Mario Fratti

Tuesday was one of the best days – ever. I met Mario Fratti, the legendary playwright who took Fillini’s film 8 ½ and rewrote it into the 5 time Tony Award Winning Nine. Currently, the musical is getting new breath as it has just been released as a feature film starring Kate Hudson, Penelope Cruz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Sophia Loren, and Judy Dench.

My friend Joe arranged a lunch with all of us. We arrived at Mario’s AMAZING apartment that he has lived in since 1963 around noon. I wish I would have been bold enough to take pictures of this place. It is two stories with original art on every inch of the walls, books stacked like a maze in every corner, and theatrical history that permeates the air.

It was an immediate lovefest. This man managed to learn more about me in the first 30 minutes than most of my colleagues will ever discover. For the next three hours, we managed to cover all facets of politics – religion – education – theatre. I cannot believe how much I learned. It was a master class with…the master.

The first thing he asked me was what I was reading. I told him that I had to buy a new suitcase yesterday because of the amount of books I have purchased since arriving. At the same time, I confessed that I am addicted to used book stores, and that my bounty search includes looking for books that have writing in them. I love nothing more than reading something that has inspired someone before me to script comments on the text. (this is why I don’t think a Kindle is not in my future). Mario got really excited and said, “I need to show you my latest purchase.” It was a book about Freud that dripped with oodles of comments and glowed with underlining. He then said, “Look at the title page.” It said, “The notations were not by M. Fratti. He wanted to make sure that upon his death, his authorship was clear.

After ohing and ahing over the text, I said, “Have you ever heard of the Housing Works?’ He got the strangest expression on his face and said, “Yes…very much so.” “Good,” I said, “because they have the best used bookstore in the city on..” ” Crosby and Houston, ” we said in unison. He had – in fact – bought the Freud book there yesterday at the same time I was there. We delighted each immensely.

One of the pictures included here is of the window directly across from his desk. He told me that early in his career, he would get up early, sit at his desk, and look across at the window at his neighbor Tennesse Williams. They would wave at each other and start writing.

Other William’s stories…I never knew that he died from a bottle cap as he used his teeth to open his medicine. In addition, he told me something that will forever change the way I teach. He said that Williams told him that the key to writing was to include a)the reality – the story b)the author’s biography c)one’s imagination. This is to become a continual assignment in everything from my acting to directing classes.

I also need to mention that on the second level of his apartment is his music studio which includes a baby grand that Katherine Hepburn once owned and gave to him. Yep. Also, he has an amazing rooftop terrace and said that the next time I come to the city with students, we should have a party there!

They asked me if I wanted Chinese or Italian food. I said that if I was going to spend the day with Italians, I wanted to break bread with the Italians over Italian. So, they treated me to a 4 course Italian lunch. At one point, Mario said, “I would like to toast to January 26, 2010 the day I met Kim.”

Joe had been gracious enough to buy me a collection of Mario’s plays, so I had him sign them.. However, Mario also surprised me by giving me a complete packed of his scripts. He also said that if I want to direct one of his plays, he would consider coming to see it. Ummmm….yeah!!

I wish I could list all the fascinating nuggets that he dropped, but in truth it was all so overwhelming that I just listened in awe. We talked about the new movie of his musical, what he likes on Broadway now, his opinions about today’s playwrights, and his life (daughter, Italy, social activism etc).

The two Italians fought over who was buying lunch – it was all wrapped up in some cavalier rules that we just do not abide by in SoDak. We all then hoped in a cab to take Mario to his dictation appointment. He only writes in long hand, so he goes daily to dictate to a woman who types his work. Again, they fought over who was paying for what. Mario finally put the money in my hand, but quickly took it back and shoved it at Joe and said, “Here, take it. A woman should not have money in her hand.” Hmmmm….he is an 82 year old Italian, what can I say?