Leo de Berardinis and Perla Peragallo. Biographical note
edited by Donatella Orecchia
Leo de Berardinis was born in Gioi, a village in the region of Cilento (Salerno), in January1940, from Neapolitan parents who soon after moved to Foggia. Once graduated he went to Rome, where he attended the C.U.T. (Centro Universitario Teatrale) starting his training as an actor (diction, text study, body technique, with Giancarlo Cobelli 0and with a pupil of Marceau, Roy Bosier); at the C.U.T. he met Carlo Quartucci and with him he started working for what would be many years.
Leo debuted in1962 with Compagnia della Ripresa at the Teatro Goldoni with the play Me e me, a collection of texts by Jacopone da Todi, Luciano di Samostrata, Leopardi and Beckett, in 1963, still in Beckett’s wake, with Finale di partita (Endgame), and in March 1964 with Aspettando Godot (Waiting for Godot), at the Teatro Stabile of Genoa, at that time directed by Luigi Squarzina. In Genoa the Compagnia della Ripresa changed its name to ‘Teatro Studio’.
In1965, the company Teatro Studio staged Zip Lap Lip Vap Mam Crep Scap Plip Trip Scap & la grande Mam, and presented it at the Festival della Prosa of the Biennale of Venice. De Berardinis’ last work with Quartucci, in 1966, was La fantesca di Giovan Battista Della Porta. At this point he was already thinking of going his own way, thanks to the encounter with Perla Peragallo, who would be his partner in art and in life for a long time.
Documents are published in original language. In case the translation is present, both the original and the translation are published.
Leo de Berardinis e Perla Peragallo, Quaderno di Sudd, in Franco Quadri, L’avanguardia teatrale in Italia (materiali 1960-1976), vol. I, Turin, Einaudi, 1977
Gigi Livio and Ruggero Bianchi, Incontro con Leo De Berardinis e Perla Peragallo, «Quarta parete», 3/4, Stampatori editore, Turin 1977
Stefania Chinzari, «Teatranti ha da passà 'a nuttata», «l'Unità», December 5, 1993
«i quaderni di Santarcangelo, 1», direction by Gianni Manzella, Santarcangelo dei teatri and Maggioli ed., 1994
«i quaderni di Santarcangelo, 2», direction by Gianni Manzella, Santarcangelo dei teatri and Maggioli ed., 1995
Leo de Berardinis and Gianni Manzella,Per un teatro pubblico popolare, «i quaderni di Santarcangelo, 3», Santarcangelo dei teatri and Maggioli ed., 1995
Claudio Meldolesi, Laudatio di Leo de Berardinis per il conferimento della laurea honoris causa in Dams, «Teatro e Storia», n. 23, 2001, pp. 402-4
Donatella Orecchia, Leo de Beradinis e Perla Peragallo teatro come jam session, in Antonio Audino (edited by), Corpi e visioni. Indizi sul teatro contemporaneo, Rome, Artemide, 2007
King Leor, 1996
King Leor is a 1996 documentary about the work of the great actor and director Leo de Berardinis during the rehearsals of the King Lear show. Following many requests, the video is online under Creative Commons license.
Act Without Words II by Samuel Beckett
directed by Carlo Di Carlo, prod. Gruppo Ferranti, 1966
with Cosimo Cinieri and Leo De Berardinis
Teatrography,, edited by Donatella Orecchia