Farmingdale resident Joe DiPietro is a retired New York firefighter, 9/11 first responder, Katrina volunteer, playwright and actor. After five years of planning, he fulfilled his life dream of owning his own theater, which opened last year in Farmingdale. Eight months later, after three successful productions, he sold the theater for $1 because there was no time for his first love—acting on the stage. Interestingly enough, DiPietro will perform on that stage at the Hardscrabble Theater at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, opening for a three-weekend run of the satiric comedy Die, Mommie, Die! on Saturday, June 2.
DiPietro who manages his own plumbing business met all the right people six years ago who wanted to help him start the theater he’d always dreamed of owning. That group included the Rev. Christine Petersen-Snyder and her husband, Daniel, who has a degree in stage design. The first Hardscrabble production, Arsenic and Old Lace opened in June 2017, followed in October with And Then There Were None. In November 2017, DiPietro brought a staged reading of a Fannie Brice radio show to the Farmingdale Village Square and plans to do a one-act play festival this spring.
After the exhausting first season, during which he did everything from publicity to carpentry, DiPietro decided that he wanted to be acting on the stage rather than building it. Making a bold choice, he sold the Hardscrabble Theater for $1 dollar to Janine Sadowski, who is the former president of Long Island’s Ivy Lane Players. Sadowski rounded up her longtime theater colleagues Michael-James Caldwell, Patrick Reilly and John Passadino for a board of directors. Now, DiPietro is happily back to acting fulltime, performing everything from Shakespeare to improvisational comedy.
In a story mirroring a Greek tragedy, Die, Mommie, Die! follows the murderous meltdown of a successful Hollywood family, in which mom, a fading showbiz star, does her loving best to bring out the worst in everyone. The comic melodrama parodies the 1960s movies that featured aging, female, cinematic icons.
The cast stars Michael-James Caldwell as Angela, Joe DiPietro as Angela’s husband Sol, Linda Pentz as Bootsie, Michelle Torres as Edith, Danny Shinina as Lance and Jason Wieder as Tony. John Passadino is the director with Eugene Sullivan as the stage manager. Co-producers of Die, Mommie, Die! are Janine Sadowski and Michael-James Caldwell.
Performances for Die, Mommie, Die! are on June 2, 8, 9, 10, 15 and 16 at 8 p.m., with matinees on June 3 and 17 at 2:30 p.m., at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church’s Hardscrabble Theater located at 298 Conklin St., in Farmingdale. Tickets for general admission are $17 and $14 for seniors and students if paid for in advance. Tickets are $20 and $17 at the door. Tickets are available at www.hardscrabbletheater.com. For more information, call 516-586-3930 or email info@hardscrabbletheater.com.
—Submitted by Annette Kirk
