Visiting actor to bring characters
to life with Italian masks

KINGSTON, R.I. -- October 8, 1998 -- Anyone who enjoys theater, Italian history, or has lived in Italy is sure to enjoy actor Mace Perlman when he visits the Kingston Campus on Wednesday, November 4 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The performance (in English, with some Italian) will be in Studio J, Fine Arts Center, URI Kingston Campus. It is free and open to the public.

Perlman's visit is sponsored by the Italian section of the Department of Languages and the Theatre Department at URI. Perlman, a classically trained mime and actor, will bring to life the traditional characters of the "commedia dell'arte," using leather masks created in Vicenza, Italy. The masks have been hailed by The New York Times as "splendid little works of art."

Perlman will introduce the audience to the traditional characters from Italian theater: Pantalone, the original merchant of Venice; Arlecchino, his servant from Bergamo; Brighella, Arlecchino's zany companion from the hills of Bergamo; the Dottore from the famed University of Bologna.

The audience will be enthralled as Perlman then becomes each of these characters in turn, as he dons their masks, speaks their dialects and inhabits their bodies.

"Italian history and theatrical entertainment go hand-in-hand as Perlman explores one of the most influential cultural phenomena of modern Europe, whose archetypes are universal and whose myth and legacy are still with us today," says URI Language Professor Remo Trivelli.

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For More Information: Jan Sawyer, 874-2116