Mario Fratti Award – Closing Night
Award Ceremony for the Mario Fratti Award, Reading of the Winner and Closing Night of the 2019 edition. 
Reading of The Winner of the 2019 Mario Fratti Award for Excellence in Italian Playwriting.
The Mario Fratti Award jury, comprised of honorary President, Claudia Canella (Director, Hystrio Magazine), Massimo Zordan (actor, director, teacher), Chiara Durazzini (Artistic Director, Pazzi Lazzi Company in Boston), Claudia Donadoni (playwright and actress, 2018 In Scena! artist) and Roberta Lena (playwright, actress, director, 2018 In Scena! artist), declared Tobia Rossi’s Hike and Seek (Nascondino) “A convincing drama, well-articulated. A play of strong emotional impact with poetic passages. The author is able to build an ambiguous exchange of strong and weak roles, between attraction and repulsion. The play shows originality in the subject matter while being serious witness of our times. The fine writing and the unsettling development make it a play that could speak to audiences around the world.”
Special mention goes to Ulisse-L’ultimo Inganno by Antonia Brancati in second place and third place goes to L’Annunciazione by Pasquale Faraco.
Tobia Rossi
NASCONDINO (HIDE AND SEEK) by Tobia Rossi
Directed by Jake Sellers
Hike and Seek (Nascondino) is about Giò, a gay teenager firmly convinced that nobody loves him. Not his parents or his teachers, let alone his schoolmates, who mock him constantly and inflict him with humiliating tortures and cruel violence. He therefore decides to escape from that hostile world and hide in his secret shelter. Everyone is looking for him for days without success, until Mirko, one of his classmates, finds him by accident during a walk. Giò begs him to preserve his secret, making him an accomplice to his plan, which forces their relationship to take an unexpected turn.
Tobia Rossi (2019 Mario Fratti Award Winner) Born in 1986 in Ovada (Piemonte), Tobia Rossi is a playwright and a screenwriter. Awards and Honors include: Portami in un posto carino (Take Me Somewhere Nice, finalist for the 2012 Hystrio Prize for Young Playwrights), La Cosa Brutta (honorable mention, Hystrio Prize Scritture per la Scena 2016), Freddy Aggiustatutto (written with Lorenzo Riopi, winner of Una Commedia in Cerca d’Autore 2017). He collaborates with several theaters in Milan (Teatro Libero, Campo Teatrale, Teatro OutOff, Teatro Litta, Teatro Leonardo, Teatro Martinitt). He wrote the libretto for the opera Troposfera (produced in 2016 by the Venice Biennale Musica) and the musicals Come Erika e Omar – è tutto uno show! (produced and directed by Enzo Iachetti – 2014) e Smack! (2019).
Jake Sellers (director) is a director, dramaturg, and performer based out of Brooklyn. Jake most recently worked as a dramaturg on Brecht’s Life of Galileo (Irondale Ensemble), beep boop (Crowded Outlet), and Into the Woods (Festival 56). They have worked in literary and creative development at Vineyard Theatre, Disney Theatrical Group, and the New Harmony Project. Their most recent directing work was Tony Kushner’s translation of Mother Courage (University of Evansville). Jake also performs as a drag persona named Baby June, seen most recently in the play Prosperity! at the Rough Draft Festival.
Arrivederci to 2020!
FREE ADMISSION – NO RSVP NECESSARY.
Reading of Mater Familias bi Lorenzo Pisano winner of 2015 Mario Fratti Award.
Emanuele Aldrovandi winner of the Mario Fratti Award 2016