Stage
As his acts became more sophisticated (with original songs co-written by himself) he moved up to exclusive clubs until he landed on the legitimate stage, appearing next to one of Italy's leading stars of the time, Duilio Del Prete, in the national premiere of Franz Xaver Kroetz's Death on Christmas Night. After this he performed in numerous theatre productions, never abandoning his first love: Cabaret (something he continues to do to this day). He was the support act for TV comedian Nino Frassica and performed on the televised (RAI 3) Premio Anna Magnani. For the Scuola di Cabaret TV show, he created comic characters that became household names and in 1992 he was awarded the prize for best comedy act from Sicily.
The following year he moved to the UK where, after graduating at the Arts Educational London School, he made a point of having as varied a career as he could, working as actor/singer on the West End stage (Chicago the Musical), in Off-West End productions (Blind Summit's Mr China's Son) and with experimental theatre companies (Lindsay Kemp).
As avant-garde comedian and cabaret artist he has performed in theatres, museums, nightclubs and cultural institutes in twelve countries around the world and has collaborated with artists as diverse as Stephen Montague and Ron Athey and with the Resonance Radio Orchestra.
Having made some early experiments in the late '90s with a production called The Other Woman, in 2002 Tomasini started to create (in various capacities) his own shows and first attracted attention with an appearance at the Edinburgh Festival with True or Falsetto? A Secret History of the Castrati. Written by Time Out critic Lucy Powell, the show was a sell out hit not only in Edinburgh but also in London for two seasons and on international tours, in three different languages. This was followed by Ernesto's own script for The Veiled Screen: A Secret History of Hollywood! which has had two London runs in 2006, sponsored by the Arts Council of England. Tomasini's style of performance - an operatic, dark and twisted blend of Italian Cabaret, avant-garde performance art and thought-provoking Vaudeville - has been defined "as shocking as it is moving".
Read more about this topic: Ernesto Tomasini
Famous quotes containing the word stage:
“I have come to believe ... that the stage may do more than teach, that much of our current moral instruction will not endure the test of being cast into a lifelike mold, and when presented in dramatic form will reveal itself as platitudinous and effete. That which may have sounded like righteous teaching when it was remote and wordy will be challenged afresh when it is obliged to simulate life itself.”
—Jane Addams (1860–1935)
“The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Old age is far more than white hair, wrinkles, the feeling that it is too late and the game finished, that the stage belongs to the rising generations. The true evil is not the weakening of the body, but the indifference of the soul.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)