May 18, 2005

Play full of Italian flavor

By
Herald staff writer

Audience members at the production of "Tony's Bread," by John Anselmo's third-grade class at Immaculate Conception Elementary School might call the performance "magnifico," "buonissimo," or "eccelente."
It would be fitting that complements to the cast would be spoken in Italian since most of the performance was given in that language.
Anselmo, who speaks Italian himself, decided to adapt the folktale written by Tomie dePaola into a play for his students to perform. The story of how panettone, the rich Italian Christmas bread got its name, is sprinkled with Italian words and phrases with translations woven into the text.
"I read the story a few years ago and thought that it would make a great play," said Anselmo, who then took on the challenge of writing an on-stage version for the third-grade performers.
"I kept faithful to his story but expanded on it so we would have more dialogue for the characters and less use of a narrator," Anselmo said.
After presenting the play in his classroom last year, Anselmo decided to take the play to the stage and invite an audience.
"They (the students) picked up the Italian quite easily, the challenge was getting them to project their voices - and keep quiet when they were backstage," said Anselmo who spent a month preparing the children for last week's performance.
With hardly a misspoken word or missed cue, the young actor's were proud of their performance.
"It was fun, buonissimo," said Lydia Arthur who played Zia Clorinda.