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Ennio Marchetto

Ennio Marchetto photographed by Greg Gorman
Born:	20, February, 1960 Venice, Italy
Occupation:	Stage comedian
Website:	http://enniomarchetto.com/

Ennio Marchetto is a world renowned and awarded comedian who created his own theatrical language mixing mime, dance, music and quick change costumes made out of card-board and paper. In 18 years Ennio has performed in over 70 countries for more than a million people. His show was awarded with numerous awards and international critical acclaim.

Ennio was born on February 20, 1960 in Venice Italy, next door to Carlo Goldoni's house. As a child, Disney cartoons were his first sources of inspiration when making cut-out dolls for his little sister or decoration for the Christmas tree. Growing up, the Carnival of Venice and theatre shows and workshops by Lindsay Kemp but also dance shows by Pina Bausch inspired him to create a show himself.

In the beginning of the 1980's Ennio used to make extravagant costumes and masks for the then restarting carnival. At that time he worked in his fathers espresso machine repair shop in Venice. Everybody thought he would continue the family tradition, except Ennio. While working he would daydream all the time. In one of these daydreams Ennio had a vision of Marilyn Monroe dressed in paper. That same day he made his first paper costume which he used to amuse friends and family at home and people in the street during the carnival, in 1988 he was awarded for his efforts with a Golden Lion at the Venetian entertainment festival. Other paper characters would follow only after a few years. With only a few characters ready, he presented himself at the Zanzara d'Oro (the Golden Mosquito), a yearly competition for new comedians. Ennio won the first prize and started to appear in TV programmes and in cabarets. He also started to work on more characters and was thinking of creating his own theatre show.

His first attempt was a play written and directed by Daniele Sala. It was about the life of the "trasformista" Leopoldo Fregoli, a quick change artist who was very famous around 1900. In this show Ennio would recite, sing and do his quick transformations in paper. Immediately he realised that this was not the kind of show he wanted to do and after only 4 performances he decided to stop.

It was after that last performance he met up with Sosthen Hennekam, a fashion and costume designer, who was invited by friends to see Ennio's play. The long time collaboration started, Sosthen added new Origami quick-change techniques and other improvements, and after a few months Ennio and Sosthen had created enough paper costumes to do a one hour show. Starting at the "Festa d'Unità" in and around Bologna, the show was an instant hit. More TV appearances and dates in other parts of Italy where the result.

A year later, the London based manager and producer Glynis Henderson saw a video of the show and asked Ennio if he was interested in performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Ennio decided to give it a try, but half the show was made up with Italian characters who were completely unknown abroad.

In only 2 weeks 18 new characters were created, including now favourites like Queen Elizabeth II / Freddie Mercury, Tina Turner and the Venus de Milo. The first days in Edinburgh were very hard. With only a handful of people in the theatre, Ennio would have rather been in Venice: But then the first reviewer, Malcolm Hay from Time Out, came to see the show and wrote a raving review and encouraged all other reviewers to go and see the show. A few days later the show was sold out for the whole run and Ennio became the cult hit of the festival. Things started to move very quickly and in 1994, after several UK tours, West-end runs and international festivals, Ennio and Sosthen were nominated for "Best entertainment" at London's Laurence Olivier Awards That same year Granada Television made an one hour documentary called "Celebrations, Paper Marilyn" about Ennio's life and career.

A year later Ennio appeared at the first European MTV Music Awards in Berlin, together with several stars which by now were in his repertoire like Prince, George Michael and Björk. A 4 months run in Paris' Théàtre de Grévin an international tour with pop group Erasure in Germany and a show at the Radio City Music Hall in NY are only a few of the international engagements. In 1995 he received a Performance d'acteur award in Cannes and in 1996 he was awarded the Sebastia Gasch award in Barcelona.

In 1998 Ennio was asked to perform with the Spice Girls, Bryan Adams and other artists for HRH Prince Charles during the annual Royal Variety Show, broadcast by the BBC. That same year he did a private show for the Dutch royal family on the birthday of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

For his off-Broadway run in 1999, Ennio was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Shows in San Francisco and Los Angeles followed. In L.A. the show won the Garland award.

In the summer of 2001 he was asked to perform at Elton John's "White Tie and Tiara Ball", an important Aids benefit Gala which is held every year at Elton John's estate in Oxfordshire. In 2002 Ennio joined sir Elton John and José Carreras for an exclusive performance on the Seven Seas Mariner. He toured extensively in Italy, with runs at the Ciak in Milano, Il Parioli in Rome, l'Arena del Sole in Bologna. He also performed for 6 weeks at the Capitol Theatre in Barcelona and performed on several Prime Time TV programs.

In 2003 Ennio returned to the UK and Ireland with a sell-out tour. He performed on the "Live Floor Show" on BBC2. In Italy he appeared on the highly popular TV show "Uno di Noi" by Gianni Morandi on Rai Uno. A 2 month run in Berlin and Hamburg, a sell out return to L.A. His show also reopened the Napa Opera House in the Napa Valley, where all 3 weeks were sold out.

2004 saw Ennio returning to Germany and Edinburgh, premiering in Amsterdam with a sold out month of shows at the historic Nieuwe de la Mar theatre and also in Palm Beach, Florida, at the Cuilllo Centre of the Arts. He performed together with Nancy Sinatra, the New York Dolls, Sparks at Morrissey's Meltdown festival at the South Bank Centre in London. Ennio perfomed for the second time on the Royal Variety Show in London.

2005 started with a special Eurovision television broadcast of Hans Christian Andersen's bi-centenary at the Parken stadium in Copenhagen. In front of the Danish royalties and an audience of 40.000, Ennio performed specially created characters to celebrate the Danish writer. Other guests included Olivia Newton-John, Tina Turner, Isabel Allende, Jean Michel Jarre and sir Roger Moore. He premiered with many new French characters at the Auditorium Saint Germain in Paris, and returned to Paris at La Cigale during the Winter. He also appeared on the French Tv show of Patrick Sebastien and the highly popular Star Académie. The show returned to the USA; Los Angeles, Napa Valley and Austin. Also, there were a series of shows in Hong Kong, Singapore, Mannheim, Dusseldorf and Berlin.

2006 started with a continuation of his success in Berlin, an extensive tour in Italy including a 3 week run in Rome and a return to his home town of Venice for a special week of carnival performances at the Goldoni theatre. He also performed at various charity events around the world. His show became the summer hit at the Berkeley Repertory Theater. He ended 2006 with a sell-out run in Rome and a special Christmas engagement at London's South Bank Centre with a show full of new characters, including Lily Allen, Boy George cleaning the streets and a Gnarls Barkley "Crazy" Vincent Van Gogh.

In 2007 he will be touring Italy, a return to Berlin and New Zealand but also Dubai, the Netherlands and the USA.

Ennio is appearing frequently on the cult TV program Markette on Italy's La7.

• Ennio Marchetto's official web site
• Ennio Marchetto at the Internet Movie database