Beyond the Pasta - Filed under 'first posting'

Travel Experiences in Italy & the journey toward publication of my first book: "Beyond the Pasta: Recipes, Language, & Life with an Italian Family" by Mark Donovan Leslie

Mark Leslie works in professional theatre as a stage manager and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association. Currently he is busy submitting his manuscript to literary agents and publishers.

Every year, Mark vacations in Italy and lives to eat his way through every plate of pasta and cone of gelato placed before him. In 2005, he had the good fortune to live for a month in Viterbo, Italy with the Stefani family. There he took cooking lessons from Nonna, the grandmother of the family, and Italian language lessons from Alessandra, the mother.

That experience is the basis of his working manuscript entitled "Beyond the Pasta: Recipes, Language, & Life with an Italian Family." Currently, the manuscript is being queried to agents in search of literary representation.

THEATRICAL CREDITS:
Mark is working on his second production for Opera Birmingham on their production of LE NOZZE DI FIGARO and his first with this season's production of Verdi's AIDA. Last September, he stage managed CABARET at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina in Hilton Head, SC. He also worked at the Arts Center in 2005 on its production of Evita in 2005. This past summer, he worked in Minnesota on Great River Shakespeare Festival’s production of Love’s Labour’s Lost. Over the past 22 years, Mark’s regional theatre credits include: Denver Center Theatre Company (White Christmas, Noises Off, and a new adaption of The Unsinkable Molly Brown directed by Kathleen Marshall and authored by Dick Scanlon), Alabama Shakespeare Festival (resident stage manager on over 65 productions), Actors’ Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival (D. Boone by Marsha Norman), Arizona Theatre Company (Amadeus, Loot, and Ain’t Misbehavin’ directed by Arthur Faria), and Maine State Music Theatre (Phantom, South Pacific, Jesus Christ Superstar, La Cages Aux Folles, and the world premiere of Chamberlain).

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first posting

October 16, 2009

"All it takes is some flour and a couple of eggs..."

"There is nothing as simple as, or more difficult than, the beginning."~

Starting something completely new is never easy. There is the fear of not getting it "exactly" right or not meeting expectations. For the longest time I was terrified to make pasta. What can be so complicated about some flour and a couple of eggs? Nothing. But after a rather rough first attempt, and slowly perfecting my technique in Italy, there is now nothing difficult about making pasta.

This is the first post...the first attempt at a blog...my blog about Italy. My Italy. What can be so complicated about that? Hopefully, nothing.

Through photos, recipes, La Parola del Giorno--The Word of the Day, and commentary on the progress of getting my manuscript published, I am going to share my Italy with you, and in doing so, hopefully take us all on un bello viaggio.

Ciao, ciao, ciao, ciao...

Mark

-the manuscript is entitled "Beyond The Pasta: 28 Days of Recipes, Language, and Life with an Italian Family."

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Posted by Mark Leslie