Chapter I · 2017 – present
Love Is Blonde
TPE / Teatro Astra, Turin
Based on the novel Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates. A theatrical reckoning with the woman behind the myth of Marilyn Monroe, developed in New York as Cursed.
The story
A gift becomes a play
It began with a gift: Joyce Carol Oates granted the rights to adapt her novel Blonde for the stage. Love Is Blonde turned seven hundred pages of Marilyn Monroe into three acts — Norma Jeane and the icon she became, seen for the first time through an Italian woman’s eyes.
After a first staged reading in New York, the play premiered in Italy at TPE / Teatro Astra in Turin, directed by Cristina Pezzoli with the support of Fondazione CRT.
Credits
- Written by
- Argia Coppola
- Based on the novel Blonde by
- Joyce Carol Oates
- Directed by
- Cristina Pezzoli
- Costume design
- Irina Shabayeva
- Marilyn
- Vera Dragone
- Norma Jeane
- Silvia Giulia Mendola
- Produced by
- Fondazione TPE · Fondazione CRT
Development
The journey of the work
2012
A journey to New York plants the idea of bringing Blonde to the stage.
2013
First letters to Joyce Carol Oates, who grants the exclusive stage rights for Italy and the United States.
2014
A work-in-progress version is presented at the University of Oxford; the first table reading in New York follows two months later.
2017
Italian premiere at TPE / Teatro Astra in Turin, November 30 – December 3, directed by Cristina Pezzoli.
2018
Forbes tells the project’s story: “From Marilyn Monroe to MeToo”.
May 2023
First industry reading at the Roxy Cinema, New York, directed by the author.
On stage
Production photographs
Interested in this work?
Scripts, press, and production materials are available on request.