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Few Italian actresses have had the honor of playing the role of Madame Butterfly abroad. The multi-faceted Sicilian actress Sebina Montagno is undoubtedly one of the few privileged ones. Sebina played the protagonist of the great Puccini’s opera, staged virtually from January 10th to 19th, sponsored by the prestigious “New World Stages” of New York. The direction of the prose revisitation of one of Puccini’s most complex and profound works has been entrusted to the American director Vincent Vittorio. A versatile and enthralling artist, who has made daring and inconceivable creative experimentation his flag of identification.

The actress gave our editorial staff a glimpse into her personal experiences: “Vincent is one of those few outstanding and brilliant personalities, constantly hungry for art and tirelessly looking for new challenges and extraordinary goals to achieve. Working with him is exciting to say the least; I would venture to say almost dreamlike. He has a respect for art and for actors in a broad sense which, I must admit, I have only found in a few personalities of his caliber. Unrestricted creative space and a deep understanding of the needs of the actors are priority elements for him. An online performance of such a coveted role was arduous for me, representing a great challenge. Vittorio bet on my artistic flair, entrusting such a complex role to an Italian actress with a Sicilian accent and with insecurities regarding American pronunciation. In Italy I had already interpreted an interesting Madame Butterfly directed by Adelmo Togliani, but you can understand that here the role and context are completely different. Today I can blissfully admit that the gamble taken by a great director like Vincent Vittorio has paid off; Madame Butterfly has been a great success with the public and I can only be honored and delighted to have contributed to this splendid journey".

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The Sicilian actress Sebina Montagno was directed by the director Vlad Feier (The Premonition, The Intruder and Still Here) as part of the theatrical performance “The Train”, staged through live streaming curated by the prestigious “Stages 42 Theater” of New York. It was broadcasted live from September 1st to 14th. Sebina played the role of Caterina, an Italian-American in love with a ruthless New York mafia boss. Sebina delves deeper into “The Train” in this candid interview:

Sebina, tell us who is Caterina?

“It is 1924. Caterina is a rigid woman, she’s unique. A career woman, the daughter of Italian immigrants but now perfectly integrated into the social and cultural life of the Big Apple. Her life, quiet and orderly, is soon disrupted after meeting a boss of the New York mafia who sets fire to the city of at the end of the year.”

And, Who's the mystery man?

"The man Caterina falls in love with is Aldo Genna, an unscrupulous personality. He initially succeeds in deceiving Caterina herself, hiding behind the facade of the decent Made in Italy entrepreneur, honest and loyal. His managerial talent would finally find the worthy recognition in one of the most meritocratic societies in the world, the United States!"

So, tell us what happens when Catherine finds out the truth about the mafia boss?

"Catherine embarks on a journey to discover the backwoods and the rot behind the New York underworld clans of the 1990s. Without giving away the plot I will say that her entire story is a true historical epic, capable of giving us a raw and disarming retrospective of what were perhaps the most devastating years, from this point of view, for the United States in general and for the city of New York in particular. It is a visceral and bloody examination that only a great director like Vlad could have perfected, assisting it with an equally unique and engaging subplot. It reveals the story of a deep love affair capable of putting a powerful man, affiliated for years to the mafia clans of the city, in crisis".

Is there a happy ending?

"Yes, there is a beautiful and happy ending!"

How was it working with Vlad Feier?

"Vlad is very much like my Caterina, he is a rigid man and unique, just like her. This element has been a great advantage and a comforting artistic refuge for me, especially in light of the challenges that theatrical work faces in today’s virtual world. Working with real professionals like Vlad Feier gives you that rare opportunity to build a creative process that is free from any kind of subordination and directorial barriers. He gave me the rare opportunity to privately and personally explore all the emotional folds that such a complex and contradictory character, like Caterina's, is capable of containing within itself. And I have to admit, it's been a wonderful and puzzlingly intimate journey."

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Sebina Montagno played the Italian Costanza in the short film "HunnyBuns", directed by New Yorker John Connor Hammond, to be released next month. The short film, which premiered last June at the prestigious "Brooklyn Film Festival", has already won the important critics' award in the "shorts" section.

"The filming took place last year, at the end of 2019. I had so much fun playing Costanza. She is a clumsy Italian-American with a phobia of cockroaches. So much so that she’s fears going to an old church in New York to attend her cousin's wedding. She’s terrorized that she may run into the terrible beast menacingly hiding in the holes and crevices of the old cathedral. She’s a really intriguing and might I say congruent character. Hunnybuns has been a fun journey, a beautiful story with light and ironic notes. But which aims to explore, at the same time, the fragility and fears of the new generations”. These were the words of the Sicilian actress for our editorial staff.

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The Sicilian actress Sebina Montagno played the role of Anna, in the play "Grey", directed by the American director Anthony Grippa, on stage from May 4th to 17th, through online performances sponsored by the prestigious "Lucille Lortel Theater" of New York. The title itself evokes intrigue and mystery. The well-known American director coveted to create a dramaturgy about spirituality within an American university. Anthony selected a rather mixed group of young actors; the performers came from both the United States and Europe.

In an interview, Sebina talks to us about her impressions: "Working with Anthony has been stimulating and fun. It made me feel like I was back in the theater, like the pre-Covid times. Grippa is a creative person in all respects who loves to change course even when everything seems to have already been planned. Yes, even in the reproduction phase! Anthony is, in fact, able to abruptly change the setting of a scene and doesn’t shy from upsetting the scene itself. With him you always have to be ready for anything and as far as I’m concerned, the watchword is only one; relax!”

We asked Sebina about her experience working with such a diverse set of actors: “Working virtually with such a mixed and multi-faceted group of performers was certainly one of the most exciting experiences of my life. At the beginning we had to work hard to calibrate and balance the group but, without false modesty, I have to admit that we were pretty good at amalgamating our differences and expectations. Collaborating and flowing as if we came together with the beat of a single energetic rhythm. In it, each of us felt free and inspired to make our own creative contribution. Moreover, working with a complex subject such as spirituality requires a certain tenaciousness and an inner malleability not easy to achieve. But I must say, the grace with which Anthony guided us throughout this project and the lightness he maintained was the ultimate trump card in executing the spectacle our audience loved so much!”

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Sicilian actress Sebina Montagno played the role of Giada Maniace, in the theatrical performance "Green Tea", directed by Italian-American director Matteo Servente. The performance was staged through live streaming and broadcasted from April 18 to 24. Produced and sponsored by the "Roundabout Theatre" in New York, "Green Tea" is an inner journey to discover those perverse mental mechanisms, which often subjugate many women, trapping them in a figurative cage of violence only psychological and never physical. The protagonist, Giada Maniace, is a young Sicilian woman who immigrated to the United States at the behest of a "master husband" whom she is obligated to marry by her family. Giada is bewildered, alone and becomes subordinate to this unscrupulous man, unable to rebel, despite being endowed with a unique soul and intelligence. What makes a brilliant woman incapable of rebellion? What mental mechanisms are triggered in her? And what goes on in the mind of the subjugator?

This is the challenge undertaken by Matteo Servente, in the dramaturgical construction of one of the most complex and detailed works about a theme that is still so controversial.

"Matteo accompanied me on a journey to discover those complex and unique inner selves, often caught up in mechanisms much larger than themselves; I must admit that it was a tiring, visceral, but wonderful and a deeply honest journey. It was a challenging artistic path, which allowed me to measure myself against intricate and painful female realities and worlds. And communicating that psychological struggle and raw ache through an online medium certainly did not facilitate the process ", this is how the young Sicilian performer commented on the work that saw her engaged alongside one of the most appreciated Made in Italy directors in the American theatre scene.

Matteo, in fact, has directed shorts and plays of great success. To name a few: “The Little Soap”, “La Sirena” and the TV series “Spent Saints & Other Stories”. Servente directed the award-winning short films “il La” and “Part of Your Heart”, and co-directed the feature film “The Romance of Loneliness”. With his latest film, “No Sleeps”, he became a member of the Biennale Cinema College and IFP. In 2017, he became the first director to win two Best of Awards with two different films (“We Go On” and “An Accidental Drowning”) at the Indie Memphis Film Festival.

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February 18, 2021.The Sicilian actress Sebina Montagno has reached another great milestone with her role as one of the protagonists of the American film “Jack Zero”, directed by Italian director Maximilian Law, and currently in pre-production.

We asked Sebina to tell us a bit about the movie and its character: “Jack Zero is a big bet for me. The film recounts the adventures of Duncan Quinn, a nighttime superintendent with a complicated life. Duncan has a conflictual relationship with his daughter, a depressed alcoholic, a relationship that becomes more and more complicated when Duncan’s wife dies. My character is Asset Beta 203. Asset represents the mind and arm of the nocturnal Duncan; The woman is a hero just like Duncan. The two face numerous adversities together to achieve a single great goal, that is to make this world a peaceful place. I don’t want to give away too much about the movie, you shall find out more once you watch it!! What I can say is that I found a wonderful and attentive working group, highly professional and specialized. Right now, we’re in pre-production, so it’s a tour de force of testing and technical details. In this delicate phase of working in a new performance, having a solid and compact crew which is ready to help you at any time and for anything provides a big support for all of us. Maximilian Law is an Italian like me, this helped create a harmony and a creative sensibility with him. In short, I can’t wait to tell you more about this new adventure, but for the moment that’s it!”

We of the editorial staff can’t wait to learn more!! We are enthusiastically waiting for the final release of Jack Zero, how about you?

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