Frank J. Avella BIO
frankjavella@gmail.com 973-715-2356
Frank J. Avella is the recipient of a 2019 International Writer & Artists Retreat Residency at Arte Studio Ginestrelle in Assisi, Italy and a 2018 Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship.
LURED, his play about the Russia persecution of gays, was a semifinalist for the 2018 O’Neill Playwrights Conference and had its world premiere production at Theater for the New City in November, 2018 where it played to full houses and garnered critical acclaim. The play was featured in the OnStage! American Theater Festival in Rome, Italy in January 2019. LURED was chosen for the 2020 Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival which was canceled but the Fest invited the team back for 2021.
Upon completion in 2016, LURED was chosen...
Frank J. Avella BIO
frankjavella@gmail.com 973-715-2356
Frank J. Avella is the recipient of a 2019 International Writer & Artists Retreat Residency at Arte Studio Ginestrelle in Assisi, Italy and a 2018 Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship.
LURED, his play about the Russia persecution of gays, was a semifinalist for the 2018 O’Neill Playwrights Conference and had its world premiere production at Theater for the New City in November, 2018 where it played to full houses and garnered critical acclaim. The play was featured in the OnStage! American Theater Festival in Rome, Italy in January 2019. LURED was chosen for the 2020 Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival which was canceled but the Fest invited the team back for 2021.
Upon completion in 2016, LURED was chosen to play the Dream Up Festival at Theater for the New City (6 sold-out performances) as well as the 36th Annual William Inge Theater Festival in 2017. The play was a 2017 Cimientos IATI Theater Playwright semifinalist. Frank was awarded a 2018 Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation Grant for LURED. Visit Luredtheplay.com.
Frank received a 2015 Fellowship Award from the NJ State Council on the Arts for his play, CONSENT, which examines bullying and homophobia and was a 2019 semifinalist for the O’Neill. The play was awarded a 2016 Helene Wurlitzer Residency Grant & Chesley/Bumbalo Foundation Playwright Award. CONSENT was also a 2012 semifinalist for the O’Neill, a finalist for the 2015 New Works of Merit Playwriting Award, a semifinalist for the 2016 Road Theatre’s Summer Playwrights Festival, a semifinalist for the 2018 Hidden River Arts Playwriting Award and was workshopped at the Celebration Theatre in L.A., in October 2012. In 2013, CONSENT was selected for staged readings at the Identity Theater and Urban Stages in NYC. The play received honorable mention in the Stage Play category of the 85th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition (2016) and had staged readings at Abingdon Theatre Company and the Leslie-Lohman Museum (2016).
In January of 2017, CONSENT was chosen for the 27th Annual Fullerton College Playwrights Festival from over 500 submissions from all over the world. CONSENT was also given a staged reading in October of 2018 at SUNY New Paltz and a TNC Scratch Night in April 2019.
In 2020 CONSENT was selected as a semifinalist for the UP Theatre’s Renewal Reading Series.
The CONSENT screen adaptation won the Best LGBT Screenplay Award at the 2020 New Renaissance Film Festival in Amsterdam and took 2nd place (Honorable Mention) at the 2020 Venice Film Awards (Venice, Italy). The screenplay was a finalist for the 2020 Peachtree Village International Film Festival, the 2020 Page Turner Screenplay Genre Competition (Second Place), the 2020 Beyond the Curve International Film Festival (Paris, France) and the 2020 Flight Deck Film Festival (NYC). The script was a quarterfinalist for the 2019 Creative Screenwriting Screenplay Contest, received Honorable Mention in the Movie Script category for the 88th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition (2019), and was nominated for Best Feature Script in the 8th Edition of the Paris Play Film Festival (2020). CONSENT was a semi-finalist for the 2020 Austin Revolution Film Festival and the 2020 Fade-In Awards (Drama category) and has been selected for the 2020 Rome Independent Prisma Awards, the 2020 Los Angeles Motion Picture Festival (Drama) and the 2021 Love Wins Film Festival.
The LURED screen adaptation is a finalist (and Special Mention) for the 2020 London International Screenwriting Competition and the 2020 Beyond the Curve International Film Festival (Paris, France) as well as a semifinalist for the 2020 Fade-In Awards (Thriller category) and the 2020 Cyrus International Monthly Festival of Toronto. The screenplay was selected for the 2021 LGBTQ Unbordered International Film Festival, the 2020 Indo American International Festival of World Cinema (Mumbai) as well as the 2020 Rome Independent Prisma Awards and the 2020 Beyond the Curve International Film Festival (Paris, France).
His screenplay, SCREW THE COW, is a 2020 Best Screenplay Finalist/Nominee in the Best Dark Comedy Screenplay category for the Houston Comedy Film Festival, the Austin Comedy Film Festival and the Portland Comedy Film Festival as well as a Semi-Finalist for the 2020 Page Turner Screenplay Genre Competition (top 15 scripts). The script was also selected for the 2020 SoCal Film Awards, the 2020 Georgia Shorts Film Festival and the 2020 Los Angeles Motion Picture Festival.
Frank’s screenplay short, MULTITASKING, is a semifinalist for the 2020 Nevada City Film Festival.
VATICAN FALLS, a play set against the backdrop of the Catholic sex abuse scandal, was selected for the 2017 Planet Connections Festivity and Frank was nominated for Outstanding Playwriting. The play was a semifinalist for the 2014 Newborn Festival, received Special Mention at the 2013 O’Neill and has had numerous staged readings and workshops in New York, Cincinnati and Rome, Italy. IL VATICANO CADE, the Italian translation, was scheduled to world premiere in Rome on May 10, 2011 at Teatro Vascello but was cancelled the night before opening amidst great controversy and claims of death threats. The play has now had 7 world premiere cancelations in 3 different countries in the last decade.
Frank’s latest play, LOCKDOWN 2020, was given a live virtual presentation on the Theater for the New City Facebook Page in October of 2020 and can be seen on the TNC YouTube page.
Frank’s short play, CATAMITUS, about a film director accused of sexual misconduct, was accepted into the Emerging Artists Theatre New Works Series in October of 2018 and was staged at the Five and Dime Drama Collective in Eureka Springs, Arkansas in November of 2019 where it won 4 awards including Best Play.
An expanded version of CATAMITUS, titled GANYMEDE REVISITED which features three plays about sexual power including the newly finished, GANYMEDE, was to receive a workshop residency at The Tank in NYC in June 2020. Because of the pandemic, it has been postponed but an ambitious iteration of the piece was presented as part of CyberTank and included 3 separate incarnations of the 3 plays plus Coda with a total of 18 actors. This can all be seen on The Tank YouTube page.
A Virtual Performance of his play, GODFORSAKEN, specifically tailored for Zoom premiered at CyberTank in June of 2020. This can also be seen on The Tank YouTube page.
THE DEAD BOY, a one-character play about suicide, was chosen for the Taboo! Festival at Actors Workout Studio in North Hollywood, California, in January, 2020. A virtual version was done for TNC and can be seen on the Theater for the New City Facebook page.
Frank was commissioned to write an original audio play for the inaugural launch of “Fabler Files,” a collection of original short-form audio plays by Italian and American playwrights. His piece, FIG JAM was recorded in both Italian and English. It has since been adapted into a stage play as well as a short screenplay. The screenplay version of FIG JAM was a finalist for the 2020 Madras Independent Film Festival, the 2020 Venice Film Awards, the 2020 Hollywood Gold Awards and the 2020 New York Movie Awards. FIG JAM was also a semifinalist for the 2020 Filmmatic Short Screenplay Awards in Los Angeles, the 2020 Phoenix International Short Film Festival and the 2020 Red Flight Pictures Screenplay Awards as well as a Quarterfinalist for the 2020 Page Turner Screenplay Genre Competition.
Frank’s play, FOR MAMMA was chosen for a Scratch Night at TNC in 2017 and was featured in 2017 Healing Voices Onstage: Caregivers Stories presented by Writers Theater of NJ.
Frank has written 19 full-length plays; 10 have been produced (7 in NYC). ORVILLE STATION, was one of three finalists for the 2014 NJ Playwrights Contest, a finalist for the 2015 12 Years Theater New Play Podcast Series (Pittsburgh) and a finalist (final round) for the 2014 Kitchen Dog Theatre New Works Festival (Dallas) and has been presented in Los Angeles at the Echo Theater and in NYC at the Dramatists Guild via the Friday Night Footlights Series. ORVILLE STATION was given a live virtual presentation on the Theater for the New City Facebook Page in April of 2020 and can be seen on the TNC YouTube page.
ORVILLE STATION has been published in the United Kingdom by Lazy Bee Scripts: http://www.lazybeescripts.co.uk/Scripts/script.aspx?iSS=2503
Frank has also written NEMESIS, MAD (B Street Theatre New Comedies Festival semifinalist, 2019), LESS THAN 2 DEGREES, the Hollywood satire, SCREW THE COW as well as many one-acts & monologues. He has adapted his plays CONSENT, SCREW THE COW and UNHINGING for the screen and penned an original screenplay, 3 OF 10.
Frank wrote the book for BLUEBIRDS IN MY BELFRY, a musical about Hollywood star Betty Hutton, that bowed in Sanford, NC in January 2008 and sold out every performance.
Produced stage works include: GREENER, THE BUBBLE, IRIS, ABOUT CHRISTINE, LEXY, MICHAEL’S #1 FAN, 3 CAINS and UNHINGING.
Upon reviewing IRIS in 2005, the Cincinnati Post wrote: “Avella’s plays tend to send earthquakes through his audience's comfort zones.” Cincinnati Newswire: “IRIS is a powerful look at what we call a family, and what ethics govern what is considered acceptable in a private sexual relationship.” IRIS was updated in 2018 and received a staged reading at the Dramatists Guild.
Frank proudly served on the Advisory Board and Festival Committee for In Scena! Italian Theater Festival, produced by Kairos Italy Theater, in NYC in 2013 and 2014 and 2017.
He is a Certified Rotten Tomatoes Critic who writes for Edge Media Network and Awards Daily and is the East Coast Rep/Studio Liaison and Voting Member of GALECA—The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (Home of the DORIAN AWARDS for excellence in Film and Television)
Frank did his grad work at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is a current member of the Playground Experiment and is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.