dario fo.

Prize winning Italian playwright (centennary 1926–2026).

I met Dario in NYC in the early 1980’s at the Italian Institute on Park Av. in Manhattan. Having seen a dreary production of his Feminist Plays written w/Franca Rame, FO was mobbed by people for the free food, but he was quite tall and stood out above the crowd.

There was a Pepsico Summer event in Purchase, NY starring Estelle Parsons that seemed at sea, in a nebulous production.

Later I inquired about the rights, I was told they were not available. Subsequently, I received an invoice from his agent, a year or so later. We wrote back and informed them that we never did them.

PART II

Instead, we had chosen to produce Sophocles’ THE WOMEN OF TRACHIS in the Michael Jameson edition Off-Broadway. We later won Awards on FilmFreeway as a short film with Ellen Lanese, designed by Jennifer Long under my direction. The short film was entitled DEATH OF HERCULES and shown in Paris just before the pandemic.

FO was a no go for us at that point here in America.