Actor/Playwright/Screenwriter Frank Terranova born Gerard Cantalupo on November 10, 1966 in Canarsie, Brooklyn is probably best known for his work with theater company Stir the Sauce Productions of which he is the sole founder. Starting out as a dancer, DJ and a thief (and not necessarily in that order) music has always been the center of Franks life. In the fall of 1983 he reluctantly excepted an invitation to the infamous Fun House Disco where he began to dream of becoming a record producer like his then idol John Jellybean Benetez. He can be seen as a dancer in the music videos of New Order and Planet Patrol. Record collecting became his obsession as he began classes at the Institute for Audio Research. It was at this time that Frank began working at various studios in NYC and assisted the recording of many dance music and hip hop artists. As the dance music climate changed, so did Franks taste and he left the music scene and returned to School. He graduated from Saint John's University in 1996 with a Bachelors in Sociology and Film Studies. After a brief stint on wall street Franks creative juices began to kick in again and he left this oppressive environment and quickly enrolled in the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute where he trained as an actor for 3 years. During this time Frank began to write plays out of his frustration with the lack of opportunities that existed for Italian American actors and casted right out of his classes. While working as a car service driver in Brooklyn, tragedy struck on 9/11. The radio went out on his car and he pulled over to the side of the road and began writing what would become his first play. Welcome to Canarsie opened in the spring of 2002 to a completely sold out run(something unheard of in the world of off off Broadway). Encouraged by this early success he followed up with Crossing Rockaway Parkway which starred Brooklyn Sudano of ABC TVs My Wife And Kids and french film actress Linh-Dan Pham. His next play: Ne'er Do Wells opened in the spring of 2003(just one year after his stage debut)and Denis Hamill of the New York Daily News called it: "A raw, bawdy, darkly comic Brooklyn Italian-American "Honeymooners" for the new century". In a full page article praising Franks work he went on to say: Terranova has real talent evoking the real Brooklyn without cheap sentimentality or tired cliches. He mines the intelligence, heart, violence, struggle and dreams of Brooklyn and it's unique, complicated and diverse people" Never drifting far from his first love-music often inspires Franks writing and he often starts with the music first. His plays are largely autobiographical drawing from real life experiences growing up on the streets of Canarsie. Other plays include Diamond Girl, 86 Street, The Best Part Of Breakin' Up and Exit 13. Frank has recently finished a third draft of his first screenplay: Welcome to Canarsie.
