Show Summary

Role: Lorenzo (aka Larry)

Playwright: Raymond Rea

Director: Darcy Bakkegard

Company: Theatre B

Performance Dates:

World Premiere Stage Run: April 15 - May 7, 2016

Staged Reading: October 28, 2016 at IFO GLBTA Conference

Number of Performances: 14

Style (Stage Run): Black Box, Modified Thrust - Audience on three sides, no backstage upstage

Synopsis

After fleeing Mussolini's Italy, a journalist interned in West Virginia must declare his allegiance. In the years to follow, his son wrestles with what it means to be American, and his granddaughter becomes his grandson. This World Premiere by playwright Raymond Rea explores change through three generations of an Italian-American family as they struggle with emigration, assimilation, and transformation.

"I love you Vivian. ... I saw you sing and I thought, that voice is all I want to hear." - Lorenzo

Media Coverage

The Sweet New was commissioned and received its world premiere staging as part of Theatre B's Incubator series. The Incubator series was started for the development and staging of new, unpublished plays, as well as devised projects addressing regionally relevant themes.

Explaining the Performance – InForum – April 14, 2016

Playbill Biography

Matthew M. Collie (Lorenzo) works for CoreLink Administrative Solutions in Fargo. His recent theater credits include Equivocation (Shag), The Oil Project, 33 Variations (Anton Schindler), and Wit (Dr. Jason Posner) with Theatre B; and The Diviners (Basil Bennett) with FMCT. Matthew is an American Forensics Association All-American and a member of the National Forensic Association Hall of Fame.