Ennio Marchetto is a world renowned and awarded comedian who created his own theatrical language mixing mime, dance, music and quick change costumes. In 18 years Ennio has performed in over 80 countries for more than a million people. His show was awarded with numerous awards and international critical acclaim.
Alone on stage and without any help backstage, he changes character almost every minute, often in front of the audience without the need to hide behind drapes.
All his costumes, wigs and props are bi-dimensional and made out of paper and cardboard. They flip and fold to change from one character to another.
His repertoire of over 350 characters consist a wide variety of icons, from pop stars to opera singers, from works of art to mythological figures. The show is always adapted to each country and besides the more classical characters include always the more topical ones, nowadays often the stars that appear in gossip magazines and tv shows.
Biography
Ennio was born on February 20, 1960 in Venice Italy, next door to Carlo Goldoni's house. As a child, Disney cartoons were his first sources of inspiration, growing up, the Carnival of Venice and theatre shows and workshops by Lindsay Kemp but also dance shows by Pina Bausch inspired him to create a show himself.
In the beginning of the 1980s Ennio used to make extravagant costumes and masks for the then restarting carnival. At that time he was working in his father's espresso machine repair shop in Venice, Ennio had a vision of Marilyn Monroe dressed in paper. That same day he made his first paper costume which he used to amuse friends and family at home and people in the street during the carnival, in 1987 he was awarded for his efforts with a Golden Lion at the Venetian entertainment festival. In 1988, with only a few paper characters ready, he presented himself at the Zanzara d'Oro (the Golden Mosquito), a yearly competition for new comedians. Ennio won the first prize and started to appear in TV programmes and in cabarets. He also started to work on more characters and was thinking of creating his own theatre show.
His first attempt was a play written and directed by Daniele Sala. It was about the life of the trasformista Leopoldo Fregoli, a quick-change artist who was very famous around 1900. In this show Ennio would recite, sing and do his quick transformations in paper. Immediately he realised that this was not the kind of show he wanted to do and after only 4 performances he decided to stop.
It was during that last performance he met up with Sosthen Hennekam, a fashion and costume designer. The long time collaboration started, Sosthen added new origami quick-change techniques and other improvements, and after a few months they had created enough paper costumes to do a one hour show. Starting at the "Festa d'Unità" in and around Bologna, the show was an instant hit. More TV appearances and dates in other parts of Italy were the result.
In 1989 he performed for the first time internationally at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. When the first reviewers came to see the show and wrote raving reviews, the show sold out and Ennio became the cult hit of the festival. His career started to move very quickly and in 1994, after several UK tours, West End runs and international festivals, Ennio and Sosthen were nominated for "Best entertainment" at London's Laurence Olivier Awards. That same year Granada Television made a one hour documentary directed by Simon Massey called "Celebrations, Paper Marilyn" about Ennio's life and career.
A year later Ennio appeared at the first European MTV Music Awards in Berlin, together with several stars which by now were in his repertoire like Prince, George Michael and Björk. A 4 months run in Paris' Théàtre de Grévin an international tour with pop group Erasure in Germany and a show at the Radio City Music Hall in NY are only a few of the international engagements. In 1995 he received a Performance d'acteur award in Cannes and in 1996 he was awarded the Sebastia Gasch award in Barcelona.
In 1998 Ennio was asked to perform with the Spice Girls, Bryan Adams and other artists for HRH Prince Charles during the annual Royal Variety Show, broadcast by the BBC. That same year he did a private show for the Dutch royal family on the birthday of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
For his off-Broadway run in 1999, Ennio was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Shows in San Francisco and Los Angeles followed. In L.A. the show won the Garland award.
In the summer of 2001 he was asked to perform at Elton John's "White Tie and Tiara Ball", an important AIDS benefit Gala which is held every year at Elton John's estate in Oxfordshire.
2004 he performed together with Nancy Sinatra, the New York Dolls, Sparks at Morrissey's Meltdown festival at the South Bank Centre in London. That same year Ennio performed for the second time on the Royal Variety Show in London.
2005 started with a special Eurovision television broadcast of Hans Christian Andersen's bi-centenary at the Parken stadium in Copenhagen. In front of the Danish royalties and an audience of 40.000, Ennio performed specially created characters to celebrate the Danish writer. Other guests included Olivia Newton-John, Tina Turner, Isabel Allende, Jean Michel Jarre and sir Roger Moore. He returned to Paris at La Cigale during the Winter where he also appeared on the French Tv show of Patrick Sebastien and the highly popular Star Académie.
In 2006 he created a special Christmas show for London's South Bank Centre, an instand hit, the show returned also in 2007. In 2008 the christmas show will be in Berkeley, USA. Ennio is appearing frequently on the cult TV program Markette on Italy's La7 and Italian SKY TV has transmitted several times his show recorded during the 2007 Carnival at the Goldoni Theatre in Venice. In 2008 Ennio was a hit at the Boston Huntington Theatre, he also starred as a paper John Travolta in the music video by the same name of the american pop duo Blow-Up. The video was directed by Sosthen Hennekam
Awards
- Laurence Olivier Award (nomination Best Entertainment)
- Drama Desk Award (nomination "Unique Theatrical Experience", New York)
- Leone d'Oro (Entertainment festival of venice)
- Garland Award (Best Costume Design, Los Angeles)
- Sebastià Gasch (Press Award, Barcelona)
- Performance d'Acteur (Best show, Cannes)
- Zanzara d'Oro (Best new comedian, Bologna)
External links
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