Tino Caspanello: Difference between revisions

 

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==Style and poetics==

==Style and poetics==

Caspanello’s writing frequently draws on the Sicilian landscape and its natural elements – the sea, the light, and the wind – which often appear as motifs connected to memory, distance, and the passage of time. Although rooted in a specific geographical and cultural context, his work addresses such themes as solitude, communication, and the search for meaning.<ref>{{cite web | title = [La dramaturgie de l’intime de Tino Caspanello] | url = https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/jeu/2014-n151-jeu01413/71841ac.pdf | website = Érudit | date = 2014 | access-date = 18 October 2025 | language = en}}</ref>

Caspanello’s writing frequently draws on the Sicilian landscape and its natural elements – the sea, the light, and the wind – which often appear as motifs connected to memory, distance, and the passage of time. Although rooted in a specific geographical and cultural context, his work addresses such themes as solitude, communication, and the search for meaning.<ref>{{cite web | title = [La dramaturgie de l’intime de Tino Caspanello] | url = https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/jeu/2014-n151-jeu01413/71841ac.pdf | website = Érudit | date = 2014 | access-date = 18 October 2025 | language = en}}</ref>

|title=Agon: Revue de la Société Internationale de Littérature Comparée

|url=https://journals.openedition.org/agon/1887

|website=OpenEdition Journals

|access-date=October 24, 2025

}}</ref>

His ”Polittico del silenzio”, comprising ”Kyrie”, ”Agnus”, and ”Ecce Homo”, treats his themes of silence and listening.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tino Caspanello. Il potere della parola e del silenzio |website=teatroecritica|date=27 September 2016 |url=https://www.teatroecritica.net/2016/09/tino-caspanello-il-potere-della-parola-e-il-silenzio/ |access-date=15 October 2025 |language=it}}</ref>

His ”Polittico del silenzio”, comprising ”Kyrie”, ”Agnus”, and ”Ecce Homo”, treats his themes of silence and listening.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tino Caspanello. Il potere della parola e del silenzio |website=teatroecritica|date=27 September 2016 |url=https://www.teatroecritica.net/2016/09/tino-caspanello-il-potere-della-parola-e-il-silenzio/ |access-date=15 October 2025 |language=it}}</ref>

Italian playwright, writer, director, and actor

Tino Caspanello
Tino Caspanello in 2018
Born	(1960-11-02) November 2, 1960 (age 64) Pagliara (Messina), Italy
Occupation(s)	Playwright, director and novelist

Agatino Caspanello^[1] (born November 2, 1960) is an Italian playwright, theater director and novelist.

Since founding the company Teatro Pubblico Incanto in 1993, Caspanello has written and staged plays in Italy and elsewhere. His theatrical works have earned him the Premio Riccione Teatro (Special Jury Prize, 2003) for his play Mari (The sea) ^[2].

Caspanello was born in Pagliara, Sicily. He graduated in scenography in 1983 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia.^[3]

In 1993 Caspanello founded the theatre company Teatro Pubblico Incanto, with which he stages his plays.

In 2003 his play Mari (The Sea) received the Special Jury Prize of the Premio Riccione Teatro, awarded for playwrighting.^[1] Mari (The Sea) was presented at the Santarcangelo dei Teatri Festival in 2004 ^[4];
translated into French by Frank and Bruno La Brasca, has been produced by the French companies Cie La Strada,^[5] La Lune Blanche,^[6] L’Instant avant l’Aube.^[7] Mari (The Sea) was later presented in Polish at the Bez Granic Festival in Cieszyn, Poland (June 2012),^[8]. In November 2016 Caspanello was at the University of Chicago Center at the University of Hong Kong to stage Mari (The Sea) with Cinzia Muscolino.^[9] In 2008 he directed Handscape, inspired by various blogs, which premiered at the Schauspielhaus in Graz, Austria.^[10]

In May 2011, together with other playwrights from Belgium, Turkey, Canada and Poland, Caspanello was a guest of the Troisième Bureau of Grenoble at the Festival Regards Croisés, during which Nta ll’aria (In the air) was presented in French. ^[11]

In 2021 his play Quadri di una rivoluzione (Pictures from a Revolution) was produced in Pristina, Kosovo, by the National Theatre of Kosovo.^[12] In 2023 the same play, translated into French by Christophe Mileschi, was staged in Paris by Artanso – Collectif Artistique at the Théâtre Le Funambule Montmartre.^[13]

In 2025 the play Orli (Bounds), translated in English by Haun Saussy, was staged at the City Garage Theater, in Santa Monica, California,^[14] in the same year the play Quadri di una rivoluzione (Pictures from a Revolution), translated in English by Haun Saussy, were staged at the Upstream Theater, in St. Louis, Missouri ^[15].

Between 2016 and 2020 Caspanello directed the project WRITE – International Playwriting Residency held in Mandanici (Messina, Italy), involving European playwrights.^[16]

In addition to writing, directing, and designing plays, Caspanello continues to dedicate himself to theatre education, leading drama workshops in various public and private institutions.^[17]

Caspanello has also written two novels published in Italy: Salvo (Napoli, Italy, Caracò Editore, 2016, ISBN 978-88-97567-92-9) is a short novel that explores themes of solitude, identity, and the relationship between the individual and the community, set against the background of a small Sicilian town;^[18] Santa, la guerra (Latina, Italy, Edizioni La Gru, 2022, ISBN 979-12-80204-34-9), combines elements of allegory and realism to address the impact of war and the persistence of hope in everyday life. Both works reflect Caspanello’s interest in silence, empathy, and the complexity of human communication.^[19][20]

Caspanello’s writing frequently draws on the Sicilian landscape and its natural elements – the sea, the light, and the wind – which often appear as motifs connected to memory, distance, and the passage of time. Although rooted in a specific geographical and cultural context, his work addresses such themes as solitude, communication, and the search for meaning.^{[21] [22]}

His Polittico del silenzio, comprising Kyrie, Agnus, and Ecce Homo, treats his themes of silence and listening.^[23]

• Non siamo qui, Teatro dei 3 mestieri, Messina, 2023 ^[24]
• Era ottobre, Teatro Clan off, Museo Regionale di Messina, 2023 ^[25]
• Bar Stella, Teatro dei 3 mestieri, Messina, 2019 ^[26]
• Quadri di una rivoluzione, Nuovo Teatro Sanità, Napoli, 2015 ^[27]
• Interno, Sala Laudano, Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, Messina, 2011 ^[28]
• Malastrada, Festival Teatro Civile, Vico sul Gargano (FG), 2008 ^[29]
• Nta ll’aria, Festival Primavera dei Teatri, Castrovillari (CS), 2007 ^[30]
• Mari, Festival Santarcangelo dei Teatri, Santarcangelo di Romagna (RN), 2004 ^[31][32]

Caspanello’s plays are collected in Italy in four volumes published by Editoria & Spettacolo.

• Sottotraccia, (the book contains the plays: Sottotraccia, Orli, Blues, Niño, Don’t cry Joe), Spoleto, Italy, publisher Editoria & Spettacolo, 2018, ISBN 978-88-97276-98-2.^[33]
• Polittico del silenzio,(the book contains the plays: Ecce Homo, Kyrie, Agnus), Spoleto, Italy, publisher Editoria & Spettacolo, 2016, ISBN 978-88-97276-63-0.^[34]
• Quadri di una rivoluzione di Tino Caspanello, (the book contains the plays: Quasi notte, Quadri di una rivoluzione, 1952 a Danilo Dolci, Terre, 1 – 2 p.m.), Spoleto, Italy, publisher Editoria & Spettacolo, 2013, ISBN 978-88-97276-45-6.
• Teatro di Tino Caspanello, (the book contains the plays: Mari, Nta ll’aria, Malastrada, Rosa, Interno, Sira, Fragile), Spoleto, Italy, publisher Editoria & Spettacolo, 2012, ISBN 978-88-97276-22-7.^[35]

His plays in translation are published in:

France

• Agnus, translated by Samuel Delerue, published on the album Silence, Paris, France, publisher L’écarquillé, 2023, ISBN 13: 978-2-901968-06-1
• Bords (Orli), translated by Antonella Capra and Stéphane Resche, anthology Frontières, Toulouse, France, publisher PUM Presses Universitaires du Midi, 2020, ISBN 978-2-8107-0699-0.
• Tableaux d’une révolution (Quadri di una rivoluzione), translated by Christophe Mileschi, Toulouse, France, publisher PUM Presses Universitaires du Midi, 2015, ISBN 978-2-8107-0357-9.
• A l’air libre (Nta ll’aria), translated by Julie Quénehen, Sain-Gely-du-Fesc, France, publisher Editions Espaces 34, 2012, ISBN 978-2-84705-090-5.
• Mer (Mari), translated by Bruno and Frank La Brasca, Sain-Gely-du-Fesc, France, publisher Editions Espaces 34, 2010, ISBN 978-2-84705-069-1.

Turkey

• Açik Havada (Nta ll’aria) and Ekim Ayı İdi (Era ottobre), translation by Senem Cevher, Istanbul, Turkey, publisher Mitos Boyut, 2025, ISBN 9786256794511
• SINISLAR (Orli), translated by Senem Cevher, Istanbul, Turkey, publisher Mitos Boyut, 2021, ISBN: 9789057904591.
• Devrimden Tablolar (Quadri di una rivoluzione) and Deniz (Mari), translated by Senem Cevher and Furkan Tekbıyık, Istanbul, Turkey, publisher Mitos Boyut, 2019, ISBN 9786057904355.

Belgium

• Santiago x, translated by Pietro Pizzuti, anthology Recueil Festival volume 3, Bruxelles, Belgium, publisher Les oiseaux de nuit, 2021, ISBN: 978-2931101438

USA

• Bounds (Orli), translated by Haun Saussy, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, publisher Laertes Books Acting Editions, 2020, ISBN 978-1-942281-18-4.

Kosovo

• Dy Drama, (the book contains Det (Mari) and Tablo të një revolucioni (Quadri di una rivoluzione), translated by Arben Idrizi, Prishtine, Kosovo, publisher Qendra Multimedia, 2018, ISBN 9789951651295.

• 2019 – Palmarès Eurodram, Albanian Committee of the Maison d’Europe et d’Orient in Paris for Mari (The sea).^[36]
• 2018 – Award of the National Association of Theatre Critics, Italy, for Write – Residence of international dramaturgy.^[37][38]
• 2014 – Palmarès Eurodram, Italian Committee of the Maison d’Europe et d’Orient in Paris for Quadri di una rivoluzione (Picture from a revolution).^[39]
• 2008 – Award of the National Association of Theatre Critics, Italy.^[40][41]
• 2003 – Special Prize of the Jury of Premio Riccione Teatro.^{[42] [43]}