A brief history of the Pirandello Society of America

Marta Abba held an informal gathering of theatre friends in her New York apartment in January 1958, and proposed the idea of forming a group to promote the work of her long- time colleague and admirer, Luigi Pirandello. The next month, The Pirandello Society was formally launched, with George Freedley as president.

By December 1969, the Society had begun to attract academics as well. Professor Gino Rizzo, president at that time, convened the first general meeting and program of the Society at the annual convention of the Modern Language Association, in New York City—a collaboration that eventually earned the Society “Allied Organization” status within the MLA. That first MLA program in 1969 featured presentations by the Society’s vice president, Anne Paolucci, and the Italian writer Umberto Eco. Maristella Lorch, director of Columbia University’s Casa Italiana, became president in 1973, and as the Society became increasingly well established in academic circles, the Casa’s theatre programs brought Pirandello’s work to community audiences as well during the next five years.

Succeeding Professor Lorch as president in 1978, Anne Paolucci continued and strengthened the Society’s work with community and professional groups. In 1985, she introduced an annual volume, PSA, to replace The Pirandello Newsletter established several years earlier through the efforts of co-editors Nishan Parlakian and Philip Fulvi. When Professor Parlakian was elected as the Society’s new president in 1995, he emphasized the need for more public events and broader impact. To that end, the Society, on a regular basis, sponsors collaborative events together with The Players, the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, New York University’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, and L’Istituto Italiano di Cultura. Special thanks to former co-president Mimi Gisolfi D’Aponte, who continues on the Board of the Directors and acts as Society liaison to the initiative “Priandello 150,” celebrating the maestro’s legacy.

Current Co-Presidents, Michael Subialka and Jana O’Keefe Bazzoni, together with Society Board members and officers, continue the work of the Society, mindful of the rich legacy of collaboration, performance, and publication while broadening our reach through new initiatives as represented by our website (www.pirandellosocietyofamerica. org) and international partnerships—with the Istituto di Studi Pirandelliani in Rome and the Biblioteca Museo Luigi Pirandello in Agrigento, whose archivists collaborated so generously for our 2004 Conference and Exhibition “Il fu Mattia Pascal: Celebrating a Century.” To that end, the Society sponsors collaborative events. In December 2005, former PSA Editor Jana O’Keefe Bazzoni represented the Society as an invited speaker at separate events celebrating the Mattia Pascal centenary, hosted by the Centro Nazionale Studi Italiani and the Biblioteca Museo Luigi Pirandello, both in Agrigento. In 2006, John Turturro generously donated his time and talent in a successful benefit performance of Pirandello’s Cecé, hosted by the Player’s Club and directed by Mimi Gisolfi D’Aponte. “Her Maestro’s Echo . . . “ featuring a lecture by Pietro Frassica, based on his research and writings on Pirandello and Marta Abba, and a dramatic reading of Pirandello/ Abba letters, directed by Mimi Gisolfi D’Aponte and played by Ric Randig and Meghan Duffy, was presented at the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Seton Hall, Princeton, The Players Club, and Philadelphia. Our scholarly panels at the annual Modern Language Association Convention feature established and emerging scholars whose work often appears in our peer reviewed journal, PSA. All of these collaborations continue to honor and showcase Pirandello’s work, as evidenced recently in a series of staged readings and lectures celebrating the Pirandello Society’s 50th Anniversary.