Mario Fratti (29 July 1927 – 15 April 2023) was an Italian playwright and drama critic. In his lifetime, he produced over 70 works, which were translated into over 20 languages and shown worldwide. He was best known for writing the first script for the musical ''

Nine 9 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 9 or nine may also refer to: Dates * AD 9, the ninth year of the AD era * 9 BC, the ninth year before the AD era * 9, numerical symbol for the month of September Places * Nine, Portugal, a parish in the ...

''.

Life and career

Born in

L'Aquila L'Aquila ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in central Italy. It is the capital city of both the Abruzzo region and of the Province of L'Aquila. , it has a population of 70,967 inhabitants. Laid out within medieval walls on a hill in the wide valle ...

, Fratti graduated in foreign languages and literatures at the

Ca' Foscari University of Venice Ca' Foscari University of Venice ( it, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, simply Università Ca' Foscari) is a public university in Venice, Italy. Since its foundation in 1868, it has been housed in the Venetian Gothic palace of Ca' Foscari, from w ...

. In 1962, Fratti presented his one-act play ''Suicidio'' at the

Festival dei Due Mondi The ''Festival dei Due Mondi'' (Festival of the Two Worlds) is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958. It features a vast array of conce ...

Spoleto Spoleto (, also , , ; la, Spoletum) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome. History Spolet ...

, and

Lee Strasberg Lee Strasberg (born Israel Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American theatre director, actor and acting teacher. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931 ...

, a guest of the festival, was impressed by it and invited him to stage it at the

Actors Studio The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street between Ninth and Tenth avenues in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded ...

. Fratti eventually decided to stay in New York, where he found work as a professor of Italian literature at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. In his later life, he was named as professor emeritus of Italian Literature at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

. Fratti was an avowed

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

. He died in his home in Manhattan on 15 April 2023, at the age of 95.

Plays

*Il campanello (1958) *Suicidio (1962) *La menzogna (1963) *Il rifiuto (1965) *La gabbia (1962) *L'Accademia (1964) *La vedova bianca (1972) *I Seduttori (1964) *I frigoriferi (1964) *Eleonora Duse (1972) *La vittima (1972) *Che Guevara (1970) *L'ospite romano (1971) *Mafia (1974) *La famiglia (1972) *Chile 1973 (1974) *Six Passionate Women (1978) *Nine (1981) *AIDS (1988) *Porno (199) *Amanti (1991) *Avventure erotiche a Venezia (Tangentopoli) (1996) *Candida e i suoi amici (2001) *Cecità (2004) *I nove martiri (2009) *LGBT (2011) *Obama 44 (2011) * Beata, la figlia del Papa * Attori * Terrorista * Sete * Anniversario * Missionari * Garibaldi * American Dream * Suicide club * Dead Men's Bluff * Brooklyn * Hugo, ispirata a Hugo Chávez * Paganini (Musical) * Puccini (Musical) * Dialogo con Marilyn * Teatro dell'Imprevedibile * Unpredictable Plays

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fratti, Mario 1927 births 2023 deaths People from L'Aquila 20th-century Italian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Italian dramatists and playwrights Ca' Foscari University of Venice alumni Columbia University faculty Hunter College faculty Italian expatriates in the United States