My Italy Story and Long Gone Daddy: Two Plays

MY ITALY STORY – Spurred by visits from his grandmother’s ghost and by pleas from his cousin Louie to help get the family back together, Thomas DaGato quits his job as a New York account executive, and travels to the tiny Italian village of his ancestors – Vallata. It’s not until he comes home, however, that he discovers a secret that unlocks his past. MY ITALY STORY originally opened Off-Broadway at the 47th Street Theatre, and was nominated for the Gay Talese Literary Prize. LONG GONE DADDY is the follow-up to Gallo’s critically acclaimed Off-Broadway solo play My Italy Story (“…a compelling page turner.”— New York Times). Checking-in with his alter-ego, Thomas DaGato – LONG GONE DADDY chronicles the comic misadventures of becoming a stay-at-home father. From Bruce Springsteen concerts to OBGYN appointments to the Hoboken playgrounds and back again, Gallo’s semi-autobiographical play also wrestles with the memory of his own Dad, a former fireman, and the existential question, “When does a father earn the right to be called Dad?”