MATES is the first play of the MATES TRILOGY. Each play stands alone - but, collectively, they follow the two main characters' lives for six consecutive hours - from "seven past seven" until "seven past one" of a very fateful day. The three plays explore the meaning of friendship, courage and success. The other plays are MATES IN PARADISE (produced at the Melfi Repertory in Binghamton, NY, in 1993; and then produced, twice, at the 450-seat Orpheum Repertory Company in Foxborough, MA, in 1995) and MATES AT LAST (produced at the Melfi in September of 1995).MATES won the Wykeham Rise Playwrighting Contest in 1973. It was produced off-off-Broadway at Lolly's Theater Club in 1973. In 1993, it was produced at the 250-seat Leonard Melfi Repertory Theater in Binghamton, New York.
MATES IN PARADISE is a comedy about two men who, through their growing friendship, find the courage to trust in themselves and to begin to flourish in the real world. The play begins with Whittler and Evans hanging from their makeshift crosses
BUT ONE OF THEM IS IRISH is a comedy about loyalty. When the play opens, life is as it should be. Joe Parliamo is happily making pizza and talking- and talking, and Maria Buonanova and Maria O'Reilly-the Two Marias-teach school and practice medicine, respectively. True, Joe's silent partner, Kevin Lynch, feels he's being punished -but that's normal for Kevin. And Joe and Kevin have happy, if uncertain, relationships with the Two Marias. On this day, there is a new customer in the restaurant-Maria Albanotte. She's a bit on the mysterious side-a shy poet, with an undetermined past who, nonetheless, manages to become the Third Maria. But then news arrives. In Italy, Joe's great uncle Hannibal had died. And Hannibal's great nephew, Rocco DiSanto, is arriving in America that very day Why? What does he want? Could it have to do with money that Hannibal put up for the restaurant, two generations ago? In the midst of their speculations, the door bursts open and in steps Rocco DiSanto-"Rocco Full of Grace," as Maria Albanotte would say. Rocco carries a rolled-up chart, of sorts, that will eventually be displayed. On it, is information that will change everyone's lives. The six of them soon reveal to each other and, more importantly, to themselves, not only their lives, but their very souls. Being loyal to your heritage. Being loyal to your family. To your friends. And-perhaps most importantly-to yourself. That's what's discovered, as our six friends eat calzones, drink il vino rosso, and laugh and love-all in an hour or two, in a small restaurant, on one afternoon of their lives.
Electra 225 is a funny and heartwarming novel about a man who inherits his father's classic Buick and convinces his troubled family to take a summer trip to the Pacific Ocean-for lunch. When his father, dies, Andy Scalabenfro inherits a 1959 Buick Electra 225. A massive Buick-with holes on the side The high point of America's love affair with the road. Andy and his wife Christi are barely doing all right in their life in Providence, Rhode Island. He's lost his job and is filling in by substitute teaching. Their teenage kids, Henry and Morgan, talk to them a little less than most teenage kids. Christi is a CPA, who has never really gotten over the one lost opportunity of her life. Andy decides that they should use the summer to take a car trip to California, see the Pacific Ocean, have lunch and then come back. "You can pick the restaurant," he tells Christi. They're off. Reluctantly. But off, nonetheless. For about twenty minutes. Then the car breaks down and they have to pull off the highway in Johns Towne, Rhode Island. And they can't leave. They can't go home because they rented their house for the month. Adventures follow. Salvation may be at hand. Oddly, everything seems to focus on Detroit. Then there is Agnes, the octogenarian who Andy has hired to type his handwritten manuscript. They never meet, but converse through notes in Andy's writing. Slowly, Agnes and Andy find a way to do what has to be done.
Circle A, Circle B is a romantic comedy about the Sixties and the Nineties- and love is the battlefield Meet the Cantata brothers: Theodore and Frederick. They're children of the Sixties. Theodore is a public defender; Frederick works for historic preservation. Theodore is happily, if sometimes stormily, married to Sue; they have four daughters. Frederick is divorced, the father of 2 sons. The brothers play touch football on Sundays, they do "their work" around Theodore's house, and dream of ways to get rich. And then Frederick meets Angela Monterro-a woman of the Nineties; professional, beautiful and independent. They are attracted to each other-but Angela isn't about to allow herself to be trapped into a relationship with "an older man, who has two children, is economically strapped, and, by his own admission, hasn't much of a financial future." Or will she? The play is episodic-set against scenes of touch football; scenes of the brothers trying to fix toilets, chop down trees, paint garages and construct gardens; scenes of Angela trying to figure out if she wants Frederick or another suitor (the detestable Scott Jones-a man of the Nineties). It's actually simple: all these people have to do is make a few decisions and figure out why they fall in love.
