Miracle Players - English Language Theatre in Rome

February 9, 2008 · Filed Under Rome · 1 Comment

If you live in Rome, or are planning to move there for a year or so, are a native English speaker and an actor/actress, then maybe you should take a look at the Miracle Players site.

Here is an except from their About the Group page:

The Miracle Players is a non-profit organization whose main objective is to promote the culture of antiquity in historical locations (with a smile!). The group was formed in May 1999 and has already established a reputation for producing original, funny and quality theatre. The key members are all English-speaking actors, resident in Rome, from America, Australia, England, Iran, Italy and Scotland.
The theatre troupe has already developed a following amongst the English-speaking theatre public in Rome and various associations including the British Council, various private and public schools, the Tourist Board of Rome, Rome City Hall, the Lazio Regional Administration and the Italian Ministry of Culture.
We believe our achievements and success are due to the harmonious blending of the diversity of the members themselves, their shared professionalism and their love for creating and performing.

It looks as though only ‘real’ actors are able to join, but I’m not all that sure about this. I may fire them off a mail and see how they reply. Or you could simply contact them:

Ass. Cult. Miracle Players
Piazza Confienza 3
00185 Rome, Italy

+39 06 70393427

Tags: Italian, Italy, passtime, Rome, Scotland, Spare Time, theater, theatre

This is fun!

October 12, 2007 · Filed Under Sport · Comment

Since I undertook the slight transformation of my little blog, I’ve begun to change too. I suppose you could say that I am becoming a sort of (very) informal journalist. And now I find that I’m on the look out for ’stories’ that I think will be interesting or useful to write about in my blog, but although my motivation is quite personal, based on what I like to write about and that I enjoy this, I also hope, in some small way, that others may also like what go on about, and even find it informative, in some small way.

Take my recent posts about touch rugby for example - even if I am probably the world’s worse team player, in a sporting sense, I do love the idea of a sport which is a little different, and that allows both men and women play together. For this reason, this sport really appeals to me. Hence my recent focus on this emerging pastime.

Indeed, I was down at the 4-4-2 pub here in Milan, yet again tonight, where I saw Massimiliano, the touch rugby president, and his guests Shane Wilson, the Ozzie from Brisbane who trains the Scottish touch team in Edinburgh, Scotland, and his charming other half Claire, who also happens to be a touch player. Talk about having something in common. I shall write a little more about Shane in another post. And, I want to mention ‘Maz’ (’Matz‘ is how you pronounce it) Fazzoni, the guy who set up and runs the very nice Italian touchrugbymilano blog, and who I shall also be writing about in the near future.

The only trouble with this ‘pretending to be a hack’ thing is that as soon as I whip out my good old Dell pocket pc to tap out a few notes on (I have a terrible memory), people see that I’ve gone into ‘journalist’ mode and go into a sort of, ‘uh-oh, I’m about to be interviewed by a journalist’ mode as they psyche themselves up for my style of mini-interview. And, as you might expect, some people become a wee bit wary. This reaction, sort of allows me to understand how a real life journalist must feel and to appreciate how those on the recieving end of one of an interview must feel. It is an interesting experience, if ever there was one, I can tell you. I have to say that before starting to change Blog from Italy into what it is becoming, albeit very slowly, I never in my whole life imagined pretending to be a type of journalist. But, I do rather like the feeling.

Talking of feelings, one of the guys who took part in the touch match this evening, was a certain Toni, who, as it happens, lives in the very same appartment block as myself! But at first, I did not recognise him. As it turns out, he is a former rugby player who has been told that he cannot play the full contact version of the sport on account of his having knee injuries, but despite this, he is someone who obviously still finds the rugby bug quite difficult to shake off. And, isn’t it amazing how you can just about live together in a big city, but not really know someone? Odd, but that is city life, I guess. Others have talked about the anonymity of living in a conurbation, but I’d never really believed it until this evening.

An impromptu evening at the pub, becomes an interesting experience - that I want to continue. Addictive, it is.

Tags: 4-4-2 Pub, 442 pub, Australian, Axim, Blogging, Dell, ecomunicare, Edinburgh, fun, Italia, Italian, Italy, journalism, Massimiliano Natale, Milan, Milano, networking, Ozzie, pocket pc, Scotland, Shane Wilson, Sport, touch rugby

Scottish/Italian Sunday lunch

October 7, 2007 · Filed Under Italian Food · 4 Comments

Yes, I suppose mixing Scottish and Italian food is a bit odd, but that’s what we did today in sunny Milan when we finally got round to opening the tinned haggis which I had got from Alessandro the landlord of the 442 pub.

Now, as some may know, haggis is traditionally served with mashed potato and turnips, but not having the turnips, nor a potato masher, we resorted to the Italian purè as an acceptable alternative to mash. Our purè had cheese and ham mixed in, on the off-chance that out little one would not be a haggis fan.

While my other half found the haggis a bit odd, I thought it was fine, and it went very well with the purè. My other half went one better and started to eat her potion of haggis with Brie - which, I imagine, is not something that is done every day! Scottish purists may well have a minor heart attack upon hearing such sacrilege. However, I’m about to suggest something that the Scots would probably lynch me for, that is: How about trying haggis with polenta? I think the two would go together rather well, and would certainly make for a hearty winter repast.

Oh, and our little four year old earthquake would not even try the haggis, Brie or not. But, then again I think it would be true to say that haggis does not really have the most appetizing appearance. Still, I shall be asking Alessandro for another tin of haggis, in order that I can see what it is like with polenta. Talk about fusion cuisine.

Tags: Different, fusion cuisine, haggis, idea, Italian, Italian Food, Italian food, Italy, lunch, sacrilege, Scotland, Scottish, try, unusual, winter meals