2nd Act Players to Present IT'S MY BROOKLYN, TOO! in Brooklyn in December
The production premieres on December 6.
Park Slope meets Bushwick in a new play, "It's My Brooklyn, Too!" that looks at the Italian-American immigrant experience through the eyes of an early 1960s' Brooklyn family. Written and produced by Park Slope-born and -raised playwright John N. Frank, the show will premier over two weekends of performances this December in a Bushwick rowhouse similar to the Park Slope rowhouse where the play is set.
Audiences will experience going to a Brooklyn New Year's Eve party circa 1960 at the show's Bushwick basement theater space. Performances are the weekend of Dec. 6-8 and Dec. 13-15. The play looks at the what rpice its characters must pay to achieve their American dreams.
"This is my family's story, but it's also the story of every immigrant family that's come to America," says playwright Frank, who grew up at 688 President Street in Park Slope.
"It deals with their struggles to achieve the American dream, looking at what families must sacrifice along that road.
"We're working with an Italian-American director, herself the daughter of immigrants. She deeply understands and feels what this play is about," he says.
The majority of the eight-person cast also are Italian-American actors. The cast (in alpha order) includes: Giacoma Bonello (also directing), Jeffery Brabant, Caroline Cassidy, Lizzy Jarrett, Oliver Palmer, Pasquale, Sarah Elizabeth Spagnuolo and Loretta Toscano.
Hannah Lewis is serving an assistant director and stage manager. The play is produced by the Evanston 2ndAct Players, a Chicago-area theater which Frank cofounded in 2015.
The play is the latest incarnation of Frank's play New Year's Eve at Grandma's House which the 2nd Act Players have successfully produced twice in Evanston, Il., as a one-act play in 2013 and as a two-act play in 2018. Frank decided early in the Brooklyn production process to find a special space for this show.
"I want audiences to feel they are at the play's New Year's Eve party at my grandmother's house on President Street," says Frank. "Renting a traditional theater space wouldn't have the same vibe as a classic brownstone with a large living room connected to a large dining room."
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