We were lucky to catch up with Federica Borlenghi recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Federica , thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

One of the most meaningful projects I worked on was “Reminiscence”, a community-based project I curated this past spring. Earlier this year, I received a phone call by Vittorio Capotorto, founding Artistic Director at Italytime Cultural Center, a non for profit based in the heart of the West Village. I volunteered there for a few years while I was in College, and eventually was hired to produce and creative direct a few events here and there. Vittorio announced that the center was finally reopening after a long hiatus due to the pandemic. He commissioned me to write and direct a piece to put up in the spring. For a while, I’ve been wanting to write about the International and bilingual experience. So I thought… what if I gathered 6 international women, and wrote a piece inspired by our conversations? I wanted the project to surround a key aspect of living abroad: gaining fluency in a new language at the expense of your mother tongue.

I can’t quite express the relief, solidarity and empowerment that I felt in those months. Sharing a space with a group in which to the question “Have you ever experienced…?” no matter where we grew up, what our culture or our first language was, the answer was always “Yes! And…!”. We covered several topics, such as linguistic barriers and struggles, cultural expression and familial separation. I then conceived and wrote fictional versions of each actress, and started to write a story about the complex and intricate reality that is existing between places called “home”.

The script was completed only two weeks before the final presentation. I may have not known what the it was going to look like until the very end, but I had very strong images and artistic ideas I wanted to include in the piece. So I decided to trust my instincts and start from there. I knew that the climax of the piece was going to be a dance piece. So I partnered up with Julia D’Angelo, brilliant dancer and choreographer, and I shared with her specific direction for a choreography. She then taught it to the cast, and our brilliant music director, Judette Budden, composed a piece off of it. So then, I had to make sure to curate a story that would lead up to that and resolve from it. The team was gloriously patient and trustworthy with bearing with the unconventionality of the process. I believe that it’s what made this piece so unique and special to me.

The piece had a lovely turnaround, and I am aching to witness and share more international stories on pages and stages.

Federica , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an Italian-born multidisciplinary artist. I was born and raised in Milan, Italy, and moved to NYC in 2015. My education is rooted in the visual arts and in the digital universe, but I always had a profound adoration for the performing arts. I went to music school and acting school in my youth, and used to never leave my house without my camera. I decided to pursue an education in the Dramatic Arts, to learn how to better communicate with actors and designers, and become a better collaborator. I have been working for the past years in New York as director, creative producer, playwright, production assistant, carpenter, stage hand, stage manager, costume and prop designer! I care to have a deep understanding of what each artist and their production role exactly entails. I believe it’s my strongest asset as a director. I am mostly known in my community to direct my own pieces. My multimedia background definitively influences the way I present my productions, which are always heavily saturated in tech elements. Yet, my goal is to manage to make them intimate and relatable to any audience member.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn – correction, I am still attempting to unlearn – that my worth and success as an artist is measured by the amount of work I am producing and sharing. I partially blame it on the capitalistic culture we live in, partially on College, social media, being an international artist (I obtained a O-1 Visa, and I need to ensure that I have enough working/artistic credits to maintain my status), and partially my own ego. One positive thing I’ve learnt from the past years, it’s to slow down, take one step at the time and trust the process. Less is truly so much more. The quality of my life and of my work definitively increased since I’ve been making an effort to remind myself of it and practice it.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Focusing on the members that are already part of my community. Networking and meeting people is definitively a huge part of my job. For a while, I was overwhelmingly eager to expand my army of collaborators. I thought that couldn’t achieve my goals because I was lacking resources, people being one of them. My aspirations and artistic desires started seeming obtainable and realistic only in the moment that I turned towards the people that were already in my circle. Reminiscence is great example! Of a team of 12 artists, I had previously worked with only 4 of them. I knew I wanted by my side my most trusted collaborator, Playwright and Producer Covi Loveridge Brannan, and Clara Wiest, Movement Director whom I had the pleasure of working with on numerous occasions. The only member of the cast that I had directed before was Maria Müller, whom I had no doubt I wanted to include in the project, given her ferocious talent and the trust I have in her as an artist and a friend. All the other cast and team members were people I barely knew, but I had intriguing connections and exchanges with over the years. I thought, why not trusting my instincts and following my gut? I was lucky enough that all of the people I first reached out to were interested and available… and it turned out to be one of the best productions I got to be a part of.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://federicaborlenghi.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fedeborlenghi/

Image Credits
Personal Flower Portrait photo credit: Amani David White background photo credit: David Charles Hopper All stage pictures are taken by me, Federica Borlenghi, Lighting Design by Adrian Yuen