PREFACE: I have reported previously on "Sweepers" written by John Picardi, directed by Frances W. Hill, a wonderful first, in a ten cycle play series designed to represent the Italian American experience during the 20th Century. Set in Boston at the climax of World War II, this play plunges into the humorous and often touching world of three women, awaiting their soldier husbands return from the war, their families and their Italian American traditions, and the way war forever changed their lives.It was staged at the Urban Stages in Manhattan.

"Sweepers" is NOT to be CONFUSED with "The Street Sweeper",written, produced and directed by James Hill, and set in San Diego. It's about an Italian widowed street sweeper father making every sacrifice and effort to put his son through Harvard.

"The Streetsweeper", will be opening in the Los Angeles area in October.
New York Italians are being invited to a screening in Yonkers, and there will be another opening in New York(Manhattan) in November.

Check for dates in your area:http://www.thestreetsweeper.com/

Patricia Edie's comments on the "The Street Sweeper" follow, as does the previous Report on "The Sweepers" for comparison.
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THE STREET SWEEPER: Comments by PATRICIA EDIE:

My husband, Jay, and I were fortunate to be invited to a preview screening for potential distributors of a wonderful film, "The Streetsweeper"  written, produced and directed by James Hill.

The story is about an Italian-American man,(played marvelously by Broadway actor
Paul Michael), who gives up his dream of becoming an opera singer for his wife and son.

It is a modern day drama about a father's love and sacrifice.  Enzo Morelli, a former opera singer, gave up a promising career on the stage to support his family.To honor a promise to his dying wife, he sold his house and car, cashed in his pension and now lives in the slum area of San Deigo which he sweeps in order to pay for his son's turition at Harvard.

It is filmed entirely in San Diego and is a heart-warming depiction of this man's strength of character, loyalty and self-less generosity.  It is like a modern opera in that it has an unexpected turn at the end and is filled with emotion and tragedy.

Wonderful strains of opera music permeate the film.

Hill was invited to screen this film in Milan by the Lombardia Region Film Commission.  Hill also entered it into the Los Angeles Italian Film Awards where it was named best Italian-American film in May.  He also screened it at the National Association of Streetsweepers Convention in Las Vegas and for members of the New York and San Diego metropolitan operas.

Hill is currently trying to obtain distribution for this fim.  If you ever see it advertised you might want to make the effort to see it. It asks many philosophical questions about life, family, broken dreams and unexpected hopes.

At the preview screening, James Hill told us a funny story regarding the website.  It seems that a real street sweeping company has a similar website.  Because James was afraid that some people may end up at this website when looking for information about the film, he contacted the webiste and asked if they would mind forwarding such "lost people" to his real website.

As they talked about the film, James ended up making a connection with their Union of street sweepers.  He actually previewed the film at their convention and WHEN he finally gets someone to distribute the film, as it opens in various cities, the streetsweepers of the city are going to involved in somekind of a streetsweeper parade.

When you see the film, you will realize how positively it portrays the street sweepers of San Diego!  the main character, Enzo Moretti, had been a street sweeper for many years to support his son through Harvard.
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"THE SWEEPER" Comments by Anonymous:

Last night I joined a full house (and standing ovation) for a wonderful evening and theater experience at Urban Stages in Manhattan. This is a delightful play about the hardships faced by three Italian American women during World War II and their contributions to the war effort while husbands and sons are away fighting for their 'new home' - America.

The play is performed in English, by a great cast, and includes a nice blend of Italian expressions, mannerisms and traditions that taps into common experiences of Italian American life and is sure to touch the audience.

I do not want to say too much - because the true delight comes through the experience of theater.   - Go See "The Sweepers" !! Also, remember the Playwright - John Picardi - because (following this success) he is writing a ten cycle play series designed to represent the Italian American experience during the 20th Century.
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THE SWEEPERS:

The New York Times
By Lawrence Van Gelder

April 9, 2002 Change is in the air. The time is the summer of 1945. The atomic age is about  to dawn. World War II is drawing to a close, and life in these United States
is about to be transformed, including life in a little backyard in Boston.

In that yard and among three longtime friends and neighbors — women of  Italian-American background and Roman Catholic upbringing — John C. Picardi  has set "The Sweepers," his often humorous, eventually gripping drama that  for all the specificity of its time and place nevertheless resonates across  the ensuing decades of sociological change, conflicts and casualties. Briskly directed by Frances W. Hill and playing through May 5 at Urban Stages,

"The Sweepers" focuses on Dotty, Mary and Bella. The doll-faced, slightly ditsy Dotty (Brigitte Viellieu-Davis) has a husband in a nearby  veterans' hospital and a son on Okinawa.  The tall, rather repressed Mary (Donna Davis) has a husband and a son in the service. Bella (Dana Smith), shapely and alcoholic, has long ago been abandoned by her husband and still grieves for the beloved brother she lost in World War I, but thanks to a draft board's finding that her boy, Sonny (Matt Walton), has a serious heart murmur, she needn't worry about him. Well, at least not about the possibility of losing him in the war.

Never mind that some of the neighborhood toughs regard Sonny as a draft dodger. The  handsome, muscular Sonny has used the war years to earn a law degree, to work for a politically well-connected firm and to win the heart of his boss's daughter, the pretty and clear-eyed Karen (Ivy Vahanian), whose family is a generation ahead of Bella in terms of assimilation.

Bella, whose frequent mysterious disappearances have Dotty and Mary speculating about a secret boyfriend, ought to be happy for her son, who hopes to uses his legal training for the betterment of mankind, especially oppressed Italian-Americans. Instead Bella is afraid that Sonny is being  turned into what these women call "an American," and that the polished, stylish Karen is going to take him away into a different life among different people with different values in a different neighborhood.

So as the war winds down, emotions intensify in the yard, where a statue of the Virgin Mary watches over all and listens to the prayers of those who believe. Dotty must deal with her reactions to her hospitalized husband and the anticipated homecoming of their son. Mary, feverishly wrapping newspapers and collecting tin cans for the war effort, cannot seem to accept what most people would regard as the coming of peace.

And Bella, egged on by her friends and her sense of sacrifice in the upbringing of Sonny, stakes everything on her insistence that Karen and Sonny observe an Old World rite. She demands that they hang out their wedding-night sheet to prove that Karen was, as she and her friends say, pure.

At this point, Mr. Picardi's play, which has had its fun with topics like Dotty's ignorance and the quality of the food at Sonny and Karen's wedding, achieves uncommon emotional tension that sets the stage for the climactic  revelations of "The Sweepers."

If the accents of the principals seem to come and go, the play is nevertheless well cast, and the set and lighting of Roman J. Tatarowicz, the costumes of Kevin Brainard and the sound design of Marc Gwinn fix the action firmly in its time, while Mr. Picardi's writing renders his characters timeless.

THE SWEEPERS
By John C. Picardi; directed by Frances W. Hill; sets and lighting by Roman  J. Tatarowicz; sound by Marc Gwinn; costumes by Kevin Brainard; technical  director, Andy Smith; stage manager, Ken Hall; assistant stage manager and props, Michael Gray. Presented by Urban Stages, Playwrights' Preview Productions, Ms. Hill, artistic director; T. L. Reilly, producing director; Sonia Kozlova, program director. At Urban Stages, 259 West 30th Street, Manhattan.  WITH: Brigitte Viellieu-Davis (Dotty), Donna Davis (Mary), Dana Smith (Bella), Ivy Vahanian (Karen) and Matt Walton (Sonny).