​​​​​ANTHONY E. GALLO
agallo2368@verizon.net     202 544 6973


Eugenio

          by

anthony e. gallo


CHARACTERS:  Five Men, Two Women, Four minor roles


1943: This two-act drama examines forgiveness amidst three conversions. Rome's aloof and scholarly Chief Rabbi Zolli loses faith following the apparent slaughter of his Polish family during the Holocaust. He receives asylum in the Vatican, where he comes to appreciate Jesus as God suffering for humanity. The Rabbi re-finds faith and converts to Roman Catholicism. This is seen as a betrayal of his spiritual duty and a defection to the age-old enemy. Was his conversion one of conviction or merely gratitude? What does he demand at his baptism that eventually removes a major symbol of discrimination? Like Jonah, in choosing a Christian path to God, the Rabbi is faced with forgiving the slaughtering enemy. How will he meet the challenge? Then the next two conversions are as shocking as the first.


PRODUCTION HISTORY

  1. 2015   Dramatists Guild of America, New York City
  2. 2014    Arlington Mill Stage
  3. 2014   Villa Rosa Stage
  4. 2014, Greenbelt Arts Center (full production)
  5. 2013, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
  6. 2013, Knollwood Center
  7. 2013, Lincolnia Center
  8. 2011, Seventh Street Playhouse
  9. 2008 Dorothy Strelsin Theatre, NYC (full production)
  10. 2008 Universalist Stage, Washington, DC (full production)
  11. 2006   CAC Theatre Reading
  12. 2006 Seventh Street Playhouse Staged Reading
  13. 2004 Playwrights Forum   Public Staged Reading
  14. 2003 Cosmos Theatre Public Stage Reading
  15.  2002 Seventh Street Playhouse Reading
  16. Years 2000-2003 PF   Workshop  
  17. June 2001 Playwrights Forum Staged Reading


PUBLICATION HISTORY

Eugenio, A Play in Two Acts, Amazon, 2012

Eight Plays by Anthony E. Gallo, Browns Court Publishing Company  July 2008,

Eugenio, August 2006 Browns Court Publishing Publication

 


COMMENTARIES

“Eugenio” Explores WWII and Forgiveness at GAC Carol Griffith  Greenbelt News Review  July2014 How do one’s religious beliefs  stand up in the atrocities of war? Is forgiveness really possible? Such questions are the themes of the thoroughly engrossing “Eugenio,” now playing at the Greenbelt Arts Center, the latest work by playwright Anthony Gallo. Gallo, the director of the Seventh Street Playhouse and author of over a dozen plays, tackles big issues with intelligence and much talent. His recent productions include a Bible-based trilogy; “Vandergrift!” which dealt with union-organizing during the Gilded Age; and “Lincoln and God” which treated our 16th president’s spirituality as he wrestled with the challenges of abolishing slavery while preserving the Union. “Eugenio,” like many of Gallo’s other plays, has been staged at the Kennedy Center and at several New York venues.
 Set in Italy in 1943 as the Nazis begin to occupy Rome, the city’s Chief Rabbi, Israel Zolli,(excellently played by Steve Rosenthal) refuses to believe that the Nazis plan to harm the Jews. Finally convinced of the impending Holocaust by his Roman Catholic allies Monsignor Hilary and Cardinal Maglione (James McDaniel and BruceSmith, respectively, in wonderful performances) and by encounters with the Nazi commanding officer, Colonel Schmitt (ably played by co-director David Weaver), Zolli seeks asylum in the Vatican. Ultimately, after much soul searching, he is called to convert to Roman Catholicism, causing much dismay and confusion. Every major character, including Zolli’s housekeeper Rosina (convincingly playedby co-director Shirl Weaver); SisterAngelina, a courageous nun who hid Jews from theNazis (Trix Whitehall, in a commanding performance); and one of Zolli’s congregants, Alberto Anso (excellently played by George Spencer), has to decide if and how to forgive their sometimes horrific losses from the war. Their struggles are well-drawn, sympathetic and often surprising, and with this theme “Eugenio” succeeds on an emotional level. It is powerful entertainment. “Eugenio” will play on Friday and Saturday, July 25 and 26, at 8 p.m. and on Sunday, July 27 at 2 p.m. way,


SEPTEMBER 1, 2013

Tony, I was so happy to be able to attend the reading yesterday, and to celebrate this second career that you are enjoying. Spectacular to besure. The theme is arresting, the dialog believable and the acting quite
good, in particular Zolli and Sister Angelina.I was particularly interested in the period for two reasons. In the late
50s I took my Masters at an arts school in Florence, the Pius XLL. Institute. Myron Taylor, the steel magnate, had been Ambassador to the
Vatican under President Roosevelt. On leaving his post he left his 15th
Century villa in the hills above Florence (every stick of furniture
intact) to the Vatican as a school for the arts. Because of these close
ties to Pius XLL the students went to Rome each 8th of December and had a
private audience in the Pope's study! I still have pictures of the event.

Another fact. I had a kind of relative, Frank McCool ,a Jesuit priest and
well known biblical scholar, who received his doctorate in
Aramaic-Caldaic in the 40s in Rome and he had studied with your self same
Rabbi. I had never heard that Rabbi Zolli converted however

The questions you raised in the play remain. Zolli certainly was a great
intellectual and scholar, and certainly remained alive because the
Vatican offered sanctuary, but did he convert out of gratitude? You also
did much to cleanse the memory of Pius with respect to the Jews. He
certainly has been villified because of inaction. Maybe he did not do
enough as history judges but he did not stand idly by. As you may have
gathered, I am a Roman Catholic, and these matters have been argued     
extensively and I retain a great interest in them.

(Did I see a wedding ring? Did you marry the lady you met dancing and
then went to Europe with?)

Warmest wishes for your continued success. I love hearing of it.

Mary Carter