will bring him to madness.
Tuesday, May 7 at 2:30pm @ College of Staten Island; Wednesday, May 8 at 9am @ La Scuola Guglielmo Marconi (75 min) Category: Women; Youth Theater

The Sky is About to Fall (Il Cielo Sta Per Cadere)
From The Trojan Women by Euripides, Directed by Maria Grazia Cipriani
Performed by Sofia Abbati, Ilenia Lusito, Marta De Medici, Ariana Cutrone, Sara Giannelli, Erica Galante, Giulia Celletti, Francesco Barra & Francesco Capalbo
Presented by Teatro Del Carretto and Accademia d'Arte Drammatica Cassiopea
The Trojan Women by Euripides is used to describe the tragedy of war, separate from chronological ties. The female prisoner’s pain is a silent scream, answered only by the cry of the sea.
Wednesday, May 8 & Thursday, May 9 at 8pm @ TheaterLab (65 min)
Category: Women

Around the World in 72 days. The Journey of Nellie Bly
(Intorno Al Mondo in 72 Giorni. Il Viaggio Di Nellie Bly)
From Around the World in Seventy-Two Days by Elizabeth Cochrane
Directed by Paola Sarcina, Adapted and translated by Paola Sarcina and Diana Forlani
Performed by Diana Forlani
Presented by Music Theatre International – Roma
Intorno al mondo in 72 giorni. Il viaggio di Nellie Bly portrays an Italian point of view of an American hero, Elisabeth Cochraine, known as Nellie Bly, who in 1889 took off from New York to be the first woman to complete a journey around the world, alone.
Wednesday, May 8 at 6pm @ The Brick; Saturday, May 11 at 6pm @ Bernie Wohl Center (45 min)
Category: Women

Antigone – A One Woman Monologue (Antigone – Monologo Per Donna Sola)
Written & Performed by Debora Benincasa, Directed by Amedeo Anfuso
Produced by Anomalia Teatro
Antigone runs away from her prison laughingly, finding new ways of telling her story - both tragic and humorous.
Wednesday, May 8 at 7:30pm @ The Brick; Saturday, May 11 at 8pm @ Bernie Wohl Center (60 min)
Category: Women

With Open Heart (A Cuore Aperto)
Written & Directed by Patrizio Cigliano
Performed by Patrizio Cigliano and Beatrice Fazi
Produced by Arcadinoé
An old couple looks at each other for the last time, unfolding the story of their long relationship as it intertwines with 100 years of Italian history. A show about the timelessness of memory and love.
Thursday, May 9 at 7pm @ The Brick; Friday, May 10 at 8pm @ Bernie Wohl Center (90 min)

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 every May. www.inscenany.com