Don Marinelli

Donald Marinelli is a tenured Professor of Drama and Arts Management at Carnegie Mellon University and is also the Executive Producer of the Entertainment Technology Center.

Professor Marinelli has been at Carnegie Mellon for twenty-six years where he served as the Assistant Head of the Drama Dept. (1980-86) and later the Associate Department Head (1986-95). Dr. Marinelli was integral in creation of the Master of Arts Management (MAM) program, the Master of Fine Arts in Acting degree program with the Moscow Art Theatre School in Russia, and, with colleague Randy Pausch, he co-founded the Master of Entertainment Technology (MET) degree program and the ETC.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Professor Marinelli has lived in Pittsburgh for thirty-two years, coming here shortly after completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Tampa. He attended Duquesne University in Pittsburgh where he received a M.A. in Clinical Psychology specializing in Existential-Phenomenological Psychology. Professor Marinelli subsequently attended the University of Pittsburgh where he received his Ph.D. in theatre history, literature, and criticism in 1987 with a dissertation on the Italian Futurist F.T. Marinetti.

Professor Marinelli is currently leading the expansion of the Entertainment Technology Center internationally with ETC branch campuses in Adelaide, Australia; Silicon Valley, California; and Osaka, Japan.

Franco Sciannameo

FRANCO SCIANNAMEO, Artistic Director of ETC-ITALIA, a project dedicated to Italian Futurism re-imagined for the digital era.

Born in Italy, Violinist, Film Musicologist and Cultural Historian Franco Sciannameo studied in Rome at the Conservatorio di Musica “Santa Cecilia” (D.M. in Violin Performance, Literature, and Pedagogy), and later at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena and Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He holds advanced degrees in Historical Musicology and Cultural Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. Always concerned with the role of artists in society, Franco Sciannameo writes and lectures extensively on contemporary music and its relation to politics, cinema, and the arts. At Carnegie Mellon University, he is the Director and Principal Faculty of the BXA Intercollege Degree Programs, however, Franco’s secret passion lies in the streets of Rome where no fashionable shop and restaurant has escaped his attention. Those who have ventured to accompany him for long walks across the Eternal City have discovered the true meaning of watching the setting sun beyond St. Peter’s Cupola from the Pincio Terrace, savoring a gelato at Giolitti, a cappuccino at Caffè Greco in Via Condotti, or just strolling aimlessly around Piazza Navona. That’s Futurismo!