The Sicilian Puppet Theater of Agrippino Manteo (1884-1947)

Shortlisted for Literary Encyclopedia — Book Prizes 2024!

“By supplying a human and artistic portrait on the basis of a meticulous examination of sources and documents, Jo Ann Cavallo restores to Agrippino Manteo the rightful place that he must occupy in the reconstruction of the history of this theatrical tradition.”—Professor Alessandro Napoli,Marionettistica dei Fratelli Napoli and Antonio Pasqualino International Puppet Museum, Italy.

"Based on an extraordinarily large number of first-hand sources, this book is both the careful study of a decisive piece in the history of Puppet Theatre and the tale of a fascinating journey from Sicily to Argentina and finally to New York, of a family saga that is at the same time the story of the persistence of a great artistic passion."—Professor Anna Carocci, Roma Tre University, Italy.

"We are fortunate indeed that the Manteo family has preserved written scripts of Italian puppet theater in America and that Jo Ann Cavallo is able to provide a context in the history of literature for what was performed daily for the Italian community on the streets of New York in the 1920s and 1930s."—Professor Charles Ross, Purdue University, USA.

"This book represents important documentation and analysis of the evolution of texts and dramatic prose as well as the way that individuals contribute to a continual evolution of what might be considered fixed texts. Anyone who wants to look linguistically or anthropologically into Sicilian puppet theatre will find this as close to a primary source as they can get without combing through all the items that Cavallo has meticulously done."—Professor Felice Amato, Boston University College of Fine Arts, USA.

"Jo Ann Cavallo’s book brings new insights to those who care about Sicilian theatrical history but also to social historians and general readers who want to understand how Agrippino Manteo captivated the attention of his audiences. This is the only translation into English of a set of scripts of Sicilian puppet episodes. Hence, it will serve as a key reference work now and in the future." — Professor Paula Richman, Oberlin College, USA.

The work is both scholarly and creative. Not only has Cavallo reassembled three generations of the Manteo family and highlighted their sustained efforts, her study also provides translations of eight dramatic plays plus commentary and comparative analysis. Reading through the remarkably rich episodes was not only a learning experience for me but also a mesmerizing and enlightening one. —Sicilia Parra

 Through the in-depth case-study of a family’s New York City puppet theatre, Jo Ann Cavallo offers a meticulously researched and comprehensively crafted description of the Sicilian pupi tradition. In addition to a scholarly investigation of the literary form itself, this book preserves the tangible and intangible history of the Manteo family. With this book, Cavallo provides the intangible counterpart. Her interpretations fill in the gaps and illuminate processes, relationships, and performances and convey how culture evolves —Puppetry International

With this volume, Jo Ann Cavallo offers us a rare gift: the in-depth analysis of a topic that is both rooted in literary sources and the expression of popular culture; of a regional performance tradition that spread through and thanks to the Italian diaspora; and of a neglected subject that deserves sustained attention and additional research. […] The very title of her book pushes us to look beyond national boundaries, as “France” and “America” follow “Sicilian” (and “Italian” does not appear anywhere). It is in this complexity that lies the richness that Cavallo brings to the surface. —Italian Culture

This work will be of interest to students of Sicilian culture and of the art of puppetry, as well as to scholars of narratology, intrigued by the appeal of storytelling as such.—Arthuriana

Cavallo provides a captivating portrait of a puppet theatre family whose contribution to the circulation of Sicilian popular theatre is nothing less than remarkable. This is a must-read for all those interested in the translation and circulation of minoritized performance traditions. —Puppetry International Review

This important book […] greatly enhances our understanding of Sicilian puppet theatre in performance and the source epics that provide its inspiration. —Italica