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For centuries, immigrant families have come to America in hopes of fulfilling big dreams. When her mother and five older siblings celebrated Rosalina Francesca Iannucci’s first birthday as passengers aboard a boat making its way from Caserta, Italy, to the United States, it’s not likely they had a good idea about what kind of person she’d grow up to be.
It wouldn’t take long for her to show them.
Although the family was native Italian speakers who only learned English once at school in the U.S., Iannucci and her siblings picked up street slang fast. She knew her nickname "Olive Oyl" developed by kids in her neighborhood at 24th and Tasker streets wasn’t endearing. Soon, the lanky preteen was encouraged by one of her brothers to pursue modeling.
After a crash course in what she called charm school at Wanamaker’s department store, the then-12-year-old began making her rounds at go-sees where she’d meet with prospective companies and designers looking to cast models for shows, print ads and commercials.
At 13, Iannucci booked her first print ad for the department store where she received her formal training. She can still recall making the trip with her family to see the large photo of her hung in the windows at the 13th-and-Chestnut-streets location.
"Oh my God, it was surreal. My mother said, ‘coma bellilla’ — how pretty," Iannucci, 50, said, adding her mother, Rosa, had a big smile on her face.
In the following years, she modeled for local retailers and did commercials for national companies. After graduating from St. Maria Goretti High School, she married and started a family. The modeling gigs slowed down and eventually she went on a bit of a hiatus.
"I had kids and they came first," she said of daughter Bianca DeSantis, 32, and son Paul DeSantis, 30, both of whom live with their mother at Moyamensing Avenue and Carpenter Street in a home they’ve shared since 1984.
Despite being busy raising a family, Iannucci thought going back into modeling in her late 20s was out of the question.
"Back then, when you were a 29-year-old model, you were washed up," she said.
To complicate matters, Iannucci felt like something was missing.
"Modeling is like a little bit of acting without words, but I just wanted to take it a step further. Acting was something I always wanted to do. It’s a good way to shine a little, other than modeling where you’re behind the camera and you don’t really say anything. In theater and acting you become another person," she said.
After several years of formal training in Philly and New York City and overcoming a stubborn bout of shyness, Iannucci, then 31, began landing roles in theaters throughout the area, with her latest show premiering tomorrow night in New Jersey.
"Passion" is the simple and sole reason Iannucci gives as to why she became a thespian. "I love the energy you can feel from the audience, which is a total high."
Comedies are Iannucci’s preferred genre, though she plans to dip her toe in musicals. In "It’s Only A Play," opening tomorrow at the Sketch Club Players Community Theater in Woodbury, N.J., she’ll keep the audience guessing throughout the two-hour show as Virginia, a Broadway star awaiting reviews of her first show since she flopped onscreen in Hollywood.
"She’s a little erratic," Iannucci said of her character. "But comedies are more challenging. It’s about timing and delivery."
She’s been on the playbill at many other local stages, including the Walnut Street Theatre, the Wilma Theater and the Plays and Players Theatre.
But even Iannucci can’t believe she is an actress now. She faced a great deal of hardship growing up, including the loss of her father, Giovanni — a tailor who came to the States to go into business with his brothers — when she was just 12. The family was very poor, she said, forcing her mother to work. Iannucci was unbelievably shy, probably, she reflects, because she was living in a country that did not speak her native tongue.
"But I had a good childhood," she said. "I loved growing up in a large family. There’s nothing like that."
This held true for many of her neighbors, also immigrants, which helped bond the blocks into a close-knit community.
"There was a real sense of neighborhood back then which I haven’t found anywhere else outside of Philadelphia," she said, adding that the area has changed over the years. "You don’t put beach chairs out on the street and sit and shout at your neighbors until two o’clock in the morning like you used to."
Her love for the city has kept her here and it’s where she’ll remain regardless of the time it takes to drive to rehearsals for her shows — the latest of which has required her presence every evening.
Roles can get more sparse as actors age, as many roles are written for younger people, she said, but in her two decades of work, she’s kept busy with two to three plays a year as well as being an extra on movies like 1995’s "Twelve Monkeys" and "The Lemon Sisters" in ’90. She still models for companies, like West Chester-based QVC, and local designers.
Iannucci said she still gets nervous before every audition. When she nabs the role, it’s plain, old-fashioned memorization and practice she uses to learn her lines before opening night.
"I’m not one of those gifted people who can memorize [the script] and it sticks. I have to keep doing over and over and over again," she said, laughing.
So far, it’s worked pretty well. And, she said, it’s the method she’ll continue to turn to as long as she’s able.
"As long as I can get the work, I’m going to take it," she said. "I’ll still pursue it until I’m in a walker."
Contact Staff Writer Caitlin Meals, at cmeals@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
