"THE ITALIAN IN ME" TO HAVE ITS WORLD PREMIERE AT THE GLOBE PLAYHOUSE

LOS ANGELES, CA (December 8, 2005) – Me & My Big Mouth Productions present the world premiere of THE ITALIAN IN ME written and performed by Dina Morrone. Peter Flood (Jude Narita’s Coming into Passion) directs this high-energy comedy about one woman’s lesson in sex, cinema, and saints while in Italy. Performances begin January 26, 2006 with an official press opening on Friday, January 27 at the Globe Playhouse (1107 N. Kings Road).

In THE ITALIAN IN ME, a doe eyed aspiring actress who has been raised by an Italian grandmother on good old fashioned values and an overabundance of Roman Catholic guilt, moves to Rome, Italy from North America with a lot of unanswered spiritual questions, not much cash, and big dreams of working in Italian Cinema. Once in Rome, she quickly learns that things in the Eternal City are not as "Holy" or as romantic as she had imagined. When everyday life becomes a sexual obstacle course – because everyone’s trying to get into her pants – she does the only thing she knows how to do, pray. Her prayers seem to be answered when she meets up with the "Maestro" Federico Fellini. But, will this encounter turn out to be the "Dolce Vita" she was searching for?

Playwright and actress Dina Morrone was born into an Italian immigrant family in a small, Northern Ontario, Canadian city called Thunder Bay, which is situated on the Northern tip of the icy cold waters of Lake Superior. Dina’s first time on stage was at the age of four, when alongside her older sister, she sang at the local Italian Banquet Hall Annual Christmas Party for three hundred, hungry, distracted and screaming Italians. Dina has come a long way since that memorable Sunday. She has gone on to work in Canada, Italy, and the United States as an actress, television host, voice over talent, and writer. While
working in Rome, Dina had many magical moments. The highlight of her time in the Eternal City, however, was meeting Federico Fellini, which subsequently became the inspiration for a portion of this show. Dina is currently involved with various theatre groups, works in voice over, and also writes short stories, monologues, and screenplays.

Peter Flood has directed at the Public Theater in New York, the Mitzi Newhouse at Lincoln Center, Manhattan Theater Club, Playwright’s Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theater and in regional theater throughout the United States. In Los Angeles, he has worked at South Coast Rep, the Odyssey Theater and collaborated with Jude Narita to develop Coming into Passion: Song for a Sensei. He then directed Passion, which ran for 24 months in Los Angeles and received the Los Angeles Drama Critics' Circle Award; a Drama-Logue Award for Creation and Performance; a James Wong Howe "JIMMIE" from the Association of Asian Pacific American Artists (AAPAA); a VESTA Award from the Woman's Building of Los Angeles and was chosen to represent American theater in the Mark Taper/ USIA tour of Poland.

Peter also wrote and directed a short film I Know A Song about loving someone when it isn’t convenient (living with & caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s). I Know a Song was dubbed into other foreign languages and shown throughout the world to families struggling with the effects of Alzheimer related dementia. From June 1995 to the present, Peter has worked as a story analyst for Walt Disney Studios, reading and writing coverage on screen plays, books, plays and other materials submitted for feature film development, as well as looking for suitable story content beyond agent represented writers. In the last few years, he has focused mainly on Buena Vista Acquisitions that looks at independent film projects with cast and director attachments. In this capacity, he recommended (a year or more before release) Adaptation, Being Julia, Bend It
Like Beckham, The Big Lebowski, Boys Don’t Cry, Capote, Dirty Pretty Things, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Far From Heaven, The Good Girl, Hero, In The Bedroom, Lost In Translation, The Motorcycle Diaries, The Pianist And
Upside Of Anger, among others.

Peter is a member of the Actor’s Studio Playwrights & Directors Unit in both New York and Los Angeles and has taught acting in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris & Montreal. He grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, graduated St. Mark’s in Dallas then Oberlin College before finishing formal education at Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Lighting Designer Joe Morrissey is a multiple award-winner, with over three hundred shows to his credit. He has designed for theatre, television, and concert stages in a career spanning more than thirty years. Recent theatre credits include: The Threepenny Opera at Theatre West; Treat Her Like A Lady at Seattle's Paramount Theatre; and Standing By at The Matrix Theatre.

Creative Consultant Stephen Rivkin A.C.E. has been an editor in the motion picture industry for twenty-five years. He has worked for some of Hollywood’s top directors including: Mel Brooks, Norman Jewison, Michael Mann, Gore Verbinski, Rob Cohen, Diane Keaton, Wolfgang Peterson, and Chris Columbus. He is currently working on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest for producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski and won the ACE Eddie award for co-editing the original summer blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He has been an associate producer on two of the feature films he edited and also produced Dina Morrone’s previous one woman show Getting There by Going Nowhere.

THE ITALIAN IN ME was based on Dina’s original workshop production entitled Getting There by Going Nowhere, produced by Stephen Rivkin at The Lee Strasberg Creative Center.

TICKETS:
Phone: (323) 960-5521 or www.plays411.com/theitalian

PRICES:
$15.00 for all purchases by phone/web
$20.00 for all purchases at the door
Performances on January 26-28 ticket prices include special Italian goodies
and drinks.

(Preview prices are 50% off the regular price.)

PARKING:
Parking is available behind the theatre or Public Parking directly across the
theatre

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