Cast and Creative Team Set For MY ITALY STORY From American Theater Group

NYC-based actor Michael Notardonato, soon to be featured in a new Netflix series, will star in American Theater Group’s (ATG), endearing play My Italy Story by NJ playwright Joseph Gallo. The 2024-25 Season Opener will be directed by Charlotte Cohn, who most recently helmed ATG’s world premiere Canned Goods.

Set in 1997, My Italy Story is an exploration of family, heritage and the ties that bind us. Spurred by pleas from his cousin to help reunite his fractured family, a young man quits his job and travels to Vallata -- the tiny Italian town of his ancestors. Not until he comes home, however, does he discover a secret that unlocks his past.  The one-man show will run Oct. 24-27th at Hamilton Stage in Rahway, and Nov. 1-3rd at the Sieminski Theater in Basking Ridge. Tickets are available at americantheatergroup.org.

Notardonato will star as Thomas DaGato. He originated the role of Dino Del Canto in the Off-Broadway premiere of Romeo & Bernadette and recently completed filming a recurring role in a new Netflix series that will premiere in 2025. He has starred as Tony Manero in several productions of Saturday Night Fever across the US and internationally, including at The Engeman Theater and Ivoryton Playhouse (Best Actor nomination - Connecticut Critics Circle). Other select credits include Bob Gaudio in Jersey Boys, Danny Zuko in Grease, and Link Larkin in Hairspray. He also appeared as Dr. Flores opposite two-time Emmy Award winner Dorothy Lyman in the two-person play, Organic, at the Ivoryton Women Playwright’s Festival. Notardonato holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from The Boston Conservatory.

A noted playwright, actor, educator and storyteller, Joseph Gallo appeared in the original production of My Italy Story at Penguin Rep, which later had its debut Off-Broadway at the 47th Street Theatre in New York. The play later received a critically acclaimed revival at Hoboken’s Mile Square Theatre starring Emmy Award winner Tom.

Pelphrey, who was named Best Actor by The NJ Star-Ledger.  Gallo’s full-length plays include: Two-Man Kidnapping Rule (New Ohio Theatre); Warning: Adult Content (Theatre 54); Staten Island (Circle Rep Lab); and New York City 523. He is a current member of The Actors Studio Playwrights and Directors Workshop, a New Jersey Council of the Arts Playwriting Fellow, and a recipient of the NJ Council of the Humanities Incubation Grant for New Work. A frequent participant at The Moth in New York City, he has toured with The Moth Mainstage Ensemble, has been featured on The Moth Radio Hour and Podcast and is a four-time StorySLAM winner; he will soon be competing in the NYC Grand Slam event. Gallo is the former playwright-in-residence at Mile Square Theatre where his credits included writing and performing in pieces including Yuppies Invade My House at Dinnertime, The Magic Hour, The Playbill Gallery (a love story), AJ's Book and Long Gone Daddy. He is the founder and director of the Theatre Arts Program at Hudson County Community College and is a recipient of the Kennedy Center Prize for Innovative Teaching in Theatre.  He holds an MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University.

Charlotte Cohn is a NY-based director, producer and actor who most recently starred in This Is Not A Time of Peace (New Light Theater) by Deb Margolin. Her directing highlights include Canned Goods (ATG), Church & State (Berkshire Theatre Group), The Whole Shebang and Baltimore in Black and White (The Cell Theatre, NYC) and Best Friends (Jazz at Lincoln Center). She has appeared on Broadway in La Boheme and Coram Boy and her producing credits include Here Lies Love (Broadway), Without You (starring Anthony Rapp) and Handle with Care and Church and State by Jason Odell Williams.  Ms. Cohn is an Ovation Award Winner and a Bay Area Critics’ Circle Award nominee. Her musical The Sound, based on her father's true story of escaping from Denmark to Sweden in WWII, will be presented at The Museum of Jewish Heritage in November 2024.  @cohncharlotte 
 

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