Paul Ricciardi says he can identify most any car on the road, even by sound. It doesn’t matter where its going or how fast, these moving vehicles are no match for Ricciardi’s honed senses. And neither is writing a master of a one-act, one-man show. Moving Vehicles, Ricciardi’s self-written and performed play, is a look into the rearview mirror of the childhood and adolescence of Peter, a young man seeking to find and accept his true self. Winner of the Best Actor in a Solo Show award at the National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Fest in 2002, this coming of age story explores diverse issues of individuality, race, class, and sexual orientation-issues that are closer than they appear to be for many young adults.From white trash roots, Peter becomes attached to eleven different characters whom provide his life comedic anecdotes and integral advice: Sondra, the lone African-American at his school, a family of born-again Christian babysitters, a strict Republican fifth-grade teacher, his unorganized mother and many more. As the story attached to each character is told in relation to photographs, Peter drives farther down the road to realizing he shouldn’t be ashamed of who he is.Growing up in ‘The Grove,’ a working class section of Lowell, MA, Peter enters into the world fatherless and insecure. His mother, a self-assured, chain-smoking , laidback woman, and Sondra, a dominate, trash-talking, tell-it-like-it-is schoolmate, provide Peter with ample support as he attempts to prepare for the transfer from high-school nobody to college-somebody. As he replays the life-changing milestones that mark his life, we see a glimpse as just who the real Peter is: not just as a white-trash Grove kid who happens to be gay and the son of a working-class mother/waitress, but as a white-trash Grove kid who happens to be gay and the son of a working-class mother/waitress who is damn proud of it.One of the best one-man shows out there, Moving Vehicles combines past with present, memory with reality. Ricciardi does an outstanding job taking on a myriad of characters and keeping the sanity of his main one intact while Peter grows into the mold he was borne to. This show was definitely made to tour-barely any set or technical cues, with the exception of rockin’ ’70’s music-and who needs a set when it’s Ricciardi that is more interesting to watch? It’s almost hard to keep up with him as he takes you for the ride in his mothers’ ’61 Plymouth Valiant; that kind of audience involvement is hard to come by these days.For a show with eleven characters, Ricciardi wears the schizophrenic hat well. He does not change costumes or small accessories signifying one personality from another; he changes his voice to capture the specific personality he tries to portray. For an actor skilled in six different dialects, including Southey (South Boston, that is), Ricciardi tone goes from dominating to calm, from skittish to confident; every character that Peter attaches himself to (or that attaches to Peter) comes through in the incredible frequency of Ricciardi’s vocals. These characters are embedded into Peter’s life, and Ricciardi’s. It’s refreshing to see an actor so sure of himself onstage. Ricciardi is flawless and far too energetic to be chained to the obstacle of a set. He’s exceedingly convincing in every phase of Peter’s life and his portrayal of Peter’s emotional roller-coaster is awe-inspiring. His dialects, his charisma, his sheer intensity, his ability to become any character in an instant, his story-telling; these are the things that make great actors. This is Paul Ricciardi.
Want to workshop your writing skills? Check out Paul Ricciardi’s writing workshops,”The Writer Within,” “Improv and Spontaneity,” and “The Advanced Monologue Session,” to push your talents to the next level.