Événement

Six Authors In Search of a Character

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Luigi Pirandello's birth and Ghostlight will commemorate the milestone with the short play festival Six Authors in Search of a Character, in which six Chicago authors pen 10-minute plays around the missing character in "The Mountain Giants," Pirandello's final, unfinished play.

In "The Mountain Giants," a magician, Cotrone, presides over an abandoned villa and a ragged group of outcasts who are visited by a touring theatre troupe. The thespians are looking to play "The Fable of the Changed Son," the masterpiece of a poet who killed himself out of unrequited love for the lead actress, the Countess Ilse. Since the poet's death, Ilse has relentlessly performed the play, in spite of negative reactions from audiences. That night, the villa sees the boundaries between dream and reality collapse, along with the boundaries between characters and actors.

Pirandello only wrote the first three of four intended acts. The character of the Mountain Giants eluded him.

Who are the Mountain Giants? That's what these playwrights are going to find out.

Six Authors in Search of a Characters is curated by Ghostlight Ensemble Member Miona Lee and is hosted by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura - Chicago.

With works by: Jeff Bouthiette, Spenser Davis, Rory Jobst, Jillian Leff, Francesca Peppiatt and Sean Margaret Wagner.