I’d like to introduce you to a very special friend of mine: Maria Riboli. She is an actress and a blogger. What makes her so special? A dream. But I will let her talk about it.

Mihaela Lica: Maria, I’ve seen the cute sheep head as your avatar on MyBlogLog, on your website and your own blog, and even as your avatar in blogger comments. But before we talk about it, I would like you to answer this probably not so simple question: why BAAAHHH!?

Maria Riboli: You know it’s not that hard for me to actually answer this question…why Baaahhh?!

Well because I felt in love with it from the very first page, because I believe the story is a story than can be told everywhere in the world.

The irony and the comedy that ties this pièce together is universal: it could be taking place in Bulgaria, in Italy, or in the United States…any audience would be able to identify themselves, to laugh and cheer for our heroes and their battles against the windmills of today and to rejoice in the victory of Honesty and Tenacity of those “everyday” characters.

Mig: What made you choose specifically this play out of so many others?

Maria: This play was chosen during a long Roman night spent talking about work, theater and life with a great friend and a professional who I admire and respect deeply, Stefano Genovese.

At the time I was looking for a new project to dive into but I wasn’t having any luck…then Stefano told me about this play “Baaahhh!!!” (original title “Sako Ot Velur” by Stanislav. Stratiev). He started to tell me the story and I remember laughing immediately.

And right there I told him “Let’s do it!” I always wanted to work with him but we never had a chance to do it. He lives in Italy, I live here in NY…but this time I just knew it that it was the right moment. The play had something that we both loved…it’s funny, it’s surreal but it can be so very true.

And I surely love the main characters in the play that will not stop in front of anything to fight for what they believe it’s true…that is a big lesson for any one I think…

Mihaela: Why have you decided to go on with this project on freelance basis?

Maria: I was ready to throw myself in a new project and I just felt that this one was The one!!!

Both me and Stefano we deeply believe in it and even though there’s a lot of work to be done…we are ready for it…

Mihaela: When and where are we going to be able to see your show and meet the flock?

Maria: When we decided to dive deep into this project I immediately thought about the Fringe Festival in NY and so we decided to apply there (we’ll get and answer from them at the end of April beginning of May) we know it’s hard to get in, ‘cos it’s getting bigger and bigger and they receive more and more applications each year, but we of course have our fingers crossed for it.

On top of that we just book a theater here in New York City for the first 3 weeks of September, we are so very excited about that we’ll be at the Payan Theater right in the heart of the Theater District.

Stefano is coming the week of the 23rd of April to do the auditions with me…after that we’ll have our flock.

We already have a lot of professionals from the business who are helping us for free just because they believe in this project and in us very much. It touches me so much you can’t even imagine.

We have a professional lighting director, a set designer, a costume person and an assistant director from Italy and they are all aboard . Those are people who worked in Italy with huge productions like (Rent, Chicago, Grease etc…).

After New York we want to hit London, Stefano had already a few meetings over there and things are looking good. We should be there in 2008. After that of course we’ll go to Roma (Italy)…we are very excited about that as well…it’s gonna be exciting for me…I haven’t been back to work in my country for over 9 years…if I think about it, it’s very emotional for me.

Mihaela: Who created the BAAAHHH! mascot?

Maria: At the very beginning there was a collaboration between few friends Valentina Pertile was the one who gave us the idea of the “I’m baaaddd” slogan.

Then my best friend in Italy Gabriele Foschi started to work on the face of the sheep…he came up with a bunch of different designs and me and Stefano picked the same one without even knowing it.

Then it was off to the real creator of the whole logo Marcello La Ferla a dear friend of mine, and an amazing graphic designer who works here in NY. We discussed together few things and he created this amazing logo…it’s just so darn cute!!!

Mihaela: Which was the most successful BAAAHHH! design so far?

Maria: As you know in our on line store (www.cafepress.com/baaahhh) we have a bunch of different designs and we always try to come up with new ones.

I have to say people really liked the “I’m baaad” one and the regular “Baaahhh!!!”.

We also did very good with a limited edition for Valentine’s Day and right now we have a limited Edition for Easter with 3 new amazing designs. But it will only be available until the 9th of April then it goes back into the Baaahhh Vault

Mihaela: And one more question, Maria: why do you blog?

Maria: Well I started an blog in Italian a while ago and it’s private now. I found it very interesting this blog movement and before I knew it I was caught into the net.

I made some amazing friends, Marcello La Ferla for example is one of the first people I met on my Italian blog…

When we started this project I thought it would be a good idea to also open a blog for the show, so we did, we have our English one (http://baaahhhny.blogspot.com/) and our Italian one (http://baaahhh.splinder.com/). We met so many amazing people and we were so touched by them. Everybody is trying to help us spread the word…it’s just amazing.

Oddly enough I believe this weird Internet world brought us a little closer. I had people making posts about us, and buying items from our on line store to help the cause…and even you now with this interview…I don’t think I can express how much it means to me, to us. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We also have an official website for the show at www.baaahhh.com so feel free to stop by there as well.