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Father Ernest Ferlita (December 1, 1927 – February 4, 2015) was a
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professor emeritus of drama and speech at Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana and a member of the Dramatists Guild. He received his degree in playwriting and dramatic literature at the Yale School of Drama. He was born, the son of a Sicilian immigrant father, in Tampa, Florida.


Plays

His first play, ''The Ballad of John Ogilvie'', was produced Off-Broadway in 1968. In 1978, his ''Black Medea'' was staged at the first Spoleto Festival USA in
Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
. It was given three Off-Off Broadway productions as produced at the Actor's Outlet Theatre under the direction of Ken Lowstetter, and won four awards at the 15th Annual AUDELCO Black Theatre Festival. Another play, ''The Truth of the Matter'', won The Miller Award in the 1986 Deep South Writers Conference. Two other plays by Fr. Ferlita have been produced Off-Off Broadway at the Actor's Outlet Theatre under the direction of Ken Lowstetter: ''The Obelisk'', and ''Two Cities'', a double bill of two one-act plays ''The Mask of Hiroshima'' (published in Best Short Plays 1989) and '' The Bells of Nagasaki''. His one-act play ''The Witness'' was one of the winners of the 1999-2000 Love Creek One-Act Play Festival, and his first ten-minute play ''Come Home, Come Home'' was chosen to be a part of Love Creek Productions Autumn One Acts 2003. In 2004 ''Big Tom'' was one of ten winners in Catholic University's One-Act Religious Play Competition. His play ''Ma-Fa'', based on the life of Johann Adam Schall von Bell, a Jesuit astronomer in China, was awarded the second prize of the International Competition of Religious Drama for the Great Jubilee in the Year 2000.


Books

He was also the author of several books, including ''The Theatre of Pilgrimage'', ''The Uttermost Mark'', a book on the dramatic writings of the Jesuit poet
Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame placed him among leading Victorian poets. His prosody – notably his concept of sprung rhythm – established him as an innovato ...
, and ''The Paths of Life'', three books of reflections on readings for the Sunday Mass. Many of these reflections were given as homilies to the congregation at St. Clare's Monastery in New Orleans, where he served as chaplain until the city's evacuation during
Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
in 2005 and where he later continued to serve as chaplain after the hurricane recovery. Fr. Ferlita was also a librettist for two operas, ''Dear Ignatius, Dear Isabel'' and ''Edith Stein'', and was a co-author of ''The Parables of
Lina Wertmuller Lina (pronounced "Leena") is a feminine given name. Languages of origin include: English, Italian, Lithuanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Persian, Kurdish, Arabic. It is also the short form of a variety of names ending in -lina including Catalin ...
''. He lived the remainder of his life at the
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seminary at St. Charles College in Grand Coteau, Louisiana.


Related links


COMPANIONS, A play by Fr. Ferlita

John Ogilvie (1579-1615)


* ttp://jesuitscentralsouthern.org/news-detail?TN=NEWS-20150205043959 Jesuit Playwright, Author, Drama Teacher Dies


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferlita, Ernest 1927 births 2015 deaths American Roman Catholic religious writers 20th-century American Jesuits 21st-century American Jesuits Yale School of Drama alumni Loyola University New Orleans faculty People from Tampa, Florida 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American non-fiction writers Catholics from Florida