Alessandro Fersen (5 December 1911 – 3 October 2001) was a Polish-born Italian dramatist, actor, theater director, author and drama teacher.

Alessandro Fersen
Born
Aleksander Fajrajzen

(1911-12-05)5 December 1911
Łódź, Poland
Died3 October 2001(2001-10-03) (aged 89)
Rome, Italy
OccupationActor

Life

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He was born as Aleksander Fajrajzen in Łódź to a Jewish family, that moved to Genoa in 1913. He studied at the University of Genoa under Giuseppe Rensi, graduating in philosophy in 1934 with a thesis later published under the title L'Universo come giuoco ("The Universe as a game").[1] Due to the racial laws of 1938 he moved to Paris (where he attended the Collège de France) and then in Eastern Europe.[2][3] Back in Italy in 1943, he participated in the resistance in Liguria, in a partisan group linked to the Italian Socialist Party, before working in Switzerland, where he became friends with Emanuele Luzzati and Giorgio Colli.[4]

He returned to Italy at the end of World War II, and after a period in which he devoted himself to political activity (being a member of the Secretary of the National Liberation Committee of Genoa and Liguria) and journalism (as a collaborator of newspapers Il Lavoro and Corriere del Popolo), in 1947 he began his activity as a theater director with the drama Leah Lebowitz, a play which he had taken from a Hasidic legend; this play started with the artistic collaboration, which will last decades, with Emanuele Luzzati, with whom founded the "Teatro Ebraico" ("Jewish Theatre"), staging dramas written by him such as Golem (1969), inspired by the Yiddish folklore, or Leviathan (1974), based on the techniques of mnemodrama.[2][5]

From 1947 Fersen worked for more than a decade for the Teatro Stabile in Genoa, directing adaptations of Shakespeare, Pirandello, Molière, Anouilh, among others. In 1957 he began a career as a drama teacher founding an acting school in Rome, the "Studio di arti sceniche", inspired by the Stanislavski's system.[2] He was also an author of critical and theoretical essays, aimed at an interdisciplinary theater, and an actor active on stage, on television and in films.[2]

Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1942 Un colpo di pistola Uncredited
1949 The Earth Cries Out Il rabbino
1949 The Walls of Malapaga Uncredited
1950 Il sentiero dell'odio
1951 Lorenzaccio
1953 Perdonami!
1953 Woman of the Red Sea Prof. Krauss
1953 Il viale della speranza Director Gabelli
1953 Puccini Padre di Delia
1953 Condemned to Hang Cesare Rovelli
1953 Jealousy Don Silvio
1953 Musoduro Dott. Biondi
1953 Viva la rivista!
1954 Delirio
1954 Theodora, Slave Empress Metropolita
1954 Ulysses Diomede
1954 The Two Orphans Michel Gérard - the father
1954 I cavalieri della regina
1955 The Lost City Padre de Rafael
1955 Le Amiche Uncredited
1955 Desperate Farewell Doctor Lena
1956 La capinera del mulino Aimone
1986 Giovanni Senzapensieri Il Professore (final film role)

References

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  1. ^ Beppe Sebaste (1997). Porte senza porta: incontri con maestri contemporanei. Feltrinelli Editore, 1997. ISBN 8807814447.
  2. ^ a b c d Enrico Lancia, Fabio Melelli. Dizionario del cinema italiano. Attori stranieri del nostro cinema. Gremese, 2006. ISBN 8884404258.
  3. ^ Massimo Bertoldi (2000). Il Teatro Stabile di Bolzano: cinquant'anni di cultura e di spettacoli. Silvana, 2000. ISBN 8882152022.
  4. ^ "Un maestro in palcoscenico (Alessandro Fersen)", Sorgente di vita. Rai 2. 5 October 2014.
  5. ^ Enrico Baiardo (1999). L'identità nascosta: Genova nella cultura del secondo Novecento. Erga, 1999. ISBN 8881631342.
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