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Encounters with Eduardo De Filippo MIMI D'APONTE • January 4,10:00 p.m. Teatro Eliseo, Rome "PEOPLE DO BECOME MONUMENTS." Eduardo De Filippo is sitting alone in his dressing room, smoking. I come in without an introduction (having made my way backstage between Acts 2 and 3 of II Monumento by looking stranded and murmuring something about an American study of Neapolitan theatre), and he immediately gets up and shakes my hand. He invites me to sit down, returns to his chair, and continues smoking. I explain my real wishes in nervous Italian (may I speak with him about his work when he returns to Naples in the spring?) and his answer is honest and to the point: "I won't remember your name. Tell my secretary you spoke with me in Rome." I compliment him on the first two acts of his new play. De Filippo is dedicated to II Monumento's philosophy,1 and words begin to pour out of him as he launches into a discussion of Ascanio Penna's character - his character.2 He speaks of Penna's entombment, both physically and psychologically, within his ideals. We sense someone standing at the door, and turn together to see my husband who has come to learn if I have found Eduardo. De Filippo greets him as warmly and openly as he had me, and picks up his thread of thought regarding the play. "People do become monuments because ..." The stage manager knocks and calls out, "It is time, Maestro," and the philosopher turns actor and is ready for his cue. He thanks us for coming and urges me to call him in Naples. He is off. We have not learned why people become monuments, but we have learned something of the energy and intensity and immediacy of De Filippo. Eduardo is old if one counts by years (born May 14, 1900),3 but it is difficult to think of age in his presence. The gaunt face and body are set in motion by 347 348 MIMI D'APONTE strong and quick movements which suggest youth. His immediate and open friendliness have escaped that aging which comes of "being someone" for too long. His passionate interest in discussing the philosophy which motivates his character reveals a mind continually searching, re-examining, building. Notions suggested by other people about Eduardo - "he is remote," "he has become a recluse" - during my three-month stay in Italy fall by the wayside. I will see him in Naples in March.... March 16, 11 :00 a.m. Hotel Royal, Naples Signora Quarantotto is Eduardo's secretary. She is charming, attractive, and perfectly bilingual. "Eduardo will be down in several minutes; he has been working this morning." I begin to ask her opinion of some questions I have prepared, but almost immediately II maestro appears and takes over. And, happily, organized questions are forgotten as his words begin to flow again. De Filippo is a writer during the summer, an actor-director during the rest of the year. As writer he must work early in the morning; as actor and director he can function only in the late afternoon. His approach to directing calls for intense preparation (a startling contrast to the seemingly improvised results): he will rehearse his actors in a new play around a table continuously until lines are learned, then set them on stage and provide gestures and movements to fit their words. After twenty to thirty rehearsals the play will be ready for performance. In his writing, whatever preparation takes place is mental. If, as he is writing, he cannot envision the staging easily, he simply stops and ponders the problem until it has smoothed itself out. He uses no notes, and although he may have stored the conception and plot of a play in his head for ten years, he will begin to write it only when the right moment comes; that is, when he has found the right actors for his imagined characters. Two examples. He has revived his interest in a play thought out years ago. He had planned to use his sister, Titania, in the lead role, but she became ill. He is about to...

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