Armory Square Playhouse, a playwrights’ group in Syracuse, hosted a staged reading of Automat: An Interpretation at Jazz Central on Feb. 13th, 2011. Here is the press release announcing the event.

ARMORY SQUARE PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS STAGED READINGS OF TWO NEW SHORT PLAYS BY LOCAL PLAYWRIGHTS KATHY KRAMER AND FRANCIS DICLEMENTE

Sunday, February 13 at 1:00. PLACE: Jazz Central. 441 E. Washington St., Syracuse.

Admission: $7.00 regular; $5.00 students and seniors.

THE PLAYS:

“Automat: An Interpretation”, a romantic dramedy, follows the plight of Martin Ramsey, an idealistic artist and night custodian, who has fallen in love with the female figure in Edward Hopper’s painting, Automat. Elements of magical realism bring the figure in the painting to life but the realization of a romance presents challenges not easily negotiated. The reading features David Baker, Ethan Howse, Rachel Torba Grage, Donna Stuccio, and Bob Fullenbaum.

“Hearts of Clover” tells the story of two elderly sisters, Ruthann and Maude, who live together in a small town in the 1950s. Their quiet life is turned upside down when their developmentally-disabled neighbor, Leon, faces a crisis and there is no one else to help. Long-buried secrets are brought to light, pitting neighbor against neighbor. The reading features Amy Doherty, Kathy Kramer, Donna Stuccio, and Peter Moller.

DATE AND TIME: Sunday Feb. 13 at 1:00.

PLACE: Jazz Central. 441 E. Washington St., Syracuse.

Tickets: $7.00 regular; $5.00 for students and seniors

Here is a review of a 2008 Jackson Pollock exhibit at the Everson Museum in Syracuse.

http://bit.ly/ftkzAO

This is a nostalgic look at my Pentax K1000 film camera, presented as a photo essay that was published in The Writer’s Eye Magazine.

http://www.thewriterseye.com/archives/we-012-winter-2010.pdf

I can be contacted at ffdhold@yahoo.com.

I have contributed two pieces to PrimerMagazine.com, an online magazine for men in their 20s. Fortunately, the editors do not discriminate against writers who are about 20 years beyond the site’s target audience. The samples follow.

http://www.primermagazine.com/2008/spend/5-must-try-wines-under-20

http://www.primermagazine.com/2009/live/attaining-happiness

Automat: An Interpretation is a short screenplay based on Edward Hopper’s 1927 painting, Automat. The script was one of four winners at the winter 2009 WILDsound short screenplay contest in Toronto. It placed second in the short screenplay competition at the 2010 Las Vegas Film Festival.

I adapted the piece into a short play that was published in the Spring 2010 issue of A cappella Zoo, a web and print literary journal. The link follows.

Automat short play

Francis DiClemente is a writer, photographer and video producer in Syracuse, New York.

He is the author of Outskirts of Intimacy, a poetry chapbook published by Flutter Press.  His writing has also appeared in A cappella Zoo, Midwest Literary Magazine, Arts & Opinion, The Writer’s Eye Magazine, Stone Canoe, PrimerMagazine.com and the book Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak (Harper Perennial, 2009).

His photographs have been exhibited in small galleries in upstate New York and in the Paper Heart Gallery in Phoenix, Arizona.  His artwork has also appeared in some literary magazines, including Moon Milk Review and Fifth Wednesday.

He received a B.A. in communications/journalism from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York and an M.A. in film/video from American University in Washington, DC.  He works as a video producer at Syracuse University.

Some photos of mine were featured in the October issue of Moon Milk Review, an online literary magazine. Here is the link: http://www.moonmilkreview.com/2010/10/06/oct-gallery-francis-diclemente/