Piacere

Pam Arciero

INTERVIEW BY FELICIA MARIANNA NAOUM

Pam Arciero has been starring on the iconic children’s television show, Sesame Street, since 1983 as the voice of Grundgetta, Oscar the Grouch’s girlfriend. She has also done voice acting for Between the Lions (2002-2014) and the Nickelodeon’s series: Oobi (2000-2005), in which she served as director, background puppeteer, and puppeteer supervisor. Since 2001, Pam has directed Live Character Shows for Sesame Street in countries like Saudi Arabia, Spain, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos, and South Africa. Since 2002, Pam has served as the Artistic Director for the National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, where she mentors and teaches students who pursue creative endeavors similar to her own.

Pam was born in Hawaii, and her paternal grandparents were from Acerra, a town outside of Naples that was named after the family.

Being a puppeteer and voice-actress is a rather unique and uncommon career. How did you become interested in these specialized arts?

I was a dance and theater major, studying at the University of Hawaii. A man named Kermit Love (who built Big Bird and Snuffleupagus) came from New York to teach a summer puppetry class, and he made me fall in love with puppetry. You need to be able to dance, sing, act, and make your own puppets. I got to use all of my own skills and create the character as well. It was so entertaining and so fun, and it was like a bell went off in my head that this is what I’m supposed to be doing. I was lucky I found “it.”

You’ve helped countless children learn lessons through Sesame Street. Now tell us about a lesson that a child has taught you.

Oh, well you know, we get a lot of Make-A-Wish kids, right, where their final wish, very often, is to come to Sesame Street. When you work with children like that, what they teach you is how wonderful it is to be alive, no matter how short or how long your life is. The gift of just being alive—they teach you that over and over again.

Were you ever able to express your Italian heritage through Sesame Street or other shows you’ve worked on or puppets you’ve voiced?

Well, yes, actually. My grandmother, she was here since she was 17. She lived to be 104. At 103, she was still making homemade pasta, and she wouldn’t let me cleanup because she said, “It gives me something to do.” She never lost her Italian accent. She never wanted to learn to read English. She only wanted Italian. I will remember her accent and do that with characters. Le Befana, The Christmas Witch, had an Italian accent, so, yes I use it that way for sure. Also, the Italian culture, the welcomeness, the love. For me, I have the family I grew up with. That’s huge. Family is everything. I bring that up on Sesame Street.

If Oscar the Grouch and Grundgetta honeymooned in Italy, where would they go and why?

That’s very funny! That’s a good question! I love it! Maybe Venice. Oh, probably Mount Vesuvius. They would just go and see the old rock formations, and that would make them very happy. They’d see all the frozen bodies and stuff. They like muddy, mushy things, so I’m thinking maybe Venice, walk around in the water. But, most likely, Vesuvius would be the first place they want to go.

Do the Hawaiian and Italian cultures intersect in a way we may not be aware of?

Oh absolutely. Between food and family, they’re the same. Hawaiians are very welcoming and loving and all about their food and making sure you are well-fed in their house, and every Italian family I know does the same thing. You walk into an Italian family house, and you will get the same thing. I think that intersection is very clear. I immediately fit into my husband’s east coast Italian family, not just because I’m Italian, but because I’m Hawaiian. I think the reason I fit so well in the New York/Connecticut Italian culture was my Hawaiian culture.

Leave us with words to live by.

Oh, that’s a hard one. A Grundgetta piece of advice would probably be: Just be true to yourself. If you don’t like something, say so. And my piece of advice would be: Keep life joyful. It’s too short to be any other way. Felicia Marianna Naoum is a celebrity feature writer from Parma, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland). Her maternal great-grandparents are from Calabria, Italy.