Desc: Bambino Mio - Bright Little Flame: Directed by Brenda Jean Foley. With Chris Mascarelli, Hira Ismail, Maren Maclean. It's Maria Montessori's 70th birthday. She is on house arrest at the Theosophical Society compound in Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India. As an Italian citizen, she is considered an "enemy" of the British colonial government. Her assistant, Githa, takes notes as Maria remembers the early days when she was in medical school and when she began her practice as a doctor and her research with "deficient" children that led to her revolutionary educational approach. The play exposes Maria's most intimate thoughts and the secret she carried with her for seventy years. The story of Maria Montessori is a microcosm of many of the factors that shaped women's experiences in Victorian Europe. Further, her tireless work continues to challenge commonly-held notions about childhood, learning and education to this day.