Who’s playing at The Outer Loop?

So Chiara, what’s your art?

My art (in no particular order) is imbuing creativity into every day life, in creating organizational cultures that champion delight and expression, directing, acting, rewriting lyrics to songs, teaching kids, singing, writing weird (mostly didactic) plays, Shakespeare, and musical theater.

Where do you come from?

Biologically, I come from two of the best humans of all time, my parents. 
Geographically, I grew up in Scarsdale, NY.
Artistically, I come from a combination of only listening to showtunes, consistent indulgence in my creative whims by loved ones and authority figures, and an extremely high embarrassment threshold.

What are some of your inspirations?

Oh man. I am constantly inspired by so many people. Today, I have to go with:

Joe Papp, the founder of the Public Theater, his audacity to not only start free theater in Central Park, but to make the city pay for it, his tireless championship of playwrights and artists of color, and his belief in the possibility of Shakespeare as a populist American art.

The really great educators that I had who challenged me, nurtured me, led me to uncharted paths, and served as role models that I still try to emulate.

Some really amazing artists that I worked with recently that are both the coolest people I’ve ever met, but also were generous enough to pour their entire souls into their work onstage and with young people. Also, those young people.

My parents and my siblings.

Cool… so what are you working on now?

I have the great fortune to be living a double (triple? quadruple?) life as the Founding Managing Artistic Director of MaineStage Shakespeare, a summer Shakespeare festival in Kennebunk, Maine, a graduate student at Yale, and the Associate Director of Development and Alumni Affairs for Yale Repertory Theatre and Yale School of Drama.

At MaineStage Shakespeare, we just closed our sixth summer season, which was simply magical. The founding principle of MaineStage is that theater is a right, not a privilege and to that end, all of our performances are free for everyone. This summer we presented All’s Well That Ends Well and Richard III in alternating repertory with a company of 10 of the finest actors I have ever worked with. I got to direct All’s Well, which is a challenging problem comedy that I have wanted to work on (but have also been terrified of) for years. In addition to the two shows, we also ran a weekly Shakespeare camp called ShakeSTARS for young people K-12. The ShakeSTARS took various classes and performed an “installment” (one act per week) production of The Tempest on Saturdays.

At Yale, I am in both the School of Drama earning an MFA in Theater Management and the School of Management earning my MBA. My position in the development office is a full-time position that is also part of my training. I am studying a decidedly non-creative track because I firmly believe that for the future of the theater and arts in general, more artists need to be really good businesspeople. That said, I take every opportunity to make art and to be creative that I can!