Anthony Ingrassia

Anthony Ingrassia
Born Anthony J. Ingrassia
1944
Brooklyn, New York, United States
Died 16 December 1995
Amityville, Long Island, United States
Occupation Playwright, producer, director, actor
Nationality American
Information
Period 1964 - 1995

Anthony J. Ingrassia (1944 – 16 December 1995), better known as Tony Ingrassia, was an American director, producer and playwright whose works were produced on Broadway, Off Broadway and abroad.

Early years

Tony Ingrassia was born in Brooklyn, New York, and his family moved to Massapequa Park, Long Island, when he was 10 years old. He attended Massapequa High School and began working in theater as a teenager. "My weight was always up and down," he said. "It was hard being fat in Massapequa High School, but my teachers encouraged my writing."[1] He attended Hofstra University for two years.[2]

Career

Ingrassia was active in non-mainstream performing arts in the 1960s. He wrote and produced Around the World with an Actor in 1964 [3] and Omy Queen of the Faeries and Tidy Passions in 1965.[4] In 1968 he wrote Sheila, which was produced by the New Theater Workshop.[2] In 1969 he acted in Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit by Jackie Curtis and worked with the Ridiculous Theatrical Company of Charles Ludlam for "Turds in Hell." He was also involved with Company One (through Seven), whose number changed with each production.[5]

In about 1970, he directed Jayne County's World: The Birth of a Nation, the Castration of Man.[6] The play was promoted as a "homosexual fantasy" and was set in a hospital with a number of shocking characters. Jayne played both Florence Nitingale and her sister Ethel Nitingale, and the play also featured Cherry Vanilla as a nurse Tilly Tons.[7]

La MaMa Experimental Theater in New York City

Based on the success of this project, Ingrassia was tapped to adapt and direct Andy Warhol's Pork in 1971.[5] The play opened on May 5, 1971, at La MaMa theater in New York for a two-week run and then played at the Roundhouse in London for a longer run in August 1971. Pork was based on tape-recorded conversations between Brigid Berlin and Andy Warhol during which Brigid played taped phone conversations between herself and socialite Honey Berlin, her mother. The play featured Cherry Vanilla as "Amanda Pork" and Jayne County as "Vulva".[8]

After returning from London in 1972, Ingrassia wrote and produced the show Island.[2][9] The play starred Patti Smith, Cherry Vanilla and Jayne County. It was set at a beach house on Fire Island and featured a dysfunctional family and their houseguests. Reportedly Ingrassia hired Smith because of how she looked, and rewrote the play to feature her prominently.[10]

The John Golden Theater in New York City

In 1974 Ingrassia directed the stage show, Wayne at the Trucks. In November 1974, his play Fame about Marilyn Monroe opened on Broadway at the John Golden Theater. Clive Barnes of The New York Times gave it a poor review, calling it a "limp rag of a comedy." The play closed after one performance,[2] and Ingrassia accepted a grant to work in Germany. In Berlin he appeared in a review with Romy Haag, a transsexual performer, and wrote a number of radio plays.

Ingrassia remained in Berlin for six and a half years. While he was there, he completed Shindig, a musical revue packaging popular music of the 1960s which opened in New York at Downstairs at City Center and ran for six performances in 1979. The musical was reviewed by Robert Palmer of The Times, who wrote, "It reproduces a variety of 1960's styles, from soul to bubble gum, with taste, affection and energy."[1]

In 1980 Ingrassia revived his play Sheila starring Donna Destri, Joy Ryder, Jayne County, Rosie Rocca and Romy Haag. Cherry Vanilla later replaced Romy Haag. The production was funded by the Berlin Theater Festival.[11]

In 1985 Ingrassia moved back to Massapequa Park, Long Island, to care for his ailing mother. In 1995 he produced a fifty-minute collage of 14 plays titled "Sweet Dreams" at La MaMa in Manhattan's East Village. These works had been written in 1981 and published in Germany, but never produced. Themes of the plays included cross-dressing, heart failure, incest, impotence, suicide and the unkindness of doctors. However, their deeper meaning was about being trapped in the wrong family and the wrong relationships. "The hard things that happen to us in life, not being able to express yourself sexually and being so disappointed, that's what it's about," Ingrassia said. "I want people to understand the horror stories and the pain and the feelings in the plays."[5]

Personal life

Ingrassia, who lived in Massapequa Park, Long Island, died at age 51 of cardiac arrest at Brunswick Hospital in Amityville, Long Island.[1] During his lifetime, Ingrassia struggled with eating disorders and at times weighed 600 pounds. Before his death, he was seeing an eating disorder therapist. He had to use a freight elevator because of his weight. "I'm freight, baby" he said. "I still have to fight my food addiction. I don't know how much I really want to talk about it, but maybe this will help somebody."[1]

Ingrassia's mother died in 1990. At the time of his death, he was survived by his sister Gloria.

Works

Selected works include:

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Van Gelder, Lawrence (18 December 1995), Anthony Ingrassia, Playwright and Producer, 51, New York Times, retrieved 16 September 2015
  2. 1 2 3 4 Fame, retrieved 16 September 2015
  3. ↑ Ellen Stewart and LaMama, retrieved 16 September 2015
  4. ↑ La MaMa E.T.C. Archives: Playlist 1965, retrieved 16 September 2015
  5. 1 2 3 Klein, Alvin (26 March 1995), Offbeat L.I. Playwright Returns With a Collage, New York Times, retrieved 16 September 2015
  6. ↑ Thompson, Dave (2009), Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell, Backbeat, retrieved 16 September 2015
  7. ↑ World - Birth of a Nation, retrieved 16 September 2015
  8. ↑ Comenas, Gary, Andy Warhol Chronology, retrieved 16 September 2015
  9. ↑ Vanilla, Cherry (2010), Lick Me: How I Became Cherry Vanilla, retrieved 16 September 2015
  10. ↑ Bockris, Bockris; Bayley, Roberta (1999), Patti Smith: An Unauthorized Biography, Simon & Schuster, retrieved 16 September 2015
  11. ↑ Smith, Sid (2012), Will Sid Smith Interviews The Ultra Fabulous DONNA DESTRI, retrieved 16 September 2015

External links

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