Q&A

In the firmament of Canadian theater, few luminaries shine as brightly as Antoni Cimolino. A mainstay at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, for nearly four decades, Cimolino enjoys a north-of-the-border acclaim akin to that of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Joining the renowned festival in 1988, he worked his way up from actor and general director to executive director and general manager before ascending to the post of artistic director in 2013. Since then, he has overseen the production of 145 plays, directing 20 of them, while shepherding the festival through a remarkable transformation. In his first season as artistic …

Jennifer Adriana LaDelfa has been charged with organizing The Italian Heritage & Culture Committee of New York is commemorating its 50th anniversary, and Jennifer Adriana LaDelfa is chairing the celebration. Since its inception 50 years ago, the Italian Heritage & Culture Committee of New York (IHCC-NY) has endeavored to promote, present and preserve Italian and Italian-American culture. The organization — which serves the Tri-State area centered on New York City encompassing parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut — has done so by hosting, coordinating and publicizing myriad special events, concerts, exhibits, lectures and proclamations. Its highest recognition, the …

Well-known in the larger Italian-American community, he has emerged as a passionate advocate for the region of his birth. When it comes to celebrating and advocating for the beautiful Italian region of Puglia, few in this country can say they’ve dedicated as much time and energy to the cause as Pasquale “Pat” Capriati. A member of the Ufficio di Presidenza del Consiglio Generale dei Pugliesi nel Mondo, president of the Federazione Regione Puglia Chicago, co-founder of Associazione Regionale Pugliese d’America and co-founder and first president of the Confederation of Pugliese Organizations in North America, Capriati has embarked on innumerable projects …

Little known outside of Cleveland, the Italian Cultural Garden has been celebrating Italy’s contribution to the world on a grand scale for nearly a century. Michelangelo, Vinci, Dante, Galileo, Marconi, Virgil, Palladio, Giotto, Petrarch, Verdi, Ovidio, Donatello, Bernini. Outside of Cleveland, not many know that a monument honoring these Italian greats is located in the city’s Rockefeller Park. Their statues and carved images are immortalized in the Italian Cultural Garden, a Renaissance-style monument listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Dedicated in 1930, this public space was the center of Italian activities in Cleveland in the 1930s and 1940s. …

A stockbroker turned actor who was “discovered” on a train ride into work, Michael Cavalieri now focuses exclusively on Sicilian and Italian culture as a writer and director. New York native Michael Cavalieri is an actor, writer and director who has made his desire to elevate storytelling about Sicilian-American culture the leitmotif of his work. Cavalieri made his directorial debut with “Ritornato” (2021), a short film about a man who travels to Sicily to fulfill a promise to his dying mother and ends up discovering a life-changing family secret. His award-winning documentary “La Porta Dell’Inferno” (2022) focuses on child laborers …

After being a fixture in the Chicago culinary scene for decades, Joe Monastero has taken his passion for the restaurant industry to a whole new level as an executive for the Texas Restaurant Association. As chief revenue officer of the Texas Restaurant Association, Joe Monastero knows the Italian dining scene in Texas like few others. Monastero also serves as trustee for the Catering Executives Club of America board (where he is past chairman and president) and is the immediate past co-chairman of the Milan-Chicago Committee of Sister Cities International. Now residing in Austin, Texas, Monastero grew up less than a …

Entering a dark period in his life, acclaimed restaurateur Bruno Abate battled his way back into the light by founding a groundbreaking program at Cook County Jail. After his mother taught him to deeply appreciate fresh, high-quality food, Italian native Bruno Abate became a successful Chicago-area restaurateur with a mission to help others. In 2010, Abate founded Recipe for Change, a nonprofit that provides culinary instruction, job skills training, fine arts enrichment and mentorship to detainees at Cook County Jail. Over the last 16 years, about 6,000 people have participated in the nonprofit’s programs. A resident of Winnetka in suburban …

A retired university professor, Silvio Laccetti created a foundation to support educational and cultural initiatives, and to inspire others to do the same. The nonprofit Silvio Laccetti Foundation recognizes individuals and schools in a variety of academic areas and gives out unique donations like public statues. One of its awards, named after Italian general Giuseppe Garibaldi, honors high school seniors who have excelled in promoting the Italian-American legacy. There are also awards in classical studies, STEM, sportsmanship and leadership. The man behind the enterprise, Silvio Laccetti, taught history and social sciences at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, …

A veteran actor of stage and screen, Susan Vinciotti Bonito has made a name for herself in the burgeoning world of audiobooks. Growing up in Italy, Susan Vinciotti Bonito dreamed of becoming an actor but decided to study economics to please her father. Then, in the late 1980s, she decided to pursue her passion. Vinciotti Bonito now lives with her husband and son in Santa Monica, California, where she works out of her broadcast-quality studio voicing characters for audiobooks, video games and commercials. Her narration of Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel “Whereabouts” earned her an AudioFile Magazine Earphones Award in 2021. She …

After 45 years in national distribution and sales, Tom Damigella is putting the finishing touches on a decade-long quest to spotlight the Italian legacy in his native Boston and beyond. A Boston-area native, Tom Damigella has enjoyed a diverse and impactful career spanning multiple decades. With a bachelor’s degree in criminology and a master’s degree in social work, both from Boston University, Damigella worked with troubled youth before joining Damigella Distributors, the family’s franchised Tupperware business. He spent 45 years there, developing the business into a Top 10 Tupperware distributorship in North America and overseeing a sales force of 600 …