Filomena Campus in “To be Franca,” a project dedicated to Franca Rame
Jazz vocalist and director Filomena Campus sheds light on the life of Italian actress and playwright Franca Rame (1929-2013), who was also a playwright, director, producer, archivist, activist, and senator. Today Rame is best remembered for the theatrical work she created with her husband and collaborator, artist and Nobel laureate Dario Fo. Campus’ performance is a tribute to an artist and friend who deserves to be celebrated in her own right. Campus presents a letter to Dario Fo that Franca Rame published a few months before her death, interwoven with short excerpts from Rame’s comic monologues, arrangements of popular songs by Fo and Rame, and jazz compositions inspired by Rame, written by Campus and pianist Steve Lodder. The lyrics for the song Queen of Clowns were edited by Franca Rame herself in 2011, while the song Per Franca is an adaptation of a poem written for her by Stefano Benni, with whom Campus has collaborated since 2006. The performance explores the playful dynamic between jazz vocal improvisation and
theatrical improvisation, which was one of Rame’s many talents, born into a family of traveling actors with roots in Commedia dell’Arte. This project is part of the Campus PhD on Franca Rame at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and LAHP (London Arts and Humanities Partnership).
Jazz vocalist, composer, teacher and theater director, Filomena Campus has lived in London since 2001 where she founded the company Theatralia. Winner of the Maria Carta Prize (2009) and Navicella Prize (2015), she has collaborated with musicians such as Paolo Fresu, Antonello Salis, Evan Parker, Gavino Murgia, Orphy Robinson, Jean Toussaint, Byron Wallen, Jackie Walduck, Rowland Sutherland, Cleveland Watkiss and the London Improvisers Orchestra. In 2009 she created the Filomena Campus Quartet, with Steve Lodder on piano, Dudley Phillips on double bass and Rod Youngs on drums, with whom she recorded the album Jester of Jazz. The quartet’s new album will be released in 2019/20. Campus has participated in jazz festivals in the UK, Italy, Croatia, Germany, Morocco, Qatar, Jordan, and Thailand.
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