(RAHWAY, NJ) -- NYC-based actor Michael Notardonato, soon to be featured in a new Netflix series, will star in American Theater Group's (ATG), endearing play My Italy Story by NJ playwright Joseph Gallo. The 2024-25 Season Opener will be directed by Charlotte Cohn, who most recently helmed ATG's world premiere Canned Goods. The one-man show will run October 24-27 at Hamilton Stage in Rahway, and November 1-3, 2024 at the Sieminski Theater in Basking Ridge.

Set in 1997, My Italy Story is an exploration of family, heritage and the ties that bind us. Spurred by pleas from his cousin to help reunite his fractured family, a young man quits his job and travels to Vallata -- the tiny Italian town of his ancestors. Not until he comes home, however, does he discover a secret that unlocks his past.

Notardonato will star as Thomas DaGato. He originated the role of Dino Del Canto in the Off-Broadway premiere of Romeo & Bernadette and recently completed filming a recurring role in a new Netflix series that will premiere in 2025. He has starred as Tony Manero in several productions of Saturday Night Fever across the US and internationally, including at The Engeman Theater and Ivoryton Playhouse (Best Actor nomination - Connecticut Critics Circle). Other select credits include Bob Gaudio in Jersey Boys, Danny Zuko in Grease, and Link Larkin in Hairspray. He also appeared as Dr. Flores opposite two-time Emmy Award winner Dorothy Lyman in the two-person play, Organic, at the Ivoryton Women Playwright’s Festival. Notardonato holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from The Boston Conservatory.

Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC) is a non-profit organization offering quality programming and performances that strive to be educational, affordable, and enrich the arts within our diverse communities. UCPAC features two venues, the Main Stage, built in 1928 and currently celebrating its 95th anniversary, and the Hamilton Stage, a recently renovated intimate 199-seat theater built by the City of Rahway Redevelopment Agency, and located at 360 Hamilton Street.  My Italy Story preview performances will be Thurs, October 24 at 7:00pm and Friday, October 25 at 7:00pm, with an Official Opening Night on Saturday, October 26 at 7:00pm and a performance on Sunday, October 27 at 2:00pm. Visit ucpac.org for tickets and information.

The Sieminski Theater is located on the scenic campus of Fellowship Village at 8000 Fellowship Road in Basking Ridge, NJ. This beautiful, 257-seat state-of-the-art theater boasts an innovative design that exudes professionalism while maintaining an intimate ambiance. Performances of My Italy Story will be Friday, November 1st at 7:30pm, Saturday, November 2nd at 2:30pm & 7:30pm and Sunday, November 3rd at 2:30pm. Tickets are available at www.sieminskitheater.org.  

A noted playwright, actor, educator and storyteller, Joseph Gallo appeared in the original production of My Italy Story at Penguin Rep, which later had its debut Off-Broadway at the 47th Street Theatre in New York. The play later received a critically acclaimed revival at Hoboken’s Mile Square Theatre starring Emmy Award winner Tom Pelphrey, who was named Best Actor by The NJ Star-Ledger.  Gallo’s full-length plays include: Two-Man Kidnapping Rule (New Ohio Theatre); Warning: Adult Content (Theatre 54); Staten Island (Circle Rep Lab); and New York City 523. He is a current member of the Actors Studio Playwrights and Directors Workshop, a New Jersey Council of the Arts Playwriting Fellow, and a recipient of the NJ Council of the Humanities Incubation Grant for New Work. A frequent participant at The Moth in New York City, he has toured with The Moth Mainstage Ensemble, has been featured on The Moth Radio Hour and Podcast and is a four-time StorySLAM winner; he will soon be competing in the NYC Grand Slam event. Gallo is the former playwright-in-residence at Mile Square Theatre where his credits included writing and performing in pieces including Yuppies Invade My House at Dinnertime, The Magic Hour, The Playbill Gallery (a love story), AJ's Book and Long Gone Daddy. He is the founder and director of the Theatre Arts Program at Hudson County Community College and is a recipient of the Kennedy Center Prize for Innovative Teaching in Theatre.  He holds an MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University.

Charlotte Cohn is a NY-based director, producer and actor who most recently starred in This Is Not A Time of Peace (New Light Theater) by Deb Margolin. Her directing highlights include Canned Goods (ATG), Church & State (Berkshire Theatre Group), The Whole Shebang and Baltimore in Black and White (The Cell Theatre, NYC) and Best Friends (Jazz at Lincoln Center). She has appeared on Broadway in La Boheme and Coram Boy and her producing credits include Here Lies Love (Broadway), Without You (starring Anthony Rapp) and Handle with Care and Church and State by Jason Odell Williams.  Ms. Cohn is an Ovation Award Winner and a Bay Area Critics’ Circle Award nominee. Her musical The Sound, based on her father's true story of escaping from Denmark to Sweden in WWII, will be presented at The Museum of Jewish Heritage in November 2024.

Following My Italy Story, ATG will present the Tony Award-winning musical Purlie, the 1970 musical adaptation of Ossie Davis's comedic play Purlie Victorious about a traveling preacher who returns to his hometown in Georgia and concocts a scheme to reclaim his church.  Nominated for five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Direction and Best Choreography, the original Broadway production received Tony Awards for Best Performance by a Leading Actor (Cleavon Little as Purlie) and Best Performance by a Featured Actress (Melba Moore as Lutiebelle). ATG performances will run March 6-23, 2025. Purlie is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals.

American Theater Group (ATG), founded in 2012, produces new and classic works primarily by American playwrights with an emphasis on the development of new works and the rediscovery of undeservedly neglected older ones. It also provides quality arts-in-education initiatives, including its annual DramaFest for students and its PlayLab program for BIPOC and queer playwrights. ATG programming is made possible in part by an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support general operating expenses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Made possible by the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.