GOFFREDO
FRANCESCA
THE SCALAMBRA TEAM

Goffredo Puccetti

Goffredo Puccetti is a graphic designer and Associate Professor of Practice at NYU Abu Dhabi; as the first faculty of Visual Design at NYUAD he has designed 8 classes on a broad range of topics in Visual Communications, from Type Design and Calligraphy to Branding, Wayfinding and Universal Design.

His research interests span from visual communication to policy making with a special attention to inclusive design and cross-cultural visual communication.

He received his education in Rome, Italy at Università La Sapienza and CentroStudi Comunicazione Enrico Cogno & Associati. Prior to join NYUAD in 2011, he has been working in Italy, UK and France for blue chip multinational clients and institutions all around the world such as:
 Axa Insurance France, CNR Italia, CNRS France, Mars España, Moto Guzzi, NTT Europe, Paris Descartes University, Pirelli, Pyrex, Musée du Louvre, Samick Music Corporation.

He has received international accolades for logo design such as Wolda World of Logos Awards, MarCom Awards, B2BEurope Awards. 
His students have designed award winning visual identities for prestigious MENA and UAE institutions such as Abu Dhabi Art, WWF/UAE, AlSadeem Astronomy, Arab Women in Computing, and many others for various NYUAD Centers, Laboratories and Departments.

As part of the ongoing research with the philosopher of cognition Roberto Casati (Institut Nicod, Paris), Goffredo has brought students to the top of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai to conduct a pioneering experiment to visualize earth's rotation.
 Goffredo has also collaborated intensively with professor Nizar Habash at CameLab NYUAD on the design interface of the TOIA (Time Offset Interaction Application) project.

As a designer deeply invested in the emerging design scene in the UAE, he has an interest in the research around contemporary Arabic Calligraphy: he has written essays and foreword to the catalogues of the calligrapher Wissam Shawkat’s show at Mestaria Art Gallery, Dubai in 2021 and 2023; and has mentored the NYUAD 2021 alumna Tobbi Vu as she created the first digital arabic calligraphy manual online.

Goffredo has been an invited lecturer in design conferences and schools worldwide (New York, Paris, Rome, Shanghai, Karachi, etc) and in the U.A.E  in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah and has been featured on local (Yalla, The National, Gulf News, etc) and international press (La Repubblica, Espresso, Grafica Magazine, Passenger). He has co-curated the first show of the world renowned calligrapher Luca Barcellona in the UAE in 2014. Under the impulsion of the Italian Embassy he curated the show Italian Logo Design at NYUAD Arts Center in 2015.

 As a visual artist, his work has been featured in various collective Faculty Art shows at NYUAD and at Dubai Alserkal Avenue. In February 2024 he has hosted the Transit Mapping Symposium, the yearly international gathering of transport networks professionals, at NYUAD; the event attracted some of the most prestigious names in wayfinding and mapping to Abu Dhabi.

His students have been admitted to best Design graduate schools around the world and started successful careers from USA to Vietnam, from Japan to the UAE. They have won prestigious UAE awards and commissions: an essential overviews of his contributions to design at NYUAD can be found here.

While teaching at NYUAD, Goffredo engaged in continuing education by enrolling in top tier Design Programs such as: P98 LetterPress Workshop with Erik Spiekermann in Berlin, 2014; Type@Paris, a five-week program led by Jean François Porchez in Paris, 2015; Kerning Faenza Letterpress and Calligraphy Workshops in Faenza, 2018 and 2019; In the UAE Goffredo attended various Arabic Calligraphy classes with artists such as Wissam Shawkat and Mohammed Mandi.

He is the author, designer and editor of the seminal book ‘Moto Guzzi, quando le Moto hanno l’anima” published in Italy by Mondadori in 2007.

Goffredo is fluent in French, English and Italian (mother-tongue) and has a passive knowledge of Spanish and Arabic which is constantly improving. He enjoys playing electric guitar and he positively sounds better in pictures.

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Francesca Bizzarri

Francesca Bizzarri is an Italian actress living in Abu Dhabi. For over a decade living in Paris, she worked in theatre, television and cinema.
 A twenty-year collaboration with the Teatro delle Briciole and Cà Luogo D'arte in Parma, has seen her on stage in various international theatres from Madrid to Moscow, from Lisbon to Abu Dhabi. 



She has conducted workshops on the masks and clown theater in Italy, France, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates.
She collaborated with prestigious UAE universities such as Zayed University, where she has been repeatedly invited to design workshops and with NYU Abu Dhabi where she taught her class 'Unmasking the Actor' as an Artist in Residence in 2018 and 2019.



While mainly focused on theater, her acting career involved television and cinema with roles spanning from Les Histoires Extraordinaires by Pierre Bellemare for France Television in French, to Yellow Bus by Wendy Bednarz in 2023 in English.
 When Covid put all the world stages to a halt, she co-wrote and performed in the “Campagne Letterarie”, a web series devoted to the Italian Language.



She participated in Dubai Expo 2020 and at the Sharjah International Book Fair 2022 with a traveling theater and puppet performance. In October 2023 her bilingual show La Lezione di Teatro / The Acting Class debuted at The Junction in Dubai. In September 2024 the show got four nominations at The Junction Awards and won the award for best regional play and Francesca for Best Actress. The 'Lezione' toured in the UAE and Europe in the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025. In the Summer of 2025 it has been presented at the Camden Fringe Festival in London and in December 2025 at the World Culture Festival in Karachi.

Francesca is fluent in Italian, French and English and her Arabic is good enough to allow her to get the best deals in the Souq.
 Francesca also holds a Major in Mathematics but that was before she came to her senses. 
And she married Goffredo so she is not perfect after all.

For queries, Francesca can be reached at fraontour@gmail.com.


Scalambra has been created by Francesca Bizzarri and Goffredo Puccetti as a small boutique creative firm, specialized in Performing Arts and Visual Design. As such we operate on a project-by-project model with a collaborative network of specialized freelancers and professionals.

Below are listed our key partners for the Performing Arts in the UAE:
Michela Contini
Salvatore di Simone
Manuela Odorisio Paone
Nicola Spadoni
Michela Contini is an Italian actress, theatre-maker and researcher with over twenty years of experience in physical theatre, voice work, and devised performances.

With a PhD in Literature, her practice is informed by both embodied, practice-based research and literary inquiry, bringing together critical reflection and performative exploration in the creation of original theatrical works.

Her artistic research is rooted in the expressive power of the body, shaped through early training in theatre–dance and a longstanding practice of yoga.

Her work in physical performance, dramaturgy, and artistic research explores how movement, voice, and presence can generate meaning and foster significant encounters with audiences. She combines the experience of a performer and theatre-maker with the perspective of a researcher, approaching theatre as both a creative and an investigative practice.

Michela directs and performs in theatre productions, curates cultural projects, and leads training programmes for adults and young performers. Her work has been presented internationally and has received multiple awards, including recognition for Best Non-English Play in Dubai.
Salvatore is an Italian scientist and actor whose career has taken him from Italy to UK, to Saudi Arabia and, most recently, the United Arab Emirates.

After a few years of amateur theatre, in 1998 he enrolled in the newly established School of Drama for Prose Actors at Teatro Marrucino in Chieti, Italy. During his training and early career, he appeared in numerous stage productions, demonstrating remarkable versatility by portraying characters ranging from ruthless villains to deeply introspective men rediscovering their humanity. His theatre credits during his time in Teatro Marrucino include Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello and the role of Scrooge in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Salvatore has performed leading roles to critical acclaim and was awarded an Honourable Mention at the prestigious "A. Grilli" Awards in recognition of his work.In 2014, he relocated to Saudi Arabia, where he co-founded his own production company. There, he produced and performed in comedies, theatrical shows, and a stage adaptation of A Christmas Carol, once again bringing the unforgettable Ebenezer Scrooge to life.

Since 2023, he has been based in the United Arab Emirates, where his debut as both writer and director was recognised with the "Best Play" and "Best Director" awards at Dubai X-Fest 2026.

When he's not immersed in rehearsals, costumes, or writing for the stage, Salvatore studies rocks—literally. He holds both a Master's and a PhD degree in geology. You could say he has a thing for bringing buried stories to the surface for people to enjoy - be it on stage or on the field!
Manuela is an Italian actress and director. She has worked in Italy, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, building an artistic career that brings together performance, education, and production.

In 1998, she enrolled in the newly established School of Drama for Prose Actors at the Teatro Marrucino in Chieti, Italy, where she met Salvatore, now her husband, taking part in all productions as both actress and assistant director.

After completing her studies, she began teaching acting in theatre training workshops in Italy, including the Teatro Marrucino Acting School. In 2003, she received the “A. Grilli” Award for Best Actress.

In 2014, she moved to Saudi Arabia where, together with Salvatore, she founded her own production company and staged comedies and musicals, working as actress, director, and producer. Since 2024, she has been based in the United Arab Emirates, continuing her work as actress and director.

Alongside her theatre career, Manuela is also a psychologist. She taught dynamic psychology at the UdA University, Italy, and currently works as a therapist. She often says that her two professions go hand in hand, because bringing a character to life ultimately means understanding it deeply.

Passionate about theatre in all its forms, she is also involved in set design, lighting, costumes, and stage makeup. Working with her can be, in every sense, a truly over-stimulating experience.
Nicola Spadoni is an Italian Sustainability professional who accidentally acquired a second career in theatre.

Born and raised in Milan and based in Dubai since 2019, he spends his days solving business problems and his evenings creating entirely new ones on stage.

His acting path began in Milan 18 years ago after confidently declaring, over one beer too many and in an attempt to impress a blonde girl, that acting couldn't possibly be that difficult. Making his debut in Off Hamlet, where his mind famously went completely blank in front of a packed house, he has stubbornly spent his evenings and weekends in rehearsals ever since, a life choice his wife has enthusiastically complained about for years.

Over the years, Nicola has appeared in around fifteen productions, mostly comedies. His theatre credits include The Seagull, I Will Survive, Perfect Strangers, and Carnage. His diverse roles have ranged from a clueless, sex-obsessed airline captain to a spectacularly clueless stripper jumping out of a cake, performances requiring very little explanation and a great deal of forgiveness.
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Nicola has also showcased his talents in the short play circuit (Short+Sweet / X-Fest), appearing in The Lady of the Camellias and Nightmare of a Designer. He took full creative accountability for The Cup of Tea, a production he wrote, directed, and performed himself.

Offstage, Nicola managed two marriages, two children, who, rather annoyingly, became good at acting with far less effort than their father, and a dog. His life motto is simple: Work hard. Play harder.

When he isn’t rehearsing, Nicola calculates carbon footprints for a living and emotional footprints for fun. After 18 years on stage, he still considers himself a beginner—and that’s probably why he keeps coming back.