Michele Monetta

Director, actor and teacher of corporeal mime (Decroux technique), mask and commedia dell’arte, specialised in theatre pedagogy.

Student of mime master Etienne Decroux
Michele Monetta teaches mask and corporeal mime at the Italian National Academy of Dramatic Art Silvio d’Amico in Rome. He teaches acting and commedia dell’arte at choreographer Maurice Béjart’s École-Atelier Rudra dance school in Lausanne, Switzerland. He also teaches dramatic movement education at the theatre school of the Teatro Nazionale di Napoli in Naples.

From 2013 to 2016 he was a member of the Academic Council of the Italian National Academy of Dramatic Art Silvio d’Amico in Rome.

Michele’s studies in the figurative arts and later in architecture at the University of Naples Federico II, sparked a special interest in set design and in the study of the body and movement in space. Following years of training in diction, clown and pantomime at the MimoTeatroMovimento theatre school, he moved to Paris where, for almost three years, he studied corporeal mime with French master Etienne Decroux.
While in Paris, he also trained in corporeal mime at the École de Mime Corporel Dramatique de Paris with master teachers Steve Wasson and Corinne Soum and in dance, balancing and clowning at the École National du Cirque Fratellini.

Since 1976 he has been working as director, actor, mime artist and choreographer in theatre productions based on texts by Goldoni, Gozzi, Piron, Beckett, Rodari, Lorca, Rilke, Petrolini, Compagnone, Artaud, Scabia and Mayakovski, as well as in operas by Stravinsky, Rossini, Offenbach, Mozart, Cimarosa, Paisiello, Jommelli, Donizetti, Pergolesi, Monteverdi, Lucchetti and Banchieri.

In the 1990s he trained in theatre pedagogy with Monika Pagneux.

He also worked with the following stage directors: Vera Bertinetti, Giacomo Battiato, Giancarlo Cobelli, Ruggero Cappuccio, Ugo Gregoretti, Peter Clough, Ken Rea, Dino Partesano, Constantin Costa-Gavras, Mariano Rigillo, Lorenzo Salveti, and with musicians, Salvatore Accardo, Riccardo Muti and Roberto De Simone.

He has also collaborated as director with the Education Department of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. He worked as stage movement director, mime artist and stage director at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Teatro Comunale of Bologna, Teatro Vittorio Emanuele opera house in Messina, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Teatro Sociale opera house in Rovigo, Teatro Francesco Stabile in Potenza, the Teatro dell’Aquila opera house in Fermo, the Yusupov Theatre in St. Petersburg, the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto and the National Theatre of Strasbourg.

Since 1991 he has been collaborating with Professor Marco De Marinis and the Department of Arts of the University of Bologna to lead seminars, workshops, video and discussion sessions and conferences. He has also led corporeal mime workshops in Eugenio Barba’s Eurasian Theatre study sessions.

He has worked as director, actor and teacher in Italy, France, Switzerland, Hungary Poland, Russia, Greece, Spain, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Belgium, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Since 1999, he is co-founder and co-artistic director of the International Centre for Research on the Actor.

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