Mario Fratti (29 July 1927 – 15 April 2023) was an Italian playwright and drama critic. In his lifetime, he produced over 70 works, which were translated into over 20 languages and shown worldwide. He was best known for writing the first script for the musical ''
Nine
9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding .
Evolution of the Hindu–Arabic digit
Circa 300 BC, as part of the Brahmi numerals, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bot ...
''.
Life and career
Born in
L'Aquila
L'Aquila ( ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in central Italy. It is the capital city of the Province of L'Aquila and the Abruzzo region in Italy. , it has a population of 69,902. Laid out within medieval walls on a hill in the wide valley of the A ...
, Fratti graduated in foreign languages and literatures at the
Ca' Foscari University of Venice
Ca' Foscari University of Venice (), or simply Ca' Foscari, is a public research university and business school in Venice, Italy. Since its foundation in 1868, it has been housed in the Venetian Gothic palace of Ca' Foscari, from which it takes ...
.
In 1962, Fratti presented his one-act play ''Suicidio'' at the
Festival dei Due Mondi
The ''Festival dei Due Mondi'' (Festival of the Two Worlds) is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958. It features a vast array of conc ...
in
Spoleto
Spoleto (, also , , ; ) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is south of Trevi, north of Terni, southeast of Perugia; southeast of Florence; and north of Rome.
H ...
, and
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg (born Israel Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American acting coach and actor. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed ...
, a guest of the festival, was impressed by it and invited him to stage it at the
Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights located on West 44th Street in Hell's Kitchen in New York City.
The studio is best known for its work refining and teaching method actin ...
.
Fratti eventually decided to stay in New York, where he found work as a professor of Italian literature at
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
.
In his later life, he was named as professor emeritus of Italian Literature at
Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...
.
Fratti was an avowed
communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
. He died in his home in Manhattan on 15 April 2023, at the age of 95.
Mario Fratti Award
Since 2014, the theater company KIT - Kairos Italy Theater together with the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo' of NYU and In Scena Theatre Festival have created the Mario Fratti Award in his honour. The prize is awarded to an unpublished theatrical text by an Italian author. Among the winners are Carlotta Corradi, Pier Lorenzo Pisano, Emanuele Aldrovandi, Paolo Bignami, the couple
Chiara Boscaro and
Marco Di Stefano, Tobia Rossi, Giorgia Brusco, Luca Garello and Andrea Cioffi. After Mario Fratti's death, the award was renamed In Scena! Playwright Award
Plays
*Il campanello (1958)
*Suicidio (1962)
*La menzogna (1963)
*Il rifiuto (1965)
*La gabbia (1962)
*L'Accademia (1964)
*La vedova bianca (1972)
*I Seduttori (1964)
*I frigoriferi (1964)
*Eleonora Duse (1972)
*La vittima (1972)
*Che Guevara (1970)
*L'ospite romano (1971)
*Mafia (1974)
*La famiglia (1972)
*Chile 1973 (1974)
*Six Passionate Women (1978)
*Nine (1981)
*AIDS (1988)
*Porno (199)
*Amanti (1991)
*Avventure erotiche a Venezia (Tangentopoli) (1996)
*Candida e i suoi amici (2001)
*Cecità (2004)
*I nove martiri (2009)
*LGBT (2011)
*Obama 44 (2011)
* Beata, la figlia del Papa
* Attori
* Terrorista
* Sete
* Anniversario
* Missionari
* Garibaldi
* American Dream
* Suicide club
* Dead Men's Bluff
* Brooklyn
* Hugo, ispirata a Hugo Chávez
* Paganini (Musical)
* Puccini (Musical)
* Dialogo con Marilyn
* Teatro dell'Imprevedibile
* Unpredictable Plays
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fratti, Mario
1927 births
2023 deaths
People from L'Aquila
20th-century Italian dramatists and playwrights
21st-century Italian dramatists and playwrights
Ca' Foscari University of Venice alumni
Columbia University faculty
Hunter College faculty
Italian expatriates in the United States