Media Release / Gionfriddo Reading/Booksigning in Pittsfield, MA on December 17

Update December 16. This event has been postponed due to inclement weather forecast. We hope to reschedule this in summer.

DATELINE: November 17, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Mark G. Auerbach

Mark G. Auerbach Public Relations

mgauerbach@gmail.com

BERKSHIRE THEATRE GROUP MUSICAL DIRECTOR, MARK GIONFRIDDO, AND HIS MOTHER, JEANNIE GIONFRIDDO, AUTHOR NEW BOOK,“GOOD NIGHT, DEAR HART, GOOD NIGHT,” 

READING AND BOOK SIGNING SCHEDULED AT THE GARAGE IN PITTSFIELD, MA ON SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17 AT 4PM

Berkshire Theatre Group presents a reading and book signing of Good Night, Dear Hart, Good Night, a new historical non-fiction book by Jeannie and Mark Gionfriddo, on Saturday, December 17 at 4pm at The Garage at The Colonial Theatre. Admission to the reading and book signing is free, and books will be available for sale at the event. The event begins immediately following the 2pm matinee of A Christmas Carol.

When Jeannie Gionfriddo and her late husband, Roy, purchased their family home in Holyoke, MA in 1964, there was one seller’s condition: the tenant, Hart Lester Allen, in the adjoining apartment, had to have the right to live there as long as she wanted. As the Gionfriddo’s got to know Mrs. Allen, she shared her personal history.

Allen was the widow of Massachusetts Bank Commissioner, Joseph C. Allen, who investigated and brought to justice the notorious criminal Charles Ponzi, whose “Ponzi Scheme” robbed many people of their life savings. Jeannie Gionfriddo, a columnist at the Holyoke Sun, began to chronicle Allen’s story. Her son, Mark, assisted with the research. But after a draft or two, they put the book aside. When Bernie Madoff’s financial crimes made headlines, the Gionfriddo’s revised Good Night, Dear Hart Good Night, which is part backstory of a bank commissioner taking on a powerful criminal, and part love story of the woman who supported him along the way, set in Massachusetts cities and towns, including Springfield.

Mother and son, Jeannie Gionfriddo and Mark Gionfriddo, still live in the Holyoke house where Good Night, Dear Hart, Good Night takes place; she in the main house, and he in the apartment, where Hart Lester Allen once resided. Jeannie Gionfriddo has authored cookbooks and wrote the Holyoke Sun’s food columns. Mark Gionfriddo is a member of the music faculty at Mount Holyoke College, creator of The Big Broadcast, a recreation of a 1940s radio show with the Jazz Ensembles at Mount Holyoke College, and a musical director at Berkshire Theatre Group, where he conducted Beauty and The Beast last summer, and is currently the vocal coach of the 11th annual production of A Christmas Carol.

For details on Good Night, Dear Hart, Good Night, visit the book’s website at, http://goodnightdearhart.com/, or visit the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/goodnightdearhart.

To purchase tickets to A Christmas Carol,  contact the Colonial Ticket Office at 111 South Street, Pittsfield by calling 413-997-4444, or online at www.berkshiretheatregroup.org. Ticket Offices are open Monday-Friday 10am-5pm, Saturdays 10am-2pm or on any performance day from 10am until curtain

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