Salvatore DeLucia
Official Site of the Author, Playwright & Screenwriter
Completed Projects
2010 / Escape Route Productions
Awakening from a near fatal overdose, Chris embraces a second chance at life. Required to enroll into a 12-Step Program, and mandated to state psychiatrist appointments, Chris is forced to revisit his chaotic past; a history that revolves around his friend Ande and her autistic brother Frankie. Follow Chris as his past and present converge revealing a deranged cocktail of addiction, mental disorder and hope. Will Chris surrender to the monsters that lurk deep inside us all?
Projects for your Consideration:
All These Things That I've Done
(Novel / Contemporary Literary Fiction / 93,000 words)
A darkly comic, character-driven exploration of addiction, regret, and reluctant redemption — told in a raw, witty first-person voice interwoven with screenplay entries that blur memory, dream, and reality. Fans of Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke and Matthew Quick’s The Silver Linings Playbook will recognize the razor’s-edge balance of humor and heartbreak, while readers of memoirs like Nic Sheff’s Tweak and David Sheff’s Beautiful Boy will connect with its unflinching confrontation of trauma, family, and forgiveness.
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When news of his father’s death forces Sal DeLucia — a once best-selling novelist turned disgraced screenwriter — onto a red-eye from Los Angeles to Connecticut, he has no choice but to return to the hometown he’s avoided for over a decade. Broke, sober against his will, and on the verge of breaching his contract, Sal finds himself back in his childhood bedroom, face-to-face with the family he abandoned.
There, he collides with his estranged seventeen-year-old daughter, Stella — a sharp, wounded rebel whose struggles echo his own. Their uneasy connection becomes both muse and mirror as Sal enlists her help to finish a long-abandoned manuscript, hoping to salvage not only his career but his fractured sense of fatherhood. But haunted by guilt over his unborn son’s death, tethered to an addiction that refuses to loosen its grip, and afraid Stella is following his path, Sal must decide whether this second chance will be another spectacular failure — or the first step toward redemption.
Knights of Columbus
Stage Play (Drama)
Knights of Columbus unfolds over the course of a single day in Wooster Square, New Haven, during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the city prepares to remove its controversial Columbus statue, tensions rise inside the fictional Columbus Pizzeria, a neighborhood institution run by 29-year-old Salvatore “Reno” Durante.
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Reno is faced with a life-changing decision: sell the family business to his fiancée’s powerful father or hold on to a legacy that’s slipping through his flour-dusted fingers. Surrounded by childhood friends, a sharp-tongued mother, an exasperated girlfriend, and a loyal but volatile best friend fresh out of holding, Reno must confront identity, inheritance, and the cost of standing still in a world that demands change.
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Part love letter, part eulogy, Knights of Columbus is a sharply comic, deeply human story about loyalty, legacy, and the messy beauty of growing up without letting go.
CLUB
(Original Screenplay)
“CLUB” follows three strangers whose storylines intertwine while inside a popular nightclub during the final hours of New Year’s Eve 1999, as the climatic countdown to Y2K connects the characters’ paths, sending each on a collision course with destiny; the fallout of which will echo deep into the early hours of a new millennium.
“CLUB” is a fast-paced, comedically relevant, nostalgic drama that calls back to the ground-breaking, gritty-yet-stylistic films of the 90’s era. If Pulp Fiction and Go had a baby, CLUB might be it. The story, set almost entirely inside the brick-walled, black-lit, techno-music-pumping “Gotham Citi Nightclub,” showcases three very different protagonists, each tragically flawed in their own way.
The plot itself is unique, presenting the audience with THREE separate stories, each one dedicated to different protagonists:
“The Hairdresser and the Hamburger Girl" : Meet Nick, a sharp-dressed, well-spoken hairdresser, who hides a mysterious past beneath a thick, yet faulty armor of vanity.
“Tony Tromboli and the Heartbreak Kid” : Meet Robbie, a fresh-faced, heartbroken ICU nurse. Dragged to the CLUB by his overbearing, and over-sexed beefcake-of-a-best-friend Tony Tromboli, Robbie realizes the love of his life has indeed moved on after spotting her, and her new beau, at the center of the dance floor.
“The Ballad of the Bartender" : Meet Christopher, a drug-addicted mixologist, repaying an old-debt by covering a shift at the popular nightclub during the biggest party of the twentieth century. But this night will change everything for the jaded bartender, forcing him to face the truth about his career, his friendships, and his uncertain future.
CLUB is a love-letter to the raving nightlife that rattled our speakers during the tail-end of the 20th century; a screenplay that straps you in for a wild-ride, promising to end with the bang, and not a whimper.
Bare
Original Screenplay / Drama
Logline: Vincenzo “Vin” Galletta,” an aging, newly-sober, former professional prizefighter, finds his solitary existence turned upside-down when a viral video of an unsanctioned bare-knuckle boxing tournament catapults him back into the spotlight, offering the tortured fighter a shot at redemption, both inside the ring, and out.
Synopsis
BARE — a gritty, character-driven redemption drama in the tradition of The Wrestler, Creed, and Crazy Heart — stories about broken people trying to piece themselves back together in a world that’s more interested in watching them fall apart.
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BARE follows Vincenzo “Vin” Galletta, a washed-up, newly sober former prizefighter living in obscurity — until a viral video of a bare-knuckle brawl thrusts him back into the spotlight. Offered a surprise shot at the heavyweight title, Vin soon discovers his opponent is the son of the man who died fighting him in the ring years ago. Haunted by the past and clinging to the promise of a second chance, Vin must confront the real fight: the one between who he was, who he is, and who he still might become.
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Clocking in at 117 pages, BARE is a grounded, emotionally raw boxing drama that explores legacy, addiction, forgiveness — and what it truly means to fight for something, or someone, worth saving.
Role of a Lifetime
Screenplay / Feature
Genre: Coming-of-Age Dramedy

Tone Comps: Juno × Election × Lady Bird × Eighth Grade

Format: Feature Screenplay

Writer: Salvatore DeLucia
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Logline: When a struggling high school misfit accidentally goes viral for a heartfelt monologue everyone believes is his trans coming-out story, he leans into the lie — catapulting himself into unexpected fame, fractured friendships, and a crash course in identity, truth, and what it really means to be seen.
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Synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old Daniel Reyes has always felt invisible — until a filmed monologue for theater class accidentally makes him a viral sensation. The only problem? Everyone thinks the video is Daniel's raw, brave coming-out moment as a transgender teen.
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Caught off guard but desperate to be seen, Daniel rides the wave of attention, becoming an overnight symbol of authenticity in a school (and world) hungry for representation. Suddenly, he's not just another face in the hall — he's headlining school assemblies, winning over cheerleaders, and dodging judgment from his former bullies, especially Brody, a volatile football star.
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As Daniel's persona grows, so do the lies he's forced to maintain — especially with Ava, his former best friend, and Mykeal, a complicated classmate harboring secrets of his own. But fame has a cost, and when the truth unravels, Daniel must confront the fallout of becoming a symbol he never meant to be.
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Set against a backdrop of TikTok culture, hallway politics, and a winter formal full of fireworks, Role of a Lifetime is a sharp, funny, emotionally grounded teen dramedy — Lady Bird meets Eighth Grade by way of Juno — about truth, performance, and the price of being seen before you're ready.
Why This Story, Now?
The Role of a Lifetime taps into a uniquely Gen Z dilemma: the performance of identity in the age of social media, and the blurred line between authenticity and branding. It's a story about how quickly miscommunication becomes myth—and how hard it is to stop performing once the audience starts clapping.
Target Audience: Teens and young adults (13–25), theatre kids, social media natives, and anyone who has ever felt invisible or misunderstood. Perfect for fans of Booksmart, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and early Wes Anderson.
The Writer
Salvatore DeLucia is an inner-city high school Theatre/English educator from New Haven, Connecticut. The first-generation Italian-American father of two inspiring teenage daughters has crafted award-winning short stories, as well as written and developed projects for the screen, including the independent feature film, This Wretched Life (2010). The film, in which Salvatore is credited as co-writer and producer, also served as his screen acting debut, portraying the supporting role of “Chip,” the immoral rehab counselor. As a screenwriter, DeLucia has received favorable coverage for his boxing/sports drama screenplay, Bare, from award-winning producer Henri Kessler (Slam), as well as garnering interest in his screenplay, Boys of Wooster, compared to that of Goodwill Hunting and The Brothers McMullen by iconic film producer Mike Medavoy (Phoenix Pictures). DeLucia is currently querying his debut Novel, All These Things That I've Done, as well as his stage play, Knights of Columbus.
Contact
For any inquiries, please contact Salvatore DeLucia:
Tel: 475.256.2243 | Salvatore.S.DeLucia@gmail.com
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