Quick Change Artists

Ennio Marchetto
is a world renowned and awarded comedian who has 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 has received numerous awards and international critical acclaim.



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 current favorites 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 a 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 who by now were in his repertoire like Prince, George Michael and Björk. A 4 month 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 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 prize in Barcelona.

full text in: www.enniomarchetto.com
http://www.myspace.com/enniomarchetto

Other quick change artists: