Biography
The first time the Consul General in Nice asked me to teach theatre at the International School (CIV) I refused. I had no teaching experience and though my degree in Scenography (from the Academy in Florence) involves the theatre it has little to do with the acting part. However, he was rather desperate to find someone and I accepted on a temporary basis. There are many acting workshops in France, so I would take what I learned directly to my classes and that way managed quite well.
That was thirty-seven years ago. I enjoyed the company of my students and realized how much the performing arts was beneficial to them. Besides being an excellent learning tool, it provides youth the self-confidence needed to achieve one’s goals.
I stayed five years at CIV, taught in community centers, worked in a mental institution for women, with Down Syndrome youth, in HLM with a predominantly Algerian population, and with Shi'ite students from South Lebanon followers of HAMAS. During those years I studied Arabic and the history of Islam, and held a workshop in a mosque on calligraphy as an art form.
In San Francisco I directed plays by Moliere, Boris Vian and Dario Fo, taught French theatre in Berkeley and experimental theatre at the Rockridge Library in Oakland. Nine years in the Mississippi Delta, where I started the Blanche Kelso Bruce Foundation and taught as a specialist in public schools. In Hong Kong I was project manager at the Hong Kong Young Artists Academy, where I wrote and illustrated stories to fit the Chinese curriculum, and made hand puppets for each character.
One of my objectives was to introduce the Classics, starting with Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex (arguably the world’s first detective story) and Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, where students improvised the scenes. The difference in interpretation depending on the cultural background of the class was noteworthy.
