Playwright  ~  Poet  ~  Screenwriter  ~  Professor

Franco is a native of New York and currently divides his time between there and his home in Newport, Rhode Island. He has been educated, apprenticed, and worked both in Italy and New York City and is fluent in English and Italian. D'Alessandro has had fourteen international, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, regional and international productions of his work. His 2002 Off-Broadway hit “Roman Nights” explores the artist/muse paradigm, vis-à-vis the tumultuous and dramatic life of stage and screen legend Anna Magnani and her inspirational friendship with the great playwright, Tennessee Williams.  This play was a critical and commercial success in New York and in 2004 in London. It opened in Prague in May 2006 where it continues its sold-out tour for its fourth year.  The play will go on to be produced in Italy, Germany, Spain, Greece, Argentina, and Russia in 2010-2011 and there are plans to make “Roman Nights” into a feature film.

Franco's drama “The Shattering” has been work-shopped at The Cherry Lane Theatre with Olympia Dukakis and Christina Zorich and is seeking a 2010 premiere production.  This play examines the seemingly irreparable relationship between an immigrant mother and her American born daughter and the unspoken betrayals and sins of omission that have devastated their family.  A 2010 Showcase production is planned to premiere Maximum Happiness (featuring two new one act plays "Venice, Again" and "One Hundred Dollars Worth of Change").

"Finding Magdalene" is a haunting and funny new play, which has already won acclaim, and is part of an upcoming trilogy called The Museum Hours which examines the healing and transcendent powers of art, to include "Overlooking David" and "Lifting Antaeus". This had a reading workshop in New York in 2008 with Gregory Abels directing and will have European premieres in 2010.

Another new work entitled “White Elephants Dancing The Flamenco” is inspired by the work of Ernest Hemingway and will have a reading in 2009-2010. 

Franco's future stage and screen projects include "As It Is In Heaven" which chronicles the lives of St. Clare and St. Francis of Assisi.  Drawing from his proud Jesuit education, D'Alessandro is fashioning this dramatic and inspiring story of sacrifice as both a play and film. Franco has also been hired to adapt the acclaimed 1970 novel Out Of Place by Joseph Papaleo for screen.  A dramatic and darkly funny television series entitled “Honor Society” chronicles his experiences as a teacher in the inner-city’s most challenging schools.

By 2009 D'Alessandro's plays will have been translated into five languages and performed in six countries. In addition to his work as a writer, D'Alessandro holds a Master's Degree in English Education and teaches drama, theatrical text analysis, and creative writing in New York City schools, several universities, and in Rome during the summers.  He is an adjunct professor of theater at Salve Regina University and several other colleges in the U.S. and abroad and at The Actors Center of Roma, and The New York Italian Cultural Centers.   His poetry has been published in various literary journals and most recently has been featured three years in a row in Balancing The Tides: Art and Poetry Journal.  In September 2009 “Supplications: Immediate Poems of Loss and Love”, a book of poetry, will be published by Finishing Line Press.

Franco D’Alessandro is a 2001 & 2002 Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference Finalist, a 1998 & 2000 Edward F. Albee Foundation Residency recipient and 2000-2001 Cherry Lane Theatre Alternative Finalist and 2001 Princess Grace Award Nominee.  A 2000-2001 NEA/TCG Playwrights Nominee, a 1999 & 2000 Dorset Theater Colony Residency recipient and 2005 New Frontiers Playwright.  Mr. D’Alessandro graduated Summa Cum Laude form Fordham University’s Graduate School of Education (MAT English/Literature specialty) and he is a Member of The Dramatists Guild of America (1996) and The Cherry Lane Playwrights Alternative and Writer's Guild of America.

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