TEATRO DEL DISÌO is an Italian theatre company founded in 2011 by Valerio Vittorio Garaffa and Chiara Cimmino. The company was born out of a sense of urgency to create a distinct and personal voice connected to the past and directed at the future.
Drawing from the most effective European theatrical techniques and modern relational psychoanalysis, Teatro del Disìo brings their Relational Acting Technique to different parts of world (Italy, Canada, USA) - their mission is to give actors more tools, to make them shed their inhibitions on stage to, ultimately, deliver extraordinary performances.
In 2013, Teatro del Disìo’s production of Cymbeline was selected for the 9th edition of the Festival dell’Incanto (Roddi, Italy). In 2015, the company’s Interplanet received the Premio Mazzella, a national award for best playwriting in Italian youth theatre.
In 2016, Teatro del Disìo began a fruitful collaboration with several Canadian institutions including McGill University, Concordia University, Université du Québec à Montréal and Université de Montréal.
The company offers classes and workshops on Commedia dell’arte and masks, the “mimic method” (a famous acting technique developed by Maestro Orazio Costa), acting and Italian diction for opera singers, Greek tragedy and Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Valerio Vittorio Garaffa
is a theatre director, an actor and an acting teacher. After his graduation from the prestigious Paolo Grassi Acting School (Milan, Italy), he was selected to work with Maestro Luca Ronconi at the illustrious ‘Centro Teatrale Santa Cristina’. He studied Italian Poetry and Lectura Dantis with Paolo Giuranna and he focused on Maestro Orazio Costa's 'Metodo Mimico' with Alessandra Niccolini. He acted in “Odissea, doppio ritorno” (B. Strauss) directed by Luca Ronconi, “Benvenuti in California” (F. Angeli) directed by Marco Plini, "A midsummer night's dream" (W. Shakespeare) directed by Alessandro Fabrizi, and other shows. He directed “Oscillazioni” (Vitaliano Trevisan), "Cymbeline" (W. Shakespeare), "Bacchae" (Euripides), "Don Quixote". In 2015, after having led his students in writing the play "Interplanet" and then having directed it on stage, he was awarded First Prize in the prestigious "Premio Mazzella", the Italian National Award for Best Writing in Schools. Since 2011, he and his collaborator Chiara Cimmino Sander have held acting classes and theatre workshops.
Chiara Cimmino Sander
is an actress and an acting teacher. Upon graduating from the prestigious Paolo Grassi Acting School (Milan, Italy), she quickly began to work in Film (as "The Great Dream", Michele Placido), TV (as "Rossella", RAI TV movie) and Theatre (classic theatre as Goldoni, Ostrovskij, Muller, Cechov, Marivaux, Shakespeare; contemporary theatre, comedies and children theatre). In 2005 she received a honorable mention as 'Best Actress in a Supporting Role' during Palio Teatrale, the theater competition in Chiavari (Italy); in 2007 she acted in“King Ubu" (A. Jarry), directed by L. Facchinelli, that was awarded in international theater festival 'Fantasio Piccoli' (Trento, Italy); she played the lead role of N. Gharbi's movie “Rimbalzello”, that won the Special Jury Prize at the 2014 Maazzeni Film Festival (Sicily, Italy). Since 2011, she and her collaborator Valerio Vittorio Garaffa have held acting classes and theatre workshops.