Mina Mezzadri
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Mina Mezzadri | |
|---|---|
| Born | 26 December 1926 |
| Died | 19 August 2008 (aged 81) |
| Occupation(s) | Playwright · theatre director |
| Years active | 1963–1998 |
Mina Mezzadri (26 December 1926 – 19 August 2008) was an Italian playwright and theatre director, remembered as the first female theatre director in Italy.[1]
In 1963, Mina Mezzadri founded the Compagnia della Loggetta (later Ctb Teatro Stabile di Brescia) with Renato Borsoni, based on the Piccolo Teatro di Brescia.[1][2] She would direct the company until 1969.[2] With it, she staged classic texts[1][2] by Luigi Pirandello, Georg Büchner, Anton Chekhov, and Aeschylus,[2] as well as contemporary texts, including her own plays such as Eloisa e Abelardo (1966)[1][2] and L'obbedienza non è più una virtù (1969), about the life of Don Milani.[1][2]
After leaving her hometown,[1][2] she worked in cities such as Genoa, Milan, and Cagliari,[1] directing, among others, The Maids by Jean Genet and two plays by August Strindberg.[2] She returned to Brescia in the 1990s, continuing to produce and write shows.[1] In 1993 and 1994, Mezzadri directed Adelchi by Alessandro Manzoni, in the places where the main character of Ermengarda would have spent her last years.[1] In 1998, she staged Don Pirlimplino at the Centro Teatrale Bresciano.[1]
Art
Mina Mezzadri was the first woman to become a theater director in Italy[1] and was an innovator in the field, developing, among others, the document theatre genre: in the 1970s she organized evenings for specialists and curious people to participate in debates.[1] Her work as a playwright is also considered significant.[1] Her goal was to create a theater free from conditioning, against the current, in contrast to power, that could be a tool for political and social analysis.[1]
