Maria Cassi
Maria started to perform as a child, imitating her relatives and organising funny performances for her schoolmates. Back then, everybody laughed their heads off as it still happens today every time she sets foot on a stage.
Born in Florence but with a traveller’s heart, she performed in Los Angeles, New York, Prague, Amsterdam, Bucharest, Tokyo and Paris, which almost became her second home.
Some of her masters and models are also French: the actor Jacques Lecoq, the clown Pierre Byland, Marcel Proust and Jacques Tati. Moreover, the French audience is to be counted among those that most revere and praise Maria: in 2009 the performance of “Crepapelle” at the Théâtre du Rond Point in Paris hit the news, Le Monde published two special reviews and Le Figaro mentioned it among the most successful theatre performances of the season in Paris.
“Crepapelle”, written and performed by Maria, reaches the Carrie Hamilton Theatre – Pasadena Playhouse in Los Angeles, after Peter Schneider, a Disney Producers, attends the show for the first time in the Teatro del Sale.
His meeting with Maria later led to the birth of a new creature, a sort of anthology of all the characters, masks and clowns brought on stage by the actress until that moment. “My life with men and other animals”, directed by Schneider himself, with Maria Cassi featuring both as actress and co-author, together with Patrick Pacheco, was staged in march 2012 in New York and represents a real milestone for the international achievements of the Florentine artist.
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