Writer & director, obsessed with stories about underdogs, weirdos, and people going through it.
Featured Projects
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The Dose
Feature Screenplay
When an emotionally shut-down chemist learns his employer will weaponize his empathy drug for crowd control, he recruits his estranged mentor and two misfits to ride a rare global windstorm with high-altitude drones and aerosolize it planet wide—sparking a surge in empathy and cascading psychological side effects.
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Strange Skin
Feature screenplay.
In a rain-soaked near future, a grieving man undergoes radical genetic surgery to become unrecognizable to the younger man he loves—convinced that only by hiding who he is beneath new skin will his love be returned—only to discover that some lies are too strange to hide.
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Gloria Ever After
Feature screenplay.
When a tightly wound filmmaker coaxes a reclusive gay icon into a career-defining comeback, he’s swept into a magical journey of redemption, forgiveness, and loss that reawakens his own heart.
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The Isles
One-hour television dramedy.
An eccentric, rule-breaking retiree inherits a home in Florida’s most exclusive retirement haven, but her reckless lifestyle quickly sparks outrage from the community’s pearl-clutching queen bee, threatening the future—and acceptance—she desperately desires.
About me
“ …[Whisper is] an intriguing brush with altered reality…Mr. Petralia’s script is often quite poetic … And the production, which he also directed, flirts with the feel of a supernatural, psychological thriller.”
Writing
I write fiction, poetry, theater, film and television screenplays about unconventional characters going through it. My passion for writing about underdogs was inspired by growing up as a weird gay kid in a chaotic family in Florida in the 80s and 90s. My writing is rich with atmosphere and strongly rooted in place and time. I’ve had over a dozen plays produced on four continents.
I direct plays, hybrid performances, and experimental theater. I work as a dramaturge with dance companies and media artists.
“Director Peter S. Petralia is a master at creating atmosphere.”
Directing & Dramaturgy
Teaching & Research
I was the program leader for the Contemporary Theater and Performance degree at Manchester Metropolitan University. I teach workshops and masterclasses in theater making and performance. My research focuses on how technology alters perceptions of performative experiences.