Ignazio Salvatore Basile

Final Essay in Little Verona Ignazio Salvatore Basile

Papa John Brook is a director of a Drama School. The students ask him to prepare, for their final essay, the famous musical "West Side Story". But the director oppose them that it's better to prepare something original, which might also be about history. His students don't believe history is important for an actor to be. So he writes a Final Essay entitled "Little Verona" to show them the importance of past. Studying the Drama the students will discover that "West side story" was inspired by Shakespeare's drama Romeo and Juliet; and that surely Shakespeare based his drama on the Arthur Brooke's Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet . And the great poet Brooke was inspired by three different sources: a novel composed in 1554 by Italian author Matteo Bandello; another story included in a collection called Il Novellino, by the widely-popular fifteenth-century writer Masuccio Salernitano; and finally by the Story Newly Found of two Noble Lovers, written by Luigi Da Porto and published in 1530; leaving apart the popular tale of Romeo and Juliet by William Painter's collection Palace of Pleasure which influenced even more directly the great dramatist from Stratford-upon-Avon. Now it's easy for them to understand that nothing can born from nothing and that books come from books (libris ex libris, we would say in ancient Latin language). The drama will also show that love is the most important thing in the world. The plot. The drama is set in New York in 2002. Geena and Mel, both students a t Papa John Brook school, are in love. Papa John Brook, the director of the School, proposes as final essay, to play a drama he has specifically written for his students. In the story, backdated in the sixties, he plays as Frank Bandello, a boss in Little Italy; he longing fights against another Italian family, the Da Ponto, for the control of several business in town. While the two families are meeting to make peace and share the businesses the Policemen come along for a legal search. Bandello and Da Porto to better seal their covenant promise to marry Bandello's daughter Lavinia (played by Geena) with Da Ponto's son Paris. But Lavinia is in love with Mariotto (played by Mel), who is black guy; that's not a problem in 2002 but it's a great matter in the sixties. Lavinia's mother, Norma, accepts Mariotto but his husband Bandello surely doesn't. Norma buys a fake stuff to simulate Geena's death, in order to convince her father Frank Bandello to accept Lavinia's and Mariotto's affair. But while Norma is with the dealer Paris comes at Lavinia's home and find her with Mariotto; the two young men fight and Mariotto kills Paris Da Ponto, trying to defend himself. The drama "Final Essay in Little Verona" is included in the collection "Three English dramas" already published by Amazon and still present in its catalog also in paperback.