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American Theater Group Celebrates Family and Heritage with 'My Italy Story' · Jersey Arts Podcast

• 0:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This is Gina Marie Rodriguez and you're listening to the Jersey Arts Podcast.
• 0:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I don't know about you, but I've just learned that October is Italian Heritage Month.
• 0:12
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I had no idea, and it comes on the heels of Hispanic Heritage Month, which strangely ends mid-October.
• 0:19
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But all that really means is, personally, I'm having a great month and will be accepting gifts for the duration.
• 0:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I jest, unless, of course, you'd actually like to buy me gifts.
• 0:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But if you'd rather celebrate in a different way, I might recommend American Theatre Group's production of my Italy Story.
• 0:36
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: My Italy Story, written by Joseph Gallo, directed by Charlotte Cohn and starring Michael Notardonato, is a nostalgic exploration of family heritage and the ties that bind us.
• 0:46
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Spurred by pleas to help reunite his fractured family, a young man quits his job as a New York account executive and travels to Vallata, the tiny Italian town of his ancestors.
• 0:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Not until he returns home, however, does he discover a secret that unlocks his past.
• 1:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Loosely inspired by his own experiences, Gallo wrote and originated the one-man show as an homage to family.
• 1:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: He's now passing the reins to Michael Notardinato, who most recently appeared in the off-Broadway musical hit Romeo and Bernadette, and you may remember, distinguished director Charlotte Cohn, from one of our previous podcasts covering the play Canned Goods.
• 1:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Today, the four of us chat about family, the immigrant experience and the importance of storytelling.
• 1:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And don't worry, you don't need to be Italian to appreciate this play or this podcast.
• 1:39
  Joseph Gallo: Hi, I'm Joseph Gallo.
• 1:40
  Joseph Gallo: I am the playwright of my Italy Story.
• 1:43
  Michael Notardonato: Hi, I'm Michael Notardonato.
• 1:44
  Michael Notardonato: I'm Thomas DaGato and all characters.
• 1:47
  Charlotte Cohn: Hi, I'm Charlotte Cohn.
• 1:48
  Charlotte Cohn: I'm the director.
• 1:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yay, I'm so excited to meet everybody today.
• 1:53
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm really excited about this story.
• 1:54
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: As a half Italian myself, I'd love to talk about Italy.
• 1:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I got the fist pump, which is so very Jersey.
• 1:58
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Although, are you from Jersey, Michael?
• 2:04
  Michael Notardonato: No, I'm not.
• 2:05
  Michael Notardonato: I'm not.
• 2:05
  Michael Notardonato: I'm from the Chicago suburbs, but I'm first generation.
• 2:08
  Michael Notardonato: My dad is born and raised in Italy.
• 2:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh, wonderful, that works out really well for you.
• 2:12
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That wasn't one of my questions, but I'm going to ask you now.
• 2:15
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Great.
• 2:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: How does that relationship, being first generation, help you create these characters?
• 2:23
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I don't know, this is kind of semi-autobiographical for Joseph, right?
• 2:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So I don't know if you're creating a new or if you're pulling from Joseph's life or how you're going about this.
• 2:32
  Michael Notardonato: You tell me your your style here yeah, no, joseph has so beautifully created these characters, but it's my job to interpret them as we start the process with Charlotte, our director.
• 2:41
  Michael Notardonato: Director and, but yeah, definitely having an Italian cultural background.
• 2:46
  Michael Notardonato: The first time I read the script I was a little spooky, because some moments like wait, is this my family too?
• 2:52
  Michael Notardonato: I think there are so many themes that if you're Italian, you'll understand and I don't want to give too much away, but you know, just just, you know, italians can hold a grudge.
• 3:03
  Michael Notardonato: There's a lot of, there's a lot of themes that really resonated with me, that I have such personal experience with them.
• 3:09
  Michael Notardonato: And even just the visuals he creates in the script, sitting at two picnic tables, end to end of 20, 25 people in the kitchen and, you know, drama's dressed like a grandma's, dressed like a gypsy cooking, like all these visuals are.
• 3:21
  Michael Notardonato: So you know they really resonate with me.
• 3:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love hearing that I'm going to go to Joseph now because I want to know where this story came from.
• 3:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: What inspired you to put it all on the page?
• 3:34
  Joseph Gallo: Well, I think for me to I have to, I guess, introduce how I came to solo performance, because I think that's really, you know, I think, essential to telling how, as a writer, I landed here.
• 3:47
  Joseph Gallo: When I first moved to New York to be in the arts, I was a bartender down on the at the Prince Street Bar on Wooster Street, which was down the block from the performing garage where the Wooster Group was in residence and Spalding Gray was one of their actors and, you know, you could arguably say that in the history of solo performance he's kind of like the godfather and he used to come into our bar all the time and and I would talk to him and he invited me down to see one of his performances and one of the things that he used to do in between his solo performances.
• 4:19
  Joseph Gallo: He would do these things where he would interview members of the audience, anonymous, you know, you just randomly pick somebody, they get on stage, and then he would just, you know, he just asked him questions very revealing, very theatrical actually, and so I went and I was one of the people selected, he interviewed me and I became a fan from that point on and I really, you know, embraced, you know what he was doing.
• 4:40
  Joseph Gallo: And it was a few years later then that I saw Chazz Palminteri do "A Bronx Tale, and that was the moment when I was sitting in the audience.
• 4:50
  Joseph Gallo: At that point in time I, you know, I was starting to evolve as a writer, as a playwright, and I was sitting there and I watched that amazing solo show and I went I can do that.
• 5:01
  Joseph Gallo: And so right after that I wrote a couple of short solo plays that I performed down at here space in lower Manhattan, and then and then I took a trip to Italy and my world just sort of opened up.
• 5:17
  Joseph Gallo: It was the first time I had gone there and I came back and I started telling sort of the story of my trip, which evolved into something much bigger and much deeper, and at that point in time I was always a writer and, you know, somewhere along the line I was like somebody said to me oh, this is your next play, and I, of course, wrote it all down.
• 5:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Was there something that prompted that initial trip to Italy?
• 5:47
  Joseph Gallo: Yeah, you know it's, it's interesting because interesting.
• 5:51
  Joseph Gallo: You asked that because it's still.
• 5:52
  Joseph Gallo: I know I know the play, you know I won't even.
• 5:55
  Joseph Gallo: You know it's, it's, it's auto fiction, right, which is semi autobiographical, which is, you know, it claims the authority of fact but it also embraces the freedom of fiction at the same time.
• 6:04
  Joseph Gallo: And if you know, it claims the authority of fact but it also embraces the freedom of fiction at the same time.
• 6:06
  Joseph Gallo: And if you know if, if you're writing auto fiction correctly, it should always be emotionally true.
• 6:12
  Joseph Gallo: So you know, there is a point where you know, where I have to stop explaining to people, like what really happened, what, what didn't happen.
• 6:20
  Joseph Gallo: So, while I did, in my real life, get some ghostly visits from my grandmother, the idea from the play actually was sparked when I had come back.
• 6:30
  Joseph Gallo: No, I hadn't even gone to Italy yet.
• 6:32
  Joseph Gallo: I was in Little Italy and I was in a place on Mulberry Street having dinner.
• 6:37
  Joseph Gallo: I could look right into the kitchen and there was this little Nona in widow black, over the over the you know the stove, stirring the sauce and the gravy, as we would call it.
• 6:50
  Joseph Gallo: And and I just had this inspiration that I wanted to write about my grandmother and my family and that, literally, like that night, I came home and just started, you know, filling up a notebook with everything that I could remember about my family.
• 7:04
  Joseph Gallo: So really it started there.
• 7:06
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that and I'm just gonna say I love watching Italians speak because, while it's a stereotype that we speak with our hands, it's really engaging for me to to watch you guys tell stories.
• 7:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I really.
• 7:18
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I get frustrated that this is a podcast because nobody else can see it, but you're just very it's fun to watch.
• 7:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So thank you for talking with your hands.
• 7:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I do it too, but you can't see mine right now.
• 7:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Anyway, Charlotte, hello, my darling Hello.
• 7:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Can you tell me what excited you most when you first got this script?
• 7:37
  Charlotte Cohn: Yes, and I will also note that Jews also speak with their hands and ergo the connection to "My Italy story.
• 7:46
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: There you go, which I appreciate.
• 7:47
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Please continue to do so.
• 7:49
  Charlotte Cohn: That's it.
• 7:50
  Charlotte Cohn: That was what sparked no, what really spoke to me.
• 7:54
  Charlotte Cohn: What I found really interesting are the themes of family and belonging and coming back home.
• 8:00
  Charlotte Cohn: All of those things are prevalent in all of us.
• 8:03
  Charlotte Cohn: This is unifying for every person on earth.
• 8:07
  Charlotte Cohn: So, you know, I am a person who's far away from her family, so I think about this daily and the longing for that and the longing for my community, I mean that sparked my interest, also, coming from Canned Goods, which was, you know, also based on a true event, historical event, but it was very, you know, it was very heavily dramatic.
• 8:33
  Charlotte Cohn: I was still longing to do something warm and fuzzy and uplifting and and my Italy story really hit that on all fronts, so I was very excited to read it really hit that on all fronts, so I was very excited to read it.
• 8:48
  Charlotte Cohn: And it just goes on a real lovely journey with conflicts and it just leaves you smiling.
• 8:53
  Charlotte Cohn: That's what I was looking for.
• 8:55
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's really good to hear.
• 8:55
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I did see Canned Goods, which was wonderful, but I did leave sobbing, so I guess it's nice to hear that we've branched out to comedy not branched out moved on to comedy or at least more uplifting source material here it will be tears of joy, I hope.
• 9:14
  Joseph Gallo: I'm going to say, Gina, that if there isn't a dry eye in the house, we haven't done our job as artists.
• 9:20
  Joseph Gallo: Let's just say that.
• 9:22
  Charlotte Cohn: We'll do our best.
• 9:22
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: We'll do our best.
• 9:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm looking forward to it.
• 9:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So, speaking of previous shows, right, ken Goods was wonderful, but I also happened to see Michael in Romeo and Bernadette.
• 9:33
  Joseph Gallo: Oh, you did.
• 9:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I did.
• 9:35
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That was gosh.
• 9:36
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: How long ago was that now?
• 9:38
  Michael Notardonato: Was that pre-pandemic?
• 9:39
  Michael Notardonato: Oh, it was pre-pandemic and post-pandemic.
• 9:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Okay, because I think I might have seen it pre-pandemic, which is really, it was probably shot in our first space, alphabrauda, yeah.
• 9:47
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, but it was wonderful.
• 9:49
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I just wanted to say that.
• 9:50
  Michael Notardonato: Oh, thank you.
• 9:51
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Of course, but I also selfishly wanted to ask if there's any opportunity for you to sing in this show.
• 9:58
  Michael Notardonato: No, this is not, and I'm actually there's not.
• 10:00
  Michael Notardonato: I'm also very excited to tackle a play.
• 10:03
  Michael Notardonato: Um, I mean, I was actually just chatting about this with charlotte the other day.
• 10:07
  Michael Notardonato: As singers and or doing a musical like you, have to worry about warming up your voice and people think, oh, you might not have to do that for a play as well, but it might be even more important, because you're using your voice not even just for an hour, over an hour straight, but in just different ways that you would approach a musical and you can get exhausted in different ways just from speaking.
• 10:26
  Michael Notardonato: So, yeah, definitely have to take a lot of care of it, the instrument, during this process as well.
• 10:31
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Absolutely.
• 10:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I can only imagine I was going to ask you about that.
• 10:35
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: What does it feel like when you are?
• 10:37
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, you're the one holding down the fort, you know, it's all you.
• 10:40
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So what is it like to take on a oneman show?
• 10:44
  Michael Notardonato: I won't lie, it's scary but it's so exciting.
• 10:47
  Michael Notardonato: I mean, I don't do things that don't frighten me, because that's what I love about theater.
• 10:52
  Michael Notardonato: I like to take on a challenge and I like to see if, well, can I actually do that?
• 10:56
  Michael Notardonato: But yeah, it's.
• 10:58
  Michael Notardonato: I carried many shows, but you're always supported by an ensemble and it's going to be interesting when the ensemble is also myself.
• 11:06
  Michael Notardonato: But it's a challenge I'm ready to take on and I'm yeah, I'm just really excited for it.
• 11:12
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, having seen your work, I have every confidence that you'll do a wonderful job.
• 11:15
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Thank you, but Joseph, you, if I'm not mistaken, you also originated this role when you wrote the play, so can I ask for your input on that as well?
• 11:28
  Joseph Gallo: Is it scary which part of it there's a reason.
• 11:32
  Joseph Gallo: I, you know.
• 11:34
  Joseph Gallo: You know I will say something.
• 11:37
  Joseph Gallo: It is a quick story because when I first did it, like I was running a lot, like just off what Michael was talking about, like I had never worked with a vocal coach before I got a vocal coach because I was really concerned about my breathing and my voice.
• 11:48
  Joseph Gallo: And then I was doing a lot of cardio and I remember there was one I had done two performances on Saturday and it was a Sunday matinee and I got up early on Sunday and I ran five miles and I came.
• 12:02
  Joseph Gallo: It was like whatever, I don't know, it was a two, three o'clock curtain and I remember after the first scene I was exhausted and I was like oh my God, why did I run five miles?
• 12:13
  Joseph Gallo: That was ridiculous.
• 12:14
  Joseph Gallo: And like I'm having a conversation in my head as this, I'm like I don't know if I'm gonna make it to the end of the show Of course I did, but, um, so, uh, you know, I'll just, you know, reiterate what michael said.
• 12:26
  Joseph Gallo: Yes, it is a um, you really have to take care of yourself, both vocally and physically, to do it, and um, you know it's uh, uh, I don't know I mean when I did it back.
• 12:37
  Joseph Gallo: When I did it, it was, uh, it was a story that I had to tell.
• 12:40
  Joseph Gallo: And then, in the evolution of it as I was writing it, there was a point where the story was we had originally done it at Penguin Rep up in Stony Point and Joe Brancato directed it up there.
• 12:53
  Joseph Gallo: He's a great director and you know it got good reviews and we were like, ok, it's going to move off Broadway.
• 12:58
  Joseph Gallo: And of course, nothing happened and maybe six months had gone by and I was like, all right, that's it.
• 13:03
  Joseph Gallo: And so a buddy of mine and I we said we're going to go to Europe, we're going to backpack through Europe, we're going to come back home whenever.
• 13:08
  Joseph Gallo: So that was back when you bought your Euro rail pass in advance and we got all of our Euros and we bought a new backpack.
• 13:20
  Joseph Gallo: And then, of course, like two weeks before we're about to leave, we got a call from New Haven and they said, hey, we heard you have a great show.
• 13:27
  Joseph Gallo: It's a solo piece, we'd like to bring it into our theater.
• 13:30
  Joseph Gallo: And so we're like, oh, what are we going to do?
• 13:32
  Joseph Gallo: And we decided at that time to get another actor.
• 13:35
  Joseph Gallo: get.
• 13:37
  Joseph Gallo: decided, why why don't we get another actor to play me?
• 13:40
  Joseph Gallo: And so we did.
• 13:42
  Joseph Gallo: We found another actor who came, Danny Mastrogiorgio.
• 13:44
  Joseph Gallo: He had just graduated from Juilliard.
• 13:46
  Joseph Gallo: He went up there and he performed and I was there for, like, I came back for the last couple of performances and watching the play as a member of the audience.
• 13:55
  Joseph Gallo: You really, you know it's hard to be a writer and a performer.
• 13:59
  Joseph Gallo: You know it's at the same time it's hard to write something that you're in because they're really it's very hard to have any kind of perspective, it's very hard to be as open as you need to be in terms of the creative process, getting notes.
• 14:15
  Joseph Gallo: So you know, I can remember, actually, when we were first doing it, Joe Brincato would go I'm talking to Joe the actor now, and then he would go I'm talking to Joe the actor now, and then he would go I'm talking Joe the writer man, and so that was very hard.
• 14:26
  Joseph Gallo: So I mean, you know we're uh Charlotte and I are both members of the uh actor studio, playwright and director's workshop and you know the writers are not allowed to be in their pieces and you know, and and it's for a good reason, because you should be able to sit back in the audience and listen so that you can hear how the work is affecting the audience, and that's really an important detail.
• 14:45
  Joseph Gallo: So when I sat there and I watched Danny perform it, I realized that the story didn't work.
• 14:50
  Joseph Gallo: You know, I thought it worked and it didn't work.
• 14:52
  Joseph Gallo: And that was because the original draft of the play, the original first draft, was all Joseph Gallo, was all me, was my story.
• 15:01
  Joseph Gallo: But our lives don't play out in three perfect acts.
• 15:04
  Joseph Gallo: And so I realized that to make this, you know, a well-structured, linear, three-act play, I needed to invent scenes.
• 15:14
  Joseph Gallo: That didn't happen.
• 15:15
  Joseph Gallo: I needed to combine characters.
• 15:16
  Joseph Gallo: In fact, not only that, I also realized that if my actual relatives had seen the play in that early draft, some of them might have been very mad, they would have been very angry with me.
• 15:26
  Joseph Gallo: So so there was a real evolution, you know.
• 15:29
  Joseph Gallo: I guess that's the evolution as a writer as far as the evolution as an actor.
• 15:33
  Joseph Gallo: I know Michael right now will will be happy to, you know, build on this.
• 15:38
  Joseph Gallo: It's a lot to hold in your head and you really have to, like, you know, you're constantly thinking about it and the writer in me was already like moving on to work on the next piece.
• 15:48
  Joseph Gallo: So so I I gave it over to other actors and I was OK with that.
• 15:52
  Joseph Gallo: I mean, I still perform solo work new work, but then I tend to move on to the next thing.
• 15:59
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, I think it's very important that you're able to sit back and see that that changes need to happen, and you mentioned that.
• 16:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You know family members might have been angry had they seen that initial version.
• 16:11
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But that leads me to ask what are they saying?
• 16:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: What have they said since?
• 16:15
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm hoping your family has seen it since?
• 16:18
  Joseph Gallo: Of course they have.
• 16:19
  Joseph Gallo: Yeah, they were all.
• 16:21
  Joseph Gallo: Yeah, I would say to a person, they were all deeply moved.
• 16:24
  Joseph Gallo: You know it's unfortunate, but you know there was a debate.
• 16:30
  Joseph Gallo: You know we still are debating this, maybe Charlotte and I whether this is an older actor, older person looking back or not and I chose that the route is really.
• 16:40
  Joseph Gallo: You know, the play was in 1997 when my hair was as brown as Michael's and you know so it was a different me who was up there and you know, since that time most of the principal people in the play are no longer alive.
• 16:55
  Joseph Gallo: So you know, when you ask how the family members now it's their children who have seen the play, you know, and in fact you know I hope there's even yet another generation of younger, you know cousins that might see it for the first time.
• 17:11
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, I hope so too.
• 17:11
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Charlotte, I want to ask you when you're coming into this knowing again, it's an autofiction how are you, what are you crafting as a director?
• 17:21
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: How are you approaching the work?
• 17:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's a very general question.
• 17:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It is.
• 17:29
  Charlotte Cohn: Let me try and sound really intelligent answering it.
• 17:32
  Charlotte Cohn: Let me try this.
• 17:33
  Charlotte Cohn: Well, first of all, I love to have especially since I have the writer of the piece with me and it is his story I'm trying to get as much from him as possible, and then I also try to convince him that it's no longer his and now it's moving to its next phase, which is a completely new interpretation by another actor, and that's always hard for playwrights because they wanna hold onto it.
• 18:04
  Charlotte Cohn: But I think, now that the show has been done several times right, joseph, it's had a life that now he's probably more open to it, and I think that's something that Michael and I will discover.
• 18:18
  Charlotte Cohn: We are going to create this together.
• 18:21
  Charlotte Cohn: The minute the rehearsals start, we start crafting it around Michael and his tools and what he brings to the table, staying, you know, faithful to the material and telling the story of the material with the actor that we have, because all we have as actors is ourselves, right, and that's the conversation Michael and I met a couple of days ago, where we talked about getting ready vocally and physically and also talked about bringing himself to the material.
• 18:50
  Charlotte Cohn: So it's no one else but him, and so that is really what I'm looking for, and I'm really excited about what Michael can bring to this, like his accents, his behavior drawing from his actual relatives and people that he knows in his life, and his behavior drawing from his actual relatives and people that he knows in his life and his Italian heritage and all that comes with it.
• 19:09
  Charlotte Cohn: It's super exciting, because we never want to imitate, replicate or do what someone else did before us and watch a video and go.
• 19:17
  Charlotte Cohn: I'm going to do exactly that.
• 19:18
  Charlotte Cohn: That's a different style, and I will say, what I'm happy about is that is that this is an interpretation or what did you call it?
• 19:30
  Charlotte Cohn: An auto fiction of, of of joseph's life, where you know, if you're just going to repeat what you've done in life, then that's a documentary.
• 19:42
  Charlotte Cohn: I mean, that's not interesting.
• 19:43
  Charlotte Cohn: We always interpret to create a play, to create drama, to create intrigue, and so all of those things is what I'm hoping to work out with Michael in the room.
• 19:52
  Charlotte Cohn: I mean it's going to be a whole new baby, different color eyes, still a baby, though.
• 19:58
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You have successfully sounded.
• 19:59
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Very intelligent Congratulations.
• 20:01
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Did I?
• 20:01
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm not sure about that, you definitely did.
• 20:04
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I appreciate that my mind keeps going back to my Big Fat Greek Wedding.
• 20:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I don't know if you're familiar or not, but I believe that that also started as a one woman show.
• 20:16
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That, did you know, became.
• 20:18
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, what a trilogy.
• 20:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Now I think there's three of them, but that was, you know, a Greek heritage story, but I related to it as an Italian, and I'm sure that people from every other culture related to it, and that's something about writing small.
• 20:33
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You know, writing close to home is actually more universal than anything else.
• 20:37
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So I'm excited, and even your tagline reminded me of that.
• 20:41
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Sometimes you have to travel far to keep family near, which, by the way, is an amazing tagline.
• 20:46
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that so much.
• 20:47
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But I want to know I mean briefly, like if each of you could tell me how you would sell this to an audience member who knows nothing about the show.
• 20:55
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: How would you do that in like one minute?
• 20:58
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: How would you sell it to somebody?
• 21:00
  Michael Notardonato: I mean, I think audiences are not going to be Italian and we keep talking about that.
• 21:04
  Michael Notardonato: It is an integral part of the story, but this will resonate with everyone.
• 21:08
  Michael Notardonato: I'm an immigrant from both parents, but my mom is from Romania.
• 21:10
  Michael Notardonato: She moved here in her 20s and it's so interesting when I read the show how many of the things I am relating back to her and her family and especially, like Charlotte said, she's very far from her family all my mom's family, except for my grandmother who lived with me my whole life.
• 21:24
  Michael Notardonato: She passed last summer, but the rest of my mom's family is in Romania and so the character Thomas does travel to Italy my Italy story in the play and so I'm relating all those things.
• 21:34
  Michael Notardonato: So people who have family far that they don't see all the time and they still feel like they're such a part of their identity and who they are.
• 21:42
  Michael Notardonato: That's such an interesting thing to explore.
• 21:45
  Michael Notardonato: A lot of people don't care about culture, but some people do and I just think audiences are going to see themselves, no matter what their heritage or their cultural background is, in this play, and there's some twists and turns as well that are really interesting.
• 22:00
  Michael Notardonato: So I'll leave it at that.
• 22:02
  Michael Notardonato: I'm very sorry for your loss, but I hope that maybe this is a little bit cathartic for you as well to go through this process when I first read the script and you know the first page literally talks about his grandmother, who's been dead it's much longer than mine, because my grandmother passed last summer.
• 22:18
  Michael Notardonato: But I was like, wow, something about this show, like I got to do it right now, because her and I were like this you can't see, but I'm crossing my fingers.
• 22:25
  Michael Notardonato: She was like a second mother to me and my sister, so now I'm really happy to do this for her as well.
• 22:31
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm very glad that you can honor her in that way and and thanks to Joseph for writing the piece and and having that connection to it.
• 22:38
  Charlotte Cohn: I'm just gonna add to it that, um, just a second, what what Michael said is.
• 22:45
  Charlotte Cohn: This idea of belonging and where you belong is such a big theme in the play and everyone can relate to it in every aspect, not just your family, but your community, your country.
• 22:58
  Charlotte Cohn: Who's with you?
• 23:00
  Charlotte Cohn: You know, and to me that means a lot as a person who's pretty much alone in this country.
• 23:05
  Charlotte Cohn: I am far away from my entire family except for my husband and daughter and dog, away from my entire family except for my husband and daughter and dog.
• 23:14
  Charlotte Cohn: But you know, it's finding who are my people, who aligns with me, who supports me.
• 23:16
  Charlotte Cohn: Um, those are the themes of the play.
• 23:19
  Charlotte Cohn: That's what michael said.
• 23:21
  Charlotte Cohn: Everyone can relate to it and I do think we can all use a feel-good experience in the theater.
• 23:28
  Charlotte Cohn: I do believe that, especially during the dates that this play is running, I think it's really well placed for the audiences to have an opportunity to go into a dark theater and have a really wonderful experience.
• 23:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Again, very well said, I agree.
• 23:45
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, there are a lot of things and it's not just theater, it's film, it's all kinds of art where people tend to broach very heavy subject matter and then we're inundated with the heaviness in our real lives and then also being reflected in art, which is wonderful and it should be there.
• 24:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But sometimes you just need something that's going to, like you said, bring tears of joy.
• 24:04
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Sometimes you just need something that's going to bring a little bit of levity.
• 24:09
  Joseph Gallo: Well, I think, and I hope that the story is timeless and that I think that you know I'm excited for a new audience to see the play.
• 24:18
  Joseph Gallo: The play was last done in 2009 or 2010.
• 24:22
  Joseph Gallo: So I'm very excited that a whole new generation can hear this tale.
• 24:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: My Italy Story will be introducing new audiences to its tale, beginning October 24th through the 27th at Hamilton Stage in Rahway, followed by performances at the Semanski Theatre in Basking Ridge from November 1st through the 3rd.
• 24:43
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: As an added treat, all performances in Rahway will feature music by members of the New Jersey Opera Theatre singing Italian favorites for 30 minutes prior to curtain.
• 24:52
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: For tickets and more information, be sure to visit AmericanTheaterGroup.
• 24:55
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: org.
• 24:56
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: If you liked this episode, be sure to review, subscribe and tell your friends.
• 25:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: A transcript of this podcast, links relevant to the story and more about the arts in New Jersey can be found at JerseyArts.
• 25:06
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: com.
• 25:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The Jersey Arts Podcast is presented by Art Pride New Jersey, advancing a state of creativity since 1986.
• 25:13
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The show was co-founded by and currently supported by, funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
• 25:22
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This episode was hosted, edited and produced by me, Gina Marie Rodriguez.
• 25:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Executive producers are Jim Atkinson and Isaac Serna-Diez, and my thanks to Joseph, michael and Charlotte for speaking with me today.
• 25:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm Gina Marie Rodriguez for the Jersey Arts Podcast.
• 25:37
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Thanks for listening.