Kairos Italy Theater and KIT Italia together with NYU Casa Italiana announces a month of May celebration of In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY.

The celebration includes four sessions of Versetto Libero (May 7, 14, 21 & 28, 3pm-5pm) where the Free Verse poets meet the In Scena! Artists online to collaborate in making and translating poetry and a “meet and read” with the winner of the 2020 Mario Fratti Award, Giorgia Brusco on Monday, May 11 at 4pm. During the event, excerpts of the winning play Crumbs of Joy will be read under the direction of Caterina Nonis. Visit www.inscenany.com for more information on the livestream events.

In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY announces Giorgia Brusco’s play Crumbs of Joy (Briciole di Allegria) as the 2020 Mario Fratti Award winner. A meet and read will take place on Monday, May 11 at 4pm via Facebook Live on the In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY page. A reading of a scene from the translation made by the official translator of the award Carlotta Brentan, will be presented together with a chat with playwright Giorgia Brusco.

Named for the legendary Broadway playwright, the Mario Fratti Award has been awarded every year since 2014 to a never produced before play chosen by a different jury every year, among the many plays collected through a submission process. The winner receives a translation of their work into English as part of the MFA Collection and a reading of such translation. Since 2018, all MFA winners have been published by In Scena! under the MFA theater collection.

The Mario Fratti Award jury, comprised of honorary President, Celeste Moratti (Artistic Director, First Maria Ensemble, NYC, Registered Rodenburg Teacher, RRT), Ida Casilli (Independent producer, Moving Dreamers founder and co-director of ContrastInFusion project), Angela Vitaliano (feature writer), Roberta Bellesini (producer, 2019 In Scena! artist) and Antonella Romano (actress and visual artist, 2019 In Scena! artist), declared Giorgia Brusco’s Crumbs of Joy the winner for the following reasons: “The play packs a strong emotional impact, rendered through the style of its writing, and its plot. The writing is captivating and sharp, enhancing the fluid nature of the action. The plot is highly timely and treated with originality. It makes us smile with bittersweet sadness, and it is this contrast that gives the piece its lively spark. The play's story, characters and structure are universal and make it well-suited for translation.”

The apartment of Ida and Paolo, an elderly couple. Paolo, who's not allowed to eat sugar because of his diabetes, attempts to eat a Nutella sandwich in secret. He nearly chokes. His wife finds him struggling to breathe, and she thinks the stains on his shirt are blood stains. She begins to panic, convinced that Paolo's on the verge of death. She runs out onto the street to look for help. While she's gone, Paolo manages to swallow his sandwich, and settles back down like nothing happened. That's when Ida returns, still in her confused state, bringing with her a passerby who offered to help. But the passerby can't understand what the problem is...

Born in Imperia in 1977, Giorgia Brusco holds a degree in Architecture from the IUAV University in Venice. In 2000, she graduated at the Scuola del Teatro Stabile del Veneto. She is a playwright, actress and director. For 15 years she has been involved in theater training, teaching at the Scuola Officina of the Teatro del Banchéro in Taggia, Imola and at the Riviera Musical in Alassio, Savona. She has collaborated as director and playwright with several theater companies throughout Italy, often making theater in prisons and for social groups at risk. She has written numerous plays staged in various Italian theaters. She is the winner of the "A.Conti" Award with the play "Il Raccolto".

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. All shows will be presented in Italian with English supertitles, unless otherwise noted. For more information please visit www.inscenany.com.