The Guadalajara Reporter

‘Tengo famiglia’: Bittersweet, tender play underscores family dilemmas

Lakeside Little Theatre’s production of “Over the River and Through the Woods,” written by Joe DiPietro, is a delightful jigsaw of family ties, achievements and values, many pieces of which will be all too familiar to its audiences.

The scene opens to a worried looking Nick Cristano (Kevin O’Byrne) arriving in Hoboken, New Jersey for his weekly visit to his maternal grandparents Aida and Frank Gianelli (Georgette Richmond and Ed Tasca) for Sunday lunch.

In an aside to the audience, he explains that he has been offered a job in Seattle – “That other Washington, near California!” as his paternal grandfather will later remark – and he doesn’t know how to tell his grandparents. His parents have already moved to Florida and his sister’s in California so he’s all too aware of the impact his news will have.

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