By Joe DiPietro
Directed by Jo-Ann McCabe 

For 27 years, Nick Cristano has been meeting his two sets of grandparents for Sunday dinner. Nick’s grandparents are Old World Italians who have clung unfailingly to the traditions and values of their Italian working class backgrounds: the three Fs: family, faith and food. Nick has much to roll his eyes about when dealing with his meddling, opinionated and overbearing grandparents: Nunzio and Emma are the loudest people he’s ever met, he says. Frank and Aida nag him unmercifully: “Be a man. Start a family. Don’t eat Chinese food.” Nick’s parents have moved to Florida and Nick suspects it was to get as far away from their parents as possible.

Nick visits on a Thursday. He has to tell his grandparents the good news that he is up for a promotion and the bad news that this means he has to move to Seattle, Washington. "Not the close-by Washington," the elderly folks quickly realize. They conspire to find a reason to keep Nick home. Come Sunday night for Nick’s usual Sunday dinner in the bosom of his family, there is a surprise guest: Caitlan O’Hare, the beautiful niece of Emma’s Canasta partner. The old folks are on a mission. Get the lad involved with Caitlan then Nick will have a reason to stay.

“Over the River and Through the Woods" doesn’t pretend to be more than a story about a young man's coming of age and two sets of aging grandparents with an ever-deepening love for each other and their grandson, but embedded in comic situations, witty dialogue and heart warming episodes are those timeless questions. Is life better today than it was in our grandparents’ time or just different? What is the real cost of today’s affluence? What’s happening to “family”? This play will appeal to a wide audience and will provide a great evening’s entertainment.
Performed by Phoenix Players on November 29-December 1, 2007