The play “Shades of Blue” is set to be performed at Main Street Studios in Fredonia, 50 West Main Street from Sept. 18 to 20 at 7:30 p.m. with a matinee performance on Sept. 20 at 2 p.m.

Tuccio said writing is something he has done his entire life, but writing a play is something new and not something he originally set out to do.

“I never thought I would write a play,” Tuccio said. “I was in the ‘Christmas Carol’ a few years back, and I assume that’s where I caught the bug. I started this story and it didn’t sound right as a short story so I turned it into script form and it just went from there. I didn’t originally set out to write a play.”

Tuccio’s play, “Shades of Blue” follows the story of a father and daughter pair and how they get through their grief of their wife and mother passing away. They live in an apartment in New York City and the father is an art critic while the daughter is in law school. The story follows them throughout about the next five years after the wife and mother’s passing, showing the daughter busy in law school and with where her life is going and the father with no idea what comes next. Each scene jumps about six months forward, and Tuccio said the story shows two different ways of handling grief and how it can affect people differently.

Members of the team are pictured putting on “Shades of Blue” at their read through.

“This play shows grief and how it can affect each of us differently, and how creativity and art can help pull us through,” Tuccio said. “The father is writing a biography on his favorite artist, and his wife was helping him, so he is driven to finish it. The father and daughter are close, because I didn’t want to write a story where they didn’t know how to communicate and had to learn, because that’s been done. Together they learn to move forward as each is having a hard time. I hope people recognize their own grief and that grief is something we all go through.”

Moving forward through grief is one of the main themes of the story, Tuccio said, saying that grief is something everyone experiences and experiences differently, but people are strong and can and do pull through it. He acknowledged that it is a sad story, but one that he hopes leaves people feeling hopeful at the end as well.

“I hope people recognize that it is a sad story but one that leaves them feeling hope and that good things can still come,” Tuccio said. “I hope people will recognize their own stories in it and see pieces of themselves, including that they themselves were able to pull through dark times as well.”

The importance of someone surrounding themselves with people they trust and leaning on people around them is another big theme of the play, Tuccio said, especially that asking for help is not weak and something that requires strength. Tuccio added that there is even a line in the play about someone having the strength to ask for help.

Tuccio acknowledged the rest of his team helping him to put the play together, calling them “absolutely incredible”, from people doing the lights, filming, acting, and his Stage Manager Emma Newton and Director Carolyn Laurenzi, who he said constantly were coming up with fresh and wonderful ideas for it. He said the play will also be a fundraiser for someone from two families who are having a hard time.

“Everyone involved is a volunteer and we are not making money from this,” Tuccio said. “We just want to try and have a good show and raise funds for the fundraiser. I hope people are impressed with the work everyone has put in.”

Tickets for “Shades of Blue” are available now at https://search.seatyourself.biz/webstore/accounts/mainstreetstudios/buy-tix.