Faction of Fools Theater Company Comedians to Create New Works in One Day

Faction of Fools Theater Company's finest comedians come together for a single day to create a rollicking comedy. TALES OF WAR AND PIZZA is the seventh in the popular "Fool for All" series, an annual one-night only benefit performance to raise funds for the company's unique Commedia dell'Arte productions and educational programs. While the performance revolves around the creativity and flexibility of the actor-creators, the reception before and after the show provides a space for the audience to meet the actors, discuss Commedia dell'Arte, and learn about the creative process.

7th Annual "Fool for All": TALES OF WAR AND PIZZA is an unrepeatable, unpredictable and hilarious theatrical event. Actors skilled in Commedia dell'Arte arrive at 9am to devise four plays packed with slapsticks, acrobatics, masks, crossed swords, and tossed toppings. Like the Commedia troupes in 16th century Italy, the actors have only their masks, their training and the audience's reactions. The curtain goes up at 7:00pm, revealing a play with no fourth wall, no script, and no boundaries.

Critics have called the "Fool for All" "witty and intelligent," praised its "awesome feats of physical comedy," and declared it "thoroughly enjoyable and light-hearted." This annual tradition began in 2010, with the hit Tales of Love and Sausages, followed by Tales of Courage and Poultry, Tales of Marriage and Mozzarella - a production known for including a real live wedding - Tales of Honor and Anchovies, Tales of Heroes and Gyros, and last year's Tales of Nookie and Gnocchi. In six years, the "Fool for All" has involved over one hundred DC actors and theatre artists.

Faction of Fools is DC's only theater company devoted to Commedia dell'Arte. Their next production, Moliere's The Miser, shows the French playwright's deep indebtedness to Commedia, his playful, lightning-fast dialogue perfectly complementing the Fools' signature high-energy physical style. Performances are June 2nd - 26th in the Eastman Studio Theatre at Gallaudet University. The Fools are the Helen Hayes Awards recipient of the 2012 John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company.

Commedia dell'Arte (translation: "Theatre of the Professional") began in the 1500s when Italian performers legally incorporated to form the world's first "theatre companies" and began to tour their shows throughout Europe. Their work had a lasting influence on artists as diverse as Shakespeare, Mozart, the Marx Brothers, and the creators of Saturday Night Live and contemporary sit-coms. In addition to establishing Western professional theatre, Commedia dell'Arte is remembered today for its masks, broad physical style, improvisation, and famous archetypal characters such as Arlecchino (Harlequin), Pulcinella (Punch), il Dottore (the professor), and Pantalone (the pantaloon), as well as a host of boasting war heroes and passionate young lovers.

Like the entrepreneurial Commedia troupes in 16th century Italy, the "Fool for All" performers depend on the strength of their training and their ensemble to create high-octane physical comedy. The "Fool for All" is a benefit event and admission is by donation. Proceeds will support Faction of Fools' initiatives to preserve and promote Commedia dell'Arte in DC and around the world.

For more information visit http://www.factionoffools.org/towap

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