Is it Christmas already? - But we haven't celebrated Thanksgiving yet!

Ciao a tutti,

With all the hustle and bustle of the Holidays, and by Holidays, I mean Christmas, already in the air, and in the stores, and on TV and, and, and, I feel like Thanksgiving has come and gone already. It didn't make matters any better when I myself went to go see a Christmas play before Thanksgiving with a group of fourteen Italian-American friends, all of us in the Holiday spirit. Actually, get fourteen Italian-Americans together for anything and it's a holiday, even if it's a wake.

We all went to a restaurant for dinner first, of course, we had to EAT! And then we went to see an Italian-American Christmas play on the opening weekend. The play was "Buon Natale" Christmas Eve Italian Style written and directed by Rita Andriello and produced by You & Me Productions. By the way, my Mamma was my guest that night.

When I saw the picture on the postcard invitation, I knew I had to see this show, the picture itself is so funny. Here is the cover of the program which has the same image as the postcard did, see what I mean? And for those of you who don't know, that is a Baccala, he's holding in his hands, no pun intended.

A Baccala is dried and salted Cod fish. The Italians salt the Cod Fish and then when they are ready to eat it they soak it in water for a few days to a week or so and then cook it in various was, usually for the "Cenone," the big fish meal on Christmas Eve. Interestingly enough, one of my Argentinian Italian friends was with us and he said that in Argentina, the Italians eat the Baccala on Easter, not Christmas.

And by the way, he said that in Argentina, Argentinians of Italian heritage don't distinguish themselves as Italian-Argentinians or Argentinian-Italians, he said, "We are just Argentinian, that's it!" Spoken in his heavy accent. When I asked him why, he answered that "since everyone from Argentina is from somewhere else, why differentiate?" Well, I should have answered him with "everyone from America is from somewhere else too, except for the Indians, and even THEY call themselves, American-Indian. How about that?"

And oh, incidentally, this friend of mine's name is Alberto Defilippi, now if that is not Italian, I don't know what is. And his two beautiful daughters, who also came and loved the play are named Bianca and Tea, (pronounced Tay -ah). Now tell me he isn't tied to his Italian roots! These are his two girls pictured here with Rita Andriello and I on the set of Buon Natale. Aren't they the cutest little Argentinian-Italian-Americans you've ever seen?

I have yet to explore this Argentinian thing further, but back to the play. Now ironically, after I had gotten tickets I was telling a friend of mine about the show who evidently had seen it last year when it premiered. As she listened to me she exclaimed, "you are taking your Mother?" I told her, of course, it should be funny, my Mom would make Baccala every Christmas, and..., and she interrupted me and told me about the play. Then I panicked. So, I thanked my friend for telling me and then proceeded to call several more friends tell them what I had learned and how I was in a dilemma as to what I was going to do, and they all told me to just not take her.

So I called my Mother and told her the bad news. Guess what? She said, "so what, lets go see it!" Wow, I was so impressed, you go Mom! We all ended up enjoying the show after all, and talking about it for days afterwards and even learning from it. It was well written and it was funny and touching and had so many great elements, my compliments to Rita. Here is a picture of Rita and I and the cast on the set of Buon Natale after the show. The gentleman on my right is Rita's husband, the co-producer, and also an actor in the play, Patrick Feren.

So what was the big deal? Well, the play dealt with some real issues in some Italians' and Italian-Americans' lives, for that matter the lives of many people of many different nationalities. Thankfully, the funny parts were part of my reality, and most of these particular nail biting parts were not. But we do know these problems have existed. For example, the main "problem" is the father, played by Roberto Branco, actor and a singer, who is standing behind the couch in the picture, and who reminded me that I followed his act on stage at a festival years ago.

So, the father, throws out one son on Christmas Eve because he divorced his wife and came to dinner with someone he considers a "bimbo." Though bimbo is the Italian word for little boy, that's not what he means. Then he throws out the second son because he comes to dinner with his "partner," another man, and then realized his son is gay. And as for the daughter, he hasn't spoken to her in I don't remember how many years because she married a man he didn't approve of.

However, the gut wrenching parts were cleverly woven with the humorous parts like everything being about the fish that night, and cleverly woven with sentimental parts, which I won't give away. All in all I am glad I went.

I think what would have made everyone happy is if maybe it wasn't called "Christmas Eve Italian Style," because thankfully, though everyone may eat fish that night, and though there are traditions that most everyone can agree on and relate to, all these particular experiences don't necessarily happen to every Italian-American. Besides, the Mother wasn't even Italian, she was Jewish, so it might have played out completely different had she been. But it certainly added to the humor with the Mother's Jewish sister played very adeptly by Sandra Kinder.

Oh, and the part that says "A Holiday Gift Wrapped in Love and Laughter," that part can be changed too, it gives you the feeling you are going to see something warm and fuzzy, and it is not necessarily so. However, that shouldn't stop you from seeing the play, or bringing your Mother, in fact, I do recommend it as a play about a particular fictitious family's Italian-American-Jewish Christmas Eve experience.

There is much you can laugh about, and learn. In fact, I learned of a tradition that my Mother never taught us, and that is the tradition of writing notes to your parents telling them how much you love them and placing them under the dinner plate before dinner. My mother and I had a great conversation on that and how she used to do it as a child and had forgotten about it. I rather like it. Grazie Rita, and Brava! Thank you also for including www.FilippoandtheChef.com and my name in the program under "So Many Angels to Give Thanks For."

Happy Thanksgiving,

Filippo

P.S. Ironically enough, here is a video I found on Youtube.com that a family put up last year of their Italian Christmas Eve experience. Quite the different experience and quite interesting too. Who is this beautiful family? (In Italian)