Art With
Heart
By Meredith Griffin
G
abriella Calicchio is lit from
within. Full of life and
warmth, she is a clear-eyed
woman who knew from a young age
that she wanted to be in the theater.
The first play she remembers ever
seeing was Eugene O’Neills, A Moon
for the Misbegotten. “The woman
playing the lead was just brilliant,”
says Calicchio. “I must have been 8
or 9 years old and I knew from that
moment that the theater was the life
I wanted. It was a passion that I was
able to hold onto and a passion that
I was able to follow.”
Her parents, David and Nancy
Holmes Calicchio, met when, after
graduating from Brown, she applied
for a job at his company “The Putney
Reading Company.” Her father
ended up teaching at Windham
College as part of the reading
company, later becoming a professor
until the college went under in the
mid to late seventies.
By then, Putney, Vermont became
a mecca for artists and writers,
including John Irving and Jim Dine.
David Calicchio taught English, was
a playwright and directed local
theater. “I like to say that I grew
up in the back of the theater, and
watched rehearsals while pretending
to do my homework,” says Calicchio.
When Calicchio turned 16, she was
accepted at Simon’s Rock Early
College, a division of Bard College
in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
It was a school for young people
who were excelling in high school
and who were ready for college.
After two years at Simon’s Rock,
32 MARIN ARTS & CULTURE
she was accepted at Bard College
where she majored in drama and
dance. After graduation, she saved
enough money to buy a $99 ticket
on People’s Express Airlines to the
U.K. where she waited on tables,
did pub theater and studied mime.
After meeting an Australian and
falling in love, she decided to move
to Melbourne where she was able
to get a great agent right away and
found her way into television work.
She also taught theater – she was
living her life completely in the arts
world.
In 1991, she came back to the states
for a friend’s wedding and decided
to stay. She was looking to go to
grad school for acting or directing.
She landed in Boston without an
agent or an equity card. “I was 27
years old and thought, ‘I’m just not
hungry enough for this.” Thinking
that perhaps arts administration
would be a better path, she enrolled
at Lesley University in Cambridge,