Inserra Chair
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News and Announcements
May 8, 2026

Summer 2026 Interns for a Musical Performance in an Italian UNESCO site (Agrigento)

Posted in: CART news, CHSS News, Inserra Chair News and Announcements, Internships, Italian News and Events, World Languages and Cultures

Temple at night

The selected students of the second edition of the Summer Internship in Performing Arts in Italy (The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, a UNESCO site located in the region of Sicily) are two Musical Theatre students, Lorenzo Hilliard and Lizzie Caldon. For two months, they will rehearse for and perform in the enchanting show Il risveglio degli dei, an Italian musical about the timeless relevance of Greek myths in the life of humans, written and directed by Marco Savatteri. Presented on our campus for the first time in the English translation as a Public Reading in March 2026, The Reawakening of the Gods featured Lorenzo and Lizzie among the sixteen CART students of the cast. It also featured one of the 2025 interns, Mia Grizzuti, who will return to Agrigento with her BA in Musical Theatre in hand, as an independent performer, after an unforgettable experience last year that she has called “truly transformative” (see news story). Another student from the cast, Madison Fair, will join outside of the internship program, driven by the enthusiasm this program has generated on campus!

Lorenzo Hilliard smile

LORENZO HILLIARD is a native New Yorker and rising sophomore Musical Theatre major at Montclair State University. His previous credits include roles in various student productions: Amos in Chicago, Don in A Chorus Line, Alf in Peter and the Starcatcher, Lockstock in Urinetown, Indio in West Side Story, Lewis in Pippin, Junior in Crazy For You, and Ernie in The Who’s Tommy. In the first English reading of The Reawakening of the Gods (Il Risveglio degli Dei) he played both Narciso and Apollo. Lorenzo commented: “I have Italian-American roots, and I consider it a special blessing that I will be performing in the same town where my ancestors once resided.”


To honor his origins, Lorenzo has studied Italian through middle and high school, and now plans to declare a minor in Italian at Montclair State University, starting in Fall 2026 with attending a class in the Italian Program (“Living in Translation”) that also counts as a SEEDS general education class. Lorenzo concluded: “I am beyond excited to further develop my performing skills in Italian in Italy for the summer!”

Lizzie Caldon close up

LIZZIE CALDON is a rising junior at Montclair State University pursuing a BFA in Musical Theatre. Her roles in musical productions include Mrs. Bumbrake in Peter and the Starcatcher, among others. Last summer she joined the Southeastern Summer Theatre Institute (SSTI), a highly-ranked musical theatre and technical theatre training program at the national level. She has recently performed in the English reading of The Reawakening of the Gods, which brought together both her classical and contemporary singing training, as she played Echo.


Lizzie stated: “I am ready to dive into a new culture and experience, and to continue my growth as a professional artist and curious student. I am dedicated to strengthening my Italian skills, and I look forward to applying them to my classical repertoire and academic studies in the fall (with a class on Italian Americans in Film) and beyond.”

Teresa Fiore (Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies), designer and coordinator of the internship in partnership with Marco Savatteri and with the support of Lori McCann (Cali School of Music) and Ryan Kasprzak (Musical Theatre) remarked: “This internship is the result of a collaboration across departments and national borders, and reminds us of the crucial role of international experiences for our students’ professional and cultural growth. It entails a full language immersion in a welcoming mid-size town where the students become ‘locals’ in a short period of time by enjoying the art and architecture (from Greek temples to Rationalist 1930s architecture), landscape (beaches and countryside), and gastronomy of the area.”

Risveglio at MSU

This internship is sponsored by the Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies and the Savatteri Produzioni, in collaboration with the Italian Program (World Languages and Cultures Dept.) in CHSS, the Cali School of Music and the Musical Theatre Program (Theatre and Dance Dept.) in CART, and the Office of International Academic Initiatives. It relies on the services of the international-mobility agency Nexo Sicilia of Agrigento for the logistics and optional cultural activities, and is offered under the auspices of the Parco Archeologico e Paesaggistico della Valle dei Templi.

This internship and the broader international intercollege initiative connected to it reflect the Expand Reach and Amplify Impact commitment of Montclair State University’s mission:“Increase global engagement by creating international experiences, broadening access to Montclair programs and promoting a global mindset.”

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