SHOWTIME-There Is No Tomorrow

The following is the second part of a two part article by Frank Taters that will appear in next month's edition of "Figure It Out Later" Magazine.

As I descended the stairs to the theater, I heard several people speaking. It seemed to be more English than Italian. I looked around and there were several other American students, presumably part of the same program as Ari and those in the show. As it was 8:25 I quickly made my way to grab a seat. I would have liked to get there at 8:00 but that gellato is no joke.


There was a good size audience and there was some buzz being generated. Everyone was excited to see their friends on stage and I must admit, I was too. The director/professor of the class went on stage and gave brief introduction of the plays that lasted about five minutes. Then, the lights went out and we began...


The first play was about the three men who were after the father. As there was only one male in the class, two females played the male roles. I was patiently waiting for the arrival of Ari and after 6 minutes he appeared. The curtains were pulled back and there he was in a black cape. It was full length and quite impressive. Ari stood for a second like Batman on a skyscraper and then revealed himself. The three women on stage were quite frightened and after a few lines, ran away. He stood on stage by himself and then gave a brief monologue. Although brief, the solo performance was good and the laughs came at the right time. The rest of the play went very well and nobody, as far as I can tell, messed up the lines.


The second play was the Venetian one and began with 5 women on stage who looked like Jehovah's Witnesses. Midway through the play, the actors on stage changed with those sitting in the front row. Ari switched with a girl and was given a black hat, a bag of lottery tickets and money. I had no idea what was going on in this play because of the dialect. After the women backed out the gambling at the last minute, Ari packed up his briefcase and came into the audience. He asked an audience member to give him a hand with the briefcase and gave money to another. He then yelled to everyone in the audience and asked: who wanted to go with him and place some bets on some roosters. Again, the students had all their lines in order and there were no (obvious) problems.

The third and final play was somewhat different than the previous two in that there was always several people on stage and after every 10 lines or so, everyone on stage would scream "Prima o Poi La Amore arriva" (Before or after love comes)

The highlight BY FAR was when Ari was on stage in the second act. A girl started screaming for help because there was someone in the ocean who couldn't swim and she was drowning. As if he was one of the boys in Stand By Me with the leeches on his body, he ripped off his clothes in about 3.7 seconds. The only thing he was left wearing was long black socks and hot pink boxer briefs. Nothing else. He jumped off stage and ran to the back of the audience. Next thing you know, he is carrying this girl who he just saved from drowning. At this point, the audience was yelling and cameras were flashing. After he stood on stage with his hands on his hips like a super hero the others said their lines and completed the scene. He then gathered up his pile of clothes and went backstage. There were some more comical lines and entertaining gestures throughout the remainder of the play but everyone's mind was on the pink underwear.

Once the students took their final bow and ascended into the crowd to mingle I asked Ari if the underwear act was part of the play "No. Not at all. Today was the first time I did it. When in Italy right?" Yes indeed, when in Italy. Except, I got the feeling that this wouldn't be the last time he would do something like this.

As more group pictures were taken and people congratulated the students on their performance I asked Ari how everyone pulled it together.

"I don't know how everyone did it. Somehow they got it together.To be honest I just focused on one thing the whole time since day one"

"What one thing was that?"

"Just have fun"

Between wearing a black cape and being a vampire, a hustler from Venice, and stripping down to hot pink underwear, I think it is safe to say that we all had fun.