Emanuele Aldrovandi's BUTTERFLIES Is In Scena's 2016 Mario Fratti Award Winner

IN SCENA! ITALIAN THEATER FESTIVAL NY announces the winner of the 2016 Mario Fratti Award: BUTTERFLIES by Emanuele Aldrovandi. Presented annually to an emerging Italian playwright, the winning play is translated into English and the playwright receives a specially commissioned lithograph by artist Victoria Febrer.

The award is named after Mario Fratti, the internationally acclaimed playwright and drama critic best known as a book writer on the Tony and Drama Desk Award winning musical Nine. The play will be translated into English by Carlotta Brentan, the official translator of the Mario Fratti Award.

An award ceremony and reading of the play will take place at the Italian Cultural Institute (686 Park Ave, Manhattan, NY 10021) on May 16 at 6pm. Admission is free, no advance reservation is required.

BUTTERFLIES is about two sisters whose favorite pastime is a dangerous game: whoever holds the butterfly hairpin can ask the other one to do anything. Inspired by some of Pirandello's short stories, BUTTERFLIES is a tale of personal growth and sisterly love in which self-discovery is not always accompanied by greater understanding of the other person.

The jury, comprised of six Italian theater professionals (including Fratti himself), chose BUTTERFLIES because it employs theatrical language in a clear way, building an original play with a refined technique and an unpredictable, almost mysterious structure. The characters are polished and their direct and effective dialogue makes the play universal and touching. It lends itself perfectly to being translated into English.

Emanuele Aldrovandi started writing when he was a student at the Civica Scuola di Teatro Paolo Grassi in Milan. He has written several original plays and adaptations and has received renowned playwriting awards in Italy and abroad. Among the most prestigious, he won the important Premio Hystrio Scritture di Scena 2015 with the play Farfalle (Butterflies) and he was selected by the "Festival de dramaturgia sobre la crisi PIIGS" in Barcelona with his play Scusate se non siamo morti in mare (translated in Catalan as Balenes) and as an Italian author for the project "Fabulamundi Europe".

IN SCENA! ITALIAN THEATER FESTIVAL NY will offer 5 fully-staged productions from Italy, among other events and activities in venues throughout New York from May 2-16, 2016. All are presented in Italian and English or with English supertitles, curated by Kairos Italy Theater in collaboration with Montclair State University. For more details - including a complete calendar of performances -- and tickets visit www.inscenany.com or call 646-850-7056.