Tony and Tina's Wedding
S&Co. Gala Fuggedddahboutit
By: Charles Giuliano - Oct 10, 2010
During the imaginative and hilarious fundraising gala of Shakespeare & Company, on Saturday, October 9, there was a play within a play.
The past year brought to a head a fiscal crisis that threatened to dismantle the company. This occured during the transition from founding artistic director, Tina Packer, to the new artistic director, Tony Simotes. He is only the second to head the company during more than three decades of inspiriing, training and educating in the Berkshires.
As board chairman, Richard A. Mescon, informed the guests, through agressive fund raising and negotiations with the bank, the company is back on a solid footing. The event was a wonderful, over the top celebration of that hard work and great news.
“We are very pleased with the terrific turn out tonight,” said Artistic Director Tony Simotes. “Our guests really got involved with the whole theme of the show, including myself and Tina – our mock wedding was so well executed I had to convince my wife L ucy it was really just part of the show. Several of the guests wore an array of traditional, and not so traditional bridal wear, from tuxedo’s to bridesmaids dresses to kilts -- you name it! It wasn’t just a lot of fun for our guests but for our Company actors, artists and staff as well who have worked tirelessly all summer long, but were able to come out tonight and let loose a bit on the dance floor. And dare I say it is one of the most outrageously fun weddings I have ever attended (okay, ‘ours’ accepted Lucy). And more importantly we anticipate meeting our financial goal for the Gala, which will help support Shakespeare & Company’s nationally acclaimed and far-reaching Education Program. It was truly a beautiful night. The show was fantastic, the food delicious, and the music and dancing were superb. All of this was pulled together by our brilliant team in the Development Department, headed by Director Ute DeFarlo, and our wonderful Gala Co-Chairs Dottie Weber and Carole Murko. They did a fantastic job, and I can’t thank the cast and crew enough for their great work tonight, especially Joe Corcoran and Karen Cellini, who produced this very special version of Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding just for us!”
While the Berkshires represent a nexus of world renowned arts organizations, what is most remarkable, is that they all share substantial educational mandates. None more so than Shakespeare & Company. The plays that are presented on its two stages represent only the visible, public face of the company. What occurs behind the scenes is the training and education of the next generation of actors, educators, and school children all over the North East.
Tina Packer founded the company with a vision of creating and preserving the theatrical legacy of the greatest single playwrite in the English language. On many levels his plays, written in the Elizabethan era, refined and established English as the rich and nuanced language we know today. His work marked a transition from medieval to modern language.
The gala was a celebration, hoax, farce, send up of all of the chaos and efforts to survive over the past decades culminating in the recent crisis. It is a remarkable tribute to the genius and creativity of Packer, and now Simotes, to turn the must daunting adversity into absurd mirth and merriment.
Playing along with the gag Tony and Tina took vows on stage at the Founder's Theatre. Tina flubbed her lines but with typical legerdemain milked the double entendre for laughs. Yet again, the resilient and plucky Simotes played the straight man. They make a great team and stunning couple. Tony, who has battled health issues for the past year, is the best possible successor to bring the company into a new creative era. Like so many others he grew up with the company which he now leads.
The formal vows of the real life Tony and Tina were followed by the ersatz nuptials of Tony Nunzio and Tina Vitale.
There was a clever blurring between illusion and reality. The entire wedding party of outrageously stereotyped, Italian American goombahs, pisans and made men wannabes were over the top guests during all phases of the evening. They mingled with the assembled Berkshire socialites during the cocktail reception, and later, dinner and dancing in a large tent.
As a paisan standing out in a crowd of blue bloods I got hit on for coke deals, scams, jokes, and other hilarity. Toward the end of the evening the bride, by then raucous and raunchy, snuggled up to me. Astrid managed to capture the moment with a classic photo op. Lucky I didn't get whacked for makin out with Tony's twist. Them dames always startin it. Nothin but trouble.
The humor rung particularly true for me, although my family was refined and educated. When I moved to East Boston, some years ago, I was interview by the local paper. Rather autocratically I told the reporter for the working class, Italian American community that my father "Doesn't break kneecaps. He repairs them." Frank Conte printed the remark but warned that I would pay big time for the slur. "You're a snob Giuliano" he said. Well, yeah. Hey, the American dream.
Hey Frank, all in good fun. Although I think he would have been offended by the outrageous racial profiling. He was always sensitive about the Mafia stuff.
Actually, I really enjoyed the outrageous intervention. We need more visits from the swarthy folks from Queens to loosen up the stiffs in the Berkshires. Looking about it was hard to distinguish a grin from a grimmace.
Bravo to many of the S&Co actors and administrators for joining in the spoof. Elizabeth Aspenlieder was just delicious all tricked out with her tawdry, stunning, friend Sugar, who must have chewed a dozen sticks of gum. Liz's oft repeated line was "See yez back at the club, latah."
It evoked images of the Bada Bing the hang out of Tony and his crew of Joisey boys in the epic Sopranos.
For the privilege of mixing it up with the gangster lowlife from Queens and Joisey the supporters of S&Co paid top dollar. Bless them. All for a good cause. Hope they loined somthin bout us Eye Talians. They should live so long to walk in our alligator shoes.
How sublime to dance to Dino and Frankie, the Chairman of the Board. How I miss Eastie when their tunes wafted through the hood on a summer breeze.
The evening must have raked in tons of loot and bling. Thanks to Carole Murko and Dottie Weber who so imaginatively co chaired. And to the patrons who forked over large for the items auctioned by Nick "The Crooner" Puma.
For all my goombah friends who made it to the event, thanks, youze guys are great. But hey, all you Berkshire high brows and blue bloods, well, yah had yez fun, now fuggedddhabouit. Yah know what I mean.