William Costabile Cisco

William G. Costabile Cisco (b. 1983) is an Italian lecturer, dramaturg, director, costume designer and theatrical reviewer. After graduating in Classics (2007) and getting a postgraduate in Roman History (2022), he started his activity as a teacher and lecturer. After a postgraduate in Opera Direction (2015), he started working as an opera director and theatre reviewer.

As a lecturer, his work is mainly oriented toward the permanence of Classics in contemporary arts and literature. His most recent researches focus on gender studies applied to the English drama of the XVII century and to contemporary Italian literature.

As a dramaturg and drama director, he always works beginning from the literary aspects of the dramatic actions; he has studied and worked with Luciano Mastellari (Civica Scuola di Teatro “Paolo Grassi” of Milan), Ilaria Salonna (acknowledged Italian disciple of Anatolij Vasil’ev), Arkadiusz Rogozinski (acknowledged Polish disciple of Eugenio Barba). He debuted in 2003 with Hippolytus by Euripides (resumed in 2017), and later chose to bring in stage other ancient titles (Children of Heracles, 2008; Antigone, 2015) and plays of American contemporary dramatists (Steel magnolias by Robert Harling in 2004, The house of Yes by Wendy McLeod, premiered in Italy in 2005 and resumed in 2012, Suddenly, last summer by Tennessee Williams in 2005, resumed in 2018, The crucible by Arthur Miller in 2019).

As an opera director and costume designer, his works originates from the necessary historical and cultural context of the dramaturgy, paying attention to both the musical and the textual aspects. He studied and worked with Gianfranco De Bosio, Marco Gandini, Leo Muscato, Pierfrancesco Maestrini, Vincenzo Raponi, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Denis Krief, Davide Livermore, Alberto Jona. He feels comfortable working both with contemporary original productions (Donna di veleni and Cinque cerchi in un quadrato, Novara, 2020) and with belcanto (L’elisir d’amore, Spain, 2023) and verismo (La Bohème and Turandot, Rome, 2015). In 2016 he designed the costumes for the project of La traviata winning the Virginia Zeani Award in Turin. His next production as a director will include La sonnambula (Spain, 2024) and Die Zauberflöte (Spain, 2025), all in partnership with Opera Co-Pro.

As a drama and opera reviewer he writes for gbopera.it the oldest and most preeminent Italian online magazine of opera and drama.