Francesca Di Cesare
Director l Acting Coach l Practitioner
"Also notable is Francesca Di Cesare's seamless direction. Every move in the piece contributes to the story and characters without feeling staged or contrived." - Weber.
.jpg){kind=logo}
Same
Created By Francesca Di Cesare & Aimee Samara; Directed by Francesca Di Cesare; Performed at: Greenside @ George Street, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2025.
By Louis Kavouras, The Spy in the Stalls.
Honest, powerful and true - and perhaps most importantly, hopeful.
Many men carry complicated maps of their fathers in their hearts — some routes well-trodden, others broken off mid-journey. In Same, two best mates, James and Lewis, wrestle with the weight of those inherited paths. Do the sins of the father echo through the son? Can a pattern be broken before it repeats? Are the families we are born into the cards we’re dealt… or the ones we would ever truly choose?
Same
Created By Francesca Di Cesare & Aimee Samara; Directed by Francesca Di Cesare; Performed at: Shakespeare North Playhouse, Greenwich Theatre & The Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2025.
By Steve Whittle, Founder of Tough to Talk.
Bold, unflinching, and deeply emotional.
When we think about men’s mental health, one alarming statistic can’t be ignored: globally, suicide rates are higher among men than women, with men accounting for 75% of suicides in many countries. Despite this tragic reality, open conversations about men’s mental health remain scarce. That's precisely why Aimee and Francesca's gripping play, SAME, feels so vital. Bold, unflinching, and deeply emotional, SAME not only entertains but also challenges its audience to rethink what it means to be vulnerable as a man in today’s world.
Scar Tissue
By Victoria Fragnito; Directed by Francesca Di Cesare; Produced by Match:Lit; Pete's Candy Store, Lorimer Street.
Time does not heal all wounds.
Best friends Jessica and Sam each have scars from their pasts that have never quite healed. Jessica has never been able to get past an extremely damaging relationship from her formative years in college, while Sam has been ignoring a painfully fractured relationship with her sister. After years of denial, they are both forced to confront these wounds head-on. The only way they can begin to heal is to face what they didn't want to see - and they cannot do that without each other.
The C*nt
By Elle Anhorn; Directed by Francesca Di Cesare; Produced by Spicy Witch Productions; Off Off Broadway, New Adaptation; Runs through 9.26.15; The Clemente, 107 Suffolk Street
by Sarah Weber on 9.24.15
BOTTOM LINE: A thoughtful comedy about love, sex, and bending the rules that govern both.
This fall Spicy Witch Productions is pairing their production of The Country Wife with Elle Anhorn’s adaptation, The C*nt. In this reimagining of William Wycherley’s restoration comedy, Anhorn explores modern dating conventions and just how much they have (or haven’t) changed over time.
Wrong Number
By Nedra Pezold Roberts; Directed by Francesca Di Cesare; Produced by Hudson Shakespeare Company.
Meet the Director!
October 15, 2016
Time is flying by in rehearsals for WRONG NUMBER and we are excitedly preparing, rehearsing and working to get this show up and ready for an audience. And we are ever so grateful to the lady leading the charge - our director Francesca Di Cesare. Francesca is no stranger to working with new plays - nor is she a stranger to Nedra or WRONG NUMBER. In fact, Francesca loved WRONG NUMBER so much that she wanted to develop it further and work on it a second time. Learn more here, and check out some pics from rehearsals!
The Cuntry Wife – Spicy Witch Productions’ Fall Season
By Elle Anhorn; Directed by Francesca Di Cesare; Produced by Spicy Witch Productions.
The C*nt, our world premiere adaptation of The Country Wife, is the culmination of our yearlong writer-in-residence program, created to support an emerging female playwright. Inspired by The Country Wife, The C’nt examines how the rules of relationships have changed in a world where women have more sexual freedom than Restoration England.