c/o New Dramatists
424 West 44th Street
New York, NY 10036
Email:
VictorLodato@aol.com
Victor’s work has been produced at The Magic Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville (Humana Festival), Theatre Na Zabradli/Prague, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, SPF/NYC, Quartieri dell’Arte Festival (Italy), and Mill Mountain Theatre. His plays have received workshops and readings at Manhattan Theatre Club, A.C.T., The National Theatre/London, The Guthrie Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Primary Stages, and The Play Company. He has thrice developed work at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference. He has received commissions from South Coast Repertory and the Magic Theatre. Victor is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rutgers University, and a member of The Dramatists Guild of America.
DEAR SARA JANE
Full-length
1W
Unit Set
Sweet Sara Jane, alone at home, waits for her soldier
husband to return from battle. A few too many Bourbons, and she begins
to pose some dangerous questions, as well as to reveal some nasty
secrets. A solo play, with songs. Commissioned by Magic Theatre (funded by the National Endowment
for the Arts)
SLAY THE DRAGON
Full-length Comic-Drama
2M, 3W
Unit Set
A young mentally retarded man, living with his aging party-girl mother
and his scatter-brained grandmother, makes a confused effort to claim
his independence. As Halloween fast approaches, and family skeletons
jump out of the closet, everyone needs to think quickly and decide who
he’s going to be on October 31.
Commissioned by South Coast
Repertory, CA. Workshops: A.C.T.; O’Neill Playwrights Conference.
3F, 4F
Full-length Comic-Drama
3M, 2W
Unit Set, Multiple Locations
Alfred and Myrna Lang, an aging British couple, have lived quietly in
apartment 3F for thirty-four years. When two loud young men move into
the apartment directly above, the Langs lives are thrown out of balance.
To protect their peace, they must face the enemy—and, in doing so, they
release themselves to a world of danger and desire, a world not so very
different from their own buried past.
Commissioned by the Magic Theatre.
World Premiere at Magic Theatre, CA.
“Tantalizingly quick-witted … the dialogue has an exhilarating snap and
tempo that reminds one of Edward Albee.”— San Francisco Chronicle
WILDLIFE
Full-length Comic-Drama
2M, 2W
Unit Set
After a disastrous exhibition, a famous conceptual artist and his neurotic
wife escape from Manhattan and move upstate. But life among the trees
proves challenging for these bred-in-the-bone New Yorkers. Nosy neighbors,
pesky deer, and a terrible crime in the name of art demand to be reckoned
with.
Commissioned by South Coast Repertory, CA.
MOTHERHOUSE
Full-length Drama
2M, 2W: All Black
Unit Set
Clive arrives at the house of his mother and sister. He says that he’s
fleeing from the police—but perhaps it’s just another one of his
delusions. Unbeknownst to him, he has shown up on a tragic anniversary;
three years prior, his sister’s child was killed in a brutal shooting. As
fate seems bent on shattering the walls, mother Mae valiantly attempts to
keep house. *Winner of the 2003 Weissberger Award
Workshops and Readings: Manhattan Theatre Club; O’Neill Playwrights
Conference; Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Williamstown Theatre festival.
THE BREAD OF WINTER
Full-length Drama
3M, 2W (2 Boys)
Multiple Sets
A young fatherless boy, estranged from his mother and caught in a brutal
relationship with his older brother, has developed an intense attachment
to the family’s housekeeper. The boy’s relationship with his brother is
played against the housekeeper’s loveless relationship with her mother,
and also her romantic affair with a troubled man. The characters, each
seeking solace and companionship, begin to collide with each other in an
escalating game of desperation and violence. This desperation is amplified
by ecological breakdown: toxic air, acid rain, and a strange solar
phenomenon that leaves the characters, literally, struggling in the
darkness.
2002 Helen Merrill Award; 1998 Princess Grace Fellowship. Workshops and
Readings: O’Neill Playwrights Conference; The Play Company, NYC; Bay Area
Playwrights Festival.
THE EVICTION
Full-length Drama
2M, 3 Puppets
Unit Set
The night before he is to be evicted from his apartment, a troubled man
reviews his options: homeless before, it appears he is once again destined
for the street. As the man incessantly talks to himself, we are introduced
to the mysterious character of the reader—who, as he reads from a book,
seems to be controlling the man’s thoughts and actions. As the man slowly
resists the text, the two characters begin to clash in a surreal battle of
fate versus free will.
“…lyrical and funny, sad and disturbing.” —The Oakland Tribune
“A stunning piece of theatre.” —Contra Costa Times
World Premiere at Magic Theatre, CA; Winner of Roger L. Stevens Award
from The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays.
MARGO AND ZELDA
Full-length Drama
2M, 4W (2 Girls)
Multiple Sets
A look into the relationship between Josef Mengele, notorious Nazi doctor,
and two young girls—identical twins selected for special research at
Auschwitz. The play moves from Auschwitz in the 1940’s to the girls’ lives
after the Liberation. One sister’s descent into madness is juxtaposed with
scenes from Dr. Mengele’s later life as an exile in South America.
Ultimately, the play seeks to examine the mysterious processes of
memory—how historical truth is reinterpreted by the more powerful, yet
undependable, narration of the heart.
A BOOK OF HARSH GEOMETRY
Full-length One Act (Solo piece)
1M
Unit Set
Tracing a young man’s journey from childhood to adult confinement in a
state psychiatric hospital, the play examines schizophrenia as a spiritual
quest. Central to the work is the protagonist’s attempt to solve certain
mathematical calculations that he believes will enable children to fly.
The attempt becomes a frantic one in the face of toxic medications that
blunt his intellect.
“Brilliant…it’s like levitation. Lodato’s impressive A Book of Harsh
Geometry simply should not be missed.” —The Tucson Weekly
“If you’re willing to go along for the fantastic ride, it just might
expand your mind, heart, and soul.” —The Arizona Daily Star
World Premiere: a.k.a. Theatre, AZ; Institute for Studies in the Arts
(Arizona State University).
HOUSE OF TRICKS
Full-length Drama (Solo piece)
1M
Unit Set
An exploration of male prostitution and the complex dynamics of Father/Son
mythology. Fleeing the home where he has killed his abusive father, a
young man escapes to a new city where his life as a street hustler begins.
Tales of sex for money are played out against the ever-present ghost of
the father.
“…simply the most powerful piece of theatre I’ve seen in years.” —The
Tucson Weekly
World premiere: a.k.a. Theatre, AZ; Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati.
*Robert Chesley Award
THE WOMAN WHO AMUSES HERSELF
Full-length Comic-Drama
6M, 5W (Doubling); or Solo (1M)
Multiple Locations
A play based on a curious historical incident. In 1911, an Italian
housepainter residing in France, steals the “Mona Lisa” from the Louvre—then
lives with the painting for two and a half years in a Parisian garret.
Through a series of monologues, the play imagines the thief’s life from
his years in the garret to his later life in Italy.
In addition to the protagonist, ten other characters arrive to comment on
the action. The line-up ranges from a 15th-century Italian monk to modern
art-trickster, Marcel Duchamp.
“… paints a beautiful picture of a man who loved the “Mona Lisa”-
perhaps a bit too much… simply unforgettable.” –The Roanoke Times
2002 Mill Mountain New Play Competition Winner; World Premiere: Mill
Mountain Theatre (2003).
LITTLE
Full-length Drama
4M,2W (1 Boy)
Unit Set, Multiple Locations
A woman who has assisted in her adult son's suicide is experiencing severe
emotional repercussions. In an attempt to come to terms with what she had
done, she voluntarily checks herself into a mental health facility. Here,
the line between the actual and the hallucinatory becomes blurred—the
woman must
struggle to find her way back to sanity.
BYE BYE
Ten-minute Comic-Drama
2M
Unit Set
Homeless and living along the bank of a river, Baby and Henry survive on
what floats by from the city upstream. The two men have traveled
together a long time, but it’s a tough road, where even a square of
chocolate can test the limits of friendship.
Reading: Primary Stages
RAMI AND ZED
Ten-minute Drama
2M
Unit Set
Two boys skip school to play in the war zone. Armed with slingshots,
they hide in a ditch and shoot stones at the tanks. An absurd and
violent world, where children want to be martyrs when they grow up