Before it was Napoli, Brooklyn, Meghan Kennedy’s play—currently running Off-Broadway at Roundabout Theatre Company through August 27—was actually called Talk to Me Of Love. “That was a direct translation of a song that’s in the play called ‘Parlami d’Amore,’ and it’s a Mario Lanza song,” says Kennedy. “Ultimately, we were trying to get something in the title that pondered a feeling and a place.”

More than the title alone, Kennedy’s play is a portrait of the hybrid inherent in the 1960s immigrant experience, a mix of the aura of Italy and the grounding of Brooklyn. Here, Kennedy takes us through her careful balance of ingredients—specified in her writing—she used to craft a vivid world that spills off the stage.