By Dan Bloom
CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — I met Diana Rissetto, a New York publicity agent for self-published cli-fi books a few months ago, and kept in touch with her by email. She has represented a few interesting cli-fi novels this year, but that’s not the focus on my column today.
No, this article is about a playwright with a Broadway dream.
Rissetto, who is Catholic, has always had a strong interest in Jewish culture and history. Last year, her play Warmth, in a review by Jayne Jacova Feld of the Jewish Community Voice, was described as a “unique take on the Holocaust.”
In the play, a Catholic school kindergarten teacher brings an 88-year-old Polish woman to stay in her New York City apartment to help the woman search for the son she gave up for adoption after the Holocaust.
The drama offers a unique take on the topic from the viewpoint of a modern-day version of a Righteous Gentile, the name given for non-Jews who helped Jews during the Holocaust.
The funny yet thought-provoking play did a wonderful job of showing that people of other religions can be just as concerned about changing the world, Voice reporter Feld said.
Warmth centers on Gemma, a young woman whose Holocaust obsession is inspired by viewing Public Service Announcements about a charity that sends scarves to aging Righteous Gentiles.
The premise was largely autobiographical, according to Rissetto. Like Gemma, Rissetto is an Italian Catholic who is often mistaken for Jewish and has more than a deep interest in the Holocaust and Jewish culture.
“Everyone thinks I’m Jewish even though I wear a cross and volunteer at my church,” Rissetto, 32, of Ocean Township, New Jersey said. “Jewish mothers love me.”
A few years ago, she volunteered with the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous in New York City, where she was living at the time. That experience was the genesis for her play.
Rissetto dreams big for her play now, hoping for a Broadway performance someday or even a movie version, she said.
There’s a Jewish story everywhere, even in the warmth of the heart of a good Catholic woman in New Jersey.
By the way, I asked Rissetto if publishers were warming up to the cli fi genre at all.
“Actually, yes!” she told me just the other day as I was preparing this colum. “I’ve had four cli-fi book projects come in just the past few months.”
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Bloom, based in Taiwan, is an inveterate web surfer and cli-fi enthusiast. You may comment to dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com, or post your comment on this website, provided that the rules below are observed.
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