Physical warm-up!

The show is a montage of 3 15/20 minute extracts from Italian plays by some of our most influential playwrights:

-      La Locandiera, by Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793), the reformer of Italian theatre, who turned the improvised “canovacci” of Commedia dell’Arte into fully structured texts;

-      Così è se vi pare by, Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936), one of the most relevant voices of the turn of the century, he wrote about the moral and social crisis of his time through grotesque characters in tragic-comic situations;

-       Sabato, Domenica e Lunedì , by Eduardo De Filippo (1900-1984), the world renowned actor, playwright and producer, whose work – rooted in the Neapolitan tradition – has raised to international classic thanks to the power of his writing.

The show will be followed by a Q&A session, and teachers will be provided beforehand with a didactic booklet, to prepare their students to the performance. The booklet includes:

-      specific vocabulary from the extracts performed;

-      synopsis of the plays;

-      ideas for research and independent learning;

-      class activities to develop understanding of the target language and the social context of the plays (i.e: gap filling exercises, recent articles related to the chosen topics with comprehension activities)

On the basis on the feedback received from teachers and students during our previous performances, we can guarantee the exposure to a live Italian event will have a very positive impact on your students. It is also a unique opportunity for them to familiarise themselves with the culture, tradition, and literature of the target language.

We believe this can be an amazing and exciting experience.

For more info and bookings, email Elena Mazzon at legalaliens07@gmail.com

We offer workshops in ITALIAN, SPANISH and FRENCH

Theatre is an incredible tool to teach a language to young children, as it takes advantage of their natural ability for learning linguistic patterns through games, repetition of structures and imagination.

WHAT WE DO:

We play games in the target language, based on repetition of patterns (“mirroring” techniques), the development of a narration through improvisation, and on the links between gestures and words.

We use folk fairy tales as our main textual material, and ask the children to recreate them and narrate them using gestures, words and pictures.

We teach them songs, so that children can learn new words through rhythm and movement

At the end of the workshop, children will be able to tell a story in the target language as a group and performing it in front of an audience, recreating its characters, world, masks and costumes.

HOW THE WORKSHOPS ARE STRUCTURED:

The workshop will consist of a weekly, 1 hour, after-school session, over the arc of either 4 or 8 weeks (according the schools’ requests).

The sessions are held by two members of LegalAliens Theatre Company, both CRB checked and with experience in teaching both drama and foreign languages to young people.

For bookings and info, please contact Elena Mazzon at Legalaliens07@gmail.com

       [Students during the workshops]

     [Elena Mazzon, Anna Elena Pepe and Jean Paul Dal Monte]

The aim of the show is to give students of Italians an overview of Italian contemporary culture and to expose them to modern spoken language.

Audiences are provided beforehand with synopsis, introduction to the play, vocabulary list, and activity booklet.

The extracts are from:

Grazie Maria, by and with Jean Paul Dal Monte

   [Jean Paul Dal Monte]

Il Ritorno, by Sergio Pierattini

  [Elena Mazzon, Anna Elena Pepe and Jean Paul Dal Monte]

and Ne’ qui ne’ la’ by Maggie Rose.

[Lara Parmiani and Elena Mazzon]

All the extracts are acted in Italian and present characters facing issues – immigration, racism, family relationships – relevant to modern Italian society (and also part of the curriculum).

We specifically chose plays offering an image of Italy different from the usual stereotypes. Plays depicting the country’s real problem, the degrade of industrial areas, the degeneration of traditional family structure etc.

For more info on the show or to book one, please email legalaliens07@gmail.com or call Elena Mazzon on 07910 818917

THE PLAY

Set in Bergamo, Northern Italy, the play takes place in the kitchen of an Italian family, whose daughter has recently returned from a long absence. As the plot the develops, it is revealed that she has spent the past seven years in prison for the death of her fiancée, a Moroccan immigrant who had been employed by her father. Pierattini’s script juxtaposes the seriousness of the material, and its commentary on intercultural relations, with darkly humorous dialogue, a surrealist sensibility and a creeping sense of claustrophobia to capture the disintegration of the traditional Italian family.

A moment from the Italian production of Il Ritorno

The play is based in part on on-site research conducted by Pierattini in Bergamo, a city that has experienced rapid change as a result of industrialization in the 1960s and 1970s. Pierattini interviewed newly wealthy locals in the gentrified suburb of La Malpensata and recent immigrants in the centre city neighbourhood of Via Quarenghi; the complex picture that emerged is reflected in the play, prompting critic Rossella Battisti to describe the playwright as “a sensitive narrator of small, contemporary tragedies” (L’Unita, 2008). While the play’s given circumstances arise from a specific Italian context, British audiences will likely see parallels with contemporary life in the UK as they discover a darker, less-familiar side of Italy.

THE PLAYWRIGHT

Born in Sondrio, Northern Italy, in 1958, Sergio Pierattini graduated from the Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica “Silvio d’Amico” in Rome and since then he has been active as a writer, actor and director. Since 2005, he has taught radio playwriting at the National Film School in Rome. His award-winning plays include The Return (Best Play, National Association of Critics 2008; short-listed for the Ubu Prize); Un Mondo Perfetto (Special Jury Award, Riccione Theatre Festival 2007); Il raggio bianco (Flaiano Prize 2006); and La Maria Zanella (The Ubu Prize 2005).

THE TRANSLATION:

We were lucky to strike a collaboration with translator Sabrina Cammarata and playwright Matthew Morrison, whose work has been recently produced by renowned London theatres such as the Gate and the Finborough.

Their greatest challenge was to re-create the “colour” of Northern Italian in English. Since we firmly believe our strength lies in our being a non-British group presenting a foreign play using foreign accents, we decided with Matt and Sabrina NOT to use an English dialect.  Not only because it would be ludicrous for us to pretend to be from Sheffield or Nottingham, but mainly because we chose this play for ability to talk about universal themes through events taking place in a very specific context.

But how to translate Northern Italian idioms in English? How to recreate an homogeneous world that an audience will “get” straight away? These are the challenges we’ve battling with.

In order to have a feedback and create an interest towards the play and its themes we have been offering workshops to University students of playwrighting, translation studies and Italian.

We’ve also presented a first draft in front of a selected audience of writers and directors at the Actors Centre in December 2011.

THE PRODUCTION

Encouraged by the feedback we received, and more confident about our choices regarding language and translation, we’re now entering the process of production.

Our cast – Jean-Paul Dal Monte, Elena Mazzon, Lara Parmiani, Anna Elena Pepe and Federico Zanni – will be directed by Becka McFadden, who has previously directed LegalAliens in “Neither here nor there”.

Ideally, we’d like to present The Return for a short run by late Spring 2012. But we’re also looking for venues happy to host us for a one off.

In order to raise funds to cover for our work and expenses for this first stage of the project we’ve applied for Arts Council Development funds. However, in the present climate, public funds are hard to obtain, therefore we’re also organising fund-rasing events such as parties and raffles and we warmly welcome donations.

To be invited to one of our fund-raising events, please join our mailing list by contacting at legalaliens07@gmail.com

We can offer advanced students:

- The opportunity to attend rehearsed readings of Italian plays, with Q&A sessions at the end.

- The chance of translating extracts of Italian texts into English and seen them performed.

- The chance of being part of the company for one day.

- Practical theatre workshops in which they will practice their Italian conversational skills through impros, theatre games, and little scenes.

- Seminars on specific themes concerning Italian culture and arts, from literature to history of theatre, from current affairs to politics.

This type of workshop was tested first in 2010 at Warwick University, during a conference on Migrating Theatre. We presented a reading of Neither here nor there in front of the students of Italian, in which some of the roles were read by the students themselves.

The reading was followed by a Q&A session in which students asked questions on the text and its specificity.

TESTIMONIALS:

LegalAliens have run workshops for an academic conference on the theme of theatre and translation here at Warwick University whereby they worked with undergraduate students on interpreting and performing migrant characters. LegalAliens are able to devise workshops for varying age groups which are engaging, motivating and fun for
participants.

(Annunziata Videtta, Warwick University)

For inquiries and booking please contact us at: legalaliens07@gmail.com or at 07910818917

Through our drama workshops, we aim at helping young people enjoy learning a language, so that they can become confident speakers and active learners.

Drama is a great device for language students; through theatre games children can:

Engage in the learning process;

Deepen their confidence;

Broaden their vocabulary;

Develop great communication skills;

All this whilst enjoying the journey of learning a language.

What we do

KS3 and KS4

We run workshops for year 9, 10 and 11. According to the school needs we are happy to provide both a one-off session of two hours, as well as a series of workshops. The sessions can be topic specific according to what pupils are learning at that moment (i.e.: family and relationships) or can cover different areas.

The two hours workshops are thought for a number of 20 pupils, who will be further divided into two groups of ten students each. A practioner will be allocated to each group and the activities will run simultaneously.

All our workshops can be adapted to meet your specific needs in terms of contents and pupils’ language level.

Some of the activities involved are:

Ø  physical warm up

Ø  concentration games

Ø  Language specific games such as miming objects and actions, “the envelop” game, “the mirror” game and role plays.

These exercises and games have the aim to help becoming aware of the space and of the other people whilst listening to instructions in the target language; make the pupils focus and actively use the target language; respond to a stimulus and encourage the pupils to speak in the target language; revise vocabulary and learn new lexicon; recreate real-life situations where the students can employ the target language.

Sixth Form: 

Theatre can be an incredibly useful tool for older students as well. The workshops we offer have the same structure, in term of timing and frequency options, as the KS3 and KS4 ones. However, the contents and the learning objectives are more advanced and focus on AS and A2 syllabi. To this end, the workshops will focus on the main topics studied for a level (for instance immigration, relationships or racism)

Some of the activities include:

Ø  Miming

Ø  Role-plays

Ø  Writing

The aim of the exercises and techniques employed will help the students understand the complexity of interpretation, and the variety of contexts ad uses of language. Furthermore, they will be able to create their own sketches and act them out, improving both their organisation and their speaking skills.

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TESTIMONIALS:

LegalAliens are very professional, flexible and adaptable in their approach. (Emma Redman, teacher, Coventry)
They devised a superb workshop on the theme of ‘foreignness’ and multiculturalism which was extremely well received by both staff and students in Coventry. The majority of the students rated this workshop as excellent and said that it was the part of the day that they particularly enjoyed. (Annunziata Videtta, Coventry)

LegalAliens broadened the students’ understanding of multiculturalism and developed their confidence and communicative skills. (Francesca Williams, teacher, Coventry)

For inquiries and booking please contact us at: legalaliens07@gmail.com or at 07910818917