Sunday, March 29, 2015

Melagrana
Armory Square Playwrights
Len Fonte, director

Price: $7 regular, $5 students/seniors
Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

Armory Square Playhouse's next reading is Melagrana, a new full length play by Len Fonte.

When American student Margie Cameron arrives at an archeological dig in Sicily, she revels in the freedom that suburban America can't provide, but soon learns that she's also unleashed a passion she can't control. Together with Ettore, a Sicilian doctoral student who supervises her work, she finds that on this island the lines between the present and the primitive past begin to blur very quickly. Inspired by the murder case that riveted the world, Melagrana exposes a tangled web of lies and love in the shadow of Mt. Etna. A talk-back with the author will follow the reading.

Len Fonte, who taught high school English and theater for 33 years in the Syracuse City School District, received his B.A. from St. John Fisher College. He holds an M.A. in Cinema Studies from New York University, and did graduate work in theater at Northwestern University which he attended on a theater fellowship. He has done post graduate work at the University of Rochester and Texas A&M University. In 1984, he received a sabbatical to work with the Young Playwrights' Festival, an activity of the Dramatists Guild Foundation. In 1994, he was cited as a Teacher of Excellence by the New York State Council. His plays include SALT Award winner Werewolf, Wasted Bread, and Hip/Shake (with Reenah Golden). Alchemist of Light, written with Tom Bisky, was featured at the New York Fringe Festival. In 2010, Len was accepted into the Kennedy Center Playwrights Intensive. He is an adjunct instructor at the Syracuse University Department of Drama and a theater critic for the Syracuse Post-Standard/syracuse.com. Len is a founding member of Armory Square Playhouse.