Gianpiero Alighiero Borgia is a director, actor and, with Elena Cotugno, co-director of Teatro dei Borgia.
In 1996 he graduated from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Centre of Cinematography) in Rome where he studied Orazio Costa’s acting method and Nikolay Karpov’s biomechanics system.
He began his career in theatre direction and obtained the Master GITIS of the European Association for Theatre Culture which led him to work with teachers such as Anatoly Vasilev, Oleg Kudryashov and Alexander Anurov.
For two years he assisted director Jurij Alschitz, which enabled him to teach and develop his theatre method.
In 2001 he founded the Compagnia delle Formiche (Company of Ants) – the future Teatro dei Borgia – an ensemble of European artists united by their training in the Russian tradition.
In 2003 he staged Lorca’s The House of Bernard Alba with an all-male ensemble.
In 2004, in collaboration with the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, he brought to the stage for the first time Carmelo Bene’s Ritratto di signora del cavalier Masoch per intercessione della Beata Maria Goretti (Portrait of a Lady by the Cavalier Masoch through the Intercession of Saint Maria Goretti). In 2009 he directed Gigi Proietti in Viva Don Chisciotte (Viva Don Quixote) and, at the Teatro Stabile of Catania, How to Explain the History of Communism to Mental Patients (Come spiegare la storia del comunismo ai malati di mente) by Romanian playwright Matei Vișniec, which launched Borgia’s interest in contemporary European playwrights In 2010 the production won him the ANCT Sipario Award (National Association of Theatre Critics).
In 2010, he co-produced Sergio Claudio Perroni’s Non muore nessuno (No One Dies) with the Teatro Stabile di Catania and then continued his work with non-Italian writers, staging Midsummer, a comedy with songs by David Greig; Occidental Express, an Italian-Romanian co-production of Matei Vișniec’s play; and The Author by Tim Crouch
In 2011 he was commissioned by INDA (National Institute of Ancient Drama) to stage Sophocles’ Philoctetes at the Greek Theatre of Syracuse and in 2012 he directed Franco Branciaroli and Lucia Lavia in Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis.
In 2013 he began his artistic partnership with actress Elena Cotugno with whom he created Teatro dei Borgia (Theatre of the Borgias), staging Gl’innamorati (The Lovers) and La locandiera (The Mistress of the Inn), two Goldoni rewrites by playwright Fabrizio Sinisi.
In 2016, TB’s rewriting of classics project finally took shape, leading Borgia and Cotugno to the conception of Medea in a contemporary setting, resulting in the play Medea per strada (Medea on the Streets), a touring show with Elena Cotugno and dramaturgy by Fabrizio Sinisi.
2017 saw three key dramaturgical experiments from TB: Cabaret d’Annunzio, Sacco & Vanzetti 90/40: First Roman Landing, and Cabaret Sacco & Vanzetti, written with Michele Santeramo.
In 2018 Gianpiero designed and staged Eracle Odiatore (Hecules the Hater), by Fabrizio Sinisi (premiering at the Spring Festival of the Castrovillari Theatres (Festival Primavera dei Teatri di Castrovillari ) and, also with Fabrizio Sinisi, beginning work on the trilogy Il trasporto dei miti (Transport of Myths): Eracle, l’invisibile (Hercules the Invisible Man), with Christian Di Domenico; Filottete, dimenticato (Philoctetes the Forgotten), with Daniele Nuccetelli; and Medea per strada (Medea on the Streets), with Elena Cotugno.

At the end of 2020 Il trasporto dei miti launched under the title La città dei miti (City of Myths).

Since 2001 Gianpiero has also worked as an acting coach and conceived and directed numerous workshops and cultural projects. With Christian Di Domenico, he founded the ITACA Academy of Dramatic Art, the only permanent centre in Apulia/Puglia for theatre training, of which he was director until 2012.