cast
Antonio Merone
On graduating from high school, he attended La Scaletta Drama School, run by G. Diotajuti, where Tonino Pierfederici was among his teachers. Since 1988 he has been working in theater with actors like Valeria Moriconi, Gianrico Tedeschi, and Fiorenzo Fiorentini. He likes to switch from contemporary plays to the reinterpretation of the classics collaborating with directors like G. Emiliani, T. Bertorelli, M. Conti, R. Marafante, R. Trifirò and with actors like D. Cantarelli and M. Bartoli. He has worked in radio (Teatro Giornale), television (Scherzi a parte) and in dubbing. In 1994 he was the protagonist of Jagdzeit (Leopardo di domain, 47th Locarno Film Festival) directed by Rolando Colla. Under the same director he was cast in Operazione Stradivari (2005) Marameo (2007) for TSI, and in the films Oltre il confine (2001) and L’autre moitié (2008). He was in Maurizio Ponzi’s Besame mucho (1998) and appeared in some Italian TV series (among them La piovra VI and Il mastino). For the 2008-9 season, he will take on the lead role in M. Bavastro’s Under my skin, directed by Daniele De Plano. He has already worked with Stefano Tummolini as the protagonist of the short film L’orizzonte (Turin Film Festival 2002).
Lucia Mascino
She started her stage training in Pontedera in 1995, where she worked with American, Russian, French and Czechoslovakian trainers and directors, among them Juri Alschitz and Thomas Richards. Others she has worked with in theater are Valerio Binasco, Antonio Calenda, Giancarlo Cobelli, Anton Milenin, Monica Conti, Giampiero Solari, Massimo Navone, Laura Sicignano, Roberto Marasco, Luciano Melchionna and Giorgio Barberio Corsetti with whom she collaborated from 2000 to 2005. She has performed in Italy and abroad - at the Venice Biennial, in Rome at Teatro India , in Turin at Teatro Stabile, in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, in Umbria, and in Abruzzo; in France at the Strasbourg Theater, in Grenoble, in Limonge and at the Parc de la Villette in Paris – playing a wide variety of roles such as Mary Magdalene, Maria di Bùchner, Chekhov’s Nina and Mascia, Pinter’s Polina, Shakespeare’s Viola, Ovid’s Minerva, Bulgakov’s Margherita and many others. She has worked in cinema as the lead of the following films: Gloss directed by Valentina Brandolini (2006) and L’eredità di Caino (2004) directed by Luca Acito and Saro Montresor. She was also featured in Umberto Riccioni’s Diverso da chi (2008), M. Volponi’s Alma (2007), Alessandro Valori’s Chi nasce tondo (2006), Carlo Virzi’s L’estate del mio primo bacio (2005), Stefano Pasetto’s Tartarughe sul dorso (2004), and Francesca Pirani’s Una bellezza che non lascia scampo (2000). Lucia has worked in the TV series Soldati di pace, directed by Claudio Bonivento, and the widely acclaimed Incantesimo.
Francesco Grifoni
He studied acting in Florence at the Accademia dei Piccoli under the direction of Dino Parretti. Later he was admitted into the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Scuola Nazionale di Cinema, where he attended the School’s acting department from 2005-2007under the artistic direction of Giancarlo Giannini. After several stage performances, he made his film debut in 2005 as the protagonist of the episodic film Il colpo di pistol under the direction of Elisabetta Lodoli. The film was shown at the 62nd Venice Film Festival, where he won the IMAIE award for young Italian talents. He followed it up with the role of Amos, a co-protagonist in Martin Donovan’s film, K. Il bandito (2007), which was shown at the Los Angeles film festival. In 2007 he appeared in Donatella Maiorca’s TV miniseries La stagione dei delitti 2 on RAI 2. Additionally, he took part in a TV series on RAI 1, Ho sposato uno sbirro, directed by Carmine Elia and Giorgio Capitani and has also joined the cast of the famous TV show I Cesaroni 2 in the role of Pivian, directed by Francesco Vicario and aired on Canale 5. In the same year he was cast in RIS 5-Delitti Imperfetti, directed by Cristian de Matteis and Fabio Tagliavia, hich will be broadcast in 2009. In addition to film and television, he keeps up with his stage career appearing in plays such as Girotondo, written by Artur Schitzler and directed by Massimo Stinco; Franz Kafka’s The Castle under the direction of Loretta Bellesi Luzi; and Our Ceckov, under the direction of Eljana Popova.
Chiara Francini
Awarded “Best Debut Actress 2007” at Villa Basilica, this Florentine native began her professional career at the Teatro della Limonaia, run by Barbara Nativi, under whose direction she acted in the first showing of Noccioline, written by Fausto Parividino. Later Chiara moved to Rome where she was cast in TV programs such as BlaBlaBla and Stracult followed by RadioSex, next to Pietro Sermonte; Le ragazze di San Frediano, directed by Vittorio Sindoni; and finally Gente di mare 2, directed by Giorgio Serafini, where she features in the co-leading role of Marzia Meniconi. Chiara has also participated in the TV sitcoms Camera Café, Piloti, and in Don Matteo 6. Soon she will be in the TV re-edition of Romanzo criminale. In film, she has worked with Leonardo Pieraccioni in Una moglie bellissima; Francesco Patierno in Il mattino ha l’oro in bocca and Spike Lee, who cast her for his new movie Miracle at Saint Anne’s. The film will premiere at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival and will be released in Italy next October. With Massimo Cappelli’s Bulli si nasce she won the 2008 Giffoni Film Festival.
Tiziana Avarista
She began her acting career as a little girl, without any type of formal acting training. She has worked with Berto Poli, Walter Pagliaro (Elettra, Medea, Casa di bambola), and Nuccio Siano (Byron’s Cain, Friends of the Bride, Romeo and Romeo, Mari colorati). In September she will be on the set of Il contagio, adapted from Walter Siti’s book. She is currently working with director Luciano Melchionna – with whom she collaborated in Ouverture – on Dignità autonome di prostituzione, winner of the Golden Graal breakthrough play of the year. As to her film roles, she can be seen in Franco Bertini’s Tutto in quella notte, Serafino Murri’s Movimenti, and Marco De Luca’s Risvegli. Through the years she has also worked extensively as a voice talent. She has dubbed actresses like Julia Ormond, Kate Winslet, Rachel Weisz, Kate Beckinsale, Salma Hayek, Melanie Griffith, Tilda Swinton, Marion Cotillard, Maggie Gyllenhaal (Secretary, Stranger than Fiction, The Dark Knight), and Marisa Tomei (What Women Want, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead).
Saschat
As an adolescent he attended Vivaio dei Piccoli Attori, a public school with courses in acting, dance and production. After graduating and waiting for his big break in the film world, he tried his hand at several crafts: ’68 activist, physicist, and diplomat. Besides his role in Un altro pianeta, he also played a Catholic priest in Catherine McGilvray’s film L’Iguana (2004).
Francesco Zecca
He attended the International Center La Cometa under the direction of Gianfranco Isernia. This rigorous drama school exposed him to the teachings of world-famous trainers such as Nicolay Karpov, Alan Woodhouse, Irina Prontova, Valeria Benedetta Michelangeli, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, and Flavio Albanese. He has kept busy in stage productions, where he has had lead roles in Nessuno by M. Bruno, Romeo and Juliet by N. Karpov, Mauser by P. Sepe, Scoppio d’amore e guerra by D. Camerini, Processo a Dio by S. Fantoni and many others next to Ottavia Piccolo, Lucrezia Lante della Rovere and Rocco Papaleo. He has participated in several TV series – Ris, Gente di mare, Testimone inconsapevole. . His film work includes Fulvio Ottaviano’s Una talpa al bioparco, Richard Courson Smith’s Vite a Pompei, and Gianfranco Isernia’s La collezione invisibile.
Michele D’Aiello
A modern and hip-hop dancer, he has worked in stage productions and has featured in several operetta performances such as Cincillà in 2001, choreographed by C. Licciardi under the direction of Toni Musumeci; Countess Maritza, The Merry Widow, The Baroness of Carini. Un altro pianeta is his film debut.
Mario Grossi
A graduate of the Accedemia “Silvio D’Amico” in 1984, he honed his craft under the instruction of Lorenzo Salveti. He has worked with many stage companies, from traditional theater to avantguard groups, among them Magazzini Criminali and the Metateatro. He has also worked with several directors such as Roberto De Simone, Marco Mete, Luca Ronconi, Memè Perlini, Giancarlo Sepe, and Robert Lepage. In 1990 he started directing and producing shows within workshops he himself set-up in specific social milieus involving children, inmates and the elderly. He established “Teatro IO” with a group of the elderly, which has helped to spread theatrical activity to areas of Rome with a high concentration of elderly people. An acting instructor at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome since 1996, he has acted in numerous “shorts.” Un altro pianeta is his first feature film.
