My initial work investigated how site-specific, historical environments impacted both production processes and audiences’ experiences.  At the time, I was teaching classics and pursuing graduate studies in architecture, while living in a historical part of my native country, Italy.  I began creating theatre in and around ancient structures, and found that when actors worked in those rich environments, they became sensitive to, and impacted by, the sites’ “ghosts” and the imprint of time and humanity.  Similarly, audiences found a resonance between the space and production, experiencing their own lives intertwining with history. 

I next began focusing on plays that would necessitate deep psychological investigation, which led me to the study of contemporary English and American drama.  I translated several of these plays into Italian, and directed and produced others.  I invited the American playwrights Craig Wright and Bob Ford to the Festival and to other events I artistically supervised in Genova and at the Università degli Studi di Genova.

I remain fascinated by the psyche of the characters in American plays:  ordinary people in ordinary circumstances are given the status of “heroes,” either in their own daily routines or when put into extraordinary circumstances.  I wanted to explore more of this psyche, because what I was witnessing in most of my Italian actors' work was a great physical connection to the space and their bodies, but little truthful engagement.

I came to the U.S. to learn more about psychologically-oriented theatre approaches.  My M.F.A. training has included the study of Meisner and Stanislavsky methods. 

Yet, I find that the psychological approach is not totally satisfactory.  It is a great way into certain kinds of characters and plays, but it often confines the actors - young actors especially - into the small world of their characters' heads and disconnects them from the physical realities of what is happening in the moment on stage. 

This dissatisfaction led me to turn my attention to combining physical theatre and psychological techniques, including my continued investigation of Commedia dell'Arte (of course), as well as Viewpoints, Alexander, Michael Chekhov and Meyerhold 's Biomechanics. I have been briefly exposed to Lecocq and to the Rasaboxes and I intend to learn  more about them.

Integrating the environmental, psychological and physical approaches is ultimately what I am working on at the present time and will be focusing in the future.

I am interested in helping actors give themselves permission to react to instincts and stimuli without uniquely relying on the language but connecting with their body in the given space.