Tag Archives: Dominic Missimi

The Sarah Siddons Society bestowed its 2021 Leading Man Award upon local theater luminary Dominic Missimi. The society funds scholarships to promising theater arts students at top Chicago-area universities, including the Theater Department at Columbia College, Theatre School at DePaul University, Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and Northwestern University School of Communications. Missimi is professor emeritus at Northwestern University. Founder and former director of the university’s nationally recognized Music Theatre Program, he recently retired as executive director of the American Music Theatre Project, which he founded. He has also served as director of the famed WAA-MU student …

Agostino Dessi is one of the premier mask makers in Italy. For more than 50 years, he has fashioned magnificent facial adornments in celebration of Carnevale in Venice as well as Commedia dell’Arte, a 500-year-old tradition of improvised theater in Italy. I recently had the opportunity to meet Agostino in the mask workshop of his daughter, Alice. Dubbed Alice’s Masks, it is located at Via Faenza 72R in central Florence, not far from the Central Market and San Lorenzo Church. A visit to the shop offers a wonderful perspective on the street theater of Italy. Perhaps a raucous Commedia company …