Growing up, my household was very Italian oriented.  My great-grandmother came from Italy, and the traditions carried down through generations.  She came over on the “Italia” with her mother, my great-great-grandmother Ciarico.  She was coming over with her first five children of the family, my great-grandmother included, to meet her husband who had already arrived in New York City.  They came from Civitaluparella, right outside of Rome, and arrived to NYC in July of 1905.

Every Sunday I went to my great-grandmothers house for sauce.  When she passed away, my parents tried to continue the traditions.  Instead of sauce on Sundays, my parents would have pasta Mondays.  We would all make dinner together as a family while listening to Dean Martin CDs.  Around Christmas time every year my dad would play Dino’s Christmas album while we made cookies.  My mom also loved to gather us all to watch any movie that starred Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra.

I grew up surrounded by the films and music, but I never learned anything about the theater of Italian-Americans.  Although, I am also Polish, German, and Irish, I wanted to learn more about the Italian theater tradition.

my great grandmother, cousins, and I

Mary Ciarico Karls (my great-grandmother)