In an interesting twist on checking out the competition, Laura Colangelo remembered sitting in the audience of the January production of Moliere's "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme." The senior FTT and Italian major came to the play without knowing a word of French, but wanted to see how much she could understand anyway. Happily surprised, Colangelo found that she could not only follow the story, but enjoyed the performance as well.

This experience bolstered Colangelo's confidence as the director of "La Marcolfa," an Italian play running Sunday and Monday in the Washington Hall Lab Theatre. The show is entirely "in italiano," yet Colangelo and her cast are certain the production will entertain and amuse even those whose knowledge of the Italian language is limited to the menu at the Olive Garden.

Drawing its laughs from physical humor, "La Marcolfa" was chosen by Colangelo specifically for its universal appeal and easy-to-understand story.

"The play is full of people falling down, breaking things, hitting each other — the kind of things that translate into any language," Will McGrath, a cast member, said. "And we make things clearer through our actions and gestures."

Although the play is set in 1848, the farce is a relatively recent work by the Nobel Prize-winning Italian playwright Dario Fo. The plot's twists and turns revolve around a marquis (junior Luke McLaurin) who has fallen into debt and will go to drastic lengths to impress his lover, the princess (sophomore Randi Belisomo). When the marquis discovers that his aged and ugly servant Marcolfa (sophomore Amanda Holland) is hoarding a winning lottery ticket, he sets out to convince the old woman to marry him.

The love stories complicate further once one of the marquis's creditor, Giuseppe (senior Brian Barone), also learns of Marcolfa's prize and decides to pursue her hand in marriage as well. Giuseppe's duly enraged fiancée (senior Lauren Beyer) and the wily servant Francesco (senior Will McGrath) fill out the lively cast as they embark on story with a surprising conclusion.

The project is Colangelo's dream child, part of a research project she is undertaking with Professor Colleen Ryan-Scheutz of the Italian department. Funded with a grant from the Undergra-duate Research Opportunities Program under the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, the project is an investigation into the use of theatre as a tool for foreign language acquisition.

The idea of doing a show in Italian developed during conversations with Ryan-Scheutz, a professor who taught Colangelo both at Notre Dame and during an intensive seven-week summer program at Middlebury College during the summer of 2000.

"The premise of the project is to see how theatrical production can serve as a bridge for the often difficult transition between lower-level language classes and literature courses; a level where many students get frustrated and drop the language," Colangelo said.

The director and faculty advisor starting working together last fall, first researching other studies on the use of theatre in learning a foreign language. Next came the challenging step of choosing a play.

"We needed a production with a good number of evenly distributed parts, one that used physical humor so the audience could easily understand it [even without knowing Italian] and one that used common language, with modern phrases and vocabulary that the actors at this level could use," Colangelo said.

The student director eventually decided on "La Marcolfa," a play she had seen while studying abroad in Florence and had also studied in class at Notre Dame. Tryouts were held around Thanksgiving.

"We advertised in Italian classes and lots of people came out," Colangelo said.

Beyond rehearsals, the cast and crew also underwent oral interviews conducted by Ryan-Scheutz as part of the research for the study. They were given reading selections from another comparable play in order to determine their language level and ability and will go through similar final interviews after the production to assess their progress. Colangelo ultimately hopes to publish these findings in a scholarly journal.

In addition to previous acting experience and work on costume design, Colangelo directed the spring 2000 production of "A Merry Death."

"Directing is my favorite part of theatre," Colangelo said. "I love coordinating the entire artistic vision, being able to look at the finished project and to know I had a part in all of it."

With her double majors, she was able to get the project sponsored by both FTT and the department of Romance Languages and is now earning credit for her work as a FTT Special Studies Project. The 11 members of the cast and crew will also receive one credit for their involvement, but the real benefit of their work comes from the improvement in their language skills, as every aspect of the production is conducted in Italian.

"All the rehearsals, all the warm-ups, every trip off-campus with the [costume and set] designers to get supplies — everything is in Italian," said Colangelo. "The goal here is an immersion experience."

"Overall, it's been tough, but it's really helped my Italian," McGrath said. "It was daunting to memorize my lines, since it's a lot harder to improvise in Italian than in English, but it was a great experience and helped me keep up my language skills."

The six cast members, three scene managers, costume designer and set designer have all reached at least an intermediate level of Italian and Colangelo thinks that the difference in their abilities has helped everyone advance.

"I have seen so much improvement from when we first started," she said. "It's amazing how everyone has caught up," Colangelo said.

"La Marcolfa" marks the first play for the Italian Department and what Colangelo hopes will become a tradition and perhaps even a class for credit like its French counterpart.

"It's exciting to be a part of something so ground-breaking," Colangelo said. "Everyone in the department has been so encouraging, behind us every step of the way."

Support from FTT has also given the designers access to costumes and sets. Colangelo said her double major to thank for this.

"Having a foot in both doors has been really helpful," Colangelo said.

Three performances this weekend will showcase the efforts of the small but dedicated cast and crew. As director, Colangelo is eagerly awaiting to see the audience's reaction.

"The show is so hilarious," Colangelo said. "The stage managers and I are always amazed at how we laugh more and more each time we see it. And after seeing the French play, I realized how much you really can understand, even if you don't know the language."

"La Marcolfa" will be presented Sunday at 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. as well as Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Washington Hall Lab Theatre. Admission is $1. Tickets are available at the door or from the Romance Languages office in 343 O'Shaughnessy Hall. A summary of the show in English will be distributed with the program.

Contact Laura Kelly @ lkelly@nd.edu.

• La Marcolfa