Gennaro Pantalena (1848–1915) was an Italian

actor-manager An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the business, sometimes taking over a theatre to perform select plays in which they usually star. It is a method of theatrical production used co ...

and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

. He developed a reputation as a

character actor A character actor is an actor known for playing unusual, eccentric, or interesting character (arts), characters in supporting roles, rather than leading ones.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrie ...

Neapolitan Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to: Geography and history * Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city * Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and High ...

theatre, appearing in the companies of

Eduardo Scarpetta Eduardo Scarpetta (13 March 1853 – 12 November 1925) was an Italian actor and playwright from Naples. His best-known play is ''Misery and Nobility.'' Biography Although not from a theatrical family, he was on the stage by the age of four ...

and Federico Stella. By 1888 he led his own company which took up residence in the city's Teatro Nuovo. He wrote several works in the

Neapolitan dialect Neapolitan ( autonym: ; ) is a Romance language of the Italo-Romance group spoken in most of continental Southern Italy. It is named after the Kingdom of Naples, which once covered most of the area, and the city of Naples was its capital. On ...

.Pantalena p.88 In 1909 he directed and starred in

Salvatore Di Giacomo Salvatore Di Giacomo (12 March 1860 – 5 April 1934) was an Italian poet, songwriter, playwright and fascist, one of the signatories to the Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals. Di Giacomo is credited as being one of those responsible for ...

's '' Assunta Spina''. He also appeared in a single

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

'' La fuga del gatto'' made in 1914. He died the following year.

References

Bibliography

* Bender, Robert Gene. ''The Dialect Theatre of Eduardo de Filippo''. Stanford University, 1963. * Maurino, Ferdinando Dante. ''Salvatore Di Giacomo and Neapolitan Dialectal Literature''. S.F. Vanni, 1951.

External links

* 1848 births 1915 deaths Italian theatre managers and producers Actor-managers Italian male stage actors Actors from Naples {{Italy-stage-actor-stub