Meet Me at the Fair to be published

When I became a full-time playwright, I knew I'd have to up my output considerably in order to make it work. My wife doesn't have an income and we don't have enough money to retire on. Which is why I've been writing like crazy these last (almost) three years.

Well, it's definitely starting to pay off. I broke my personal productivity record in 2024 by having five plays accepted for publication. I tied that record in 2025. And now I'm thrilled to report that I broke that record again as Pioneer has just accepted my sixth play this year.

The latest? Meet Me at the Fair, a full-length comedy telling six hilarious, heartwarming stories set at the very fictional Winnemucca County Fair (no state is mentioned, but you might be able to guess where it's set from one of the food references in the story).

If you subscribe to the New Play Exchange (cheap!), you can view a sample and character breakdown here. Want to read the whole thing? Just email me your request at todd.wallinger@gmail.com and I'll be happy to send you a free PDF.

Like a lot of my plays, the original concept for Meet Me at the Fair came from brainstorming. As I've mentioned before, I usually start with the setting. I'm always looking for a setting that's unique, visually appealing, and readily lends itself to comedic situations. A county fair passed those criteria with flying colors.

But what would the story be? There are so many fun locations at a county fair: the exhibits, the games, the rides, the culinary competitions, the entertainment. That's just too many to choose from. So I chose them all.

Here are the stories I came up with:

• A scatterbrained mayor who's convinced that displaying the world's largest ball of twine will finally put their town on the map—until the ball mysteriously disappears.
• A young man who's sure he's only one ring toss away from winning a giant teddy bear for his girlfriend. 
• Four high school buddies who are determined to break the one and only rule on the roller coaster.
• A woman who'll stop at nothing to beat her rival in the jam making competition.
• An unlikely beauty contestant who goes, quite literally, hog wild.
• A bumbling magician who leads his boss on a wacky chase through the funhouse.

And tying them all together is Zardok, a mechanical fortune teller like the one in the movie Big who gives each of these characters an eerily accurate fortune. There's even a prologue with a couple of carnival workers that explains why Zardok is so eerily accurate.

If there's any external inspiration on the play, it would have to be the 1945 movie State Fair. This Iowa-set musical was composed by Rodgers & Hammerstein and it was the only one of their musicals to be written for the screen first and only later got accepted for the stage.

Never heard of it? Well, there's a good reason for that. It really isn't considered one of the team's top-tier plays.

But I've always liked it. It's colorful. It's cozy. It captures all the fun and excitement of a midwestern fair (that movie is set in Iowa). And it's got some really great songs, including the Oscar-winning It Might as Well be Spring. I didn't take any plot points from State Fair, but I was inspired by the blue-ribbon-winning pig in that movie to add my own, equally successful, albeit much more destructive pig, to my play. 

Taking a cue from R&H, I was originally going to call my play simply County Fair. But then my wife suggested Meet Me at the Fair. I liked the sound of that. It was catchier, and had kind of a nostalgic feel to it. Well, when I received my acceptance email from Pioneer, my editor mentioned that they wanted to change it. So we'll see what happens.

In any case, the play should be released in the spring. Keep checking back here for updates.

Tulsa Ghosts hits the airwaves

Spotlight Children's Theatre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, always does a fantastic job promoting their shows and its no different with their upcoming production of Too Many Ghosts as the local ABC affiliate invited three of the young actors to their studios for an interview.

All the kids are unusually well-spoken, but I especially liked how Jaxon Lee, the young man on the left side of the couch, described his character: "I play a poltergeist named Barney. He's playful, he jokes around a lot, and he'll try to scare people. He'll try, but he doesn't-- he's just annoying."

That pretty much nails it.

By the way, the theatre came up with a totally unique item for their raffle to support the show: a Too Many Ghosts quilt. I've got to say, that's an absolute first for me.

4000 and counting...

Enfield High School in Enfield, CT, may look like any suburban high school in this country, but for me it's a very special one because they just booked Too Many Ghosts, making it my 4000th production.

When I hit 3000, I set of goal of reaching the next milestone in eighteen months. Well, I didn't quite make it, but I'm still very happy because I fell short by only a little bit.

Meanwhile, my bookings continue to accelerate. Here's the breakdown of how long it took me to reach each plateau:

0 to 1000: 92 months

1000 to 2000: 50 months

2000 to 3000: 28 months

3000 to 4000: 21 months

But that's not the thing I'm celebrating these days. Watertown High School in Watertown, SD, recently booked the 1000th production of The Enchanted Bookshop.

That's right. Even though I have 38 published plays, that one play accounts for 25% of my productions. And after nine years, The Enchanted Bookshop remains as strong as ever, having already booked 73 productions for the school year that just began.

I may be getting old, but it seems that all those classic literary characters like Dorothy Gale, Tom Sawyer, and Robin Hood never do.

30 Minutes Till Boarding is now available!

How about one more play for good measure? 

That's right! Just in time for the new school year, Pioneer Drama Service has released my airport comedy, 30 Minutes Till Boarding. It's my 32nd play with them and 38th play overall.

Developing the play has been a long journey with several layovers, starting all the way back in April 2025 when Belmont Day School in Massachusetts commissioned me to write a third full-length comedy for them. The play finally premiered to lavish praise in March of this year. And after an extensive round of edits to make it more producible, we ended up with a play that truly reaches new heights in terms of storytelling, emotional impact, and just plain fun.

Originally written for a cast of 40, 30 Minutes Till Boarding has now been slimmed down to a slightly more svelte 36, and you can get it down to 30 by cutting two of the twelve storylines (and the associated dance number!) as spelled out in the production notes.

One of the challenges with this play is that nearly all of these people (along with their luggage!) are onstage at a couple key points in the story, but the script includes some very useful suggestions to make things manageable.

But hey, at least the set is relatively simple, requiring a gate counter, a departure sign, and yeah, a whole bunch of chairs and/or tables.

Here's the synopsis: 

The snow is coming down fast and furious at the airport, but the intrepid gate agents for Sunshine Airways Flight 901 to Rome assure the waiting passengers that the plane will depart as scheduled. Alas, the flight is delayed later and later until finally the flight is canceled, upsetting the plans of passengers and crew alike.

The folks stuck at the gate are an eclectic bunch. There's the therapist taking her fear-of-flying group on their first flight. Imogene is a newlywed who learns that her new mother-in-law is coming along on the honeymoon. A self-absorbed pop star is horrified to discover that nobody recognizes her anymore... and that she has to fly coach! There's also the hilarity of a cocky, young co-pilot trying to hide from the flight attendant he ghosted on a date, and the sweetness of a kindly old couple who accosts everyone they meet with pictures of their new grandbaby.

Airport delays might not seem the subject of comedy these days, yet Todd (that's me!) creates plenty of both hilarious and heartwarming moments in this entertaining ensemble piece. With these rich characters plus many more, this high-flying comedy gives every actor a chance to soar!

I just know you're going to love this one. For a free script sample as well as complete ordering information, be sure to visit the play's webpage.

And buckle up. You're going to have quite a flight.

Survival Island is now available!

Hot on the heels of my 3rd play with Heuer Publishing (and 36th play overall) comes the publication of my 4th play with Heuer Publishing (and 37th play overall).

Survival Island! is a full-length comedy about eight contestants on a TV reality show who must learn to survive for real after the host and crew of the show fall into a volcano. The play has a cast of 10 (1M, 1F, 8 any), uses only a single simple beach set, and tuns about 75 minutes.

I've already spoken about my inspiration for the play. I've shared one of my favorite scenes from the script. I've also posted some great photos from the world premiere at Jacksonville Performing Arts in North Carolina, where it was a big hit.

Executive director Nikki Dyba said audiences absolutely loved the play, but what she really raved about was how great an experience it was for the kids (the word "EPIC" may have also have been used a couple of times).

I think that's because the roles are surprisingly meaty for kids. Sure, the characters are fun and over the top, but they're grounded in the real-life personality types we so often see on TV reality shows (as well as in real life itself!).

There's the hardcore gym bro. His hyper-competitive female rival. The laid-back surfer dude. The stuffy anthropology professor. The manipulative executive chef. The shy librarian. The self-absorbed fashion icon. And the greedy investment banker.

Together, they forge a fragile compromise in order to get themselves rescued. But as their resources grow increasingly limited, we see how each character's flaws contribute to the chaos that follows.

The world premiere was performed by upper elementary students. But it could just as easily be done by middle schools, high schools, colleges, community theatres, and even (like many of my plays!) retirement centers. Seriously, this is a comedy for all ages.

Want to know more? Then be sure to visit the play's web page.

Fear of Clowns is now available!

I'm thrilled to announce that Heuer Publishing has just released my 3rd play with them and 36th play overall. The play is titled Fear of Clowns and it also happens to be my first published ten-minute play.

I think it'll fit in well with my other Heuer plays. Like Kill the Critic! and The Last Radio Show (and the upcoming Survival Island!), it's a little dark, certainly darker than any of my Pioneer plays.

But don't let that scare you. It's also very funny--the world premiere in Colorado Springs got a ton of laughs. It's just that the humor comes across in a sad, tragic-clown kind of way. And it's my only play that doesn't have a happy ending.

Fear of Clowns is a breeze to produce. It features a cast of two (one clown and one psychiatrist) and requires no set beyond a couch, a desk, and a couple of chairs.

But it does require sound effects. Or should I say, one very key sound effect.

At the opening of the play, the psychiatrist is working at his desk when he hears the sound of laughter coming from outside his office. The stage directions describe it as "loud, raucous, annoying even, like a bad TV laugh track".

That laughter is the reason Jocko insists in seeing the psychiatrist today. He detests the sound of it, and he doesn't understand why it seems to follow him everywhere.

Now I don't want to give away any spoilers, so I won't share with you the psychiatrist's final advice to the clown. But I will say that the only thing that really changes by the end of the play is that laughter. For as Jocko exits, the stage directions state that it "sounds different now--colder, crueler. Or does it?"

I really want that laughter to land like a gut punch to the audience. If done properly, it will.

Oh, and if you want to read about the play's unusual history or the classic joke that originally inspired it, be sure to check out this post from January.

Freaky Tiki gets animated

I missed this when it got posted to YouTube four months ago, but it's just too good not to share now.

Joe Marquez, the insanely talented technology instructor at Clovis Unified School District in beautiful Clovis, California (nicknamed the Gateway to the Sierras), created an awesome five-minute animated cartoon to promote Clovis Elementary School's production of Freaky Tiki. It introduces the characters, explains the plot, and backs it all up with a catchy ska tune.

Enjoy! And for more info on this hilarious, high-energy comedy, click here.