BLOOD TYPE: RAGU
by Frank Ingrasciotta
Hilarious yet tender, this coming-of-age story focuses on narrator and central character Frank, opening the play using food-as-metaphor in recounting his immigrant parents’ journey from Sicily to Brooklyn. Young Frank and siblings Phil and Jennie are unfortunate witnesses to the volatile relationship between their overworked father Gaspare and domineering mother Maria. Years of volatility in her explosive marriage, plus the struggle of finding footing in a new country, take a mental-emotional toll on Maria. In the summer of 1966, she returns to Sicily with 7 year-old Frank in tow. There, Frank is exposed to the land’s rustic culture. He meets his colorful relatives, experiences death for the first time plus the histrionics that ensue, all leave an indelible imprint on his young psyche. Back in Brooklyn, Frank quickly becomes the buffer, nimbly maneuvering between his warring parents. Now, wanting to claim his own manhood and identity, he dances through the disco era eventually landing in a laugh-out-loud visit to a Nevada brothel. After his father’s sudden death, Maria takes emotional stranglehold of Frank’s life. He learns release the “husband role”, finally creating a healthy mother-son relationship. Frank eventually meets Teresa, also a child of Sicilian parents. They marry and honeymoon in Sicily where, after 29 years, Frank reconnects with his family. Compassion and forgiveness ultimately bring healing to his parents’ story.
- Cast Size: 1M
- Running Time: 90+ minutes
- Royalty Rate: $75 per performance
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About the Playwright
FRANK INGRASCIOTTA (writer/performer) Acting: Original Off-Broadway production of Godspell, Blood Type: RAGU, Senior Moments, Valley of the Dolls, Three Postcards, What Would Nora Ephron Say?, Dinner at 8,Edgar Degas in The Girl in the Blue Armchair, and the Pharaoh in Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Lincoln Center. TV: Five years as Rene Buchanan’s head maître d’ on One Life to Live, other recurring roles on The Guiding Light, All My Children, and The Equalizer. Film: Featured roles in the award-winning SAG films Figs for Italo and Brooklyn in July directed by Bob Celli. Directing: Three years as writer & producer for the NY Cable Follies, a live musical satire of the year’s events in the cable industry, performing to TV network CEOs and executives. Regionally and in NYC, Frank has directed numerous cabarets, corporate shows and theatre productions. Among them: Neil Berg’s musical The Life & Times of Fiona Gander, Miss Saigon, Chicago, West Side Story, Rumors, You Can’t Take It With You, Ordinary People, 12 Angry Men, andLend Me a Tenor. For the NYC Fire Department, he directed and choreographed firefighters in a benefit production of Guys & Dolls raising over $20,000 for the NY Burn Center.
Review Blood Type: RAGU.