Ralph Macchio to Narrate TRUE EAST Podcast Based on Charles Messina Plays

The Sound Lounge is proud to announce that they will be producing a new episodic podcast series that will be narrated by actor Ralph Macchio. The series is called TRUE EAST, and it is based on the award-winning one acts of playwright Charles Messina.

TRUE EAST is described as a NY-based, urban Twilight Zone, set in Greenwich Village in the early 1980s. Macchio will lead listeners on a journey of interconnected characters and storylines all set in the same neighborhood.

The series will also include the voices of other actors and celebrities, which will give TRUE EAST a style and a vividness that harkens back to the radio plays of yesteryear. Using the Greenwich Village of the '80s as its canvas, the tales will be raw, authentic and humorous, drawing on the various cultures that co-existed there in those years: the Gangsters, the Gay Scene, the Downtown Art World, Muscians, and the Old Guard of Italian Americans who clung onto control of the streets. It was the crossroads of the world, a place of such unmatched diversity that if it did not exist you could not invent it. TRUE EAST, like the plays it is based on, is hoping to redefine the episodic podcast series genre by putting the emphasis on the strength of the written word and the acting.

TRUE EAST is being produced by Hollywood veteran Craig Singer and the Sound Lounge's Marshall Grupp. New episodes of the series will be rolling out soon. The Cast of episode one includes Craig Rivela, Thomas G. Waites, Gina Ferranti, Anthony DeSando, Johnny Tammaro, Julia Macchio, and Sicily Rockmore.

This series marks the second collaboration between Macchio and Messina. They worked together on Messina's play A ROOM FOR MY OWN, which is also set in Greenwich Village. Macchio and Singer worked together on the film "A GOOD TIME TO DIE."

Charles Messina is one of the strongest voices on the New York theater scene. His play A ROOM OF MY OWN, is being produced on Broadway by the Tony Award Winning Producers of Pippin, and stars Mario Cantone and RalphMacchio. Messina?s works are often set in Lower Manhattan, where he was born and bred. His plays have been published and presented in various theaters in NYC and beyond. His collections include "The Tenement Plays," A Little Bit of This and That," "Moonlight in Greenwich Village" and "Three FRom The Neighborhood." He is also the author of the critically acclaimed monodama "Mercury: The Afterlife and Times of a Rock God," about the life of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. Messina is represented by Ronald Gwiazda at Abrams Artists Agency.
Ralph Macchio is an iconic American actor, and a lifelong NYer, best known for his roles in the "Karate Kid" films, as well as many others, including "The Outsiders" and "My Cousin Vinny."

Craig Singer is a producer/director best known for his work on the films "Dark Ride," Perkins? 14," and "A Good Night To Die."