Cinema royalty arrived in New Bedford tonight when actress, model, writer, philanthropist and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini stepped onto the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center stage to present Green Porno Live!

Not quite certain what to expect when I attended tonight's performance, I tried to keep an open mind. What I didn't expect, and was delighted to behold, was a one-woman show that broadened my knowledge, made me think, and left me questioning the planet and my place on it.

By tapping into every aspect of her creative prowess, Rossellini made us laugh as she talked candidly and irreverently about sex in nature, reenacted the sexual escapades of dolphins and numerous other creatures, and proved that mankind has a thing or two to learn about just how multifaceted copulation among various species can be.

Daughter of actress Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca, Notorious, and Spellbound) and Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, Isabella explained that as a child she'd always had a fascination with animals. Six years ago she returned to university to complete her undergraduate degree and is now a CUNY grad student studying animal behavior and conservation.

It is this fascination that eventually turned into a series of award-winning original short films about animal mating rituals for the Sundance Channel, a book, and now her one woman show that she brought to the Zeiterion tonight.

To call Isabella brilliant is an understatement. Her cheeky humor, hypnotic voice and childlike wonder are contagious, and she utilizes all of these tools to become everyone's favorite professor of zoology and animal husbandry.

By the time the stage lights went out at the end of the evening, I was left wondering just how much we've taken our planet for granted and curious regarding what else we have to learn about the other diverse species we share Earth with.

Most of all, and this is where Isabella really scores high marks in my opinion, is that she reminds us that learning need never stop, that it can be fun, fascinating, and ultimately transcendent.

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