People sometimes ask Chet Merli why there is a street named for his family.
If you don’t know why there is a Merli Drive in Peckville, there is a clue in another name: the Gino J. Merli Veterans Center in Scranton.
Chet Merli is the war hero’s nephew. He knows it’s only natural that the memory of his uncle’s World War II Medal of Honor fades over time.
That’s one reason he values “The Last Thoughts of Gino Merli,” a play that will be performed Wednesday, which is Veterans Day, at Misericordia University in Dallas and Thursday at Lackawanna College in Scranton.
“It does do a very good job in portraying the character of my uncle,” he said. “He was a very civic-minded, patriotic, God-fearing family man, extremely humble.”
Tickets are free for veterans, seniors and students and $10 for others. Proceeds go to the veterans center.
The play is the main focus of the Scranton Public Theatre. Executive Director Bob Shlesinger helped playwright Tom Flannery develop the play and currently plays Merli.
He was never in the military but is drawn to the story.
“This character, Gino Merli, represents all of northeastern Pennsylvania in terms of the people who grew up here, their toughness, their spirituality, their dedication to hard work, smarts,” he said.
Passing the story to students
The one-act play is structured for schools, with one actor on a sparse stage fitting the story into one class period.
Wyoming Area and Dallas students will see the show Tuesday.
The play debuted at the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum in 2007 and has since been performed at 36 high schools, some repeatedly, and occasionally at other venues.
A peaceful setting
The play is an imaginary interview between Merli and an unseen biographer. It is set on the day Merli died, under a tree in his yard. The setting matches his 2002 obituary. The play describes the tree as one he planted after the war, an additional detail that Shlesinger and Merli think is accurate.
Shlesinger’s research suggests Merli would not have wanted to be portrayed landing on D-Day or fighting three months later in Belgium.
Merli’s actions as a 20-year-old private in Belgium are why he received the Medal of Honor. He fired a machine gun to cover his company’s retreat, and played dead twice to fool Germans who poked him with bayonets. The next morning, Merli was still at his post and 19 of the 52 enemy dead were directly in front of his gun.
“That deeply bothered him,” Shlesinger said.
After leaving the battlefield, Merli approached an officer. “Listen, I’ve got to go say some prayers at a church somewhere, for those who died on our side, and for those who died on the other side.”
After the war
His house “was the hub” of the Peckville street where many of his relatives lived, his nephew said.
Merli worked for the Veterans Administration, married and had three children. His wife, Mary, found him under the pear tree when he died at age 78.
Chet Merli said his uncle’s heroics aren’t the only drama in his family history. Gino’s father was a coal miner. When he and his wife came from Italy, they had to leave their daughter behind. She only later made it to America.
Performance schedule
The Veterans Day performance is at the Lemmond Theater on Lake Street in Dallas. The Thursday show is in the Peoples Security Bank Theater, 501 Vine St., Scranton. Both are at 7 p.m.
The Italian heritage group UNICO is sponsoring the productions.