“Call me! Federico Fellini wants to see you.” When actress Dina Morrone received this message from her agent, she didn’t think much of it and believing it was just a joke, she didn’t call her back. But the famous Italian director was indeed looking for a blonde girl for his first ever commercial. It was for Banca di Roma, and he wanted to audition the Italian-Canadian actress who, at that time, was living in Rome.  

“When I found out it was true, I bought a dress, put on a scarf and went to Cinecittà to meet him,” Dina recalls with emotion. “I didn’t get the part, which made me sad: when you are going through things you think ‘why did it not work out?’ Only later in life you realize that there’s always a silver lining. And in that case,  it was my show.” The story of her encounter with Federico Fellini, in fact, became the motivation to write her first one-woman show, The Italian in Me. Entirely written and performed by Dina, the show recently won the Valley Theater Award for Best One Person Show.