Dante the Everyman

Marco Martinelli, playwright and director, and Ermanna Montanari, actress, author, and set designer, founded the Teatro delle Albe (1983) in Ravenna, Italy, and share its artistic direction. Martinelli's texts have been staged in several European countries, South America, Africa, and the U.S. and translated into French, German, and English. He has received several awards, including: seven Ubu Prizes, the Prize for Career Achievement-Festival Journées théâtrales (Carthage, Tunisia), the Vereinigung Deutsch-Italienischer Kultur Gesellschaften cultural award 2018. MONTANARI, the recipient of the Eleonora Duse Prize, among many others, is known for her vocal and musical research. Her virtuosic work with the voice is the subject of several books and essays in multiple languages. In 2017, the artists premiered their first movie, Aung San Suu Kyi's Life Under Arrest, written and directed by Martinelli, with Montanari in the title role. Their film The Sky over Kibera, takes as its subject the Divine Comedy, brought to life in Nairobi with one-hundred and fifty children and adolescents. In 1991, Martinelli and Montanari founded Ravenna Teatro, at the Teatro Rasi in Ravenna. (teatrodellealbe.com)

Thomas Haskell Simpson is currently visiting professor in the department of language and literature (LeLiA) at the University of Bari (Italy) where he teaches courses on translating contemporary American theatre. His article “New American Theatre in the Age of Trump,” will be published in 2019 by the press at Sofia University, St. Kliment Ohridski.