The Word Made Alive

Years before the Bible was canonized, people told the stories around fires and in homes that we now read in the scriptures. Biblical storytelling takes a two-dimensional “reading” of the scripture and turns it into a three-dimensional ”telling” of the story.

Davide Bardi and Paola Balbi, are the Artistic Directors of Raccontamiunastoria (Tell Me A Story). They will perform three times over the weekend of April 24 - 26. They have told these stories for more than a decade, and make every performance different through music and improvised content.  

These events are FREE and open to the public, but donations are welcome to bring professional artists, like Davide and Paola, to Wilmington. If you are interested in learning more about Tell Me A Story, please click here to visit their website.

St. Andrews-Covenant Presbyterian Church
1416 Market Street
Wilmington, NC 28401

Sebastian is a young and handsome man, commander of the Praetorian Guard - the most sought after position in the Roman army - and personal bodyguard of the emperor Diocletianus. He has a brilliant career, he is powerful and popular all over Rome and is considered the perfect embodiment of "Romanitas" (Roman virtue) and "mos maiorum" (the moral virtue of the ancestors) but the course of his life will change dramatically when he comes across the teaching of a revolutionary preacher from the obscure province of Palestine, sentenced to death two centuries before.

This powerful and passionate story from early Christianity comes to life through the voices and bodies of Davide Bardi and Paola Balbi in a performance that is a real Storytelling marathon, where each of the performers embodies four different characters. Unforgettable male and female figures emerge from the setting of a violent and corrupt imperial Rome. They will shape the course of human history and spirituality.  This captivating and emotionally engaging performance will immerse the audience in one of the lesser-known periods of ancient Rome, where being a Christian was considered the worst of crimes, and defying the emperor was pure madness and meant certain death.

The performance has been commissioned by Father Stefano Tamburo from Saint Sebastian Basilica in Rome for the Jubilee year 2025. The dramaturgy has been developed with the consultancy Carla Noce PhD holder and professor of History of Christianity at Rome Three University.

Cape Fear Presbyterian Church
2606 Newkirk Ave
Wilmington, NC 28412

Hear the Passion and Resurrection from the perspectives of "Peter and Mary Magdalene" as well as one or two shorter Christian folktales. Davide Bardi and Paola Balbi will talk with the audience between the stories about the method, the connection, and storytelling amongst the early Christian communities verses nowadays. This night will be relaxed and very appropriate for youth/teenagers to participate,

Peter and Mary Magdalene couldn't have been more different. They didn't like each other, but still they shared the most important thing of their lives: their love Jesus. A fisherman -family man with an average life- and a woman with a painful and troubled past meet "by chance" the same man and he will become the central figure of their lives. They will never be the same again.

Two stories of passionate love, steady hope and undying faith. Two contrasting characters whose lives have been marked by tragedy and overwhelming events in a difficult time of war, famine and violence. Concrete, strong and emotional the stories of Peter and Mary Magdalene speak about spirituality involving the five senses and make the audience feel the depth of the waters Jesus walked upon and the dust that somebody washed off his feet

Bethany Presbyterian Church
2237 Castle Hayne Road
Wilmington, NC 28401

When Christ entered Jerusalem before Passover, he was welcomed by a cheering crowd shouting: “Hosanna to the son of David!.” But who really was this David, forefather of Jesus and mythical king of Israel? And, who was that Bathsheba mentioned in the Gospel of John as mysterious foremother of Christ, and remembered as such forever and ever?

Produced by the Italian storytelling Company Raccontamiunastoria, David and Bathsheba is the emotional and passionate retelling of the most shaking, shocking and controversial story of the Bible: a forbidden burning passion, a cruel murder, a lost child. Lust, blood, tears... and the story of the never ending struggle of humankind trying to reach God.

Universal and extreme, the ancient story of David and Bathsheba speaks to the hearts and souls of people from all over the world, and from the most different backgrounds and has inspired across the centuries great artists of all disciplines: from painters to poets, from musicians to singers to Hollywood directors, but nothing makes it as real and as touching and incredibly contemporary as its original oral storytelling form. Result of a wide and accurate historical and artistic research, the performance is based on the tradition of “Sacra Rappresentazione”, the most established storytelling tradition of Medieval Italy and aims to give back to a modern audience a story that was told for thousand of years before ever being written and collected in a collection of tales of unmatched fame: the Bible.

Paola Balbi and Davide Bardi bring this old tale back to life through their improvised creative storytelling, giving it back to their audience with all its mythical power but also with its moving human breath. They hand over to David and Bathsheba their bodies, voices, emotions and words and everyone in the audience will feel as if spying the great king and his lover from right behind the curtain of their bedroom, and touching their very hearts.