“In this particular historical moment, from North to South, Theater has been almost mortally wounded. The theater has always been a mirror of society, it addresses a paraphrase of life itself as well as of its uses and customs. The teater is the exporter of the values that are the basis of a civil society. In this sense, among the consequences of Covid, we must necessarily contemplate the “distancing” that is imposed on us both as a prevention to fight it and as a consequence of the lack of interaction between people. In such a profiled context, the Theater has lost its primary function of “gluer” between fantasy and reality. In my opinion, also due to the carcinogenic closure of the structures, the theater should start from itself and not from the canonical “locations” in which the “performance” is traditionally conceived. I want to clarify that I am not referring to “streaming” modes which, under the pretext of innovation, do nothing but highlighting the grammar of despair. This is a violation of an activity that cannot be separated from the tangible “presence” of body and soul. Theater has to be everywhere, “Theater of contraband”, if necessary, without neglecting and underestimating the anti-covid measures … And with much more decisive and incisive support from the institutions. “
Fausto Bellone.
Despite the cancellation of minds and the immobilization of the emergency, an artist from the South responds to the closure of minds more than the closure of theaters.
Fausto Bellone defines himself as a dreamer who has chosen the path of courage to turn every single desire into reality. He works as an artist for the pleasure of giving and giving himself. He is a man who is born and dies in the space of love and ideas; he is a child who believes in the goodness of human beings and in the need to improve the world by leaving it better than we found it.
Fausto Bellone, Casertano doc, is a multifaceted and versatile author, director and actor of cinema and theater. He collaborates with various theater troupes and he has always been interested in experimenting with different interpretative languages. He has interpreted the most disparate plays ranging from the prose of Pirandello, Shakespeare and Rostand, up to the great Neapolitan classics such as De Filippo, Di Maio and Scarpetta. What is special about Fausto is the same experimentation curiosity that a child has and the sensitivity, as well as his talent, to materialize the fantasy on stage and beyond the theater’s curtain!
In fact, in some schools of the region, he has activated theatrical workshops, summer camps, regional calls and initiatives for tourist facilities. He makes a strong contribution to the community through his writing and through the representation of texts and works about important topics such as bullying, euthanasia, unemployment, pollution, homosexuality and violence against women, integration and fantasy.
Fausto Bellone has worked under directors such as Eduardo Tartaglia, Hiroshi Nishitani, and Antonio Zannone with whom he often collaborates in national and international productions. “Stigmate”, for example, directed by Zannone himself, sees the actor Casertano as Marlowe, a man who, in a world where the church has retained its temporal power, is arrested on charges of being an enemy of the state, because he is an atheist. The short film was selected for the David di Donatello 2017.
In 2009 the “Paranormal Activity Contest” of Filmauro, Fausto is the winner, with “1ncub1” together with Felice D ‘Andrea and Mario Scalino.
He has recently played the role of “Jack Sparrow” in the sit-com “I Sovrani 2” by Marco Lanzuise. His experience as a director is also gratified by awards and honors.
His paternal grandmother was from Reggio Calabria but she lived almost all of his life in Capua, in the province of Caserta.
The actor remembers that “she never lost that her cadence so identifying and recognizable typical of the Calabrian land”.
Fausto brought many of his shows to Calabria and he says that every time he goes there he always experiences the same friendliness and hospitality charateristic of his hometown.
He also rediscovered something in common in the theatrical tradition, notably influenced by Greece and the Roman Empire, referring to the Tragedy to end up with the use of masks.
Calabria and Campania are territorially close and are both part of the “Magna Graecia”, and both have undergone “Roman” domination and, more recently, Bourbon domination.
Fausto finds that Campanians and Calabrians have in common
“the sanguine, practical and lively character, typical not only of the people from Southern Italy, but from the South of the whole world“.
Do you think that the fact that you were born in the South of Italy has favored your artistic flair in a certain way?
FB – The question is very interesting and original. Honestly, I had never thought about it, but I think I could say so. In fact, in addition to intercepting a folklore and a custom based on epidermal and emotional contact, we also identify ourselves with the cradle of culture and history that has sprouted throughout the world and this certainly also applies to the theater. Furthermore, I can personally tell you that my inspiration has been able to develop thanks to the courage of the choices and the mental openness of my parents who have always accepted and supported my choices.
How did you approach the theater?
FB – I was born as a great lover of Italian movies. From this great passion, during high school I decided to participate in a regional competition for the creation of a short film. I took a course in cinematography and promptly launched into writing the screenplay and making my short. I arrived in the final with the award ceremony of director Muccino and from there, my continuation with the entry into the world of the Theater, alternating with participation in film productions. All this, for a constant need for “communication” which I later found to be a search for “emotional transmission”; body, voice, mouth, throat, tongue are null if you do not have an adequate awareness of your humanity to convey the message or “intentio auctoris”, if you prefer, to the most effective and truthful expression of what we are inside. My work as an “interpreter” mainly coincides with the very meaning of my existence. For me, theater is never fiction, but a paraphrase and reproduction of life; it is a physical and figurative “coherent” place to educate oneself and educate to live life with the greatest possible authenticity.
What do you think is the real power of theater?
FB – The theater has the ability to highlight the characteristics of the individual and collective life of a society. Thanks to the theater, it is possible to paraphrase one’s life, decipher the secrets of one’s emotionality in order to be able to connect with those around us. How could we overcome the presumption of knowing others if we do not know ourselves thoroughly first? From this question, I believe that theater is one of the most effective means of making diversity interact and emotionally meet. This is why the theater, in my opinion, is decisive in the process of cultural development of the people and societies of the world. Thanks to theater and its action, we are able to fall in love more and more with life, placing ourself at the service of others… In this sense, the theater is also configured as one of the greatest acts of generosity that can be expressed in life.
Why did you choose to teach to children?
FB – Children represent the seeds of the future. They are a hope to improve the society in which we are called to live, but above all, children express the reflection of what our world can represent tomorrow. My relationship with them arises by crossing the roles of trainer, educator and friend. I place myself with the greatest sincerity in direction of complicity. My need is to share the values of mutual respect, intellectual honesty and humility. I do it through theater and fantasy (which I define “the seventh sense”)Theatricality has a very strong impact on children since, unlike adults, the little ones do not have filters or behavior of circumstance. They dive into the experimentation of life through practical behaviors designed to socialize, with greater safety towards themselves and others.
It is precisely the element of “cognition” that is amplified by the “half theater”, which is essential to lead the emotions of the little ones to come out taking on a shape. In these first twenty years of activity, the theater has developed in me the need for the truth that we can approach only through the sum of our life experiences… Our pains, our joys, but above all our defeats. A good actor is, in my opinion, a person able to be honest with a story not of him … A good actor is a person who manages to paraphrase his own existence, placing it in a parallel dimension. From “these” ideas, beliefs and experiences gained on stage, I humbly developed an interpretative method that for several years I have been proposing to my student actors and to all those who want to approach the theater to discover new lives and new corners of themselves. The tool on which I base my method? The truth’ ” .
Is it true that artists remain children forever?
FB – I strongly believe in this statement. The Artist daily experiences the pleasure of discovery and, behind every discovery, there lies a sincere emotion waiting for us. We live with enthusiasm, like children, who structure themselves through the stimuli and inputs transmitted by the world in which they are immersed. The same happens to us: there are very strong enthusiasm and great pain. It depends from the success or from failure of our “enthusiasms”. We are used to chronic mood swings. For the artist, the “Pascoli child” is a way of experience life.
What are you currently working on?
FB – First of all, the publication of my first book “Le Stagioni della Coerenza”(the seasons of coherence), a collection of aphorisms and poems collected since I was twelve years old.
During lockdown I have focused on important projects that were in the pipeline for time. Among these, new projects for theatrical staging with”Non Solo Sipario” such as “Metti una sera a cena”(think about a night at dinner) by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, “The Glass Zoo” by Tennesse Williams together with my student actors, “Il Sindaco del Rione Sanita’” (the Mayor of Rione Sanità) by Eduardo De Filippo, “Notturno di Donna con Ospiti”(Night of a woman with guests) by Annibale Ruccello and“I Sentieri della Legalita’” (the paths of Legality), written and directed by myself.
Another important project is the creation of a movie script set in the old west. This occasion was profiled through a very pleasant confrontation with my student actor, Gianpaolo Gentile who, like me, is a huge fan of western movies. We therefore decided to work with four hands on the story of a very particular gunslinger. This story will represent the contamination between the classic western John Ford style and the “spaghetti westerns”. Typically Italian and noir in themes as well as in the methods. I cannot reveal more, but we have already intercepted the interest in the project by some foreign producers in Europe and America. Fingers crossed!
Last but not least, I am pleased to also mention the continuation of my professional training course for actors that I carry out at the Teatro di San Pietro in Cattedra in Caserta.
NONSOLOSIPARIO
In 2008, Fausto Bellone, actor and director from Caserta, founded the theater troupe “Non Solo Sipario” (Siapario refers to theater curtain) based in his hometown. The troupe was born during a comic trio performance. At the beginning it was indeed called “Comic Trio Non Solo Sipario”. Later it became “Non Solo Sipario”.
Why this name? Well, the idea was to proceed in the direction of the spectatores, overcoming the usual canonical venues of theatrical performance and going “beyond the curtain”. Art should be exported and understood as a continuously moving stream. And it should also be dynamic with content to be proposed and paraphrased in any context that allows the artist to express himself for the audience.
“Non Solo Sipario” was born from the precise desire to “excite” through images, texts, voices and stories. A theater troupe that aims straight at the heart of its audience. Today with a laugh, tomorrow with a tear, tomorrow again with a tragic drive. It is a path to search “reality” and “logic” paraphrased in the acting. This is a way for theater that mainly wants to be “self-reproduction”. A reality that would later become much more than a theater troupe, but a real “company of art”, with a whole series of very different contexts, but linked by the same thread.
The tour of notable echo of “I Teatri di Dio” was very successful performing hundreds of shows with a social content set up in places of worship of the main dioceses of Campania, addressing current social issues such as euthanasia, abortion, unemployment. , the abandonment of pets, the Campania environmental disaster.
Furthermore, we mention the theatrical reviews with apericena, the “Puppet Theater”, then the format of “The Animated Projections”, dedicated specifically to the Children’s Theater with lively and colorful theatrical performances, offered everywhere. Because as repeatedly highlighted, “Non Solo Sipario” is the concretization of a theater intended as a paraphrase of living that goes beyond the classic expressive structures. Many have been the shows produced. Among them : “Dentici – or Differently equal”, a work about homosexuality; “It was the eighth of March – Women’s Day” a work which has gotten various awards and prizes for direction and performances; “The Pleasure of Honesty” by Luigi Pirandello; “Elephants in figurines”, a work inspired by Carlo Verdone movie’s entitled “Compagni di Scuola”(schoolmates). It is important to mention “Do not remain stone by stone – Chronicle of a massacre”, written and directed by Fausto Bellone, on the massacre of Casalduni and Pontelandolfo (Bn) on August 14, 1861. It is a commemorative show that received numerous applauses including those of the Bourbon Royals, and that has consolidate an institutional and cultural bridge between various realities.”The paths of Legality” is another extraordinary work which has been represented throughout Italy. It is about values such as justice and the principle of legality; the reinterpretation of great classics such as “Miseria e Nobiltà” (misery and nobility) by Eduardo Scarpetta and reinterpretations of the works of De Filippo and Petito in “Tutta colpa del Teatro”(It’s theater’s fault). Non Solo Sipario has also established a Professional Actor Training Laboratory, designed to train students by leading them, since the beginning, to the stage action.Volunteering and charity work is also important; Non Solo Sipario collaborates with the “Mani nel Cappello”(hands in the hat); with the neuro-motor rehabilitation center association “L ‘Oasi” at Castel Campagnano (Ce); and it also gives its contribute to the pediatric wards of the Monaldi Hospital in Napoli and S. Anna and San Sebastiano in Caserta , the Italian Red Cross. We have been working for years to give shape to your dreams in everyday reality. On stage and beyond. Inside and beyond the curtain. Non Solo Sipario is YOUR theatrical troupe, an artistic family in which to feel at home.
