THE PIANO UPSTAIRS

by John Weidman

from an idea by Alessandra Ferri

director Giorgio Ferrara
choreography Alessandra Ferri

set design Gianni Quaranta

costume design Luisa Spinatelli
lighting design Daniele Nannuzzi

music coordinator Arthur Solari

understudy Jesse Campbell

stage material Tecnoscena srl
We thank The Jerome Robbins Foundation & The Robbins Rights Trust, Judith Hoffman, Margo and Allen London for their invaluable support to the project in the United States and to Angelo Fabbrini Pianoforti - Pescara for the support.

production Spoleto56 Festival of 2Worlds

Alessandra Ferri is considered to be one of the most important dramatic ballerinas of our times. Born in Milan, she began her training at the school of Teatro alla Scala and then attended the Royal Ballet School in London. In 1980, Ferri won the prestigious Prix de Lausanne and joined the Royal Ballet that same year. In 1983, she rose to prominence when Sir Kenneth MacMillan selected the 19-year-old dancer for leading roles in his ballets Romeo and Juliet, Manon and Mayerling becoming Principals dancer of the company. He went on to choreograph a number of roles for Ferri. In 1985, Mikhail Baryshnikov invited Ms. Ferri to join American Ballet Theatre where she danced as a principal until 2007. Ferri appeared as principal dancer with Teatro alla Scala from 1992 until 2007. In addition, she performed with most of the leading international ballet companies including the Ballet National de l’Opéra de Paris and The Royal Ballet, and performed in the most important theatres around the world. Ms. Ferri has worked with many of the great choreographers of our time including Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Jerome Robbins, Roland Petit, Jiri Kylian, John Neumeier, Billy Forsythe and Twyla Tharp. Some of her most celebrated roles include Giselle, Juliet, Manon and Carmen. Ms. Ferri has received numerous prestigious international awards including the Sir Lawrence Olivier Award, the Dance Magazine Award, the Benois de la Danse Prix and the Cavaliere della Repubblica Honoris, awarded to her by the President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. She has appeared in a number of short films including Carmen and Prelude in which she collaborated with Sting. In addition to her work in dance, Ms. Ferri appeared in a production of the Jean Cocteau play La Voix Humaine at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan. Ms. Ferri retired from the ballet stage in 2007. Since 2008 she has been the Director of Dance Programming at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, where she has presented companies such as Pina Bausch Tanztheaer Wuppertal, Hamburg Ballet_John Neumeier and Mark Morris Dance Company. The Piano Upstairs marks Ms. Ferri return on stage.

John Weidman has written the books for a wide variety of musicals both on and off Broadway, among them Pacific Overtures, Assassins and Road Show, all with scores by Stephen Sondheim; Contact, co-created with director/choreographer Susan Stroman; Happiness, score by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie, directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman; Take Flight and Big, scores by Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire; and the new book, co-authored with Timothy Crouse, for the Lincoln Center Theater and Roundabout Theater revivals of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, a new production of which won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical in 2012. From 1999 to 2009 he served as President of the Dramatists Guild of America.

Boyd Gaines most recently co-starred in the Australian production of Driving Miss Daisy,opposite Angela Lansbury and James Earl Jones. Prior to that he was seen on Broadway in the Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of Enemy Of The People and The Columnist ,with John Lithgow. He performed opposite James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave in the Broadway and West End productions of Driving Miss Daisy. Additional credits include The Grand Manner (Drama Desk nomination), and on Broadway with Patti LuPone in Gypsy for which he received his fourth Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination. Other: Broadway: Pygmalion, Gypsy (City Centers Encore), Journeys End (Tony Nominee, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award), Twelve Angry Men, Contact (Tony Award, Lucille Lortel Awards), Cabaret, The Show Off, She Loves Me (Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award), Company, The Heidi Chronicles (Tony Award). Off-Broadway: Bach at Leipzig, Major Barbara, The Shawl, Comedy of Errors, The Extra Man, The Maderati, Winter’s Tale, Barbarians, A Month in the Country (Theatre World Award). Regional: George Street, Williamstown, Westport Playhouse, Yale Rep, Center Stage, Long Wharf, Guthrie, Kennedy Center. Film: Funny Games, Lovely by Surprise, Second Best, I’m Not Rappaport, Heartbreak Ridge, The Sure Thing, Porkys, Fame. TV: The Good Wife, Angela’s Eyes, The Confession, Piece of Cake, One Day at a Time, L.A. Law, Frasier, Law and Order. Training: Juilliard.

A film and theatre director, Giorgio Ferrara was born in Rome. He started working as Assistant Director to Luca Ronconi and Luchino Visconti whom he worked with at length. For the big screen he has directed: Un cuore semplice, screenplay by Cesare Zavattini, based upon a short story by Gustave Flaubert, and winner of a David of Donatello, and the prizes Premio Rizzoli, Premio Saint Vincent and Nastro d’argento; Caccia alla Vedova, screenplay by Enrico Medioli from the Vedova scaltra by Goldoni; Tosca e altre due by Franca Valeri, screenplay by Enrico Medioli. For the theater he has staged several plays by classical and contemporary playwrights as Pirandello, Strindberg, Goldoni Carlo Bernari, Francesca Sanvitale, Enzo Siciliano, Franca Valeri, Cesare Musatti, Natalia Ginzburg and Corrado Augias. For the Festival dei Due Mondi di Spoleto in 2010 he staged the opera Gogo no eiko by Hanz Werner Henze and in 2011 the comic opera Amelia al ballo by Gian Carlo Menotti. In 2012 he staged Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome. He was the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Paris and President of the Forum des Instituts Cultules étrangers in Paris (2003-2007). From 2008 to 2012 he was the President and Artistic Director of the Foundation Festival dei Due Mondi di Spoleto. Currently he holds the position of Artistic Director.

An Oscar winning Production Designer in 1986 for the film A Room with a View, by James Ivory, Gianni Quaranta has enjoyed a long and esteemed career as production designer and set designer in the worlds of cinema and theatre, both lyrical and prose, in advertising and creative project development for various artistic exhibitions. Graduating with honors in Set Design from the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, in Milan, his professional career undertook a course that has since seemed unstoppable. He designing sets for great repertory operas for the most prestigious theatres in Italy and around the world, including La Scala in Milan, La Fenice in Venice, Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Teatro Regio in Turin, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Teatro Politeama in Palermo, Théâtre National de l’Opéra in Paris, the Grand Théâtre in Geneva, the Staatsoper in Vienna, Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, The Dallas Opera House, the Philadelphia Opera Company, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Royal Opera House in Muscat and the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. In 2010 this led to him designing of the first ever theatrical set for the lyrical opera Gogo no eiko, with music by Hans Werner Henze, which opened at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto. In 2012, he has been committed with Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini, for the Roma Opera Theatre, as well with The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten, for the opening of the Festival of 2Worlds in Spoleto. In his cinematic career, for the film Brother Sun, Sister Moon by Zeffirelli, he has received the first of three Oscar nominations for the production design. Highly regarded in both Europe and America, he works amongst the most illustrious directors in the world. For his production design in the film 900, by Bertolucci, he was awarded the first of four "Quality Awards" he has received to date. Following Jesus of Nazareth by Zeffirelli – where in addition to creating the sets he also designed the furnishings – he was awarded his first of two "Nastri d’Argento" (Silver Ribbons awards). In 1995, he was awarded the French Cesar for best production design in the film Farinelli, by Gerard Corbiau. Among the most prestigious awards, from England he has received two Bafta. For his great contribution to improve the international reputation for the arts of our Country, he has received the title of Commander of the Italian Republic. Furthermore, in 2011 he has received the accolade Credo ad Astram, for his contribution to the worldwide culture.

Born in Rome in 1949, he is soon fascinated by the profession of his father, Armando, and in 1966 he begins working as his assistant in the film Incompreso by Luigi Comencini. After having worked with the greatest directors of the moment, in 1972 he shoots his first movie as cameraman, Appassionata, produced by Tonino Cervi. He flanks directors of photography such as Giuseppe Rotunno, Pasqualino De Santis, Ennio Guarnieri, Franco di Giacomo, David Watkins, Alex Thompson and in 1976 he photographs and directs the second unit of Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth, with whom he will also work at Il giovane Toscanini and Toscana, the two film-operas Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, winning two Emmy Awards, and in the very recent Omaggio a Roma. In just one day, he works for Italy 1990 with Zeffirelli on the commercial Calcio Fiorentino, using ten cameras located in the historic center of Florence simultaneously. In the 90s he directed and did the lighting of the high fashion shows for the Maison Valentino in Rome in Piazza Mignanelli. In 1997 he achieves great success with the public by working on the artistic conception, lighting and choice of music for the great Bakers of Rome feast in Piazza Navona, directing, for seven days consecutively, a spectacle of sound and lights live and telling the history of the square accompanied by Respighi’s music. He has worked with directors such as Lizzani, Brass, Jodorowski, Bondarciuck, Cervi, Bolognini, London, the brothers Frazzi, Oldoini, Negrin, up to the magical meeting with Monteleone, director of El Alamein; the film received the David di Donatello, the Globo d’Oro, the Award Gianni of Venanzo, the nomination for the Nastro d’Argento 2003. In 2004 he worked on the photography for Empire, a saga about Ancient Rome produced by Touchstone and Disney, working with the three American directors Kim Manners, John Gray, Greg Yaitanes and achieving widespread success in the American press. With the Frazzi brothers he works on Giovanni Falcone, then with Monteleone again on Due partite, Il tunnel della libertà, Il capo dei capi. In 2011 in St. Petersburg, together with the great Russian choreographer Boris Eifman, he makes the film versions of the ballets Anna Karenina and Onegin, committed to the directing and cinematography. In 2012, director Giorgio Ferrara entrusts him with the lighting design for Madama Butterfly at the Teatro dell’Opera of Rome and the opera The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto. With Iranian director Babak Payami he has just finished shooting in Canada the film Manhattan Undying.