Students who attend a play in the Florida Gym tonight will feel like they’re in Italy for three acts.
An Italian civilization class has been working on a play to be produced and performed in Italian. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Florida Gym Room 270.
The 17 students have been preparing for the production all semester.
The play, “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” by Luigi Pirandello, is a three-act play that has been completely translated into Italian by the students in the class.
Gianfranco Balestriere, an Italian senior lecturer, had the goal of a final performance for his course this semester. He said he wanted to show that the Italian language is alive on campus.
The play breaks the wall between the actors and audience, partially taking place among the audience.
“[It’s the] first time that a project like this becomes reality,” Balestriere said.
It is also the first time a non-theater class has performed a play from beginning to end in a foreign language.
Four teams have made the production possible, along with six students who are the major actors.
Courtney Owens, a member of the publicity committee for the play, said they made T-shirts with a logo of Pirandello on the front and a famous quote from the play on the back. Posters, fliers and playbills will be used for promotion.
“It’s a three-credit-hour class and we’re working it like it’s 10 or 15 credits,” he said.
The class has eaten Italian dinners as a group and gone out together because, as Owens said, you can’t act with strangers.
Vicky Riquelme is one of the students who wanted to be immersed in Italian.
Riquelme, a part of the translation team, said the group of eight divided the play among the members.
By splitting up the three acts, each student had about three pages overall to translate.
The team created English subtitles for the audience to follow along while the play is being performed.
Every member of the class will be acting in the play. Riquelme, who has a small role, is looking forward to the performance.
“I’ve never done theater,” she said, “but what I’ve noticed is being on stage is so electrifying.”
