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Danko called ‘monster’ by woman he sexually assaulted

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‘1776’ musical comes to stageat Hazleton’s Ferrara Center

<p>&#8220;Babe, whose is this?&#8221; the man asks his wife, holding up a &#8230; slipper &#8230;. he found in their apartment</p><p>The woman stammers a bit and claims it&#8217;s hers, and he seems to doubt her word until she explains it&#8217;s an extra one she has for work.</p><p>OK, OK, the slipper was just a handy, temporary prop Jonathan Muniz grabbed at rehearsal. When a four-person cast appears in &#8220;Between Us&#8221; at 8 p.m. today and Saturday on stage at Misericordia University&#8217;s Walsh Hall, he&#8217;ll be holding a cell phone that his character never saw before.</p><p>&#8220;That makes more sense, doesn&#8217;t it?&#8221; said recent Misericordia alum Adam Ercolani, 22, of Plains Township, who is making his directorial/playwright debut this weekend with two plays &#8212; &#8220;Between Us&#8221; and &#8220;Tell Me.&#8221;</p><p>Ercolani crafted &#8220;Between Us&#8221; as his capstone project for the honors program, working on it between May and November, and he describes it as a slapstick sex comedy. So leave the kids at home.</p><p>He inserted some intriguing plot twists, but requested we not give them away. Suffice it to say that even though the aforementioned married couple have enough problems to take them to a marriage counselor, they also have much more in common than you might expect.</p><p>The second offering of the evenings, &#8220;Tell Me,&#8221; is an autobiographical piece, and Ercolani admitted to feeling vulnerable and nervous about making it public.</p><p>A project he completed in just 10 days, it involved approaching four people with whom he has interacted over the past few years and asking them such questions as: &#8220;Did you ever feel like you trusted me?&#8221; &#8220;Did you ever feel like you were attracted to me?&#8221; and &#8220;What do you think my biggest flaw is?&#8221;</p><p>He recorded the conversations and put them into the script, verbatim.</p><p>Actor Tony C. Thomas portrays Ercolani in the show, having soul-searching interviews/conversations about relationships and sexuality with four other characters. Each character is someone with whom the playwright experienced a different level of intimacy.</p><p>&#8220;I give Adam a lot of credit,&#8221; said theater faculty member Jeff Kelly, who has directed Ercolani in numerous shows over the past four years. &#8220;He put himself out there on a bunch of fronts. He didn&#8217;t take an easy road, or a pre-done show. He put his life out there for everyone to see; he took on everything with a full head of steam.&#8221;</p><p>Describing Ercolani as &#8220;one of the best actors that&#8217;s ever come through Misericordia,&#8221; Kelly said, &#8220;theater and art is very much about expressing yourself. You have to dig deep down inside yourself and he&#8217;s trying to prepare himself for what he needs to do.&#8221;</p><p>Next up for Ercolani, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, will be a Master of Fine Arts in Performance Creation at Moravian College. While he is in Bethlehem, Ercolani will apprentice with the not-for-profit, professional Touchstone Theatre.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Jonathan Muniz and Alexa Martino portray a couple whose marriage is undergoing some challenges in &#8216;Between Us,&#8217; a play that will be presented at 8 tonight and Saturday evening at Misericordia University&#8217;s Walsh Hall. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/web1_adam.photo_.1-1.jpeg</photo0><caption0>Jonathan Muniz and Alexa Martino portray a couple whose marriage is undergoing some challenges in &#8216;Between Us,&#8217; a play that will be presented at 8 tonight and Saturday evening at Misericordia University&#8217;s Walsh Hall. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/web1_adam.photo2_-1.jpeg">
<div class="neCaption">Tony C. Thomas, at right, portrays the playwright in the autobiographical &#8216;Tell Me.&#8217;  </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/web1_adam.photo2_-1.jpeg</photo1><caption1>Tony C. Thomas, at right, portrays the playwright in the autobiographical &#8216;Tell Me.&#8217;  </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mary Therese Biebel</p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

Miseri alum directorial/playwrighting debut