Calabria in the heart. Peppino Mazzotta, actor and director, won the “Le maschere del teatro italiano” Award in the section reserved for the best interpreter of a monologue. The artist, originally from Domanico (Cosenza), was chosen over Umberto Orsini and Luigi Lo Cascio for his interpretation in the work “Radio Argo Suite” of which he is the director, produced by the company “Teatro Rossosimona” of Rende, led by Lindo Nudo on a text written by the Neapolitan playwright Igor Esposito.
Mazzotta dedicated the victory to his mother, Iolanda Provenzano, who passed away a few months ago. “I dedicate this award to my mother who was very close to missing out on this evening… maybe she’s seeing it from some unknown point of view. My mother is on stage with me in this show, because it’s a show that talks about mothers, children, and even war because it tells of the most famous conflict fought in antiquity, the one that broke out between the Greeks and the Trojans. “Every night,” the actor added, “I do it in the hope that sooner or later humanity will free itself from the idea that conflicts must always be resolved with the violence of war.”
The awards ceremony held in the historic Teatro Argentina in Rome was presented by Tullio Solenghi. In the various sections, these are the awards assigned: for Best Direction to Peter Stein; for Best Prose Show to Gabriele Lavia with “Come tremano le cose riflesse nell’acqua”; for Theater to Maria Paiato for “Boston Marriage”.
The awards for best supporting actors went to Giovanni Crippa for “De Gasperi: Europe Burns” and Manuela Mandracchia for “August in Osage County”. The recognition for best emerging actor went to Giovanni Cannata for his performance in “Come tremano le cose riflesse nell’acqua”; the awards for best set designers went to Marco Rossi and Francesca Sgariboldi for “L’albergo dei povero”; the award for best costume designer went to Marta Crisolini Malatesta for “Anna Karenina”; the award for best music went to Giovanni Sollima from Palermo for “Aiace” while the award for best author of a new Italian work went to Angela Demattè for “De Gasperi: Europe Burns”. Finally, the award for best lighting went to Gaeta La Mela from Adrano (Catania) for “Esercizi di stile”.
The Award, which has reached its twenty-first edition, is considered of great importance in the Italian theatre world.
Returning to Peppino Mazzotta, it is worth remembering that he was the co-star of the series “Il commissario Montalbano” together with Luca Zingaretti in the role of Inspector Fazio. The artistic circumstance made him known to the general public even if Mazzotta in recent years has been busy in cinema, on TV and in the theater with many other important projects.