Alessandro Fersen

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

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

Year Title Role Notes
1942Un colpo di pistolaUncredited
1949The Earth Cries OutIl rabbino
1949The Walls of MalapagaUncredited
1950Il sentiero dell'odio
1951Lorenzaccio
1953Perdonami!
1953Woman of the Red SeaProf. Krauss
1953Il viale della speranzaDirector Gabelli
1953PucciniPadre di Delia
1953Condemned to HangCesare Rovelli
1953JealousyDon Silvio
1953MusoduroDott. Biondi
1953Viva la rivista!
1954Delirio
1954Theodora, Slave EmpressMetropolita
1954UlyssesDiomede
1954The Two OrphansMichel Gérard - the father
1954I cavalieri della regina
1955The Lost CityPadre de Rafael
1955Le AmicheUncredited
1955Desperate FarewellDoctor Lena
1956La capinera del mulinoAimone
1986Giovanni SenzapensieriIl Professore(final film role)

References

  1. Beppe Sebaste (1997). Porte senza porta: incontri con maestri contemporanei. Feltrinelli Editore, 1997. ISBN 8807814447.
  2. 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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