LETTER ONE

 

Tony Nardi’s Passion

Actor Tony Nardi is an artist with a mission.
By Caroline Morgan Di Giovanni

He is not a newcomer. Tony has earned his status as a stage and film professional ever since he first stepped on stage in Montreal, his Canadian hometown. In 1979 he wrote his first play, La Storia dell’Emigrante, in collaboration with Vincent Ierfino. It was produced by Italian Canadian actors and played to sold-out house, to critical attention from both the English and the French language media. The play was mounted again in Toronto at the Multicultural Theatre Festival in 1982, where it won the award for best original Canadian play. The overwhelming response of audiences and the Italian Canadian community convinced Mr. Nardi that there was a hunger for authentic creative expressions based on the reality of the immigration experience.

His acting career then took him across North America and around the world. He has played many different roles, not confined to characters of Italian background. He enjoys all aspects of his chosen craft, and does not hesitate to accept new challenges that explore artistic expression. He has also developed a skillful approach to critical analysis that he applies to his art form and to the pundits, producers, directors, academics, and writers who make up the Canadian cultural scene.

Tony Nardi reached a defining moment at an audition in 2005. The director wanted him to “play an Italian” by using gestures common to a stereotype of the Italian tough guy. Tony walked out. This was the inspiration for creating a one-man performance piece currently in Toronto at various locations. Two Letters has the actor pouring out his insights, ideas, frustrations, anger and triumph in a compelling and unique production that has stirred controversy since it first opened in the fall of 2006. Tony is delighted with the frantic buzz. That is exactly what he wanted to create.

During the run of Two Letters Tony has attracted audiences from many areas of the arts as well as a healthy representation from Toronto’s Italian Canadian population. How did he manage to bring together these diversities?

The content of the first letter deals with the backstage world of Toronto’s cultural scene, with comments about the critics, the media, academics, directors and actors. He finds them all complaisant in the theatre of mediocrity, and he wants to shake them up, challenge them, and get them down from the high horse of being “World Class.” He thinks they haven’t earned that title yet. The second letter has distinct appeal to the multiethnic population in the GTA. As an example of a missed opportunity for cultural enrichment, he cites a recent production of a Goldoni play in Toronto that failed to convey anything like the true spirit of commedia dell’arte. Why didn’t the director delve deeper into the history of the characters in the play? Why was he content to skim the surface, in Nardi’s opinion, and use stereotypes with accents to stand in for the real thing?

In this second letter Tony Nardi brings to life his own training in commedia techniques to prove his point. Directors here, he says, have resources from every heritage around the world to call upon for productions. Italians are one obvious group with plenty of talent to call on. Why don’t they have greater influence?
Cronyism among the film and theatre producers, Tony says. Let the fun begin.

The format of each Two Letters performance demands attention from the audience. The Letters are read out by the actor from his lap top computer, one for 2 hours on the first day, and the second for 2 hours and 20 minutes the second day. The venues are small, engaging the listeners at close contact. In fact the first performances took place at Roberto Martella’s restaurant grano. Without lighting effects, costumes, scene changes, and other theatrical trappings, the actor relies on his voice, his delivery, and his sheer passion to present his critical arguments. After each performance a moderator rises from the audience to facilitate discussion from the spectators. In this way they all become participants in the creative process. Strong opinions are expressed. Agreements and disagreements, arguments with the actor and with each other, reflections on art and culture begin in the room. The excitement continues afterwards on the internet as the participants write down their impressions and send them back to Tony and out to their e-lists. Print journalists meet their deadlines, but their words remain in play over the new media in cyberspace.

In the course of his Two Letters performances Tony Nardi takes on not only the theatre as an arts microcosm, but also Canadian culture itself as an environment.
“Canada is a Third World country culturally,” he said in an interview for this journal. “There is plenty of talent present but the standards are low. We seem to strive for a comfortable mediocrity.” He believes that particularly in English speaking communities, Canadians lack the ability “to look at our own story.” He believes that “we still have to find our defining cultural moments. The Americans know theirs. French speaking Canadians relate to their culture.” What is lacking in the majority of Canadian cultural expressions is a sense of confidence in our own originality. “If we are a multiethnic society, let’s embrace that.”

Tony Nardi’s mission to enliven our cultural landscape doesn’t end with the Two Letters. It begins there. Watch for what may happen next.

Caroline Morgan Di Giovanni is editor of Scuola & Cultural, Journal of the Canadian Centre for Italian Culture & Education. The above article appeared in
Vol. III, Issue. 1 - Spring/Summer, 2007.