About Eugene M. Grygo
Eugene Grygo's Story: It All Began with a Gay Musical
My first real introduction to arts and entertainment was a paid assignment in 1991 to write the original book for a musical-comedy-melodrama, dubbed Flaming Saddles: A Gay Cowboy Melodrama, a fundraising effort for the Silicon Valley Gay Men’s Chorus of San Jose, based in San Jose, Calif.
I was asked to create characters, a plot, and dialogue around the songs for the fundraising show. The songs were standards from the Great American Songbook with a few, queer twists. We had a very successful two-month run, and a year later I wrote the book for another fundraiser musical.
It was a great start to a wonderful journey in the theater that continues to the present.
Among my latest efforts are television projects, the books and lyrics for two original musicals, scripts for a sci-fi-horror movie and a thriller, and the script for a web series. I’m also honing my skills as a songwriter and a singer.
So, for 40 years, I have worked in theater, independent movies, comedy, fiction and nonfiction publishing, live concerts and events, and business and trade journalism. As for my professional background and experience, I have two four-year degrees (print journalism and history) from The Pennsylvania State University. In addition to my artistic pursuits, I have been a working journalist since 1983.
I was also a long-time member of the playwriting lab of Curt Dempster, the late artistic director and co-founder of the Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) in New York, N.Y. Curt handpicked the members of this amazing group of writers and the lessons we learned will last for a lifetime. Curt was a leading member of the Off-Broadway movement that guided American theater toward new and powerful directions.
I am also a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, and the nonprofit industry association Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU).
My Short Plays (in alphabetical order)
Blithe Séance
This comedy-drama is the story of Theo who lives in a haunted home that he needs to sell before he can leave Boston for the Dotcom revolution of the late 1990’s. To evict the less-than-friendly ghost, Theo has a séance that includes his family, friends, and outré psychic-medium Jasper who identifies the ghost as Rupert, who was an old roommate of Theo's. The revelation kicks off an emotional rollercoaster for all involved. The play had a script-in-hand development production in November 2019 via The Little Victory Theatre on Staten Island, N.Y. There was also a reading via The Medicine Show Theatre Ensemble in New York, N.Y. in August 2018. “Blithe Séance” was also part of a festival produced by SPF/Players Theatre, Oct. 5 to Oct. 8, 2023 at the Steve & Marie Sgouros Black Box Theatre in the West Village of Manhattan. It was produced a second time that month via the “Here, Between and Beyond” production of the Rising Sun Performance Company as part of the Days of the Dead Festival via FRIGID NYC, at the East Village-based Kraine Theatre.
Brona and Alberto
This 10-minute comedy about two members of a dating survivors’ group that have their first date before Brona leaves town forever has had two productions. In March and April 2010, the play had a successful run in the “Really Short Play Festival” of the Manhattan Repertory Theatre in New York, N.Y. The play had its first production in New York via the Initial Stages troupe of the Workshop Theater in September 2002.
The Door to Home
This is a 30-minute drama (with lots of comedy) that is “a touching look at the bond between an aging woman and her grown son,” according to a reviewer for The Queens Chronicle, an award-winning weekly newspaper serving the NYC borough of Queens. The play had its first production via the Variations Theatre Group’s Unchained Theatre Festival in Long Island City, N.Y. during the month of June 2015.
Graduation
This is a 10-minute drama about Lucas, a young man who has one last chance to start a new life with his college roommate, Aaron, who is denying the mutual love that will profoundly change their lives. This piece has had four productions in New York City: most recently at The Wild Project, Dec. 10, 2019, as part of The International Human Rights Arts Festival; in September 2017, it was included in a special night of short plays that was part of the Summerfest theater festival; as a finalist in the 10-minute play contest of the Fresh Fruit Festival with performances in May and July 2011; and it was a semi-finalist in The Strawberry Festival of August 2006. The script was included in a Strawberry Festival anthology, published in 2007. Here’s a link to the play collection: http://bit.ly/1Qrj8PT and a link to stills from the 2006 production via Vimeo: http://bit.ly/2vlGXrh The play is being developed into a full-length musical with composer Robert Perretti.
Priscilla
This is an experimental, short monologue developed during a playwrights’ workshop with Curt Dempster, the late director and co-founder of The Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST). It was part of a special production at the EST Lexington Center in August 2002, in Lexington, N.Y.
Reg & Jared
My short play debuted in a festival sponsored by The Equity Library Theater & the Woodside Players Summer Play Festival Part Three on Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024 at Queens Library Astoria. We got covered by The Astoria Post: https://shorturl.at/rbFEX and The Queens Chronicle: https://shorturl.at/kzhjB The play focuses on a major turning point in Reg and Jared’s long-term relationship. It takes place in a painter’s studio in Central Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the Spring of 1990. The duo is coming to grips with new realities that will change their lives forever.
Self-Storage
This is the story of Paula and Benny who have found a unique Eden in a self-storage unit. Their paradise is threatened when Paula wants to leave and rejoin the world with Benny. Benny is torn between his love for Paula and a tragedy that confines him. In 2016, I had a special reading of this 30-minute drama at The Medicine Show Theatre Ensemble in New York, N.Y. In July 2022, this play had a very successful in-person run at The Chain Theatre via a play festival in NYC. The play was also streamed to viewers via the Eventive platform. You can watch "Self-Storage" for free on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xoMf8t9LVXw or on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/772091692
A Session to Remember
This 30-minute comedy focuses on Wynn, a man in his thirties who needs an emergency therapy session with Sanura, an extraordinary therapist. It's a last-ditch attempt to have the breakthrough he needs to ask his girlfriend to marry him. He knows his unorthodox therapist will go to great lengths to help him succeed. What he doesn’t know is what his therapist truly feels about him. The piece won Best Play, Best Actress, Best Actor and tied for Audience Favorite via the Variations Theatre Group’s initial Unchained Theatre Festival, held June 2013 in a lovely black box theater on Long Island City, N.Y. The play was also was a semi-finalist in the The Network’s One-Act Festival, inaugurated in March 2009.
My Musicals, Full-Length Plays & Screenplays (in alphabetical order)
Portrait of the Birthday Boy
This is a full-length drama about four gay men in Boston who meet for a pivotal Labor Day weekend in 1989 to celebrate the main character Owen turning 30. The birthday boy has one last chance for true love with his guest Max who wants Owen to deal with a tragic loss. Owen's other friends Reg and Jared — a longtime couple — must deal with some devastating news. The play had a self-produced concert reading at The Directors Studio, November 2009 in New York City. Nearly a decade before, the piece had a staged reading at The Leslie-Loman Gay Art Foundation, April 2000, New York City.
Flaming Saddles: A Gay Cowboy Melodrama
I created the original book for a musical-comedy-melodrama that was produced by the Silicon Valley Gay Men’s Chorus. The songs for the show are standards from the American songbook with a few, queer twists. It was my first paid assignment ever in theater. There was a full production in March and April 1991.
Franklin & Vicky
This is a full-length thriller set in the early 1990's when the truly independent filmmaking movement got its start in the U.S. The main character, a tempermental actor, Franklin, finds the love of his life Vicky, a married woman. To make matters worse, he learns that Vicky is being investigated by the FBI becasue her husband may have links to the mafia. Vicky’s husband is also the producer of the movie that might save Franklin’s career. The movie, a well-made horror flick, is also the directorial debut for Franklin's younger brother Liam. Franklin quickly faces the most eventful choice of his life. The script had developmental readings at EST’s OctoberFest 2009 festival of new work, and via a night of special reading via The Medicine Show Theatre Ensemble in New York, N.Y. in August 2018. The script, which could work on the stage, has also been adapted into a full-length screenplay.
Heels
Things had gone so well with Flaming Saddles in 1991 that the Silicon Valley Gay Men’s Chorus asked me to write another musical-comedy-melodrama peppered with great standards. This time the story is about mobsters, mascara, hidden identities and a good pair of heels. “Heels” had a full production in March and April 1992, and raised a lot of money for the chorus and local charities.
Leonardo in Flight
This is a full-length musical about a turning point in Leonardo Da Vinci’s life when he must find a new benefactor or he will never be able to pursue and produce the masterpieces and inventions that will define his life and earn him a place in history as one of the greatest minds of the human race. I am writing (and rewriting) the book while composer Dr. Ariel Teitel is working on the music. We had a concert reading of the first major draft of the piece on Nov. 7, 2013 in New York City. The piece is still under development and will see the light of day.
Saddlesore!
In 1996, using cowboys as my inspiration, I wrote a full-length, gay farce about a drag queen ghostess who must fix a failing gay couple’s marriage so that she can get into heaven. The ghostess uses virtual reality and pulls a few supernatural strings to send the couple back to “Poke City” where they can work out their problems via a variety of scenarios. The ghostess must get them back together in time for her last chance to be elevated to heaven. I developed the piece while in a workshop with Blue Moon Playwrights in Boston. We had a workshop production in Boston in January 1996. This visionary piece will have a new life as a country-rock, cutting-edge musical.
Links to Coverage, Podcasts & More about Grygo's Productions
Theater Reviews: 'Here, Between, and Beyond' | Blogcritics / Jon Sobel / October 24, 2023
“The best of Here, Between, and Beyond, by rather a long shot, is Blithe Séance, an AIDS-era exploration by Eugene Grygo of love, death, and the occult. It’s the year 2000, and flamboyant New Orleans psychic Jasper visits the Boston home of Theo with Tarot cards and medium skills in hand. Theo seeks some kind of closure about his unrequited love for his friend and roommate Rupert, who died of AIDS three years before …” https://bit.ly/3TMGiJ0
Times Square Chronicles: Meet the Playwrights of Summerfest
"However, the economic recession of the early 1990’s meant that Grygo’s journalism opportunities in California were drying up and he would have to move back to Boston to pursue other sources of income. What didn’t change was that he was bitten by the theater bug... http://bit.ly/2vKUxSY
The Queens Chronicle
Thought-provoking plays, right in Queens’ backyard: " 'The Door to Home,' Eugene Grygo’s touching look at the bond between an aging woman and her grown son ... According to Grygo, a Pennsylvania native based in Astoria since 1999, his contribution is “pretty autobiographical,” with a character based on his mother and another an amalgam of his brother and himself. Like the son in the play, Grygo moved back into his mother’s home after being out of work. He wrote the basis for the play in 2006, but this is the play’s first production.
“I felt the audience was with them,” he said after the performance. “I would have wanted a few more laughs.” http://bit.ly/1InmpdI
Times Ledger
Astoria playwright Eugene Grygo’s piece, “The Door to Home,” also springs from a true-life event many summers ago. “It is autobiographical,” he said. Grygo’s play focuses on a young man about to embark on the next chapter of his life and his mother’s fears that this means a future of loneliness for her. In the summer of 1992, Grygo prepared to leave his home in Erie, Pa. for life in New York City. He had a very similar experience with his mother as he prepared for the move and used it for the basis of this play. “It is basically the last night they are together,” Grygo said. “It’s done as a mix of comedy and drama.” http://bit.ly/1FRwGNw
"Priscilla" is in "Mini Plays Review — An International Journal of Short Plays"
I am happy to report that my short play, “Priscilla, or the Carpenter’s Other Woman” was published in the inaugural edition of "Mini Plays Review — An International Journal of Short Plays." Here is a link to view the anthology online 
https://bit.ly/44hghoV My play is on pages 58 and 59 in the June 2023 edition. A hard copy version is also available.
I'm Featured in the "Whisper in the Wings Episode 253" of the Stage Whisper Podcast
I was featured in a THEATER PODCAST in October 2023, known as "Stage Whisper," and hosted by Andrew Cortes. It also features director and friend Rachael Langton: https://apple.co/46pvVjn We discuss an upcoming production and why we love theater. Thank you, Andrew, for a great interview!
THE EPISODE DESCRIPTION: "On the latest Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper, we welcomed director Rachael Langton and playwright Eugene Grygo. We had a wonderful conversation about their new show, "Blithe Sèance," the development of the show, and the upcoming festivals it will be performed in."