Francesca Spedalieri is a director, deviser, movement specialist, and translator who is fascinated by the different languages we each speak and embody. She directed for the University of Florida New Works Festival (Somewhere America), Ohio State main stage season (Real Women Have Curves), and the Lab Series (The Other Side: a car movement piece). She curated the movement direction of Where the Southern Cross the Dog for the 2014 Available Light Next Stage Initiative and co-choreographed the dance theater piece Crossing. She has worked as an assistant director for The Builders Association and the Italian Ensemble Teatro Instabile.
Francesca is currently pursuing a PhD in History, Literature, and Criticism at Ohio State. Her scholarly research focuses on contemporary Italian theatre, physical theatre, and intermedial theatre. Her research projects have combined archival research with interviews of Italian scholars and theater practitioners. In 2010, Francesca received the William Case Kramer Fellowship that enabled her to work on an international research project on the Italian theater of the twenty-first century. Her dissertation continues her research on the theatre of Emma Dante and contemporary Italian women directors during the Berlusconi Era. She has written articles for TheatreForum on The Builders Association and on the theatre of Emma Dante. She spearheaded the Emma Dante Project at The Ohio State University that brought Emma Dante’s company to Columbus, Ohio, for their North American premiere in September 2014. Other events of the Emma Dante Project included a symposium and an exhibition on Dante’s work.