Spotlight: Pasquale LaCorte

Say Goodnight Gracie is showing May 18-28, 2023 here at Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre!

The life, laughter, and love of George Burns and Gracie Allen, Say Goodnight Gracie is the most successful one-man show in Broadway history about one of the greatest comic acts ever.

We reached out to Pasquale LaCorte to find out more about him and his experience working on this production.

What’s your favorite part of this show and why?

The beginning to the end. It's a delightful tale of a time gone by. It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It will make you think. A Theatrical Trifecta!

What about this show do you think will stick with audiences?

If nothing else, I hope the audience's "take home" is simply "love life, live love, and laugh".

Do you have any special connections to George Burns or The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show?

Other than watching their TV show as a kid, not really. But once I read this script, I found many life stories I could relate to. I didn't necessarily experience things in the same exact way, but I shared those same emotions and life lessons.

How did you get into theatre?

My Mom was a professional dancer and owned a dance studio for 30 years. She taught me to tap dance when I was seven. She put me on the stage and they had to drag me off. When I was 13, I saw my first Broadway production - Fiddler on the Roof. That did it. That's all I wanted to do since then. After High School, I attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and continued to starve for several years.

What’s your favorite thing to do in the area?

Entertain at home! We love having dinner guests. Sometimes just another couple and sometimes parties with wall-to-wall friends! Family, Food, and Friends - what? Do you need more?

What have you loved about working on this production?

It's not often that an actor gets to play a role that just feels so comfortable from the start. I feel that there's a spirit about him that's in me too. I love sharing that with a live audience. Oh, and the corny jokes. I love corny jokes!

What have you loved so far about working with Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre?

The professionalism and the artistic freedom they allow their performers is wonderful.

Biography

Pasquale LaCorte from the age of seven performed in a multitude of variety and musical shows, tap dancing and clowning before attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NY. Afterward, he appeared with the NJ Shakespeare Festival, The L'Amore Theatre Ensemble, and several other regional groups and showcases in the NY metropolitan area. Later on, he owned and operated Café Cappuccino - a Jazz and comedy club/restaurant in Milburn, NJ. Pasquale now owns and operates New Hope Travel here in the Asheville area.

Absent from the stage for over thirty years, Pasquale got back to the joy of theatre ten years ago appearing at ACT in numerous musicals and comedies including Hairspray, Kiss Me Kate, Spamalot, Annie Get Your Gun, The Man Who Came To Dinner, Peter and the Starcatcher, and Our Town. He has also appeared in Amadeus with NC Stage, at LEX18 Dinner Theatre and The Magnetic Theatre’s original productions of Capital Liars, Terry Tempest, and the monthly improv series Vernon’s Super Happy Trivia Game Show. At HART Theatre in Waynesville, Pasquale performed principal roles in Over The River and Through The Woods, A Facility For Living, The 13 Clocks, as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, as George Burns in a five-week, sold-out run of Say Goodnight Gracie and most recently in A Christmas Story and the original production of Recycled Nuts. At SART in Mars Hill Pasquale appeared in the original production of Milestones.

Say Goodnight Gracie is showing May 18-28, 2023. Grab your tickets here: https://www.sartplays.com/49