Vision Disturbance - off-kilter, comedic, misfit romance
Two lost souls converge in Reading, PA: a Greek immigrant whose eyesight suffers from a grueling divorce, and the retina specialist who treats her.
“…a work with a deadpan face and a fluttering heart, “Vision Disturbance” certainly doesn’t make… [an] aggressive a lunge at the heartstrings. As Mondo says to Dr. Hull, responding to his earnest suggestion that listening to classical music might help her with her eye condition: “I don’t believe in fantasy-tale stories. I am reality period. Reality.” …that evocative passage shows Ms. Masciotti’s particular talent for making lyrical use of the limited vocabulary of someone struggling with English… “Vision Disturbance” is… a showcase for Ms. Masciotti’s gift for writing monologues for hapless people who achieve eloquence not despite, but because of, their awkwardness and uncertainty.” - The New York Times
Adult - awkward, funny, poignant, incisive
After many misguided efforts to stay afloat, a deadbeat dad makes a last-ditch effort to salvage his relationship with his estranged 18-year-old daughter.
“Masciotti treats her characters with a kindness and a patience that are usually accorded to only the very young or very old.” - The New York Times
Social Security - chilling, crackerjack, bitter comedy
June, a retired pretzel factory worker, finds herself deaf after forty years with machines, widowed, and stranded in the urban muck of Reading, PA with a yearning for ordinary human companionship that drives her further into danger.
“All subjects are given the same weight in June’s rushing river of words: the death of her husband, chocolate peanut butter Easter eggs, her most recent surgery, the virtues of Lysol and the dubious hygiene of the people next door… Masciotti mines the banalities of everyday chatter for heroic poetry.” - The New York Times
Raw Bacon from Poland - powerful, searing, emotionally explosive
For shoe salesman and aspiring personal trainer Dennis Toledo, a lifetime of trouble assumes a new intensity after a bad tour in Iraq when he finds himself perched on the edge of recovery with an all-consuming drive to win full custody of his six-year-old daughter.
“Let fly with the virtual confetti please … Masciotti’s distinctively awkward dialogue has never sounded more organic or revelatory of character… [her] script allows for aria-like moments from each member of the cast… But it is the language of… combustible Dennis that truly lights up the ashen world in which the play is set. He… imagines taking [his daughter] on vacation “to some part of the world that has little monkeys that don’t rip your face off.” Mr. Perez packs a multitude of feelings into that priceless description of a foreign land, from buoyant hope to a fearful awareness of the dangers lying in ambush everywhere.” - The New York Times
No Good Things Dwell in the Flesh - intimate, crisp, keen, delightful
A master Russian tailor struggles to convince her assistant to take over her business. When a deranged ex resurfaces, she is forced to reconsider what her legacy can be and make peace with what can’t be fixed, salvaged, or even known.
“…keen and unflashy… “No Good Things Dwell in the Flesh” is interested in what it means to lose a business that has quietly woven itself into the fabric of a neighborhood… Masciotti… is also characteristically drawn here to the richness of language.” - The New York Times
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