There’s much to enjoy in the autobiographical, Hear What’s In the Heart: An Italian Shoemaker’s Tale, in which Los Angeles-based actor/writer Steve Scionti brings to life eight members of his Sicilian-American family. This one-man, one-act show revolves around the life and death of Scionti’s grandfather, Angelo Morello. According to the theater program notes, the first glimpses of the show came together in one of Scionti’s acting classes. The teacher was so entertained by Scionti’s colorful vignettes of growing up in an Italian-American family that he encouraged Scionti to create a show around the material. So, he did. Hear What's in the Heart premiered in Los Angeles in the late 90s, where it first caught the eye of Milwaukee-native Anthony Crivello. Now, decades later, Crivello is directing the show in his hometown. As the curtain rises, the set is minimal: a few assorted boxes, trunks, a small staircase and a coat rack. Hanging on the coat rack are items Scionti will use to accessorize each character – a few caps, a couple of jackets, etc. The talented Scionti doesn’t require more than this to introduce us to his family.
Hear What’s in the Heart is certainly a journey worth taking. Scionti creates a wide variety of characters, ranging from the pizza place owner to a couple of crazy uncles. Scionti’s own past is intertwined with that of Scionti’s grandfather, Angelo. As a boy, Scionti remembers being greeted with a smile and a hearty welcome whenever he wandered into Angelo’s shoe repair shop. It is Angelo who encourages Scionti to reach for his dreams of being an entertainer. The other kids in Scionti’s ethnic, blue-collar, Connecticut neighborhood made fun of his dance classes. The lessons led to taunts and fights at school, which increased when Scionti was asked to be a part of the school musical. (Scionti may have had the last laugh: he notes that the musical cast, consisting mainly of girls, was a definite plus.) One of Scionti’s best bits in the show follows the evolution of the disco dance craze. Scionti, by now an accomplished dancer, wins almost every disco contest he enters. (Displaying some of his then-popular dance moves elicits a huge roar of appreciation from the audience.) Another funny bit involves the frazzled owner of a pizza restaurant. While kneading a batch of pizza dough, the hunched over man hollers, “get the hell outta here” to almost every customer he sees. This includes Scionti and the other teens in his group, who order “13 glasses of water, 1 Pepsi and one slice of pizza.”
Scionti’s remembrances are so fondly constructed that audiences from all backgrounds can relate to the funny-crazy-weird characters that he conjures. At the center of it all is his grandfather, who tells a teenage Scionti that he once longed to be a musician. Nothing doing, said his own father, sternly. The old man was a shoemaker, and he felt Angelo’s place was in the family trade. His father’s rebuff stung Angelo so fiercely that he became determined to let others find their own way in life.
Scionti never forgot his grandfather’s advice about following one’s dreams. “Remember,” he says (as Angelo), “Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel for people who like to look up.”
