Frank Ingrasciotta presents excerpts from Blood Type: RAGU (Next Stage Press, 2025)

Award-winning actor and playwright Frank Ingrasciotta performs excerpts from his acclaimed solo play Blood Type: RAGU. The 2009 off-Broadway production has continued to tour with more than 1,200 performances nationally and internationally in more than 125 venues. This year the play celebrates being published and licensed by Next Stage Press and made available for purchase. Blood Type: RAGU is a hilarious and affecting coming-of-age story. A one-man play of twenty-two characters, it explores a second-generation immigrant child’s delicate dance between searching for identity, embracing culture, and understanding forgiveness.

“Transcending stereotypes, Ingrasciotta is a master of comedic and dramatic balance.”
Show Business Weekly

Discussion led by Fred Gardaphé, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College, CUNY.

Professor Fred Gardaphé on Growing Up Italian American in Chicago

Calandra’s Professor Fred Gardaphé spoke to podcaster Danielle Romero on her channel NYTN, in which she explores issues related to identity and ethnicity. Gardaphé spoke about his working-class background and his education journey and the ways in which his upbringing has reflected and refracted in his life as a professor at Queens College and as the author of numerous scholarly books and articles. Watch the whole conversation below.