Review Fix Exclusive: Anthony J. Piccione Talks ‘What I Left Behind’

Review Fix chats with playwright Anthony J. Piccione, who discusses his upcoming production, “What I Left Behind.”

About the Production:

WHAT I LEFT BEHIND

January 25th @ 9:00 pm; January 26th @ 6:15 pm; January 28th @ 8:30 pm.
Hudson Guild Theatre, 441 West 26th Street, New York City
Tickets cost $23 and can be purchased up to one month prior to opening night by visiting www.newyorktheaterfestival.com/winterfest-festivals.

Prolific playwright, Anthony J. Piccione adds another thought-provoking drama to his eclectic canon of works. WHAT I LEFT BEHIND explores teen suicide, its impact, and repercussions it has on those left behind.
THE PLOT: The play focuses on a young high school student, in severe depression brought on by bullying at the hands of classmates, who shocks everyone by taking his own life. In a unique retelling of the events leading up to the decision, we see what – and who – brought him to make this life-ending move … and how they are forced to deal with it.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this project?

Anthony J. Piccione: Bullying and suicide have been issues that I’ve felt very strongly about, and have been personally relevant to me, since I was in high school. While I’m certainly in a much better state of mind today, I haven’t forgotten the memories I have of my life nearly a decade ago, nor am I blind to the fact that many people – not just young people, but people of all ages – are still dealing with much of what I once dealt with, when I was younger. Given my current role as a playwright, where I can actually draw some attention to the issues I care about through my art, I wanted to create something that captures the essence of what nearly happened to me, and what continues to actually happen to many others today.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Piccione: I’ve spoken before about my overall creative process and how it can vary, depending on what play I’m writing, in past interviews. For this particular play, I actually started writing it out as if I was writing a poem, rather than a play or monologue, which was largely inspired by own thought-process when I was in high school, back when I was dealing with suicidal thoughts, and written as if I myself had killed myself. Only then, did I go back and strip out any detailed specifics concerning my own past, while also adding extra scenes that make up the rest of the play’s plot. Then, through development as part of a playwriting class and independent study at my alma mater, Eastern Connecticut State University, I made several revisions that ultimately led it to being the play that’s being produced now. I don’t want to go into too much more detail than that, but if you see the play yourself, you’ll see what I’m talking about!

Review Fix: What makes this different or special?

Piccione: Well, aside from the basic premise of the play, people might notice that it’s a relatively abstract piece. If you were to read the original script, you’ll see that none of the characters have any specific names, most of them are gender-neutral, and even some of the plot specifics are relatively vague. That’s all completely on purpose. I did all that precisely because I wanted to make it as relatable to others, as possible. Even if you yourself aren’t dealing with bullying, mental illness, or suicidal thoughts, there’s still a very good chance that you know someone who has, or currently is. It’s a universal story, and I wanted to depict it by writing a short play that cuts to the core of what people are dealing with, while also preserving its universality.

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this process?

Piccione: The only thing I can think of, if I’m being honest, is that I’ve realized just how common my own teenage experience really is. That wasn’t always clear to me, when I was younger. As I said, much of me writing this play involved reflecting on my own past experiences, and thinking about what could have been, had I decided to go and take a different path. As I was editing it, I realized how this is something that literally anyone else out there could potentially be going through, and perhaps may even be quietly struggling with it, without anyone else even knowing. I’d like to think I’m giving some voice to those types of people who aren’t in the same position that I’m in, by putting up this work.

Review Fix: What are your ultimate goals for this production and for the future?

Piccione: I hope people will leave the theater after seeing my play, thinking about not just mental illness or teen suicide, but also the role that either they or people they know might be playing – knowingly or not – in fueling the decision-making that leads to such tragedies, and also how they can potentially help those who are dealing with mental illness, and thus prevent further suicides from occurring. As far as the future of this play is concerned, it’d be nice to see it published, at some point or another. My short comedy Ebol-A-Rama got published with Heuer Publishing last year, after getting produced by my alma mater in 2016, and I’d like to see more of my short or one-act plays get published in the future, including some more dramatic works, such as this one.

Review Fix: What do you think your audiences will enjoy the most?

Piccione: Well, this isn’t exactly a feel-good type of play, so I don’t know if “enjoy” is the right word or not. Having said that, as I indicated, I hope people will appreciate how this play directly tackles a real-world experience that so many people are going through. Only in recent years have we seen theatre, film and TV catch on to the very real issue of how teen suicide – and suicide, in general – has been on the rise since the beginning of this century, and I hope this play will help contribute to that conversation.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Piccione: I’ve been making preliminary plans for the future premiere of my full-length drama, A Therapy Session with Myself, which had a staged reading back in October at the Dramatists Guild Foundation. I’m hopeful that that’ll happen toward the end of this year or the early half of 2019. When it does happen, it’ll be my first full-length play to ever be produced, as all my other plays that have been fully produced thus far have been shorts or one-acts, so it’ll be exciting for me. I expect there to be at least one or two more shorter plays that I’ll get to present before then, though. I promise when those projects all come up, you’ll be hearing a lot more from me. In the meantime, feel free to go and visit www.anthonyjpiccione.com to stay up to date on all the projects that I’m working on!

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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