Practical Introduction to Orazio Costa's Mimic Method

Orazio Costa Giovangigli was one of the leading directors of the late 20th century and the main proponent of European-style theater pedagogy in Italy. From his early years of teaching at the Academy, Costa began experimenting with his Mimic Method, which over the years has trained the leading interpreters of the Italian stage. The Mimic Method, drawing on European reflections on the actor and particularly the insights of Jacques Copeau, is based on awakening and refining the innate mimetic abilities of the body and extending this to voice training. This method represents the only systematic pedagogical framework developed in Italy aimed at stage performers. Originally designed for actor training, the Mimic Method was later extended by Costa to the broader fields of expression and creativity.

Marco Giorgetti

Student and personal secretary of Orazio Costa, he is currently the General Director of the Teatro Nazionale della Toscana, which he founded. He is also a theater professor at the University of Florence, a Commendatore della Repubblica, and an Honorary Academician of the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence. Between 1979 and 1994, he performed in theater, cinema, and television, and worked as a director with various companies and nationally renowned theaters. He also organized and managed different institutions and festivals. As an author, he has won several awards. In Florence, he became the Director of the Teatro della Pergola in 1999 and later the President of Firenze dei Teatri. In 2003, he directed the Les Italiens Festival in Paris with Maurizio Scaparro to mark Italy's Presidency of the European Union. In 2004, he led the Ente Teatrale Italiano, which oversees the national theaters of Italy.

Pier Paolo Pacini

Pier Paolo Pacini, a student of Orazio Costa Giovangigli, was deeply involved in theatrical work during the 1980s as a dramatic actor, taking on leading and supporting roles in plays by Sophocles, Ariosto, Molière, Racine, Chekhov, Ibsen, and Miller.

During this time, he collaborated with Orazio Costa as an assistant and contributed to the development of a project aimed at establishing an Institute for the Unification of Artistic Pedagogies.

At the end of the 1980s, following Costa's advice, he shifted his focus from acting to directing. He worked extensively with Piero Faggioni and other renowned directors, including Julie Taymor, Luc Bondy, Robert Wilson, and Lev Dodin. He made his debut as an opera director in 1997 and went on to direct numerous productions in Italy and abroad. In the realm of drama, he chose to focus primarily on contemporary works, especially in France and London.

Since 2015, he has been with the Fondazione Teatro della Toscana as the head of training and director of the Centro di Avviamento all’Espressione and the “Orazio Costa” actor training course, where he also serves as a teacher. For the Foundation, he has directed productions based on the principles of Costa’s theatrical pedagogical methodology.

Marcello Prayer

Marcello Prayer was born in Bari on February 11, 1965. In 1988, he graduated from the School of Expression and Interpretation founded by Orazio Costa Giovangigli at the Teatro Pubblico Pugliese in Bari. That same year, under Giovangigli's supervision and Manzari's direction, he  participated in the production of "Murder in the Cathedral" by T.S. Eliot. The following year, he took part in "The Hidden Man," a scenic action in  commemoration of Socrates, curated by O. Costa. 

He has performed in classical texts in theater, such as the "Iliad," "Romeo and Juliet," and "Beauty and the Beast" (with the Teatro del Carretto of Lucca), "Richard III," "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" (the latter at the National Academy of  Dramatic Art Silvio D’Amico in Rome, directed by Orazio Costa Giovangigli), by W. Shakespeare; "Eugene  Onegin" by Prokofiev (from Pushkin), a dramatic poem for actors and orchestra op. 71, dramaturgy and  direction by Luciano Alberti; "The Plato of Casilina" based on texts by Plato and Pasolini, dramaturgy and  direction by Gianni Cascone. He also participated in the project "Dante – Divine Comedy. For a Theater of  Poetry" directed by Federico Tiezzi at the Teatro Metastasio in Prato. 

He has been a teacher of the Mimic Method at the Centro d’Avviamento all’Espressione/Gruppo MIM in  Florence directed by Orazio Costa Giovangigli, often collaborating with the National Academy of Dramatic Art  Silvio D’Amico in Rome. In Rome in 2004, he taught the Mimic Method at Cinecittà Campus. In 2000, he co founded the Cultural Association Movimento Ultimo in Pesaro with Pietro Conversano and Lucia Ferrati. 

Since 2003, he has been the artistic director of the theater school Officina – Teatro del Banchero in Taggia  (Imperia), where he also works as a director. During the 2009/2010 period, he was the artistic director of the  theater section at the Academy "l’Arte nel cuore" in Rome. From 2015/16, he has been a teacher of Mimic  Choir in Florence at the Teatro della Pergola – actor training course “Orazio Costa”. 

In the 2011/2012 season, he was part of the theatrical project, co-produced by the Teatro Stabile di Torino and  the Teatro Stabile di Roma, "The Coast of Utopia" by Tom Stoppard, directed by Marco Tullio Giordana. In the  following seasons, he participated in two theatrical projects by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti: "The War of  Kurukshetra" (from the Mahabharata) and "Gospodin" (by Philipp Lohle); a monologue project on Gesualdo da  Venosa - "In Flagrante Delicto – Gesualdo da Venosa, Prince of Musicians" – by Roberto Aldorasi based on a  text by Francesco Niccolini. 

He has long been dedicated, alongside Alessio Boni, to Italian poetry, creating poetic dramaturgies for two  voices, leading to the debut of "The Duelists" from J. Conrad at the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds in 2015.  From this experience, with the production of Teatro Nuovo, the projects "Don Quixote" (2019) and "Iliad – The  Game of the Gods," in collaboration with dramaturgy and direction by Francesco Niccolini, Roberto Aldorasi,  and Boni himself, were born. 

In film and television productions, he has worked with Marco Tullio Giordana in "The Best of Youth" (2003),  "When You’re Born You Can No Longer Hide," and "Piazza Fontana: The Italian Conspiracy," with Andrea  Porporati in "The Sweet and the Bitter," "The Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa" directed by Fabrizio Costa, in  "The Distinguished Citizen" by Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn, "Galantuomini" directed by Edoardo  Winspeare, "Our Messiah" directed by Claudio Serughetti, "Shooting Silvio" directed by Berardo Carboni,  "Jesus von Assisi" directed by Friedrich Kluetsch, "The Last Crodino" directed by Umberto Spinazzola,  "Feisbum" film in 8 episodes based on an idea by Marco Scaffardi and Serafino Murri, "The Summer of  Martino" directed by Massimo Natale, "The Ideal City" directed by Luigi Lo Cascio, "Controra" directed by  Rossella De Venuto, "Sonderkommando" (short film winner of “Nastro d’Argento 2015”) directed by Nicola  Ragone, "Pericle the Black" directed by Stefano Mordini, "Where’s Mario?" by and with Corrado Guzzanti - directed by Edoardo Gabriellini, "Caravaggio’s Shadow" directed by Michele Placido, "On the Edge" directed by  Vincenzo Alfieri, and "The Fenoglio Method" directed by Alessandro Casale.

Event in English

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