CABOT VOYAGES (fwd)

[Shemina Keshvani]

MEDIA RELEASE *  MEDIA RELEASE *  MEDEA RELEASE *  MEDIA RELEASE
________________________________________________________________
                                                
Media Contact:
Shemina Keshvani                        For Immediate Release
(416) 968-1942                                  July 31, 1997

                              
                              
           TORONTO PLAY WINS TWO ACTING AWARDS AT
      THE INTERNATIONAL DRAMA FESTIVAL IN NEWFOUNDLAND:
                              
                THE CAMPIELLO PLAYERS PRESENT
                      The Cabot Voyages
             WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY MARK CEOLIN
                              
                              
The  Campiello Players present the Toronto premiere  of  The
Cabot  Voyages: a play that challenges what it means  to  be
Canadian!  The  Cabot Voyages stars Gian Giacomo  Colli  and
Maddalena  Ischiale whose outstanding performances  won  two
acting  awards  at  the play’s world premiere  at  the  1997
International Drama Festival in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

     “A trained and innovative theatrical mind at work!”
            Gordon Jones, The Evening Telegram, St. John’s.

Writer/Director Mark Ceolin has extensively studied, trained
and  performed  in  Canada, Italy  and  Japan.  In  1993  he
directed  Carlo Goldoni’s 18th century play Il Campiello  at
the  Robert  Gill  Theatre in Toronto.  He  also  wrote  and
directed  Ritual  in Progress which premiered  at  Toronto’s
Festival of Original Theatre in 1996.

The   Cabot  Voyages  features  a  set  design  by   Toronto
architect, Karen Cvornyek, original music composed by  Dario
P.  Del  Degan and lighting design by Sharon Reid. The  play
also  features  performances by  Tammy  Chan,  Gian  Giacomo
Colli,  Tanya  d’Anger, Alana Hock, Maddalena  Ischiale  and
Michael Sullivan.
                              
   “Cvornyek’s set design is striking.... Michael Sullivan
  gives meaning to the words ‘a fine job’.” Melanie Porter,
                   Stagehead, St. John’s.

The  Cabot Voyages, a comedy in three acts, focuses  on  the
lives  of  Caboto, his wife Mattea and their  children.  The
play  concentrates  on  Caboto’s arrival  in  Canada  as  an
achievement which initiates an unprecedented mass  migration
of  culturally  diverse  peoples. Caboto  thus  becomes,  by
definition, the first and quintessential Canadian immigrant,
claiming a place in a new and foreign land. Using a  present
day mirror-image Caboto family, the play looks critically at
both the experiences of Canada’s first immigrant family--the
Cabotos--and  the  dilemmas facing the majority  of  today’s
Canadians  in the tension between their ancestral roots  and
adopted homeland.

In the spirit of Caboto’s voyage the play is presented as  a
cross-Atlantic collaboration between the Canadian  Campiello
Players  and the Italian acting company Attori in Corso.  It
also  uses, in part, characterizations derived from Commedia
Dell’Arte traditions. Commedia Dell’Arte, popular in  Europe
from the 16th century through the 18th century, is a form of
physical comedy generally performed in a public square.

The  Cabot  Voyages opens at the Tarragon Theatre on  August
21st  and  runs through August 31st, with a PWYC preview  on
August  20. Ticket prices are $15 and $17, PWYC on  Sundays.
The  Campiello Players will be opening the Italian  Pavilion
at  the  Canadian National Exhibition on August 12th with  a
helicopter  landing by the Campiello Players’  own  Giovanni
Caboto!  They  will  also be featured at the  pavilion  from
August  15 to September 1, where they will perform a  series
of Commedia Dell’ Arte skits about Caboto.

      Tarragon Theatre - Extra Space, 30 Bridgman Ave.
          August 20 (preview), August 21 - 31, 1997
            Tues -  Saturday @ 8pm, Sun @ 2:30pm
  Ticket prices: Tues - Thurs $15, Fri - Sat $17, Sun PWYC
                 Box office: (416) 531-1827
 
                             -30-

*The Cabot Voyages has been brought to you by Centro Scuola e
Cultura Italiana, Columbus Centre, Toronto.
                              
*The Campiello Players would also like to thank Istituto
Italiano di Cultura and Alitalia for their kind support.