KAOS PRODUCTION HISTORY

Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) planned to write a story for each day of the year and to collect these in a series entitled Stories for One Year (Novelle per un anno). Intended to span twenty-four volumes, and comprised of fifteen tales each, Pirandello succeed- ed in completing nearly two hundred and forty before his death in 1936.

1984
Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's film Kaos uses five Pirandello short stories as a basis, including: The Other Son (L'altro figlio, 1923), Moon Sickness (Male di Luna, 1913), Requiem (Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, 1913) and A Talk with Mother (Colloqui con i personaggi, 1915). Originally created for Italian television, Kaos was released theatrically in the United States in 1984.

August 1994
NYTW's first encounter with Pirandello's short stories at the Dartmouth summer
residency, a Usual Suspects group project.

January 1995
Usual Suspects perform two evenings of eight plays adapted from Pirandello short
stories in the Just Add Water series, including:
The Captive - written by Bill Tivenan, directed by Howard Meyer
The Horse in the Moon - written & directed by Elyse Singer
Candelora - written & directed Jeff Sichel, dramaturg Chris Burney
The Body Sketch - written & directed by Sheldon Deckelbaum, AD Kathryn Markey
Fear - adapted & directed by Sturgis Warner
The Train Whistled - adapted & directed by Erica Gould, AD Diane La Verdi
The Imbecile - adapted by Gordon Dahlquist, directed by Mandy Mishell & Lou Jacob
The School Mistress' Romance - adapted & directed by Grey Johnson

July 2003
Workshop of The Pirandello Project through a four-week Larson Lab process at NYTW. The starting point is four of the five stories from the Taviani Brothers' film. Martha Clarke is the director/choreographer. (Franco Piersanti, composer; Frank Pugliese, text; Jill Jaffe, music direction; John T. La Barbera, musician).

October 2003
Founding trustee Stephen Graham sponsors Jim Nicola, Lynn Moffat and Martha Clarke to travel to Sicily and Rome to meet with designers and research the Sicilian landscape.

January 2004
Lynn Moffat travels to Rome to begin negotiations on the underlying rights.

February 2004
Second workshop of The Pirandello Project at NYTW. (Martha Clarke, director; Franco Piersanti, composer; Frank Pugliese, text; Jill Jaffe, music direction; John T. La Barbera, musician; Giovanni Papotto, dramaturg).

April-May 2005
Third workshop of The Pirandello Project at NYTW.

January 2006
Reading of The Pirandello Project at NYTW.

March 2006
Jim and Martha travel to Milan, Torino and Rome for casting.

June 2006
Fourth workshop of The Pirandello Project at NYTW, exploring music and dance.
The Pirandello Project is awarded the first Tony Randall Grant of $100,000
from the Tony Randall Theatrical Fund

November 2006
Production of KAOS, renamed from The Pirandello Project.

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