The Love of Three Oranges: A Play for the Theatre That Takes the Commedia Dell'arte of Carlo Gozzi and Updates It for the New Millennium [Paperback]

Hillary DePiano (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 2003

Based on a scenario by Carlo Gozzi and inspired by his original project, The Love of Three Oranges is a wild raucous slapstick comedy. A comedy in three acts. Prince Tartaglia's life is filled with misery until an evil witch and her equally evil henchmen concoct a plan to kill him by sending him on a quest for three giant oranges. This quest, however, soon proves more fruitful than he could have imagined. Once he leaves the sheltered world of the castle he finds a friend in a clown, love in an orange, and most of all laughter in everything he meets. Throw in witches, wizards, princesses, an effeminate unionized devil, a few ferocious inanimate objects, melodramatic monarchs and a wild narrator who isn't sure how far removed from the story he is and what you have in the end is a flurry of comedy, parody, and quality.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

From the dusty annals of theatre history and the rich traditions of commedia dell’arte comes a brand new version of a classic story. Based on a scenario by Carlo Gozzi and inspired by his original project, The Love of Three Oranges is a wild raucous slapstick comedy completely reworked, revised, retooled and redone for today’s audiences. For anyone who has searched for a more accessible version of this classic text and found that it has indeed become a "musty old narrative," you will find that this Oranges has a little bit of everything to tickle either your funny bone or inner scholar. A comedy in three acts by Hillary DePiano.

About the Author

Hillary DePiano has been selling on eBay and other auction sites since 1997. An avid collector of Muppet memorabilia, My Little Pony, She-Ra, and other 80's toys, she soon found how profitable selling on eBay could be and has enjoyed a career as both a Trading Assistant and PowerSeller. On weekends, Ms. DePiano can be found scouring flea markets across the tri-state area (not to mention her attic) for deals and treasures to sell on eBay. In addition to her books about eBay which include The Seller Ledger, The Trading Assistant's Assistant and eBay Shipping Secrets, she is also the author of the play The Love of Three Oranges, and the collectibles guides The My Little Pony Collector's Inventory, and The She-Ra Collector's Inventory . Ms. DePiano currently resides in New Jersey.

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Priced Nostalgia Press (October 20, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1411602250
• ISBN-13: 978-1411602250
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,560,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hillary DePiano is a fiction and non-fiction author and blogger best know for her play, The Love of Three Oranges which has been performed in theatres around the world and her novella, The Author. She is also an avid vintage toy collector and has authored a guide to both My Little Pony toys and She-Ra: Princess of Power action figures and for Priced Nostalgia Press's Collector's Inventory series of price guides.

Hillary's fiction work has been honored on several occasions and she has received the following prizes and honors over her career:

* 2002 C. Willard Smith Award for Creativity in Theatre for writing and directing The Love of Three Oranges
* Won the 2001 Julia Fonville Smithson Memorial Prize for The Author
* Won the 2001 West Branch Literary Prize for Fiction for The Author

Hillary writes about writing and her daily life in Unpublishable Pennings, her personal blog.

Hillary is also an eBay PowerSeller and Trading Assistant and has extensive experience in the world of buying and selling online. She shares her experiences in publishing, marketing, blogging, buying and selling on sites like eBay, Amazon, Lulu and more through her books, eBooks and her e-commerce blog, The Whine Seller.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally! An accessible version of this text!, November 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Love of Three Oranges: A Play for the Theatre That Takes the Commedia Dell'arte of Carlo Gozzi and Updates It for the New Millennium (Paperback)

I have been teaching this play in my high school level Drama class for quite a while and had grown just a little tired of students not reading it and insisting it was too boring and out of date. As frustrating as it was as an educator, I also couldn?t help but feel there must be a better way to present this great story without it being bogged down in jokes so old you need a footnote on every line. I began asking my colleagues if anyone knew of a better version. Several years later, I?d still had no luck. (Word to the wise, the DiGaetani version, which seems to be one of the more modern, is pretty awful. It must have lost a good deal in the translation for not only is it not that funny, but it?s also rather disjointed and poorly written.) A friend of mine had seen this play produced at Bucknell University at Lewisburg, PA in 2002 and was very impressed with that version both in terms of the story line and the comedy. She had recommended that I find out what edition that director had used. It turned out that the director had the same problem with finding a good version of the text and had decided to re-write the play herself and that her version was currently available on Amazon and BN. Once I finally had the opportunity to read this version myself I was amazed at the difference the text had in DePiano?s hands. The story line is a bit different than the original, I don?t want to say too much to give it away, but it?s taken on a sort of fractured fairy tale feeling with characters and plots gone awry. (The Speaker of the Prologue is now the Narrator and he quickly became my favorite character!) It is simply wonderful! Not only is the story engaging and the characters far better developed than in any previous version I had read, but the play is very very funny. It is a full playtext, not a scenario, and while there is still plenty of room for improvisation, there is a structure to the narrative which makes it easier to use as a text for classroom study. I handed out this version in class a few weeks ago and, for a glorious change, every last one of them not only read it this time: they loved it! A few of them have been pestering me do it as our straight play next fall! I have to admit it would be an excellent choice for not only is it a great ensemble piece, it also has many roles that could switch easily from male to female and back again (always a plus when the gender balance is skewed as it is in our school). I have never written a review on Amazon before and I apologize if I am gushing a bit, but after so long a search, it is wonderful to finally find such an accessible version of this text to teach my class! Rest assured that this is the best version of the versions out there!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny Play, November 14, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Love of Three Oranges: A Play for the Theatre That Takes the Commedia Dell'arte of Carlo Gozzi and Updates It for the New Millennium (Paperback)

: My daughter was in a performance of this play a few years ago. I don't know anything about commedia dell'arte or anything about theatre history related. She is the one who knows all that. I am just Mom. ;-) Because she acts I end up seeing a lot of plays. I do know that this was one of the funniest plays I have seen in a long time. I was more entertained than I was at some Broadway shows! I laughed the entire time. It was just perfect lighthearted fare but still had some very clever story telling going on. I guess it's a compliment to the writer that I had no idea until I was told afterwards that this play was many centuries old!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great new version, December 22, 2004

By 

Annie Broadwater (Cary, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Love of Three Oranges: A Play for the Theatre That Takes the Commedia Dell'arte of Carlo Gozzi and Updates It for the New Millennium (Paperback)

Hillary DePiano's adaptation of The Love of Three Oranges is hilarious and fun. Better yet, it is a more accessible version that is easier for students to understand and relate to. Everyone should read this comedy.

I don't understand why Amazon is charging so much for this title. Sites like ebay, lulu.com and even the author's own website (hillarydepiano.com) all have it for under ten dollars.