My plays
MY second play,
TOSCANA, or what i remember
I produced my play, Toscana, or What I Remember with the help of Teatro Italiano Network and a successful crowdfunding campaign with Kickstarter at The Cherry Lane Theatre for a sixteen-performance run in September 2016. These are some of the reviews we received:
"[Toscana] is a beautifully written and acted play (...) Every element of the show is high-quality (...) The writing, acting and directing especially stand out (...) [Toscana] is an absorbing and ultimately touching production that is well-worth experiencing."
(Hi Drama)
"The play is quite engaging and often funny. Marta Mondelli's dialogue always glimmers, and occasionally explodes, creating the shocked, delighted gasps one associates with Edward Albee's work."
(Theatre Is Easy)
"The ability to condense big ideas into an intimate piece of theatre is perhaps one of the hardest tasks any writer is given, and one which Ms. Mondelli not only tackles gamely, but also executes with ease."
(Jessica Taghap, The Resident Artist)
Emma, a native of Tuscany, and her paraplegic husband, Fred, seem to be visiting the small Italian hill town that Emma grew up in for the sake of attending her father's funeral. Frustrated by the weather and tormented by memories of her childhood, Emma finds every excuse to be annoyed with Fred and his physical dependency upon her. A fragile momentary truce between them is broken by two guests of the hotel they frequent: Larry, an expert on botany who's there to give a lecture and Sue, his pregnant wife. At first disdainful towards them, Emma finds Larry's intelligence a welcome distraction. Sue, initially uncomfortable with Fred's disability, opens up to him in a way she can't with her husband. Both of the couples are jolted out of their complacency with one another when confronted with painful truths brought about by Emma's temporary lapses of memory, forcing them to acknowledge that all is not as it seems.
The cast was made up of Scott Barton in the role of Fred, Nicole Kontolefa in the role of Sue, Lance Olds in the role of Larry, e Marta Mondelli in the role of Emma.
Parity Productions is promoting the play because more than 50% of the crew is made of women: Mariana Sanchez (scenic designer), Haejin Han (lighting designer), Betsy Rugg (costume designer), Caitie Miller (stage manager), Scotti Rhodes (press representative).
The production has also worked alongside Christine Bruno of Inclusion in the Arts (America’s leading advocate for full diversity) to cast an actor with disability for the role of Fred, a character who suffered a traumatic incident and is now in a wheelchair.
My first play,
The window
I produced my play, The Window, with the help of Teatro Italiano Network and a successful crowdfunding campaign with Kickstarter at The Cherry Lane Theatre for ten sold-out performances in January 2014. These are some of the great reviews we received:
"Interesting, stylish and refreshing (...) Marta Mondelli, who also penned the script, is vibrant, focused and the epitome of style as she carves and sculpts the sultry Nora."
(Theatre Reviews Limited)
"Mondelli’s talents shine as a writer and as her own character, Nora."
(Theatre Is Easy)
"It is Mondelli herself who steals the show with her feisty and fabulous Nora. She has a dazzling presence onstage (...) The Window is definitely a treat"
(Off Off Online)
It's 1954. Eva is a young woman living in New York. After her wedding is unexpectedly called off, she spends the time set aside for her honeymoon walled up alone in her apartment, taste-testing for a new dietary soft drink. Her only distraction is living vicariously through the neighbors outside her window, and her only visitor is Aunt Nora, a not-so-ladylike Park Avenue lady who will do anything to escape her perfect uptown life. Over the three days that follow, Nora's suspicious absences, an unidentified scream from the courtyard, and the unsettling visit from a handsome stranger all bring Eva closer to the window's edge...
The cast (composed by Cristina Lippolis as Eva, Marta Mondelli as Nora, and Scott Freeman as Bill) had a successful reading at the Tank Theater in January of 2012 and then performed for ten sold-out shows at the Cherry Lane Theatre in January 2014. The play was directed by Shira-Lee Shalit. Scenic design by Nicholas Biagetti and Pedro Marnoto, sound design and original music by Andy Cohen, costume designer Rebekka Fellah, lighting designer and stage manager Haejin Han, press representation by Scotty Rhodes. The programs and still photos from the shows were by Nicholas Biagetti.
