Students Take Part in Production of "Hurried Steps" by Dacia Maraini

From left: Riley Callaway, Matthew Marotta, Dacia Maraini, Daniel Connelly, Helena Fitzgerald, Jessica Lucey, and Bobby Fitzpatrick

JCU students Riley Callaway and Helena Fitzgerald joined three other student interns from Harvard University in the production of Dacia Maraini’s play “Passi affrettati” (‘Hurried Steps’) last August in the Abruzzo region of Italy. The show was part of this year’s edition of the Teatro di Gioia (Theater of Joy), which brings together people who embrace Maraini’s firm belief that theater remains one of the few non-virtual places where people can still meet face-to-face, and where the written word meets the spoken word, a place where the greater problems of society are measured against daily life.

Here is Riley’s enthusiastic account of the experience:
In June, I agreed to follow English Literature and Theater professor Daniel Roy Connelly and fellow student Helena Fitzgerald to Abruzzo, a region in central Italy east of Rome. By August, the only other information I had acquired about the trip was that it would last ten days, I would be participating as a native English speaking female in the first ever English translated reading of Dacia Maraini’s script titled “Hurried Steps,” and it would cost me close to nothing as all accommodation expenses would be paid for by one of the sponsors of the “Teatro di Gioia”. I later found out that Italian Studies Professor James Schwarten was the individual responsible for making this trip possible for all of us.

Once we arrived in Pescasseroli, our town of accommodation, we met three more characters who would add to the antics of our adventure: Matthew Marotta, Bobby Fitzpatrick, and Jessica Lucey. We spent the next ten days with these Harvard interns laughing hysterically and diligently working on the script. In between the practices and large meals, we also partook in festival activities performed outside against the spectacular mountainous landscape of the region, and even shared dessert with Dacia Maraini herself.

How many college students can tell a story like this? Professors like Dr. Connelly and Dr. Schwarten are the reasons I chose to have my undergraduate experience at John Cabot University. Coming to John Cabot and studying with these professors is, by far, the best choice I have ever made in my entire life!