George Sapio is an award-winning playwright, director, dramaturg, festival producer and actor based in Ithaca, NY. His play Oatmeal and a Cigarette is published by Broadway Play Publishing. Learn about these and his other plays on the New Play Exchange.
He was the founder and producer/artistic director of the Ithaca Fringe Festival (2014-2017). He also hosts Onstage/Offstage, a radio show/podcast now in its tenth year featuring interviews with theatre professionals from around the worls and readings of 10-minute plays. His book Workshopping the New Play: A Guide for Playwrights, Directors, and Dramaturgs, published in 2017 by Hal Leonard/Applause Books, is available at your local independent bookstore (and the usual online places).
He received his MFA in creative writing/playwriting from Goddard College. He is also a photojournalist. His coauthored book, Collateral Damage, features his pictures from two trips to Iraq in 2003.
Plays
(Mystery/drama. Two acts, 130 minutes)
Winner of the 2001 Mildred and Albert Panowski Award.
Documentary filmmaker Marcus "Bobno" Bobnowski and his assistant Maddie journey to New Orleans to film the right-to-die case of a woman who's been comatose for twenty years following a tragic incident. Mysteries and revelations begin to surface, and between the ghosts that haunt the hotel and the secrets others have to hide, a lot more than the film is at stake.
(Comedic drama; full-length, 90 minutes)
Three sisters, one husband, one dead mother, and The Past, which refuses to stay there. Between cooking, secrets, misunderstandings, and years of sibling dynamics, is it possible to reach not just a detente, but an understanding?
1 Location. Some mild adult content.
(Drama. One act, 65 minutes)
CRITICS' PICK: 2008 Cincinnati Fringe
Three-year-old Billy leads a charmed life; he stays home all day, gets his diapers changed, sleeps in a crib, his mommy cooks his dinner every night, tells him nursery rhymes, and he gets to look out the window and color in his books all he wants. Except...Billy is actually thirty years old; he’s never been out of the apartment. His “mommy” is actually his older brother, who fills his head with terrifying nursery rhymes of everything outside. And the babysitter is a grad student. Her thesis topic is Billy. But she hasn’t mentioned that fact yet.
(Historical comedic drama. Two acts, 130 minutes)
A revisionist look at one of England's most notorious kings, packed with comedy, gambling ghosts, an overworked executioner, and sportscasted battles. Remaining as close to the historical facts as possible, Kynges Games chronicles the major events in Richard's life and offers a theory regarding one of England's major mysteries.
Successes
Ghosts selected winner of the 2001 Mildred and Albert Panowski Award (Northern Michigan University.
Oatmeal and a Cigarette voted Critics' Pick of the 2008 Cincinnati Fringe Festival
Reviews:
Cincinnati Conveyor: http://www.theconveyor.com/node/358
Cincinnati CityBeat: http://blogs.citybeat.com/fringe08/