How long can you walk the line between genius and insanity?
Lovers. Poets. Zannis. Dukes. Madmen.
Enter the world of Isabella Andreini, greatest actress of the commedia dell’Arte. Finding herself performing alone on a stage, Isabella is challenged to improvise a new scenario – the story of her life. Isabella uses her unparalleled craft to tell her story and delve into the madness that fuels her art.
The Divine Madness of Isabella was first performed in 2005 and 2008 at the WriteAct Repertory in Hollywood under the direction of John Achorn. In 2012, in a co-production with Theatre Unleashed and Mad Magpie, Isabella was restaged by Jeff Soroka for the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
This script is not available for licensing at this time.
“Wendy Gough is a consummate theatre artist… Gough’s play brings a historical figure to life …the revelation of the life is by turns, hysterical, heartrending and surreal. Gough plays 20+ characters using commedia styled masks, puppets and sheer talent. Gough is just as adept at inhabiting male psyches as female ones, just as committed to little puppet voices as to big theatrical ones, and the resultant play, an hour and twenty minutes in length, flies by at a breakneck pace.”
“Wendy Gough is an actor of no small measure… Gough gets to run the gamut of acting opportunities as she portrays multiple characters comporting themselves in a variety of styles. It’s in her capacity as mask-maker, though, that she is able to put a special polish on the piece.”
“GO!”
“Wendy Gough’s story of poetess, mother and Commedia dell’Arte Prima Donna Isabella Andreini is an engaging theatrical experience. In five rapid-fire acts, Gough sketches Andreini’s life… Gough recounts this epic story with disarming ease, robust humor and efficiency, and skillfully mimics over twenty characters. She also employs a dazzlingly attractive assortment of masks and puppets throughout.”
“…infectiously entertaining and unique 80 minute one-woman show, spellbindingly written, and ambitiously performed by Wendy Gough…Also a master mask and puppet-maker, she impressively plays Isabella…and 20+ colorful characters in her life, using fabulous self-built masks and puppets.
