LEO GULLOTTA, READING SICILY

Readings on Sicilian myths and writings,

written by Fabio Grossi and interpreted by Leo Gullotta

Original music by Germano Mazzocchetti

Video by Mimmo Verdesca

 

Saturday 29 April, 7:00pm

Eldon Hogan Performing Arts Centre

Xavier College

41 Charles St, Kew VIC 3101

FREE EVENT

RSVP ESSENTIAL: by clicking here or emailing [email protected]

 

“Leo Gullotta, reading Sicily” is a performance for solo voice based on Sicilian ancient and modern poetry and prose. Drawing its inspiration from the archaic image of Mother Earth (“The Great Mother”), the musical tale starts from the origins of literature on the Island of Cyclops and accompanies us to the present day. A journey between myths and everyday life, between laughter and public denunciation.

 

The solo voice is Leo Gullotta’s who, using the language of illustrious contemporaries, guides the audience through the pages of literary masterpieces and the verses of famous poems. Interspersed with the readings, Leo Gullotta will give personal accounts of some episodes of his everyday life, his adolescence and the most meaningful moments of his career.

 

Leo Gullotta will be accompanied on stage by original music specifically written for the show. The music, also a protagonist of the show, will mark the various stages of this poetic journey, intertwined with literary voices from a remote past down to the present.

 

This dramatic journey, masterfully conceived by Fabio Grossi, pays tribute to writers such as Giovanni Meli, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Luigi Pirandello, Luigi Capuana, Pippo Fava, Ignazio Buttitta, Andrea Camilleri and several other Sicilian authors.

 

The show is a close encounter with Italian literature through Sicilian authors, inviting us to a critical meditation on modern society. It is a reflection on courage, both civil and practical, and a spirited defence of a life not simple but worth living. Authors and characters who have bravely defended their ideas come to life through the voice and the stage presence of an authoritative interpreter.

 

Leo Gullotta. The most immediate feature of Leo Gullotta’s art is its versatility.  His experience encompasses classical theatre and rowdy variety shows, cabaret and Saturday night TV shows, commercials and Oscar-winning movies. Furthermore, Gullotta displays an unmatched capacity to embody ‘minor’ characters, seen almost always askew, but always true and memorable. Gullotta’s artistic versatility lies in his interpretative skills and in his natural predisposition to embrace different acting registers. It is the result of a life choice, of an inexhaustible curiosity towards all theatre experiences, of a human and professional generosity which drive him to overcome specializations and formulas and to tread the territory of contaminations.

 

Fabio Grossi. Actor, director and playwright Fabio Grossi was born in Rome in 1958. He made his theatre debut in 1977 and subsequently proceeded to work in all the other performing arts, from theatre to cinema, from television to radio, from voice-overs to commercials. He has collaborated with some of the most important Italian directors: from Ronconi to Puecher, from Fenoglio to Nanni, Navello and so on. Among the most significant theatre roles are Polonius in Hamlet and Tiresias in Oedipus Rex, both directed by Alberto Di Stasio, and Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Riccardo Cavallo. In March 2010 he staged for Eliseo Ragazzi Papageno and the Magic Flute, an unconventional interpretation of W.A. Mozart’s famous opera The Magic Flute.