Tony Abatemarco

Four Fathers

Tony Abatemarco’s award-winning monologue, Four Fathers, developed at Highways Performance Space and Stages Theatre Center, was first produced at the Tiffany Theatre in West Hollywood, directed by Don Amendolia and produced by Suzi Dietz and Paula Holt in 1992. The set consisted of original paintings and sculpture by John Nava. Excerpts are published in Michael Kearns’ book, Getting Your Solo Act Together. Tony’s work for the theatre includes Cologne, (published by Windfall Press) and the current run of Beautified, (LA Weekly "Pick of the Week") next door at the Skylight Theatre through July 1st. His most recent published story is "Schwinn," which appeared in Volume 4 of Boneshaker. He teaches acting at USC, and is Co-Artistic Director of The Katselas Theatre Company. From the Author: "I guess I’m something of a eulogist. Most of my original work for the theater has relied on a very deep need to honor the dead. My first solo, Four Fathers, did. It was a knee-jerk reaction to my father’s death, begun in that very week before we had lowered him into the ground. My father honored things. He lived in gratitude, and before I could allow my grief over losing him to engulf all that he taught me to cherish, I started to put the particulars of his life on paper. He was a great character—one of those 20th-century self-made men who grew out of poverty and little education to build a fiefdom in his birthplace, Brooklyn, significant enough to provide for his heirs. So I sang his song." -Tony Abatemarco "Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead." W. H. Auden.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS JUNE 10, 2012.