Gennaro Pantalena (1848–1915) was an Italian

actor-manager An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the business, sometimes taking over a theatre to perform select plays in which they usually star. It is a method of theatrical production used co ...

and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

. He developed a reputation as a

character actor A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to b ...

Neapolitan Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to: Geography and history * Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city * Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and Hig ...

theatre, appearing in the companies of

Eduardo Scarpetta Eduardo Scarpetta (13 March 1853 – 12 November 1925) was an Italian actor and playwright from Naples. Biography Although not from a theatrical family, he was on the stage by the age of four and is today best remembered as the creator of a c ...

and Federico Stella. By 1888 he led his own company which took up residence in the city's Teatro Nuovo. He wrote several works in the

Neapolitan dialect , altname = , states = Italy , region = Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Lazio, Marche, Molise , ethnicity = ''Mezzogiorno'' Ethnic Italians , speakers = 5.7 million , date ...

.Pantalena p.88 In 1909 he directed and starred in

Salvatore Di Giacomo Salvatore Di Giacomo (12 March 1860 – 5 April 1934) was an Italian poet, songwriter, playwright and fascist, one of the signatories to the Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals. Di Giacomo is credited as being one of those responsible for r ...

's '' Assunta Spina''. He also appeared in a single

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

'' La fuga del gatto'' made in 1914. He died the following year.

References

Bibliography

* Bender, Robert Gene. ''The Dialect Theatre of Eduardo de Filippo''. Stanford University, 1963. * Maurino, Ferdinando Dante. ''Salvatore Di Giacomo and Neapolitan Dialectal Literature''. S.F. Vanni, 1951.

External links

* 1848 births 1915 deaths Italian theatre managers and producers Actor-managers Italian male stage actors People from Naples {{Italy-actor-stub