Conclusion of Italian Week for 2010

Dear friends of Italian Week


With the Conclusion of Italian Week 2010, we are happy to report that this year’s events saw yet another increase in the growth and support for the Italian Governments initiative of celebrating Italian Culture and lifestyle.

The week’s events commenced with the The Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Campbell Newman launch Italian Week 2010 for media and sponsors at the Treasury Casino congratulating the organizers for creating a high level event that showcased Italy’s enormously rich artistic and cultural heritage.

The Lord Mayor delighted the audience with his promise of sustaining Italian Week in a significantly manner for the next 3 years, saying that he would "...like to sit down with the organizers to develop a strategy for further developing the long term vision of the project".

Italian Week 2010 was off to a great start and the Lord Mayor joined the celebrations opening a bottle of fine Chianti and offering the audience his enthusiastic support.

Events spread out over the 10 days of this year’s festival saw the town of Stanthorpe participate in a series of events featuring a motor vehicle rally and concerts in the Queensland Wine College supporting the Italian Immersion Program coordinated by the Stanthorpe State High School. The combined events enable Italian Week to raise and donate over $1700 towards the upcoming trip to Italy for the students of Italian at the School.

The many events showcased throughout the program included: cinema, fine dining, cooking exhibitions, motor vehicle exhibitions, theatre, musical concerts, orchestral performances, art history discussions, coffee courses, book launches, Italian Waiters Races, workshops, and Italian Markets.


Lovers of food and wine were not disappointed when the Italian Cultural Institution of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina   officially launched in Brisbane at a dinner hosted by Gusto da Gianni at Portside. The entertaining event was celebrated with the assistance of special guests including international singing sensation Patrizio Buanne, Lisa Hunt, Anna Maria La Spina and Australian Idol winner Natalie Gauci and Brisbane’s own Veronica and Shadi Abraham winner of this year’s My Kitchen Rules.

During the Official celebrations for the Festa della Repubblica, hosted by the Consul of Italy, Dr Francesco Capecchi, the minister for Multicultural Affairs Hon. Annastacia Palaszczuk MP received loud applause and gratitude when she thanked the Hon. Grace Grace M.P. for lobbying both Multicultural Affairs and the State Government for support. The Minister announced that Multicultural Affairs would contribute $5,000 to Italian Week 2010 and that the Premier, the Hon. Ms. Anna Bligh, MLA would support Italian Week 2011 with funding of $20,000

We are proud to announce that support and partnership will continue with our Cultural Partner GoMA for next year as well as a commitment from the Commonwealth Bank to once again support Italian Week into 2011

Our Comm Team, Sequel Communications reported media coverage reached an audience of approximately 18.7 million people across Australia. This was a significant increase on last year’s audience figures that estimated media coverage reached 6.9 million people in 2009. Media Highlights included Qantas What’s On program where we successfully negotiated free airtime to promote Italian Week 2010 on Qantas’ QNews video which showcased the ‘What’s On’ segment to an estimated 930,000 passengers throughout May.

Once again our Print Media partner dedicated the front page of Brisbane News and a double page spread promoting a range of activities for Italian Week 2010 and the history of Italian culture in Brisbane.

A Feature article in The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/commedia-spirit-unmasked/story-e6frg8n6-1225872240752  during Italian Week with a large, color feature article about the inaugural Australian Commedia Dell’Arte Festival described the festival’s artistic highlights in detail and was a real coup in promoting Brisbane’s Italian Week on the national media stage.

Multiple stories promoting the week appeared in the Sunday Mail, Queensland’s highest-selling newspaper. This included an article on the festival’s premier film event – Dall’Italia All’Australia – plus social photos and coverage in Damien Anthony Rossi’s column in the Sunday Mail. You can see a list of Media on this page http://italianweek2010.blogspot.com/2010/06/italian-week-2010-media-coverage.html

We wish to once again thank our official sponsors http://www.italianweek.com.au/2010sponsors.html  and supporters who contributed to this year’s Italian Week success and growth and look forward to collaborating once again in 2011

You may like to have a look at some of the photo galleries on this link http://italianweek2010.blogspot.com/search/label/Italian%20Week%202010%20Media

It is with considerable pride that on behalf of Italian Week we report that we were able to raise over $1800.00 for the Hear and Say Centre toward the work they do with children who are born deaf and the invaluable therapies which the Hear and Say Centre provide toward the work they do with children who are born deaf and the invaluable therapies which the Hear and Say Centre provide

Once again we have some exciting new collaborations for 2011 and are looking forward to creating the best Italian Week yet in 2011 – we hope you will continue to join us in celebrating the culture, lifestyle and artistry of Italy.

The Australian Commedia Festival

THE world premiere of a work by a man who embodies the history and spirit of the commedia dell' arte theatre tradition was going to take place outdoors this weekend in an amphitheatre, alongside Lake Macdonald in Cooroy, Queensland.

Antonio Fava, who runs a school in Italy teaching the subtle skills of the classic commedia masks, was to have presented Pulcinellata Nera, a "little opera in words, lazzi [jokes] and music in the style of the Neapolitan commedia dell'arte", bringing to the Sunshine Coast hinterland the best of this centuries-old tradition.

That plan came unstuck. The idea of Pulcinella and all the other zanni from the classic tales of love and deception, greed and trickery, gathering in Gympie, which was to have been the centre of a weekend festival for actors, teachers and audiences, was too ambitious.

Organiser Tony Kishawi, a commedia aficionado and teacher, was faced with the impending cancellation of all the workshops, lectures and performances of his inaugural Australasian commedia dell'arte festival.

But, in the comic tradition, just when all looked hopeless, a surprising intervention turned around the plot. It's now heading for a happy ending which, Kishawi hopes, will also be a beginning.

Today and across the weekend, the Australasian Commedia dell'Arte Festival, celebrating the living tradition of this exuberant theatre, will be held at the Kelvin Grove campus of Queensland University of Technology as part of Brisbane Italian Week.

It was fortuitous coincidence, Kishawi says, that Italian Week this year was scheduled for the same weekend, and when he started talking to Alessandro Sorbello, producer of Italian Week, he realised that event, which is supported by the Italian government and the Brisbane City Council, provided the perfect framework on which to construct and develop his commedia festival.

"Commedia is like stamp collecting," Kishawi says. "Those who know about it are passionate, but it's hard to know how to sell it."

The most recognisable element of commedia is the masks that distinguish the different character types, from the young lovers, always foiled in their love-making, to the old miserly Pantalone, who beats up his poor servant Arlecchino (precursor of the romantic Harlequin) but inevitably is tricked in the end.

Kishawi was drawn to the commedia tradition by the masks. Brought up in a performing family and trained at the Victorian College of the Arts, Kishawi began to develop his own mask work as a street performer, eventually realising he would need to train in Italy with Fava if he were to understand the art properly.

"It felt like I was at home," he says of the time he spent learning commedia skills in Italy. "Fava is really the keeper of the form, he just emanates the essence of commedia, and I was able to understand."

Back in Australia, Kishawi set about trying to develop a commedia troupe, lecturing in drama schools as he sought out like-minded people with whom to work. For many years he lived and worked out of a circus bus, touring across the country, until eventually he settled in Gympie, where he creates performances for the boutique Heritage Theatre.

It was meeting a couple of other commedia experts - performers Antonio (Giri) Mazzella and Giovanni (Sanjiva) Margio - in Perth at the Northbridge Festival that set in train the chain of events that have led to Kishawi planning this commedia festival.

Mazzella and Margio, who run the Commedia Academy of Australia, will be performing today and tomorrow at the festival, presenting both traditional commedia and their contemporary Australian version.

The traditional part is explaining to audiences the different characters and how the tradition developed. The contemporary part is their irreverent performance under the guise of the Black Nonnas: tough women dressed in widow's weeds, "escaped from the suburbs, on the hunt for cheap coffee and husbands, preferably with very large tractors", Mazzella says.

Margio describes this kind of performance as "theatre of the wolf: if I don't eat you, you are going to eat me".

"There's no hunger in Australia except what you feel 10 minutes before the barbie is ready, but that hunger is what fuelled the commedia actors, what pushed their performance," Mazzella says. "If they didn't work, if it wasn't good, if the audience weren't grabbed, then the performers didn't eat."

Margio says when they teach commedia, they cannot be so strict about technique that they kill the gut impulse of actors. "It's about teaching the spirit of commedia, and then taking that into its modern form."

The actors have devoted their lives to commedia, touring Australia and overseas with their traditional and contemporary shows. They get cross at the continuing ignorance of people who are delighted by the performances, but then ask, "But what's your day job?"

"It's a profession but we have to keep explaining it," Mazzella says. "We have seen an exciting surge of interest in commedia productions. Many people have heard about it, but they've never seen it performed. Hopefully this festival will start to redress that lack."

Kishawi says he is talking to other venues in Brisbane and there are positive signs this new festival will continue. With its place as part of Italian Week, there is now a platform on which to build. With the Italians already involved and interest being shown from the US where there is a strong commedia presence, Kishawi is confident the idea is a good one. He is launching a book on teaching commedia, called Spirit of the Mask, this weekend at the festival.

"Everyone knows the classic gags of commedia, but learning to perform takes years of experience," Kishawi says. "I always say it's like pilots and flying time: you have to do it for many years to have the best skills."

The Commedia dell'Arte Festival, part of Brisbane Italian Week, is at Woodward Theatre, Queensland University of Technology, until Sunday. Antonio Fava performs Pulcinellata Nera on Sunday, 4pm and 7pm.

http://www.italianweek.com.au/media/Australian_Commedia.pdf  


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/commedia-spirit-unmasked/story-e6frg8n6-1225872240752

Media Release 17th December 2009

The Australasian Commedia dell’Arte Festival will be officially launched today
in its home town of Gympie, Queensland.

This inaugural festival is being staged from the 28th to the 30thMay, 2010. Commedia artists from all over Australian and Italy will converge on Gympie and the Cooloola Region for thisthree day celebration of a living theatre tradition, including performances, workshops and discussions.
Headlining the event is internationally renowned Italian Commedia artist, director and teacher, Antonio Fava, who will perform his world premiere of “PulcinellataNera” (Black Comedy alla Pulcinella)

With its roots in 16th century Italy, Commedia dell’Arte boasts a colourful history of artistic innovation, political controversy and above all, pure entertainment. This 3-day festival celebrates this living theatre tradition and promises to recreate the magic and mayhem that is Commedia.

The festival will take place at the Gympie Civic Centre and include daytime workshops, presentations and discussions with evening Commedia performances being staged in the beautiful Heritage Theatre. A special Drinks, Chalkboard and Dinner is also being held on Saturday afternoon of the 29th May at local Italian venue, Raffinati’s Restaurant& Bar.
To signify the closing of the festival on the night of Sunday 30th May, the Noosa Botanical Gardens in Cooroy will host MrFava’s World Premiere performance of “Pulcinellata Nera”. This performance, a little opera in words, lazzi and music in the style of the Neapolitan Commedia dell’Arte, will beheld at the stunning Lake Macdonald amphitheatre, Cooroy.

The festival is the brainchild of highly creative performer/director, Tony Kishawi, a Gympie local andex NIDA teacher. With a commitment to the world of Theatre, Tony explains, “I want to share the rich cultural legacy that is Commedia in Australia. And what better place to hold the festival but in Gympie, on the doorstep to the Great Sandy National Park, Fraser Island, Noosa and the Sunshine Coast.”

To be an active participant in the festival and get “inside the mask!”, 3 day festival tickets are now on sale, with early bird discounts available for those purchased by the 30th December, 2009. Special discounts are available for students and emerging artists. Tickets are limited so book early.

Separate performance tickets are also for sale from February 1st 2010, for those wishing to attend the night performances or the World Premiere of “PulcinellataNera”. Performance tickets range from just $25 per adult, $15 concession for the evening performance program and $40 per adult and $30 concession for the World Premiere.

Visit the website http://www.commediafestival.com.au/ for a sneak preview of the lineup. For more information call Lightwire on (07) 5408 2137 or go to the festival website.