Frank Ingrasciotta marries a fellow Sicilian, who therefore understands his life as the son of volatile Sicilian parents, and the strong ethnic Italian/Sicilian tradition that at times conflicts with the homogenizing effect of American culture. 
 
Not surprisingly, the play appeals broadly to anyone raised in a strong ethnic tradition, and has found sympathetic audiences among people whose heritages are South American or Indian, Middle Eastern or Southeast Asian. "Anyone who has tried to find their independence -- they understand it," 

Trained chef and nutritionist Teresa Ingrasciott, left, and her husband Frank Ingrasciotta, the writer-performer of a one-man show coming to Cap Rep called "Blood Type: Ragu," all about growing up in an Italian family, share a little antipasto in Albany Saturday  May 21, 2011. 
The San Marzano tomato, longer and thinner than the familiar oval-shaped Roma variety, is prized for its thick, sweet flesh and minimal seeds. Though believed to have originated in Peru, San Marzanos are most associated with Italian sauces. That the best tomato sauce in the world is made with San Marzanos is barely disputed, and never by Italians.

Thus it is almost obligatory that the actor-playwright Frank Ingrasciotta and his wife, the chef-nutritionist Teresa Russo, grow San Marzano tomatoes in their garden at home in White Plains. For if food is among the connective and nourishing glories of Italian culture, and if among the most cherished of those foods is the meaty tomato sauce known as ragu, then one must have San Marzanos not only to make ragu, but, indeed, to sustain life.

"The metaphor is that the culture courses through our veins," says Ingrasciotta, speaking of the title of his one-man show, "Blood Type: Ragu," which is at the beginning of a three-week run at Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany.

Although specifically about Ingrasciotta's life as the son of volatile Sicilian parents, the play appeals broadly to anyone raised in a strong ethnic tradition that at times conflicts with the homogenizing effect of American culture, the playwright says.

"It's about a family that just happens to be Italian," says Ingrasciotta. While tempers flare in the play, potent insults fly in Italian and melodrama peaks with a Sicilian widow trying to hurl herself into her husband's grave at his funeral, Ingrasciotta says, "It's not stereotype, it's not goombah, it's not mafia -- it's a story."

As such, he says, "Blood Type: Ragu" has found sympathetic audiences among people whose heritages are South American or Indian, Middle Eastern or Southeast Asian.    "Anyone who has tried to find their independence -- they understand it," says Ingrasciotta.

Growing up in a home that resembled a demilitarized zone haunted by past battles -- for years his parents arranged their household routines to avoid seeing one another -- Ingrasciotta found refuge in the arts.

"They were so wrapped up in their own things that as long as I had an interest in something and I wasn't a drug addict, it was OK with them," says Ingrasciotta, 52, who was raised in an Italian enclave in Brooklyn.

Embarrassed by but unable to escape his heritage, Ingrasciotta made a career in theater and television. Though his stories and impressions of his family entertained friends at parties for years, he did not begin to make peace with his past, at least sufficiently to be able to turn it into art, until meeting Russo, whose parents were also Sicilian immigrants.

"She knew my story" -- tempestuous household, cultural encumbrances -- "but she loved me anyway," he says. "We didn't have to explain the eccentricities of a Sicilian background to each other." They were wed 16 years ago and honeymooned in Italy, where Ingrasciotta met his wife's extended family and became reacquainted with relatives of his own, whom he hadn't seen since visiting Sicily as a child, for a grandparent's funeral.

"Not only did I marry Teresa, I remarried the entire culture," he says.Part of that re-embrace was of the food."Although I had wonderful meals as a child, there was no real nourishment until I met Teresa," says Ingrasciotta.

A trained chef who teaches community nutrition awareness through Cornell Cooperative Extension, Russo relishes the rich traditions of Italian cuisine and believes they offer much of value to eat-on-the-go, fast-food-reliant Americans, in both physical and mental health.

"Italians use whole foods -- olives, cheese, vegetables, meat, not things that are processed -- and they eat it together, as a family," says Russo. "That way of eating has a lot to offer the body and the spirit."

In recent years she has been suffering from gluten intolerance and must avoid conventional bread and pasta, which hasn't turned out as grim a diagnosis as expected for a pair of Italians, Ingrasciotta says.

"She has found an alternative way to cook Italian, and it's delicious," he says.

During one late-summer visit to Italy, while staying with family, they participated in the grape harvest. They watched women drying tomatoes in the sun, as has been done for centuries, and others whacking olives with mallets. As much as they love their cultures' food, by the end of the visit they craved Japanese, Thai, Indian -- anything else...

On the web: To watch "Blood Type: Ragu" star Frank Ingrasciotta being interviewed about his show, visit http://blog.timesunion.com/localarts. 

If you go: "BLOOD TYPE: RAGU"    Where: Capital Repertory Theatre, 111 N. Pearl St., Albany

http://www.timesunion.com/entertainment/
article/Man-vs-childhood-1397619.php
 
 
 
 
 
 

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