About Mark/Contact
Mark Leslie, a self-proclaimed “foodie” who loves to cook for anyone with an appetite, works across the country in professional theatre as a stage manager. *
Every year he vacations in Italy and lives to eat his way through every plate of pasta and cone of gelato placed before him. He shares those Italian experiences on his popular blog.
A Chicago-area native and “Yankee” by birth, Mark has lived in Alabama for over 23 years, and celebrates the fact that he started life eating farina, progressed to grits, and finally arrived at polenta.
Buonissima!
* Mark’s theatrical credits include:
Opera Birmingham, Birmingham, AL: LE NOZZE DI FIGARO and AIDA.
Denver Center Theatre Company, Denver, CO: WHITE CHRISTMAS, NOISES OFF, a reading of a new adaption of THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN directed by Kathleen Marshall and authored by Dick Scanlon.
Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Montgomery, AL: Resident stage manager on over 65 productions, including THE BIRD SANCTUARY starring Hayley Mills and Elizabeth Franz.
Arizona Theatre Company, Tucson, AZ: AMADEUS, LOOT, and AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ directed by Arthur Faria
Maine State Music Theatre, Brunswick, ME: PHANTOM, SOUTH PACIFIC, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, and the world premiere of CHAMBERLAIN.
Diane Criscione
Ciao Marco,
I just finished reading your book which was given to me by your publisher Kari Hock. I live in Palm Springs, CA and I run the book club at our country club. Kari’s mother has a winter home in the development and picked up one of my book club fliers and shared it with Kari. She called me, we met at the clubhouse and four days later I have devoured every page of your book and loved every bite. I laughed and cried through the whole thing. Fantastic!
As you can see by my last name I am Italian. Both sides of my family are from Italy (Bari and Sicily). I have many many cousins in Italy that I have visited often but always had the language barrier. Your book has insipered me to go back yet another time and make a better effort at learning the language. Four years ago I began putting together my own book titled, “The Baker’s Daughter”. My parents owned several Italian bakeries, one Italian deli, and one Italian restaurant for close to forty years. I grew up working in the business all of my life. When they sold the business I decided I should collect all of my father’s Italian recipes from the bakery and put them together with stories of where they came from. My grandparents were in the bakery business also so many recipes date back to their time in Sicily. It’s been a daunting task and after collecting about 30 recipes I put the project on the back burner (-; You have also inspired me to get everything out of the box and bring it back to life. Kari is interested in my project so I have become re-motivated to begin again.
Thank you for this wonderful book! I will keep track of your book tour schedule and if you are ever in Southern California I will be there to meet you.
Ciao, Ciao
Sincerely, Diane Criscione
Joan Schmelzle
Hello,
I have just read the blog, but cannot view the video. I find this disappointin. What good did it do me to sign up for the blog if I cannot watch the video?
Thank you.
Mark Leslie
Dear Joan,
I am very sorry that you couldn’t watch the video and I couldn’t agree more with you about it being disappointing. I believe that the issue has been resolved … YouTube defaults a video to “private” during the uploading process. Sadly, I thought that I had made the video “public” before I posted it on the blog ~ obviously I didn’t. Once again, it should be resolved and you shouldn’t have any issues watching the videos in the post. If it still isn’t working for you, PLEASE let me know so I can dig deeper and see if there are other issues.
I really appreciate your feedback and I am sorry for the inconvenience and disappointment.
Cari Saluti~
Mark
Joan Schmelzle
Hello,
Now I am thoroughly confused. When I clicked on the title to view the blog/newsletter on line to see if I might have missed some directions outside of “This video is private,” a completely different page came up.
Thank you.