Procession from The Bacchae

Performance

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES

THU, APR 4, 2024, 7pm
“The Love Boat—Smooth Sailing or Rocky Seas?”
Odyssey Storytelling
Bella is co-curator with Ethel Lee-Miller
The Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St., Tucson / $15
Contact Odyssey if you’d like to tell a story on this or another of this season’s themes.

Stay tuned for announcements of new performances!

»PAST PERFORMANCES

ARIELA, LLC can arrange for lively, dynamic Performances of ancient Greek or modern poetry and drama, performed by Company President, Bella Vivante, alone or in conjunction with others. These Performances can be for small or large groups, in salon or theatre settings or open air.

Some examples of performance themes:

Bella Vivante as Mother in “Women, Marriage and the Family

Bella Vivante as Mother in “Women, Marriage and the Family” Paideia Project DVD.

  • Homer, selections from Iliad or Odyssey that focus on
    • Certain characters, like Akhilleus, Hektor, Odysseus, Helen, Penelope
    • Certain themes, like warfare, heroism, images of warriors, women or deities
  • Selections from any of the three great tragedians—Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides
    • Plays like Agamemnon, The Persians, Oedipus Tyrannos, Antigone, Helen, Medea, The Bacchae
    • Themes like warfare, heroism, women’s roles, concepts of deities
  • Selections from the great ancient comic playwright Aristophanes
    • Plays like Lysistrata, The Birds, The Frogs
    • Themes like warfare, heroism, women’s roles, concepts of deities
  • Selections from ancient and modern poets and writers on these and other themes

»Contact Bella if you have an idea for a performance and/or to BOOK A PERFORMANCE

PAST PERFORMANCES
STORYTELLING
Odyssey Storytelling Programs
“Karma” – NOV 12, 2020 (curator)
“Second Chances” – NOV 7, 2019 (co-curated with Ethel Lee-Miller)
“Magical” – JAN 3, 2019
“Mythic” – APR 5, 2018
“Passing” – NOV 5, 2015
“Lonely Journeys” – FEB 5, 2015
“Monsters Under the Bed” – JAN 10, 2013
“Stories from the Borderlands” – MAR 5, 2012
»Check out podcasts and videos of some of these performances at Odyssey Storytelling.
Tellers of Tales
Tellabration: “The Story of the Chest” – NOV 24, 2019
“Dem Ancient Greek Bones” – OCT 5, 2019
“A Tribute to Deborah” – AUG 3, 2019
“The Little Girl Who Ran Away” adapted from Leslie Marmon Silko’s Storyteller – MAR 2, 2019
Tellabration: “The Story of the Chest” – NOV 18, 2018
»Learn more at the Tellers of Tales site
Boom Goddess Radio Podcast
THEATER
  • Judith Keith in Bertolt Brecht’s The Jewish Wife, Bennett Theatre Lab & Conservatory Showcase, Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre, Dec 2023
  • Martina in You Can Bake!, Eight Tens in Tucson, Winding Road Theater Ensemble, March 2021
  • Townswoman, Dream Candle in Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre, NOV–DEC 2020
  • Prospero monologue from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, FEB 2020, Bennett TheatreLab & Conservatory Winter 2020 Festival Showcase
  • Townswoman in Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms, MAR 2020
  • Protagonist Kate in Borderlands Theater’s 21st annual A Tucson Pastorela, DEC 2017. A lively, dynamic, comedic, family-friendly yet somewhat bawdy spoof on the year’s events, framed within a traditional Southwest version of the Christmas story. My joyous return to acting on the Tucson stage, and looking forward to many more.
  • Thucydides Dramaticus I and II, Athens, Greece, 2016-17. Contemporary dramatization of select scenes from ancient historian Thucydides’ account of the Peloponnesian War, by Greek playwright John Lignadis, director Yannis Panagopoulos (and Elena Kamilari 2016). Originally performed at Aiskhylia summer festival in Eleusis by 36 Greek theatre students, 6 diverse American students, 2 Turkish women and 1 Chinese woman studying at UCLA. This fantastic program, the Theatre of War, has since been performed at Karolos Koun and National Theatre companies, schools and universities.
    »Learn more at war.dramaticus.org
  • Mother, protagonist in Women, Marriage and the Family in Ancient Greece. Dir. Len Lennergard, Paideia Project DVD
POETRY READINGS
Homerathon
Annual readings of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, UA Classics Club sponsors.
Kaleidoscopic Helen
Dramatic Readings of Ancient Greek & Modern Poetry That Reveal the Many Faces of Ancient Helen” – 4 performances with Bill Burnett, February, May 2014.
Bella Vivante and Mustafa Ozcan as Helen and Paris, Troy, Turkey, photo by Robert Cox

Bella Vivante and Mustafa Ozcan as Helen and Paris, Troy, Turkey, photo by Robert Cox