“Sam and Dede, My Dinner with Andre the Giant,” a play by Theatre Arts Program Director Gino DiIorio, is soon to be published by Dramatists Play Service.

The play is based on a totally true story: Twelve-year-old André the Giant, already over six feet tall and 240 pounds, didn’t fit on the school bus. André’s neighbor, as repayment of a favor, offered to drive André to school in his truck. The neighbor was Samuel Beckett. “Sam and Dede” imagines a series of scenes between a giant who cannot hide, and a writer obsessed with silence.

The play was produced off-Broadway last April at 59 East 59 Theatre in New York City.