Italian American Playwrights Series: “The Rules” by Domenick Scudera

The Italian American Playwrights Series aims to spotlight authentic Italian American voices and stories that reflect the diverse experiences, heritage, and cultural intersections of the Italian American community. Five selected plays are given a public reading at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU and at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute.

The Rules by Domenick Scudera is a sharp, funny, and heartfelt drama about two estranged brothers–one a Long Island mechanic, the other a successful drag performer–reunited for their mother’s funeral. Their car ride home becomes a reckoning with tradition, masculinity, and unconditional love.

Domenick Scudera is a playwright, director, and performer based in Philadelphia. A professor of theater at Ursinus College, he has written numerous plays produced across the United States. His work often explores queerness, family, and identity. Scudera was born and raised in Massapequa, NY, to Sicilian and Barese parents.

The reading is directed by Emma Denson and will be followed by a discussion with the playwright. Organizers: Kairos Italy Theater, Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU, and the Calandra Italian American Institute. The series is supported in part by UNICO-Brookhaven.

*EVENT CANCELLED* Marianne Leone reads from Christina the Astonishing: A Novel (Akashic Books, 2025)

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED

This novel is told from the perspective of the irrepressible yet lonely Christina, an Italian American teen in 1960s Catholic Boston. In the course of searching for a way out of her messy milieu, she discovers the never-canonized St. Christina the Astonishing, who preferred birds to people, and immediately recognizes a personal lodestar. If only she could make her eleventh-grade teacher Sister Coronada see that Christina craves the kind of attention holy martyrs enjoy and deserves a better future than the conventional one that parents Joe and Rita Falcone have mapped out for her.

“As hilarious as David Sedaris and mental in the best possible way, Christina has just become my higher power.”
—Jennifer Belle, author of Swanna in Love

Discussion led by Siân Gibby, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College, CUNY.