The Versatility of Chairs: a theatrical memoir

This book is about the struggles of Italian immigrants in Hartford, Connecticut back in the 1930’s and growing up as the son of Italian immigrants. It’s about coping with poverty and a hostile environment and surviving. It’s about family love, parenting and instilling sound principles in our young. It’s about self-reliance and self-esteem, establishing worthy goals and working hard and applying raw determination to attain those goals. It’s about the importance of education and the need to become directly involved in local government and community affairs. It’s about laughing, learning and improvising. It’s about community theatre, about searching for and developing hidden talents, about devoting untold quantities of energy and applying imagination and fantasy to the creation of theatrical illusions and imagery. It’s about the immense satisfaction one can derive from striving to become proficient as an actor, director and producer of live theatre. And, finally, it’s about magically transforming the flaccid and inert written word into vital third dimensional action and, from the empathy thereby produced, experiencing the exhilarating power and gratification returned by an appreciative audience.

" Ed Pizzella is a lawyer, politician, consumer advocate, actor, director, producer, writer and, last but not least, a poet. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, he attended local schools and in 1954 was graduated cum laude from Trinity College with a B.A. degree. He received his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1957 and has since been engaged in the general practice of law. He is a member of the Connecticut Bar Association, the Federal District Court Bar for the District of Connecticut, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals Bar and the U.S. Supreme Court Bar. In law school, as a member of the Board of Student Editors, he authored three articles which were published in the Connecticut Bar Journal. As President of the local Chamber of Commerce and as a member of his local Town Council, he authored numerous articles, which were published in local newspapers. Many of his poems have also been published in local newspapers and on the internet. He commenced legal practice as Assistant Legal Aid Attorney for The Legal Aid Society of Hartford County and three years later entered private practice, as a member of the Hartford law firm of Schatz & Schatz. He subsequently became a partner in the New Britain law firm of Cianci & Pizzella and founded and chaired The Legal Aid Board of New Britain. He served as a member of the Newington Zoning & Planning Commission and the Newington Republican Town Committee, as Chairman of the Newington Zoning Board of Appeals, as Grand Knight of the Rev. Edward Shaughnessy Council, Knights of Columbus, as Counsel for the Senate Majority in the 1973 and 1974 Connecticut State Legislative Sessions and as Counsel for the legislature’s Banks and Regulated Activities Committee. In 1975, he was nominated as Newington’s Republican candidate for mayor and in 1990 as the Republican candidate for Probate Judge for the Newington Probate District. In the late 1960’s, he became active in community theatre and subsequently appeared in major roles in more than one hundred community theatre productions throughout central Connecticut. He directed a number of plays and served as Business Manager for Theatre Newington, a local community theatre group. As a founder and Secretary of Theatre One productions, Inc., he assisted in the production of nineteen major shows in Newington, New Britain, Meriden and Bristol, Connecticut. He was a founder and served as Secretary of Newington Community Television, Inc., a local community access television producer and telecaster and served as Secretary, Chairman and Counsel for the Cox Cable Advisory Council and as Vice Chairman of the Statewide Video Advisory Council."