Core Team Members of The Skeleton Rep(resents)
RIA T. DILULLO: Founder, Artistic Director, Story Developer, Coach
Greetings! My name is Ria T. DiLullo and I am the founder and artistic director of The Skeleton Rep(resents). I am a New York City native whose love of live performance stems from my earliest days. From public school class trips to see Queens College productions to my first ever Broadway show, I have always been drawn to the power and magnitude that the stage specifically, and storytelling more broadly, can achieve.
As a youngster, I was privileged to train as an actor under Elaine Lamont at the Theatre Learning Center. However, as an adolescent, I shifted gears towards athletics and away from the arts. The love was always present though, and reemerged full-fledged in college.
When not working towards my degree in American Civilization at Brown University, I spent my time in the theater department as a stage manager, technical assistant, and student of history & performance, as well as stage managing professionally in downtown Providence. I graduated Cum Laude and earned the American Civilization’s departmental Award for “Best Original Thesis,” acknowledging my work on Donald Duck cartoons during WWII. I also received the Weston Award for Excellence in Technical Theater.
After college, I spent time traveling and training, stage managing and acting. I was especially drawn to physical forms of performance, including but not limited to Noh, Butoh, mask, puppetry, Lecoq, and Alexander Technique. Once I settled back down in NYC, I shifted my focus to directing and putting in the hours for a Pilates certification in mat and apparatus.
As I started to make my way through the indie theatre scene of the city, it became clear to me that it left much to be desired. Genuine opportunities were few, far between, and unpaid or underpaid. In an effort to spend more time practicing the craft of theatre-making, I started asking playwrights and actors if they wanted to meet up and read new pages together. This format quickly evolved and formalized into the Salon Series, which predates The Skeleton Rep(resents) by a few years.
In 2015, from the ashes of my first company (Marrow’s Edge, co-founded with Daria Marinelli), The Skeleton Rep(resents) was born. The mission came to me immediately, and with clarity - to explore modern myth. Right away, I began producing/directing shows that I believed fit the mission.
While the company has morphed over the years, it’s core focus has maintained and crystalized. The Salon Series is still the centerpiece of our developmental work, now complete with a multi-day process, starting with a reading & critical response session. We have also come to offer “Craft Development Readings,” which are a single-day process with no audience. Finally, in 2020, I, through TSR, made the commitment to compensate all artists for all their time, including development. Since then, we have spent at least 90% of our annual budget on stipends.
2020 may have brought the pandemic, but TSR never stopped. Immediately, I set to work envisioning how we could make something that explored modern myth, got lots of artists involved, and adhered to the requirements around isolation. From that was born “The Great Vanishing” Parts I - III. A year later, that material sparked my (& TSR’s) first feature film project, “The Great Vanishing: Part IV,” which we filmed during summer 2021. It is currently set to hit the festival circuit in 2023. In addition to adding film to our development roster, I also moved the Salon Series to a mix of in-person and online events, which has allowed for us to work with artists from everywhere, not just those within the reaches of the NYC transit system.
In addition to captaining The Skeleton Rep(resents), I am a Pilates instructor with a focus in holistic biomechanics. I am currently working my way through a certification in the Fajardo Method of Movement. When I am not developing new work or training, I can often be found outside hiking, kayaking, swimming, and fire-building, or inside reading, cooking, and watching shows with Barron Bass. If you'd like, you can peruse my C.V. here. www.dilulloria.com
As a youngster, I was privileged to train as an actor under Elaine Lamont at the Theatre Learning Center. However, as an adolescent, I shifted gears towards athletics and away from the arts. The love was always present though, and reemerged full-fledged in college.
When not working towards my degree in American Civilization at Brown University, I spent my time in the theater department as a stage manager, technical assistant, and student of history & performance, as well as stage managing professionally in downtown Providence. I graduated Cum Laude and earned the American Civilization’s departmental Award for “Best Original Thesis,” acknowledging my work on Donald Duck cartoons during WWII. I also received the Weston Award for Excellence in Technical Theater.
After college, I spent time traveling and training, stage managing and acting. I was especially drawn to physical forms of performance, including but not limited to Noh, Butoh, mask, puppetry, Lecoq, and Alexander Technique. Once I settled back down in NYC, I shifted my focus to directing and putting in the hours for a Pilates certification in mat and apparatus.
As I started to make my way through the indie theatre scene of the city, it became clear to me that it left much to be desired. Genuine opportunities were few, far between, and unpaid or underpaid. In an effort to spend more time practicing the craft of theatre-making, I started asking playwrights and actors if they wanted to meet up and read new pages together. This format quickly evolved and formalized into the Salon Series, which predates The Skeleton Rep(resents) by a few years.
In 2015, from the ashes of my first company (Marrow’s Edge, co-founded with Daria Marinelli), The Skeleton Rep(resents) was born. The mission came to me immediately, and with clarity - to explore modern myth. Right away, I began producing/directing shows that I believed fit the mission.
While the company has morphed over the years, it’s core focus has maintained and crystalized. The Salon Series is still the centerpiece of our developmental work, now complete with a multi-day process, starting with a reading & critical response session. We have also come to offer “Craft Development Readings,” which are a single-day process with no audience. Finally, in 2020, I, through TSR, made the commitment to compensate all artists for all their time, including development. Since then, we have spent at least 90% of our annual budget on stipends.
2020 may have brought the pandemic, but TSR never stopped. Immediately, I set to work envisioning how we could make something that explored modern myth, got lots of artists involved, and adhered to the requirements around isolation. From that was born “The Great Vanishing” Parts I - III. A year later, that material sparked my (& TSR’s) first feature film project, “The Great Vanishing: Part IV,” which we filmed during summer 2021. It is currently set to hit the festival circuit in 2023. In addition to adding film to our development roster, I also moved the Salon Series to a mix of in-person and online events, which has allowed for us to work with artists from everywhere, not just those within the reaches of the NYC transit system.
In addition to captaining The Skeleton Rep(resents), I am a Pilates instructor with a focus in holistic biomechanics. I am currently working my way through a certification in the Fajardo Method of Movement. When I am not developing new work or training, I can often be found outside hiking, kayaking, swimming, and fire-building, or inside reading, cooking, and watching shows with Barron Bass. If you'd like, you can peruse my C.V. here. www.dilulloria.com
DANIEL SCARANTINO: Actor, Stage Manager, Apprentice to Skeleton Rep
Daniel is a professional actor, improviser and occasional stage manager living and working in NYC. He attended Florida State University where he studied Literature with Minors in Psychology and Religious Studies which means that he can read Chaucer but he doesn’t want to. He then escaped from Florida to pursue his dream of living in a big city to be “an artist”. It was a moderately successful plan…
When he isn't on or near a stage in NYC he's been known to don a silly hat and run away on the Renaissance festival circuit, learning circus skills and Elizabethan insults along the way. It was there that he became certified in Immersive/Improvisational Theatrical Performance (iiTP) by Garry Izzo of Interactive Artists. As an amateur pyro-technician, Daniel also holds a Fire Performance Safety Certification through The Flow Arts Institute. He can also walk on stilts. Go figure.
While residing in “The City” he can be found in one of his natural habitats: a dimly lit piano bar, swimming in gin and reading fortunes for passers by OR perched beneath a precarious stack of fantasy novels offering his riddles three.
Currently he is an apprentice (like a Wizard!) at The Skeleton Rep(resents) and stage managing Drag Wars, a weekly Drag competition at Pieces Bar in the west village. Find him on Twitter/Instagram: @seasonmysoul
When he isn't on or near a stage in NYC he's been known to don a silly hat and run away on the Renaissance festival circuit, learning circus skills and Elizabethan insults along the way. It was there that he became certified in Immersive/Improvisational Theatrical Performance (iiTP) by Garry Izzo of Interactive Artists. As an amateur pyro-technician, Daniel also holds a Fire Performance Safety Certification through The Flow Arts Institute. He can also walk on stilts. Go figure.
While residing in “The City” he can be found in one of his natural habitats: a dimly lit piano bar, swimming in gin and reading fortunes for passers by OR perched beneath a precarious stack of fantasy novels offering his riddles three.
Currently he is an apprentice (like a Wizard!) at The Skeleton Rep(resents) and stage managing Drag Wars, a weekly Drag competition at Pieces Bar in the west village. Find him on Twitter/Instagram: @seasonmysoul