Cantone, Macchio, Doherty Lead A ROOM OF MY OWN Industry Reading 9/20

On Monday, September 20th at 8:00pm, the Bleecker Street Theater Company will present a reading of Charles Messina's astoundingly hilarious new Broadway-bound comedy, "A ROOM OF MY OWN" as part of that theater's Play Development Series.

Mr. Messina will direct the cast of eight that includes Ralph Macchio, Mario Cantone, Shannen Doherty, Gina Ferranti, Valerie Smaldone, Kendra Jain, Adam Trese and John Barbieri.

Produced by Robert Nicotra and Josselyne Herman-Saccio "A ROOM OF MY OWN" will be presented only once at 45 Bleecker (at the corner of Bleecker and Lafayette Streets) before being readied for future national productions.

TEd Kurdyla is the Executive Producer.

THE STORY

"A ROOM OF MY OWN" is a two-act play that revolves around a playwright's Herculean attempt to tell his story of growing up in a tiny studio apartment inside a crumbling five-flight-walk-up on Thompson Street in Greenwich Village with his certifiably insane Italian-American family.

As ACT I unfolds it becomes excruciatingly clear that the playwright is beginning to lose control of his characters.

Most pointedly his 10-year-old younger-self, a feisty creation who absolutely refuses to go along with his older-self's revisionist version of their somewhat shocking family history.

The playwright also becomes totally incapable of controlling the character of his mother. A maternal depiction NEVER EVER experienced in the American theatre.

Her name is Dorothy Theresa DiVincenzi Morelli and no one on this earth has ever met or will ever meet anyone like her.

The year is 1979. The SHAH of Iran is on the run. IRA terrorists explode a bomb on Lord Mountbatten's fishing boat. Rebel Tanzanians force Uganda's President into exile. The KKK open fire on a bunch of Communists in North Carolina.

And.

Dorothy Morelli is about to "take down" Sister Rita, the nun in charge of her son's school, a bastion of respected educators who innocently expect the students to pay their tuition even if their mothers have lost it at Angelina's All-Night Card Game on Sullivan Street.

Sister Rita is played by Shannen Doherty.

ACT I ends with the playwright clutching a bottle of Pepto Bismol.

Some have described ACT II as Luigi Pirandello on steroids.

ACT II is the setting of the Dorothy Morelli vs. Sister Rita showdown as well as the final round between the playwright and his younger-self.

Big stuff.

RSVP: 617-327-3463 or TheJacksinaCo@mindspring.com

ABOUT TEd KuRDYLA
(Executive Producer)
TEd Kurdyla has distinguished himself as a successful producer while amassing a varied list of credits in film, television and cable throughout his producing career. Ted's film credits include. "Phone Booth," directed by Joel Schumacher for 20th Century Fox starring Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker and Katie Holmes opened as America's number one movie; "Tigerland," directed by Joel Schumacher, starring Colin Farrell in his first motion picture, for New Regency/ 20th Century Fox; "Isn't She Great," starring Bette Midler and Nathan Lane was directed by Andrew Bergman for Universal Pictures and co-stared Stockard Channing, David Hyde Pierce and John Cleese; "Fallen," starring Denzel Washington, John Goodman, James Gandolfini, Embeth Davidtz and Donald Sutherland was directed by Gregory Hoblit and distributed worldwide by Warner Bros; "The Confession," starring Alec Baldwin, Ben Kingsley, and Amy Irving directed by David Jones for Franchise Films; "Final Analysis," starring Richard Gere, Kim Basinger, Uma Thurman and Eric Roberts directed by Phil Joanou for Warner Bros; "Cadillac Man," starring Robin Williams, Tim Robins, Annabella Sciorra and Fran Drescher directed by Roger Donaldson for Orion Pictures; "Johnny Handsome, " Starring Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Morgan Freeman and Lance Henriksen directed by Walter Hill for Carolco/Tri-star. Producer TEd Kurdyla and Kurdyla Entertainment have produced the four hour mini- series "Spartacus," shot in Bulgaria, starring Goran Visnjic, Alan Bates, Ben Cross, Angus MacFadyen, Henry Simmons and Rhona Mitra directed by Robert Dornhelm for Universal/USA Cable Entertainment. "Helen of Troy," a four hour mini series shot in Malta was produced by TEd Kurdyla, directed by John Kent Harrison with Rufus Sewell, Sienna Guillory, Matthew Marsden and Stellan Skarsgard aired on USA Cable Entertainment for Universal. Ted produced and directed live to tape "Sumo Battle of the Giants" at Madison Square Garden for Big Boy Productions and ESPN. Ted co-produced "The Cosby Mysteries" starring Bill Cosby, James Naughton, Lynn Whitfield and Rita Moreno for NBC Productions. Also for NBC, he produced the telefilm "Trapped," starring Kris Kristofferson. For Showtime he produced "Birds II: Land's End," with Brad Johnson, Tippi Hedren; "Twilight Man," starring Tim Matheson and Dean Stockwell was produced by Kurdyla for Encore. TEd Kurdyla's production manager credits include "Once Upon A Time In America," with Robert De Niro, James Woods, Joe Pesci, Elizabeth Mc Govern and Treat Williams directed by Sergio Leone for Warner Bros; "Year of The Dragon," starring Mickey Rourke, directed by Michael Cimino for MGM; "Blow Out," with John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow and Dennis Franz, directed by Brian De Palma for Filmways; "Fletch Lives," starring Chevy Chase, HAl Holbrook, Cleavon Little and Richard Belzer, directed by Michael Ritchie for Universal; "Imagine: John Lennon," with Yoko Ono, Julian Lennon, Cynthia Lennon, Sean Lennon Paul Mc Cartney, Ringo Star, George Harrison and David Bowe directed by Andrew Solt for Warner Bros; "Bright Lights Big City," with Michael J. Fox, Kiefer Sutherland, directed by James Bridges for United Artist; "*batteries not included," starring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy directed by Matthew Robbins for Amblin/Universal; "Arthur 2 - On the Rocks," with Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, John Gielgud and Kathy Bates directed by Bud Yorkin for Warner Bros; "America," starring Zack Norman, Robert Downey Jr. and Michael J. Pollard directed by Robert Downey for Aries and "Fighting Back," starring Tom Skerritt, Patti Lu Pone and Michael Sarrazin directed by Lewis Teague for Paramount.

ABOUT Charles Messina
(Writer/Director)
Charles Messina was born in Greenwich Village, of Italian-American descent and is a graduate of New York University. Known for his deconstructive take on biographical subjects, Messina's most notable stage work as director includes the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway plays Cirque Jacqueline, about the life of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, and Mercury: The Afterlife and Times of a Rock God, about Queen's frontman Freddie Mercury. In August 2007 Messina directed Jim Tooey and Kelly Chippendale in Two-Mur Humor, which was an official entry in the 2007 Fringe Festival in New York. In 2007 Messina also directed the big budget musical Be My Love, written by Richard Vetere, about the life of singer Mario Lanza, which was produced by Sonny Grosso and Phil Ramone. It premiered at The Tillis Center in October 2007. For the big screen, Messina has written They're Just My Friends, which was released theatrically in Fall 2006 and starred Lord Jamar, Malik Yoba, and Bruce Altman. He has also written the film Spy starring Vincent Pastore and Frank Vincent. Also in 2007, Messina's play Merging starring Jason Cerbone, Gina Ferranti and Ernest Mingione won BEST PLAY in The Players Theater's Shortened Attention Span Theater Festival in Greenwich Village. Messina also directed the short film based on the play. Messina has directed the off-Broadway shows Rockaway Boulevard by Rich Vetere, The Accidental Pervert by Andrew Goffman, and Art Metrano's Accidental Comedy, as well as a staged reading of his own script Younger, starring Joe Piscopo. Messina's play, Homeland, which premiered in 2008, starred Sopranos actors Dan Grimaldi and Joe Lisi, as well as Jason Cerbone, Gina Ferranti and Amir Darvish. Messina wrote the book My Father, My Don, about the life of Genovese Capo James "Jimmy Nap" Napoli and his son Tony Napoli, in collaboration with Tony Napoli. It was released by Beckham Publications Group in Fall 2008 and is currently available in Barnes & Noble and other major retail bookstores. In 2009, Messina's play "A Room of My Own", about an Italian-American family living in Greenwich Village in the late 1970s, was optioned and is being developed into a major motion picture by Executive Producer TEd Kurdyla. Messina co-wrote the upcoming film
Jekyll and Hyde, starring 50 Cent and directed by Abel Ferrara.

ABOUT JOSSELYNE HERMAN-SACCIO
(Producer)
Josselyne began her career in 1986 as a producer for Zanders Animation Parlor, where she produced animated commercials and developed animated television programming and films. She moved into the interactive Television world as Director of Production ACTV Interactive TV where she supervised the production of 150+ episodes of original programming. She has produced 300+ commercials most of which she was a creative force in them as well. She wrote and produced award winning programming for A & E's Biography, and was instrumental in designin marketing/branding and ad campaigns for many of her clients. Josselyne then pursued her lifelong "dream" of being a songwriter and pop singer. She and her group BOY KRAZY signed a record deal with Polygram Records and their hit song "That's What Love Can Do" soon replaced Whitney Houston's "I will Always Love you" as the #1 song in America. During her singing career she won the HINRG award for best vocal performance, the BMI award for most played song on the radio and joined the very exclusive club of artists whose first song went to #1 on the charts. (A club that includes Elvis and The Beatles). Josselyne has spent the past 12 years as a personal manager for actors, writers, directors and recording artists. Her clients can be seen in the Twilight Series, Brooklyn's Finest, Sex and The City, Precious, Ugly Betty, Mercy, Gossip Girl, Kings, Cashmere Mafia, Lipstick Jungle, Rescue Me, all the Law and Orders, All My Children, As The World Turns, Guiding Light, One Life To Live, in addition to hundreds of films, commercials and Broadway shows. Josselyne produced the feature films "Anne B. Real", starring Ernie Hudson and Carlos Leon, as well as "Tollbooth" starring Tovah Feldshuh and Marla Sokoloff. Josselyne also served as Music Supervisor and Post Production Supervisor for "Anne B. Real" which was released on Universal Home Video having already won dozens of film festival awards and being nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature under $500K. Anne B. Real was also nominated for the PRISM award honoring the Art Of Making A Difference and can be seen on Showtime, Starz and Cinemax. In 2004 she completed producing the film, "Caged", starring Chris Elliot and Carol Alt, it premiered on Showtime. Her film "The Making Of..." was completed in 2005. Josselyne is currently in post production on two features, THE PACK starring Lucy Arnaz, Angie Martinez, Molly Culver, Zach Galligan and Carlos Leon, as well as THEY'RE JUST MY FRIENDS, featuring Lord Jamar, Malik Yoba, Thom Christopher, Bruce Altman and Al Snow, which is being release in theatres in September 2006.

ABOUT ROBERT NICOTRA
(Producer)
After twenty years in the financial industry, Robert left in 2008 to pursue his life long dream of acting, writing and producing full time. Robert Is the author of the screenplays "Vicious Circle", "Bobby Nico" and the short film "Independent Contractor." He has worked as a script, joke and project consultant(2006-2009) to Professional Comic Lynn Koplitz and penned a TV spec script "One Foot In The Grave". His first play "Like You" has made its world premiere at BTC Productions "Men Without Myth" in June 2010. Robert founded Before Tomorrow Comes Productions (BTC) in 2010. BTC Productions is dedicated to assisting and igniting artists to create and produce their own work. BTC develops and produces theatrical productions and films through readings, workshops, and a not for profit division.

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