Renato Chiocca Author

Daniela Cavallaro, from the University of Auckland, is the author of several articles on Italian theatre and two books: Italian Women’s Theatre 1930-1960, and Educational Theatre for Women in Post-World War II Italy: A Stage of Their Own.Luciana d’Arcangeli, author of I personaggi femminili nel teatro di Dario Fo e Franca Rame, was until recently Cassamarca Senior Lecturer at Flinders University, Adelaide. She is currently an adjunct professor, language consultant, translator and interpreter, based in Rome. Claire Kennedy, adjunct senior lecturer in Italian Studies at Griffith University in Brisbane, has translated and subtitled several plays for performance, and participated in numerous community theatre productions on women’s issues. Bahar Brunton grew up in London. In addition to Dancing Feet, she has had two plays produced: The Highwayman, at the Battersea Barge and the Edinburgh Festival in 2008; and Sofka, at the Calder Bookshop & Theatre in 2012 and 2013. Her stories have been published by Fairlight Books, Firewords magazine, The Frogmore Papers and Ether Books. Alex Crampton is an intuitive artist, theatre practitioner, ceremonial celebrant, events producer, land worker and food grower. As a theatre director, producer, dramaturg and educational practitioner, she has worked with the Donmar Warehouse, Gate Theatre, Almeida Theatre, Arcola Theatre, RI FT and Blind Summit. Fascinated by systemic transformation, collaborative storytelling and deep ecology, she is now based in west Wales. Melissa Dean is an actress, writer, producer and radio presenter, who uses her creativity as a means for activism. Since 2010, she has appeared in TV series such as Line of Duty, Doctors and EastEnders. She co-starred in Me You Us Them, which explores stories of race and belonging in Northern Ireland, staged by Terra Nova Productions in 2018 and filmed for online distribution in 2022. She has a talk show on Reform Radio, lled ‘A Safe Space to Articulate’, which looks into unhealthy attitudes and stories in and around the arts, with the aim of helping create a healthier workspace. She is the first Artist in Residence at Reform Radio and works with the Guardian newspaper providing voice-over for podcast reads. Karis E. Halsall has been writing for theatre for the last decade, working with acclaimed companies such as the Hampstead Theatre, Theatre503, HighTide Festival,Headlong, the Bush, DryWrite and nabokov. Following her recent transition into writing for the screen, her inaugural short film Period Piece was selected to screen internationally at prestigious female-centric festivals including the Underwire Film Festival (2018) and Vancouver International Women in Film Festival (2019). Her television credits include BBC Three. Isley Lynn’s play Skin a Cat was awarded Pick of the Year at the Vault Festival 2016 and its production at The unker later that year led to four nominations for Off West End Awards including Most Promising New Playwright and Best New Play; it then toured nationally in 2018. Other credits include: The War of the Worlds (New Diorama Theatre 2019, international tour 2021); ‘Canace’ in 15 Heroines (Jermyn Street Theatre 2020); Albatross (Paines Plough and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama at Bute Theatre and Gate Theatre 2018); The Swell (HighTide First Commissions play reading 2018); Sie und Wir (Us and Them) for Werk X in Vienna (2016); Tether (Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2015); and What’s So Special (as part of The Get Out at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs 2014). Her play Bright Nights was a Script winner at The Space in 2014. Isley was a finalist for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Playwriting. Raúl Quirós Molina has an MA in Creative Writing from City, University of London. His plays include The Dinner, produced at the Vault Festival (London 2015), and El pan y la sal (Bread and Salt) at the Teatro Español (Madrid 2018), in addition to Where Do I Start? He was a finalist for the Nadal Novel Prize in 2018 and was awarded the Felipe Trigo Novel Prize in 2019 for Los caballos inocentes (The Innocent Horses). He currently lives and works in Barcelona. Olivia Brown graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney in 1969 and since then has worked as an actor in theatre, television, film and radio, and independently as a director, writer, producer and theatre educator. From 1985 to 1992 she managed her own theatre company which operated in schools and community venues throughout New South Wales (NSW). She has engaged in a number of creative partnerships, most notably when working with the Italian Institute of Culture (Sydney), SBS TV and CARNIVALE (NSW Multicultural Arts Festival) on bilingual productions of Dacia Maraini’s play Maria Stuarda (Mary Stuart) for stage (Wharf Theatre 2) and television. Ainsley Burdell is a director, performer and teacher who has worked in the arts and community cultural development in Queensland over the past thirty years. She has engaged with a wide range of communities involving unionist, youth, immigrant and women’s groups, to develop and produce theatre works that express their stories and experiences. Nicolette Kay has directed and co-translated a number of plays by Dacia Maraini as well as contributing to books about the playwright. She gave a talk about directing Maraini’s Hurried Steps at TEDx CoventGardenWomen, called ‘Hidden Stories, Hurried Steps’. She is the Artistic Director of New Shoes Theatre and has directed and toured professional productions in diverse venues in the UK and Sydney as well as directing students at the Birmingham Conservatoire. She trained as an actress at the Drama Centre London, worked with the Women’s Theatre Group and has played leading roles with the Cambridge Theatre Company, Gate Theatre and Young Vic Theatre in London, and in repertory theatres across the UK. Dacia Maraini is one of the most widely read Italian writers in the world. While the subject matter of her novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, essays and interviews covers a broad range, her focus is always on women’s condition. She is also a theatre and cinema director, who has founded or collaborated with various experimental companies. Among her numerous literary awards are the Premio Strega in 1999 for the short story collection Buio (Darkness; 2002 in English), the Premio Campiello in 1990 for the novel La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa (The Silent Duchess; 1992 in English) and the Premio Campiello again in 2012 for her career. She was a finalist for the 2011 Man Booker International Prize and nominated for the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature. Further testimony to the impact of her work around the world are eight honorary degrees – from the universities of Naples ‘L’Orientale’, Macerata, L’Aquila, Foggia and Bucharest, Middlebury ollege (Vermont), John Cabot University (Rome) and Chapman University (California) – the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, conferred in 2017, and the highest Italian honour, the Knight Grand Cross, awarded in 1996. Sharon Wood is professor (emerita) at the University of Leicester and the author and editor of numerous books on writing by women in Italy. She has published several translations, including works by Primo Levi, Romana Petri, Gabriella Maleti, Susanna Tamaro and Dacia Maraini. Renato Chiocca is a director and screenwriter who works in cinema, theatre and television. He is also co-author, with Andrea Ferraris, of the graphic novel The Scar: Graphic reportage from the U.S.–Mexico border (Fantagraphics 2019), also released in Italy, France, Portugal, Spain and Latin America.