By Rachel Kalina
The recent Baldwin High School graduate writes plays in his spare time at college and he has already produced one at the Baldwin Library last year, "Time and Tides." Gandiello's next debut will be "Sol and Solene" at the library on August 10. He said for as long as he can remember he's been inspired by movies and writing scripts in his head.
"It's just always been there," Gandiello said. "I'm always taking little bits of conversation I have during the day, or things I see people go through, and I create stories in my head. I'm very interested in highlighting the stories we go through because people live them and I see them play out."
Another source of inspiration and support for Gandiello's theatrical passion has been his family. He said he recalls watching many movies as a child with his parents and older brother, which were thoroughly analyzed afterwards.
"Watching a movie was a family thing. We wouldn't just watch it and go to sleep. We would watch a movie and then talk about it. I remember my parents taking me to see movies all the time and then talking about it on the car ride home," he said, adding that he grew to love this type of storytelling over the years.
It wasn't until his sophomore year of high school that a favorite teacher convinced him to audition for a play, and Gandiello tried flexing his acting muscles.
"That made me realize I could apply that love for creating stories for the theater," he said.
Since then, Gandiello has also acted in two plays at Ithaca and has been working on writing his own, such as the upcoming "Sol and Solene," which took him four months to complete.
"In a broad sense, it's about considering our romantic futures," Gandiello explained. "When a person is with somebody, do they consider the fact that it won't last, or think the present is good, so stick with it?"
To emphasize his theme of pondering the future, Gandiello came up with the idea of a store that creates simulated dreams for its patrons. A married couple goes to this place, and the wife purchases a dream about an ex lover, which leads to tension and complications in the play. Gandiello said part of the play takes place within the dream, and the rest occurs in the "real world" as the married couple deals with the dream's implications.
Gandiello said this futuristic play was based on a relationship he had in college, where he was considering the fact that he would be separated from his partner if one of them studied abroad or spent the summer in different places. He wished for a video displaying the relationship's future outcome so he could feel more secure in it.
As "Sol and Solene" focuses on serious relationships and romantic issues, it's recommended for those in their late teens to adulthood.
The play is a prime example of where Gandiello obtains inspiration, which is in "the situations I see around me on a daily basis. People deal with things that are more extraordinary than they give themselves credit for. ... Whenever I see a friend, or a family member, or even myself go through something and come out on top, that's the most inspiring thing to me."
He said writing about everyday obstacles and watching his characters overcome them can be therapeutic. Since Gandiello gets many of his ideas from real life, he tries to make his plays universally appealing.
"I can't say that I write for a specific audience because each idea comes from a different place," he said.
Writing is a rewarding process for Gandiello, who said his best moments are when his plays help someone to think about his or her life. He said he likes to stir up people's thoughts. One time, a peer at college even told Gandiello his play had moved him to work out a tense relationship. Perhaps this ability to communicate to others through his plays is also why Gandiello wants to be a drama therapist, and teach improvisational acting in prisons and rehabilitation centers upon graduation.
He's now working on a play that gets the audience involved. Gandiello said that while some plays he writes consume him from start to finish, others take longer to write, depending on how hard they "hit" him. Among the many future plays he plans to write, Gandiello said he would like to see one of his scripts reach a wider audience on the big screen.
"The way the media is now," he said, "[a story] gets out and there is so much more, so many more people can see it. Theater is always going to be my first love, but I would love to see one of my scripts make it to a film festival."
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