RAFFAELE DE RITIS
(Pescara, Italy, 1967)
Raffaele De Ritis has a degree in cinema at the State Univeristy in Rome (Italy), and learned theatre with several teachers, including Dario Fo, Ferruccio Soleri (Strehler’s legendary Harlequin), Nikolai Karpov, Eugenio Barba, Peter Stein.

As director, he started at the Chaillot National Theatre in Paris as assistant in plays and operas to the legendary Jerome Savary (who in the 70s was the world pioneer of “new circus”). He then assisted Arturo Brachetti (one of Europe’s greatest variety performers and directors) in several comedy stagings in Italy.


As a teenager he started to work with Italian circuses in a variety of jobs and became production consultant to Livio Togni, of the famous circus dinasty. With the Togni family, he worked on the development of Florilegio, which opened in 1990 and was succesfully presented around Europe for more than a decade. Florilegio introduced the most imitated design and concept of big top architecture in the world.
From 1991-94, De Ritis was artistic consultant of the Circus Festival in Verona, circus consultant for at the Rai - Italian State Television in projects including the Monte Carlo Circus Festival, and coordinator of internatonal relations in Moscow for the Russian State Circus Company (Rosgoscyrk), including the Circus Festival on the Moscow Red Square in 1996.
In 1997 he went in Montreal and joined Cirque du Soleil as artistic coordinator for the Pomp Duck and Circumstance dinner-show. In 1999 he wrote and directed Barnum’s Kaleidoscape for Feld Entertainment on Broadway and in a US tour - “The show for which God invented the circus”, Clive Barnes, New York Post. In 2002 he created the company acts for Big Apple Circus’ 30th anniversary at Lincoln Center in New York and US tour, and then wrote and directed Carnevale also for Big Apple Circus. During those years, he was also consultant for the Monte Carlo Circus Festival for Rai TV and directed the one-man clown show of David Larible (still presented in theatres around Europe).
In 2006 in Pescara, Italy, he founded the Funambolika clown and circus festival, hosting some of the top names in the world.
In 2007, he directed the circus play Rocinante for the Price theatre-circus venue in Madrid. He was also a member of the Commission for Circus Arts at the Ministry of Culture of Italy.
As a teacher, he has given master classes in some of the most important european circus schools (Bruxelles, Chalons, Rosny) and has worked on several occasions with Jango Edwards in clown workshop projects.
Raffaele De Ritis has written hundreds of articles for worlwide circus magazines, catalogues and encyclopedias. He has participated in international congresses and lectures, and is one of the curators for www.circopedia.org. His private circus collections holds documents dating from XVI century. His latest book, the 600 pages “Storia del Circo” (2008), is considered the most complete circus history reference book by foremost european specialists.