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Start Spreading the news. I'm
leaving today. I want to be a part of it:
New York, New York!
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| Once
there, “I was trained at the American
Academy of Dramatic Arts,” says
Colantoni.
Click
on AADA logo above
for a 1985 image of Rico.
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Possibly
Uninteresting Fact #4
According
to their website: “The American Academy
of Dramatic Arts is a vibrant community
of practicing professionals and students
working together in a challenging and supportive
environment. The love of acting, as an art
and as an occupation, is the motivating
spirit of the school, as it has been since
it was founded as the first drama school
in the English-speaking world more than
a century ago. The need to create and to
communicate lies in the heart of every aspiring
actor, and to live as an actor is an exciting
and challenging adventure.”
|
The
Charles Jehlinger Award, for “Best
Actor” honors the memory of Charles
Jehlinger, the Academy’s Director of
Instruction for over 50 years.
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The
curriculum at the Academy was demanding
and the school discouraged students from
seeking professional acting employment during
the first two years of study. Young Rico
returned home to Toronto after a difficult
first year. Upon hearing of Colantoni's
troubles his former high school principal
arranged a special scholarship so he could
attend a second year of school.
By
the time he reached his third year, for
which only truly promising students are
invited back, he had achieved a rather impressive
measure of success. Not only had he received
The Princess Grace Scholarship, he was also
given the Charles Jehlinger Award for Best
Actor. |
The
Princess Grace Scholarship was made possible
by a grant from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA
in memory of Grace Kelly, Class of 1949.
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| Tom
Poston guest starred on Just Shoot Me in the
1998 episode "Jack's Old Partner."
He graduated from the Academy in 1948 or thereabouts. |
1985
AADA graduate, French Stewart guest starred
as "The Puppetmaster" on Just Shoot
Me in 1998. |
Birthday
Buddy and Brady Mom, Florence Henderson graduated
from the AADA in 1953. |
1958
graduate Joyce Bulifant was originally cast
as Carol on the Brady Bunch, but was dropped
for you know who. She eventually landed the
role of Finch's mother Fanny on Just Shoot
Me in 2001. |
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Academic achievement, however, did not immediately
translate into professional success."I
spent the next five years scrubbing toilets
and washing dishes,” Colantoni remembers.
During
this period he was also faced with a difficult
adjustment when his parents decided to return
to Italy. He opted to remain in New York
and pursue his dream.
In
1987 Enrico made his television debut in
the Canadian produced Friday the 13th: The
Series. He was billed as Rico Colantoni.
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Series
star John D. LeMay (Ryan) recalled the episode:
“I worked with an already very talented
Rico Colantoni. He was going to Yale drama
school the next year.“ |
| "I
still didn't have the confidence that I
needed to be an actor and I knew there was
more for me to learn," Colantoni explains.
“So I enrolled in the Yale drama program
for a second round of classes.“
"The
biggest break I got was when I got accepted
to the Yale School of Drama," he states.
"They taught me how to detach myself
from the art of acting. And then I could
begin to see it as a craft as opposed to
a part of me that I couldn't differentiate.
They trained us to be intentional in our
choices and fulfill them.”
“Yale
was acting boot camp," Rico says. "It
was there that I learned how to put the
craft into technical terms, making it easier
to separate myself from the characters I
was playing. It was a surprise to me that
it actually worked -- that the intention
I set for myself actually paid off. It was
big surprise." |
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Possibly
Uninteresting Fact #5
Established in 1925, the Yale School of
Drama, in New Haven, is among the oldest
graduate dramatic training programs in the
United States. It is ranked as the country's
top theatre training program by the U.S.
News and World Report, and its graduates
hold positions of prominence and leadership
nationwide and throughout the world in virtually
every theatre discipline. Every major theatre
in Connecticut was started by alumni of
the Yale School of Drama. – Connecticut
Commission on the Arts |
| Once
again Colantoni excelled academically: he
was awarded Yale School of Drama’s
Carol Dye Award for Best Actor and starred
in Yale Repertory Theater’s 1992 production
of Hamlet. |
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| Possibly
Uninteresting Fact #6
(Try to pay attention anyway.)
“Yale
Rep has produced 89 world and American premieres,
four of which have received the Pulitzer
Prize for Drama. The Theatre has sent ten
productions to Broadway, earning nine Tony®
Awards and a total of 37 Tony® Award
nominations. Recognized as one of the leading
regional theaters in the United States,
Yale Rep itself received the Tony®
Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre in
1991, and it was awarded the 1992
Jujamcyn Theatres Award for its outstanding
contribution to the development of creative
talent for the theatre.” --
History of Yale Repertory Theatre
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So,
during the course of Rico’s studies
at Yale, The Repertory Company received
two prestigious awards. Coincidence? I don't
think so.
Colantoni
graduated from Yale and spent a season
(1993-1994) at the Guthrie Theater
in Minneapolis. In the only available
review from that season which mentions
him specifically, he is described
as “almost primitively panting.”
Apparently, this is what the role
required. (Click
here to see the whole review.)
Other
than Rico’s presence in the Company,
the season may be best known for a
scandal involving the sheriff’s
wife, embezzlement and gambling. (Click
here to see that story.) |
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Upon
returning to the Big Apple, Colantoni
recalls, “I did a lot of theater
in New York.”
The
1994 NY Shakespeare Festival's "The
Merry Wives of Windsor" and
the Manhattan Theater Club production
of Arabian Nights are Colantoni's
two most often cited stage credits
for that era. |
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The former was A Shakespeare in
the Park endeavor at the Delacorte
Theater which ran from June 23rd
to July 24th 1994. The only comment
I could dig up (below) regarding
the production was not precisely
favorable and gives no indication
of what role Rico may have had.
"The
Merry Wives of Windsor, by the way,
is the only comedy in the canon
whose action occurs specifically
in England. (Undeterred, the New
York Shakespeare Festival transposed
its 1994 production in time and
place to the California Gold Rush!)
http://www.dailytidings.com/shakespeare2001/plays-08.html |
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1994’s
Arabian Nights at the Manhattan
Theatre Club was a well-received
production, with some really nifty
set-design. Director Mary
Zimmerman received a Drama Desk
nomination for the play. From what
I can tell Rico had third billing,
but that may just be alphabetical. |
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Disclaimer:
This web site is not endorsed or sponsored
by Mr. Colantoni. In fact, I don't
think he knows about it and if he
does, he may think it's a little creepy.
All original material (what there
is of it) copyright 2003-2005. |
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of people sufficiently interested in Rico
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