Mario Mascitelli: Mastering the Stage and the Field

Il theater and it sport, a fascinating combination that brings to light surprising similarities. Both offer an exciting show, a journey through creativity, determination and discipline. In theater as in sport, there is a constant search for perfection, a total commitment to achieving set goals. He knows something about it Mario Mascitelli, actor, playwright, director but also baseball player and coach. He was the guest of the seventeenth episode of “The mirror of Piacenza”, format created and conducted by director Nicoletta Bracchi. “They are my passions – comments Mascitelli – both require great mental and physical concentration. Theater and sport teach us the value of teamwork, resilience and perseverance, enriching our lives with unforgettable and inspiring moments. After all, the actor is alone on stage just as the batter is alone in baseball, facing his opponents. Both on stage and on the field, we witness stories of success but also of defeat.”

Sport

Mascitelli’s bond with Piacenza was born with sport, when he was called up by Piacenza Baseball in the early 2000s, in A 2. “This period – confides Mascitelli – marked a significant transition in my life. I spent ten years as a player in Serie A, and then for twenty years as a coach on the staff of the Junior National Team, also obtaining four European titles. They were days of personal and sporting growth, which contributed to shaping who I am today.”

theater

Filodrammatica Piacentina has been his second home for years: productions, directions, interpretations as well as courses and workshops as manager and teacher. “Splendid years. We launched the first courses in 2005, today some of the kids who participated in that creative adventure are actors or directors. I remember, among the many shows staged, “The Plague” from Camus’ novel. Even today it is in great demand, it is an original performance, for only one spectator at a time. I am particularly fond of the Spazio Rotative that I saw born, I performed several plays there, the first was “R-esistenza” in 2005. Last year with Filo I proposed “Le intellectuals”, this year “Le false confidences” by Pierre de Marivaux scheduled for May 18th and 19th in San Matteo. Here in the Libertà headquarters, in 2016, I took part in the filming of a film, “Rice, love and fantasy”.

And then the dreams that escape from the drawer and come true: “I was cultivating the desire to bring the flavors and suggestions of baseball to the theater, I succeeded by telling the story of Lou Gehrig, the legendary champion of the New York Yankees in the 1940s. He went down in history for his exploits on the diamond and because he was struck by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which everyone has since known as Gehrig’s disease. A speech of his in which he began by saying: “I am a lucky man” remains historic. When they ask me why I decided to do theatre, the answer is surprising: “because I hated theatre”. Let me explain. My mother and my sister worked at the Regio di Parma and I never saw them, there were no Saturdays or Sundays, that place, magical for many, took away my affections. I felt annoyed. As soon as they stopped working I started and it was wonderful. I was shy, the stage made me more relaxed.” Originally from Chieti, Mascitelli made his debut on Rai as an actor in the show “Musica sotto le stelle” with Vittorio Gassman, his son Alessandro and Daniel Ezralow. Since 2006 Mascitelli has been artistic director of the Teatro del Cerchio in Parma: «A constantly growing reality, in 2023 we debuted in the new venue, we are around with various texts from “5 minutes” to the award-winning “The cat and the fox”. In the company, where the female component prevails, there is also an actress from Piacenza, the very talented Gabriella Carrozza”.

Young

Theater for children, a mission: “I have been dealing with it for almost thirty years, theater training in schools is particularly close to my heart. I count among the 15002000 kids who attend our courses in Parma. Theater allows you to socialize, discover yourself but above all understand the usefulness of the rules”. Speaking of rules, what does Mascitelli ask the actors?: “The ability to listen, first and foremost. And then I ask to have fun, the experience passes through there, there must be gratification. As a spectator I don’t like the genre of theatrical improvisation, it doesn’t belong to my sense of theatre. The turning point meeting? The one with my wife Maria Pia, a convict, was the theater, a shock when I saw it. A godsend.” The histrionic touch arrives at the end when, before greeting the viewers, the actor coldly recites an excerpt from “The Man with the Flower in his Mouth”, a one-act play by Pirandello.

2024-05-14 19:55:06
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