In 2003, Sopranos star Michael Imperioli opened the intimate Studio Dante theater with his wife Victoria, who designed the elegantly formal space. In his capacity as director, producer and actor, Imperioli has been busy turning the theater into a well-regarded hotspot for new plays. The current production is a solo show by Glasgow native Russell Barr entitled Sisters, Such Devoted Sisters. In the largely autobiographical play, Barr plays Bernice, a drag queen who herself portrays over a dozen characters to tell her sordid, harsh and hilarious story of Glasgow’s nightlife underworld. Reviewing the play for the Times, Jason Zinoman called it “crudely effective... Imperioli stages the play at Studio Dante with an unsentimental intensity, and at times it reminded me of the sudden shocks of violence in that much missed HBO series.” The production continues through February 16th; tickets cost $35.
What attracted you to Sisters, Such Devoted Sisters? It’s simply the emotional quality of it. And I’m impressed with the fact that it’s autobiographical and it’s something this guy lived through; particularly the final event that he describes, the violence that he witnessed. And the way he’s trying to use his art to make peace with that and come to grips with it; I thought that was pretty courageous.
He had performed it before, right? Yeah, he’d done it at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and he toured it a bit around England.
So was this less of a hands-on directorial job for you? No, actually what we’re doing here at Studio Dante is different from what he’s done in the past. For one thing, it’s on a set, which he never did before. We decided to kind of recreate the bedroom he lived in both as a boy and as a young man in Glasgow. And to have various props on stage that he refers to in the play. So we’re dealing with these physical elements of his past as he’s telling the story. He’s never worked with a director before, either.
In the past he always did the play in drag through the duration of the play. We kind of came up with the idea of starting in drag and ending as himself to give it this motion of uncovering. And, you know, as a director I’m trying to figure out ways to heighten what he’s trying to do and specify certain moments. It’s hard to direct yourself; as a storyteller you may get into the rhythm of your stories but when you have an outside eye you can get more specific about certain moments of the play you may have overlooked or taken for granted.
I would think it would be hard to take direction though, for an actor who had performed a role that he’d written for so long. He was very willing, I will say. So it wasn’t hard. If he wasn’t willing to possibly alter it or change it then it would be hard. But I think he wanted to see if it could evolve any further. Another thing we worked on was to translate it because there were a lot of regionalisms and slang that American audiences wouldn’t understand. We didn’t want the audience guessing; some things can be explained easily contextually, you don’t have to change them, but we thought changing other things would help this production.
Have you heard any feedback from the audience so far? Oh yeah. An audience always reacts very differently from night to night and from person to person but a lot of people are very moved by it. The thing is, the play is based on something very traumatic this guy went through. And he relives things every night onstage. And a large part of the audience is really touched by that.
What are you developing next for Studio Dante? We’re working on what is largely a one man show, with a couple other actors in it playing small parts. It’s a show about Jimmy Breslin.
Is he involved in it? Michael Rispoli wrote it and he’s going to star in it as Jimmy Breslin. And he’s done a lot of research and interviewed Jimmy a lot and is in contact with him all the time. Jimmy isn’t a writer or producer on it but a lot of the events are from his life and some of it is material quoted from his articles.
And you’re going to be directing? No, producing. We haven’t made a decision on the director. That should go up sometime in the spring, probably May.
Are you more interested in working behind the scenes than onstage or in front of the camera these days? You know, it depends what comes my way. I like working behind the scenes; I love working with the theater as a producer, director and even as an actor. But if something really great comes my way as an actor I immediately take it. I’m going off to do a movie this weekend in New Zealand and it’s a great role so I’m excited to do it.
What is it? It’s Peter Jackson’s new movie, The Lovely Bones.
What else do you have going on for the rest of the year? I’m directing a movie in June that I wrote.
Is this your first feature? It’s my first feature as a director, yeah.
What’s it about? It’s a film concerning several characters in New York City and upstate New York, taking place over 36 hours. It’s about desire and searching for completion and happiness.
Do you have a title yet? It’s called The Hungry Ghosts.
Does that have something to do with that Zen idea about feeding the hungry ghosts? In some ways certainly; that’s where the title is taken from.
Have you seen anything recently that you were impressed by? I saw this Italian company do a version of Snow White with marionettes that I thought was pretty inventive and interesting.
You reside in New York right? Yeah, I live downtown.
Do you have a favorite restaurant at the moment? There’s a great Italian restaurant across the street from Studio Dante called Biricchino that we eat at a lot. It’s one of the best in the city.
If you could change one thing about New York what would it be? That’s a good question. Less violence, cruelty and more people getting along.
What’s one the strangest things you’ve seen on the street in New York that comes to mind? Something recent?
It could be from anytime. We did a play once and there was a guy outside the theater who claimed that he had been held hostage in Hollywood and forced to write sitcoms. And he was very serious about it. He wrote for Charles in Charge and was very serious about it and was trying to get help.
Maybe he was the guy who was behind the explosion outside the theater. Actually, that was before we had Studio Dante.
Did the police ever come up with any, you know, leads on that? No the case is still open. They haven’t uncovered anything yet.
There was speculation that maybe it was a disgruntled actor. [Laughs.] Yeah, you never know. There’s speculation that it’s a random thing but nobody knows.
Do you have any plans to cut an album with your band La Dolce Vita? We’re making a three song EP right now. We’re working in a really good studio with a good producer.
Any gigs coming up? We have one in Philadelphia March 5th and Snitch in New York on March 15th.
How did you feel about the last episode of The Sopranos? I thought it was amazing. I was knocked out by it. I thought it was really incredible and just the perfect way to end it, and really an inventive way to end it.
