ROSA CAMPAGNARO is a graduate of NIDA’s MFA in Directing, a recipient of the ISS Institute Fellowship, and the founding Artistic Director of Make A Scene. Since 2004, she has shared her distinctive theatre style, performance techniques, and training with educators and actors through Drama Australia, La Mama Theatre, Deakin University, MTC, and NIDA. Her practice is shaped by Commedia dell’Arte training at Venezia InScena (Venice, Italy), Jacques Lecoq techniques, and Giovanni Fusetti (Helikos Studios, Italy). Rosa has written and directed several works for Make A Scene, including a translation and adaptation of Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters and an adaptation of Collodi’s Pinocchio, both published by Currency Press and performed at La Mama. Fascinated by the intersection of tragedy and absurdity in theatre, she shares her idol Dario Fo’s belief that “laughter is sacred” and is driven to create theatre that evokes both sublime and ridiculous experiences for audiences. 

CARLO GOLDONI (born Feb. 25, 1707, Venice—died Feb. 6, 1793, Paris), prolific dramatist who renovated the well-established Italian commedia dell’arte dramatic form by replacing its masked stock figures with more realistic characters, its loosely structured and often repetitive action with tightly constructed plots, and its predictable farce with a new spirit of gaiety and spontaneity. For these innovations Goldoni is considered the founder of Italian realistic comedy.