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Posted on Wed, Jul. 31, 2002 |
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CIAO
DOWN
In Circle Theatre's play about an
Italian family, you bet your sweet cannoli the food is a
priority
By PERRY
STEWART
Special to the
Star-Telegram
As a live theater
show advances through the rehearsal process, a director typically
delivers comments such as "looking good" or "sounds good." Prior to
a recent rehearsal at Fort Worth's Circle Theatre, director René
Moreno commented: "Smells good."
Indeed, the spread of
Italian dishes onstage was olfactory ecstasy: sauteed veal in a
puddle of marinara sauce, steaming ravioli melting a dusting of
Parmesan cheese, summer squash flecked with basil and glistening
with olive oil. That's fortunate, because the actors have to eat the
food at every performance of
Over the River and Through the Woods.
Face it: How
can you depict Italian life without Italian food?
In The
Godfather, filmgoers salivated when a corpulent mob lieutenant
instructed Al Pacino how to spice up spaghetti sauce with peppers.
In GoodFellas, we drooled unashamedly as Ray Liotta and his
pals cooked and devoured pasta, sausage and other delights. HBO's
The Sopranos makes delivered pizza seem a lame idea for
Sunday night dinner.
The focus of `Over the River is
the loud and loving Cristano/Gianelli clan: two sets of Hoboken
grandparents who live to lavish love and lasagna on Nick, their
30ish bachelor grandson, played by Ric Leal.
In an aside to
the audience, Nick sums up his grandparents' credo as "the three Fs:
food, family, faith." Nick hasn't been onstage for 60 seconds before
Grandmother Aida makes him a ham sandwich with Cheddar and muenster
cheese.
When Nick announces he has a job offer in Seattle,
the old folks spring into action. The don't-leave-us guilt trip
fails, so Grandma Emma (Barbara Bierbrier) comes up with Plan B: If
Nick marries a local girl, maybe he won't move away.
Emma
selects "the unmarried niece of my canasta partner" _ beautiful and
high-spirited Caitlin (Heather Child) and invites her to Sunday
dinner without telling Nick.
The grandparents' shameless
matchmaking and Nick's escalating chagrin are played out hilariously
during the multicourse feast.
Bierbrier, who appeared earlier
at Circle in Three Viewings, is repeating her role from a
2001 production of Over the River at Theatre Three in Dallas.
So are Hugh Feagin, who plays her husband, and Ada Lynn, who plays
Aida, empress of the kitchen and architect of the repast. Here's
Nick again, telling the audience about his grandmother, the
cook:
"`Aida never made it through grammar school. She never
learned to drive a car. But lock her in a kitchen with a tomato,
pasta and garlic and the woman was Einstein."'
The actual
executive chef of the production is not actress Lynn, but Brad M.
Jackson. The Fort Worth actor, who supplies the voices of Oolong the
Pig and King Cold in the Cartoon Network's Dragonball Z, is
stage manager of Over the River. As such, he's in charge of
"props." The most important props in this show are the food items.
So in addition to helping director Moreno track the actors' stage
movements, interfacing with the technical crew and sundry other
chores, Jackson whips up a meal at each performance.
As
delectable as some parts of the meal are, Jackson probably doesn't
have to remind the actors not to eat the cheesecake or the
antipasto.
"We do have some fake foods that aren't actually
eaten during the show," Jackson explains. "The set designer, Clare
Floyd DeVries, and I make the fake food. The cheesecake is layers of
Styrofoam with spackling and acrylic paint. The antipasto platter is
nice, too. The carrot sticks are wood, and the olives are plastic
grapes that Clare spray-painted black."
DeVries expanded the
antipasto platter, adding tomatoes, cheese and cold cuts _ all of
which she sculpted freehand from Play-Doh and painted. The
experience taught DeVries that Play-Doh shrinks as it dries, so the
antipasto platter to serve six began as an antipasto platter to
serve eight.
Like any good caterer, Jackson has several
tricks to get the meal on the table. Cran-grape juice stands in for
chianti. Ravioli comes courtesy of one of America's great chefs in
the corporate canning world. Vegetarian "chicken" patties stand in
for budget-breaking veal in veal Parmigiana. Store-bought cannoli
shells are filled with Cool Whip for dessert.
But for every
performance, while the actors are going through their paces, Jackson
will be backstage sauteeing garlic, chopping onions and otherwise
assembling marinara sauce for the cast to devour with the rest of
the meal. And it better be worth eating; the audience will be
watching.
If Jackson had more of a budget, and more time,
he'd like to include the meatball recipe, which is one of his
favorites from his personal recipe box. The marinara recipe is the
one he prepares for each performance. The spiedini alla Romano is
from cast member Richard Zavaglia, who plays grandfather Frank. This
recipe is a favorite at Zavaglia's own very Italian-American family
table and is courtesy of his wife, Marilyn Rosamilia.
BRAD'S HOMEMADE MEATBALLS
Serves 6
˝ pound ground sirloin and ˝ pound ground pork (the two meats
are very important for flavor and consistency)
1 egg
˝ cup dried Italian bread crumbs
1/3 cup chopped onion
4 cloves chopped garlic
2 tablespoons fresh chopped basil
2 teaspoons oregano
Pinch of tarragon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Add all ingredients to one bowl and mix
thoroughly by hand. Roll meat into any size balls you want. Brown
completely on all sides in a skillet. Bake at 300 degrees until
cooked through.
Serve with pasta and marinara
sauce.
Nutritional analysis per serving: 207 calories, 11
grams fat, 8 grams carbohydrates, 16 grams protein, 80 milligrams
cholesterol, 574 milligrams sodium, 50 percent of calories from
fat.
MARINARA SAUCE
Serves 6
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 small white onion, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 (15 ounces each) cans tomato sauce
8-ounce can tomato paste
Generous amount of all-purpose Italian seasoning
3 tablespoons sugar
Saute garlic and onion in olive oil.
Add tomato sauce and tomato paste. Stir in Italian spices and sugar.
Simmer sauce on low heat for 1 hour.
Nutritional analysis per
serving: 174 calories, 5 grams fat, 30 grams carbohydrates, 5 grams
protein, 0 cholesterol, 1,219 milligrams sodium, 25 percent of
calories from fat.
SPIEDINI ALLA ROMANO
Serves 4-6
2 baguettes or thin loaf of Italian bread cut into 20
slices
1 ˝ pounds fresh mozzarella cut into 16 (˝-inch thick)
slices
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided, plus extra to oil pan
Salt and pepper
1 stick (˝ cup) butter
16 anchovy fillets in oil, drained
1 bunch Italian parsley, leaves only, finely
chopped
Preheat broiler to 375 degrees.
On metal
skewers, starting with bread and alternating with cheese, place 5
slices of bread and 4 slices of cheese. Press end slices to center
to pack closely together. Repeat with other skewers and place on
oiled baking sheet. Brush with 2 tablespoons olive oil and season
with salt and pepper. Broil about 6 to 7 inches from heat, until
bread is lightly browned and cheese is melted, about 15 minutes.
Check often so that bread does not burn.
Heat butter and
remaining 1 tablespoon oil in heavy saucepan over low heat. When
butter is completely melted, remove from heat. Add mashed anchovies
and continue mashing until the mixture is
well-combined.
Remove skewers from boiler, push bread and
cheese onto six individual plates and pour some of the sauce over
each serving. Sprinkle with parlsey to taste.
Nutritional
analysis per serving, 6 servings, using all the anchovy sauce: 940
calories, 73 grams fat, 29 grams carbohydrates, 43 grams protein,
208 milligrams cholesterol, 1,749 milligrams sodium, 70 percent of
calories from fat.
Circle Theatre's production of playwright Joe DiPietro's
affectionate look at a well-fed Italian-American family in New
Jersey has its first preview performance Wednesday at Circle's
125-seat playhouse below West Fourth Street in Sundance
Square.
Over the River and Through the
Woods
Through Sept. 7
Circle Theatre, 230 W.
Fourth St.
Previews: 7:30 tonight and
Thursday
Champagne opening: 7:30 p.m. Friday
Regular
performances: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 4 and 8:30 p.m.
Saturdays; no matinee Saturday, Aug. 3
Tickets: $10 for
previews, $30 for Friday opening, $15-25
afterward
Reservations: (817) 877-3040
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Star-Telegram Resources 
| Updated Wednesday, July
31, 2002 |
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