Union County Performing Arts Center Presents

Award-Winning Jersey Native's Funny, Poignant Play

About Growing Up Tough in Jersey, circa 20's-30's

The Cherry Sisters: True Stories from the Kitchen Table, written and performed by award-winning actress/filmmaker Francesca Rizzo, will be presented at 8 pm Thursday through Saturday, November 12, 13, 14 and a special matinee performance at 3 pm on Sunday, November 15th in their Studio Theatre.

Profoundly funny and poignant, this edgy one woman play was created as a tribute to the playwright's dynamic Italian-American mother who, along with her siblings, grew up tough in Newark, NJ  in the 1930's. Set in the 70's, Grace, a middle-aged Italian-American suburban housewife, holds court in her New Jersey kitchen while she waits for her three sisters to come over for "coffee and…" In this age of genealogy tracing and honoring our roots, Rizzo, a second generation Italian-American, has collected her mother's stories and portrays her singing songs and weaving raucous tales of scarred childhoods and harrowing adulthoods.

"My mother's life and death has greatly influenced my life and creativity.  She was an unusual person, not always easy to live with but fascinating, nonetheless," says Rizzo who was awarded the New Jersey State Council On the Arts Distinguished Artist Fellowship for her multi-disciplinary work on the very day of her mother's funeral. "I was weaned on her words and stories and find they've seeped into much of my work.  She had a distinctive voice and I felt compelled to take it from the kitchen table to the stage, where it belongs."

The Cherry Sisters is about sisters and everybody's family. It's about surviving your childhood with a modicum of dignity and how, try as we may, our emotional scars eventually just grow together and form who we are.  And it's about how humor and song and telling family stories around a kitchen table, anybody's stories and anybody's table, is sometimes the only real therapy you'll ever get.

"It is so important to keep an oral history of a family, to keep the stories alive with the culture, the personalities and the details from the humor to the tragedies,"  says Allison Lansky, Family Psychotherapist at Princeton Medical Center. "The Cherry Sisters: True Stories From the Kitchen Table is a testament to families, connections and relationships."

The play takes place in real time as a storm rages outside and the sisters still haven’t arrived so our hostess gets more and more concerned, eventually enlisting the aid of the Make-Believe Ballroom and a certain radio host she's grown close to over the years.  Authentic and, at times, salty, The Cherry Sisters is often hilarious yet actually offers a wry, unblinking look at the long-range effects of domestic violence and how some people overcome it and some people don't.

"In my years working with families touched by domestic violence, it's been difficult to find entertaining material that really speaks to the problem," says Marilyn Lorey, former executive director of the Rockdale Council for the Prevention of Child Abuse. "The Cherry Sisters offers a unique perspective that allows audiences to experience the situation on a different level. It's humor really draws you in and engages your humanity."

While "The Cherry Sisters" deals with adult language and situations, it manages to retain it's sense of humor. "If you liked My Big Fat Greek Wedding, you’ll LOVE The Cherry Sisters." says UCPAC executive director, Sandy Erwin. "We're thrilled to be presenting it because we think everyone will identify with at least one of this family's wacky, wonderful, even scary stories:  I’m still laughing and crying remembering my own mother, grandmother and aunts. You won't want to miss this one."

How the Play Came About

The Cherry Sisters began as a an exercise in writing in her mother's voice that grew and grew, due, for the most part, to the encouragement of the audiences who heard it. Rizzo says, "I have to give a lot of credit to others as I fought writing this for a long time and it was only the out and out nagging of other's who were very intrigued by these stories and kept giving me deadlines."  In its first incarnation as short play, The Cherry Sisters was invited to perform at both The Cornelia Street Café and Center Stage NY then went on to enjoy a full run at Cape May Stage. "The first time I read these stories aloud I burst into tears and I think the audience was as shocked as I was by the power of my mother's words. She was a natural raconteur and used humor to deal with the rawness of the life she and her sisters lived."  

Francesca Rizzo: BIO

Born in Hillside, New Jersey, Francesca Rizzo grew up Westfield and Monmouth Beach and moved to Manhattan where she resided for over 25 years.  She began her education at Monmouth University and recently was awarded her BA in Media Arts at Empire State College as well as the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence.  Her career spans many media and she has been cited in MovieMaker Magazine as an "Artist to Watch," has performed regularly in commercials and TV roles on "Law & Order," "Law & Order: SVU" and "Feds."  Francesca wrote and starred in Nick at Nite's How To Be Donna Reed as well as Sullivan's Last Call: A sexy little film about celibacy, which garnered numerous festival awards. Recent works include her new solo show, Dames Like Her, currently in development at the Cornelia Street Cafe in the West Village and Cinema-Femina, an ongoing independent film series featuring cool films made by and about women.

Reviews

"Francesca Rizzo gives a tour de force performance ... unlike the thousand or more New Jersey jokes, Rizzo and her alter ego in the play are not to be trifled with. Laugh and cry with Francesca Rizzo in The Cherry Sisters."                                                    Ed Wismer, Cape May Star & Wave

"Rizzo plays the part of her mother, Grace, a woman who faces life head-on with wit and bravado ... (she) deserves credit for tackling subjects few would be willing to discuss in public and she does it with flair and sharp comedic timing."                               Steven V. Cronin, The Atlantic City Press

"I loved Francesca Rizzo's "The Cherry Sisters." Rizzo, a fine film actress, is mercurial on stage as well ... it seems as both writer and actor she is in touch with life itself ... better than Spalding Gray, in my book."

  Ray Carney, Moviemaker Magazine

The Cherry Sisters: True Stories From The Kitchen Table

Written & Performed By Francesca Rizzo

Produced by Francesca Rizzo and Susan Mollica

Sound Design by Roy Yokelson, Antland Productions

Voice-Over by Todd Cummings  Props by Ingrid Price

The Union County Performing Arts Center - Studio Theatre

1601 Irving Street, Rahway NJ 07065

Performances:

Nov 12 - 14, Thursday, Friday, Saturday night 8:00 PM     Nov 15, Sunday Matinee 3:00 PM

Tickets:

$22 (reservations recommended) Call 732 499-8226 or go to www.ucpac.org for reservations and info.

Tickets available at the door.

###