30 Minutes Till Boarding to be published!

It's been a very long road--or should I say runway?--but my airport comedy is finally ready for the big time. Thirty Minutes Till Boarding has just been accepted for publication by Pioneer Drama Service. This is my 32nd play with them, and 36th play overall. And am I relieved!

The commish

I've been working on Thirty Minutes Till Boarding since April 2025, when Belmont Day School commissioned me to write another large cast play for them, my third in five years. The play finally premiered to great acclaim in March of this year. And you might think that would be it. Send it to Pioneer, wait for the inevitable acceptance of such a brilliant work, and move on to the next play.

Except it wasn't that simple. Pioneer liked it, but not enough to actually send me a contract. They wanted changes.

I was cool with that. I mean, I've revised my plays for them before, and the plays always come out stronger as a result: tighter, more organic, easier to produce. But this time they wanted a LOT of changes.

Since the play was written on commission, it was tailored to the requirements of the school. And Pioneer felt some of those requirements wouldn't carry over to other schools and community theaters. 

So I fired up my laptop and got to work.

Trimming the fat

The first thing that had to change was the size. This monster of a play was 104 pages long with a cast of 40. It was fairly easy to cut out 4 of the characters as they were in standalone stories and didn't really interact with the characters in the play (although I greatly miss the humor in those scenes). That. and some judicious trimming of the dialog throughout, got the script down to 88 pages and a cast of 36.

I also added a production note that explained how directors could cut additional characters to get the cast size down to 32, 30, or even 26.

Pioneer was concerned about the location. The play was originally set at Boston Logan International Airport, a nod to the school that commissioned it, and that turned out to be an auspicious choice because the airport's quirky nighttime closing policy inspired one of the key plot points in my play.

The problem is that Boston Logan is still remembered by many people as being the originating airport for the two planes that flew into the World Trade Center on 9/11. Wishing to avoid that association, we decided to change the location to a very generic-sounding New England International Airport (a suggestion of my editor Brian).

Tying it all together

The biggest change--and the one that took the most time--revolved around the characters of Egbert and Henrietta. I included them because my intent with the play was to show a cross-section of humanity, and what could be more human than an elderly couple who is traveling to see their brand new grandbaby and can't stop showing pictures of her to everyone they meet?

Egbert is also quite a talker, and in the original version of the play, he dishes out words of advice that happen to solve some pretty big problems for the characters he talks to.

Well, Pioneer wanted more of that, and I agreed. So I came up with ways for Egbert to solve EVERYONE's problems,. The trick was doing so without making it seem forced or overly sentimental.

I think I did it. As a result, Egbert has become the connective tissue of the play in that he tes all of the individual stories together. But he has also become the heart, dispensing wisdom without really realizing it and making the world a better place along the way.

Oh, one more thing. Pioneer wanted to change the title from Thirty Minutes Till Boarding to 30 Minutes Till Boarding so it would show up higher in search results. Eight keystrokes later, the change was made. If only all changes were that easy!

Fortunately, Pioneer loved my changes and agreed to publish the play just in time for the new school year.

An adorable child

This is the place in the post where I usually give you a taste of the play by sharing one of my favorite scenes. Of course, I already shared a scene in an earlier post, but that was one of the ones ended up on the cutting room floor. So instead, let me leave you with a scene which is absolutely, positively guaranteed to show up in the published script. In it, Egbert and Henrietta are assisted by the two very different gate agents, Marsha and Kylie.

MARSHA: May I help you, sir?

EGBERT: (Reads her nametag.) Oh. I see your name is Marsha—

MARSHA: Yes, it is—

EGBERT: We have a daughter named Marsha. Just had our first grandbaby, she and her husband Dave. That's why we're traveling, you know. To see her.

MARSHA: (Unenthusiastic.) Well, isn't that wonderful?

EGBERT: Would you like to see a picture of her?

MARSHA: Um—

KYLIE: Of course, we would! (MARSHA rolls her eyes at KYLIE. EGBERT pulls out his wallet. The accordion-style photo holder inside falls open.) Wow. That's a lot of pictures.

EGBERT: You can never have enough pictures when you've got the cutest grandbaby in the world!

HENRIETTA: Oh, Egbert! Stop bragging!

EGBERT: That's not bragging! It's a documented fact!

MARSHA: She's an adorable child, sir. Now how can we help you? 

EGBERT: What? Oh, yes. I was hoping we could get our seat assignments.

MARSHA: Of course, you can, sir. May I see your boarding passes?

EGBERT: (Digs in his pockets.) Boarding passes. Boarding passes. Now what did I do with those?

KYLIE: They're right here, sir. (Grabs the boarding passes and holds them up.)

EGBERT: Well, would you look at that! I plumb forgot I set them down!

(DR. DIAZ forms a line behind EGBERT. GERALDINE, PAUL, and BELINDA quickly join her.)

KYLIE: (Looks at the boarding pass.) Oh, look, sir. You already have your seats assigned. See? You're in 21E and your lovely wife is in 21F.

EGBERT: Huh. I wonder when we did that.

MARSHA: You must have done it at the ticket counter.

KYLIE: Or maybe you did it at home?

EGBERT: Now how could we have done that?

KYLIE: Oh, it's really very simple, sir. Just go to our website or download our app—

EGBERT: Nope. No way. We don't do any of that fancy internet stuff.

KYLIE: Okay...

EGBERT: It's like our daughter always says. She says, "Dad, you really need to get a cell phone." Well, I've gotten along fine without one for seventy-two years. Why would I need one now?

KYLIE: It looks like you're all set for your flight, sir. (Hands the boarding passes back to EGBERT.)

EGBERT: And besides, you can't make a real connection with someone over the phone. You've got to talk to them face-to-face!

MARSHA: Excuse me, sir, but there are people waiting behind you.

EGBERT: Huh? (Turns and sees THERAPY GROUP.) Ah. So there is. So there is.

HENRIETTA: Come along, Egbert. Why don't you find us a place to sit?

EGBERT: I think I'll find us a place to sit.

KYLIE: You have yourself a sunshiny day, do you hear?

MARSHA: Please. Don't encourage him.

I think this one is going to be a big hit. It's got humor. It's got heart. And it's got Egbert. What else do you need?

South Dakota Route 66 celebrates America's birthday

Route 66 may not have gone through South Dakota. But it definitely leads to the heart of one Coyote State theater.

For 34 years now, Area Community Theatre has entertained the citizens of Mitchell, South Dakota (home of the world famous Corn Palace!). They do five adult shows a year plus one youth show in the summer.

This year, with the 250th birthday of America just around the corner, they wanted the youth show to celebrate our country. And what could be more American than It Happened on Route 66, a play set along that famous ribbon of asphalt known as America's Highway?

According to this news article on the Mitchell Now website, the cast and crew are having a blast.

"Everybody is really enjoying it, and getting into their characters," says office manager Jesse Stroud. "And having the hands-on piece, too, of the set building and picking out some of the props and doing those things is giving them a lot of ownership in the process."

Sounds like a fantastic experience. But that's not all. In a first for the theater, they've arranged for a fun, 20-minute history lesson on Route 66 to be presented before the show by Dakota Wesleyan University in partnership with LifeQuest, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting persons with developmental challenges.

The good folks at Area Community Theatre may not realize it, but there's another reason why It Happened on Route 66 was an especially apt choice. This November 11 marks exactly one hundred years since the highway was commissioned by the Federal Government.

Happy birthday, America! And happy birthday, Route 66! 

On weddings and rollercoasters

I don't usually talk about my personal life on these pages. But then I don't usually have a weekend like the one that just ended.

It all started on Friday with the wedding of our daughter Brooke to the love of her life, a wonderful young man named Ryan Winter (Brooke Winter has a nice ring to it, don't you think?). It was a gorgeous outdoor wedding in the Rim Country of Arizona, where the desert suddenly gives way to Ponderosa-covered mountains, and the weather was pretty much ideal: warm but not too warm, with an endless blue sky and not a drop of humidity in the air.

The wedding took place at Cabins on Strawberry Hill, a rustic resort with fourteen small but very cozy cabins, a wood-paneled reception hall, a large firepit, and an outdoor area with a mountain backdrop for the ceremony itself.

The wedding was officiated by a guy who works with Ryan (they're both civil engineers working on mostly highway-related projects; Brooke is an account manager at a marketing firm). Derek had gotten ordained so he could officiate another friend's wedding, but that one fell through so Brooke and Ryan are actually the first couple he ever married.

The setting for the ceremony was glorious, the bride was beautiful (of course!), and the vows were heartfelt and humorous (especially the bit about Ryan promising not to get mad when Brooke's Diamondbacks beats his beloved Padres).

Derek brought the funny as well. We all knew that Brooke and Ryan met on the dating app Hinge and that they'd bonded over a shared love of hiking, beer, and dogs. What we didn't know, at least until it was revealed by Derek, was that Ryan borrowed his roommate's dog for his profile picture because he didn't actually have one of his own.

The next hour was spent taking pictures, then we all proceeded to the reception, where a taco truck served a delicious, if messy, reception dinner, while the specialty cocktails included a Spicy Mika-Rita (named after Brooke's sassy rat terrier mix) that was a big hit. Afterwards, the DJ kept the energy level high and the crowd dancing with an eclectic mix of yacht rock (blame Brooke), alt rock, and hip hop. Everyone had a fantastic time.

The bets part: my 83-year-old widowed mother-in-law caught the bouquet.

At the same time, Tammy and I were dealing with a dying dog. After our 12-year-old lab mix Honey lost interest in food at the beginning of May, we spent the rest of the month shuttling her from vet clinic to vet clinic, trying to figure out what was causing it and what could we do about it.

The answers turned out to be: 1) a 5cm squamous cell carcinoma mass in her soft palate and throat, and 2) nothing. Chemotherapy is ineffective with this type of cancer, and while radiation would kill the tumor, it would leave a gaping hole in the roof of her mouth which would still make it difficult to eat.

We knew she would need to be put down eventually, but we didn't want to rush it just before the wedding. We were hoping to give her a few special days before she passed. So we rented an Airbnb (dogs weren't allowed to stay at the cabins) and brought her with us.

She loved it there. She was so excited to sniff the long grass around the house we'd rented, just as she used to do before she fell ill. And on Saturday, when we took her for a brief visit to the cabins, she reveled in all the attention she got from the wedding guests.

It may have been her last happy day.

Brooke and Ryan are now in Cabo San Lucas and we're back at home, making preparations for Honey's farewell. And as I look back at the weekend, I'm struck by what a rollercoaster ride of emotions it was. We're thrilled for Brooke and Ryan, that their wedding was everything they dreamed it would be and that their future is so blindingly bright.

But we're finding it difficult to separate that from the grief we feel knowing that Honey will soon no longer be with us. She's always been such a sweet, kindhearted dog, and we're going to miss her terribly.

The greatest of joys to the deepest of sorrows, all in one weekend. It's almost too much to bear. But I suppose that's life.

Ohio Ghosts wins big at high school drama awards

Theatre isn't about winning prizes. It's about expressing your individuality. It's about making a meaningful connection with other human beings. It's about creating art. 

But, boy, it sure does feel good when you do win a prize!

Fairport Harding High School in Fairport Harbor, OH, has plenty to feel good about after the local Rotary Clubs handed out their annual drama awards for Lake County high schools earlier this month. As reported in this article from the News-Herald, the school's production of Too Many Ghosts received a nomination in all eight categories it was eligible for and won four. Now that's impressive, especially when you consider that there are 17 high schools in Lake County!

Alas, Too Many Ghosts didn't win Best Drama/Comedy, losing out to some obscure play titled Peter and the Starcatcher, but it did win the Behind the Scenes Award for their backstage crew work.

Here's the complete list of nominations that the show received:

Male Lead in a Drama/Comedy
Hunter Wilson as folksy handyman Ernie

Female Lead in a Drama/Comedy
Irelyn Swan as level-headed innkeeper Jo
Ava Flerchinger as Jo's horror-loving teenage daughter Lily (Winner!)

Male Support in a Drama/Comedy
James Thellman as fussy 1790's ghost Roland

Female Support in a Drama/Comedy
Fiona Johnston as melancholy 1940's ghost Sophie

Male Sub Support in a Drama/Comedy
Kayden Moser as bombastic 1850's ghost Barney (Winner!)

Female Sub Support in a Drama/Comedy
Nikiyah Clark as cranky 1690's banshee Orla (Winner!)

Best Drama/Comedy

Behind the Scenes Award (Winner!)

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners! You make an old playwright proud.

Tennessee Bookshop brings a theater back to life

It's always sad when a youth theater goes dark. In these challenging times, kids need theatre now more than ever. But with vision, commitment, and dozens of dedicated volunteers, it's possible to turn those old stage lights on again.

Glenn L. Martin Elementary School in Crossville, Tennessee is a particularly inspiring example of this. After several years without any theatrical productions, the school's theatre program came back to life this month with a show that assistant principal Nicole Graham described as "magical".

And which show would that be? Why, none other than my play The Enchanted Bookshop.

This article in the Crossville Chronicle tells the tale. And what an inspiring tale it is.

In a yearlong series of classes, the kids dove deep into learning about the various aspects of producing a show. They learned how to audition. They learned how to design sets. They learned how to manage props. They learned how to memorize their parts quickly, painfully quickly. And they learned how to make the characters their own.

But the most important thing the kids learned came from inside themselves. As fifth-grade teacher Kim Stephens put it, "Students I never would have imagined stepping onto the stage were absolutely fantastic, shining with confidence and talent in ways that left us all amazed." 

Will they do another show next year? You'd better believe it! Everyone loved the experience so much that they can't wait to do it again.

And I'll be cheering them all the way.

Don't Rock the Boat! gets a premiere

So I found a school that's eager to premiere my latest play, Don't Rock the Boat! And if you're wondering why you haven't heard about this one, there's a very good reason for that.

This 1930's high-seas comedy was rejected by my publisher of choice, Pioneer Drama Service, back in March. Whenever that happens, I hit pause and work on getting the play produced before submitting it to my backup publisher, Heuer Publishing. That then provides an opportunity for a school or community theater to receive a world premiere credit in the script, if and when it does get published.

How do I find these schools? Well, in the past, I've posted the announcement here on my blog. Oddly enough, however, I've been wildly unsuccessful in actually generating any interest that way. So this time I decide to approach a highly select group of schools that have worked with me in the past.

As it turns out, it was a real race to see who'd get the premiere of Don't Rock the Boat! Adrian McCracken at Hillcrest High School in Idaho, who'd produced my 1940's farce The Last Radio Show, was the first to respond so I gave the honors to him.

Just two days later, Trey Jackson at Caddo Parish Middle Magnet School in Louisiana, who'd premiered my one-act mystery A Fine-Feathered Murder, expressed his interest in the play. Trey was disappointed he missed out, but he loved the play so much that he was happy to be the second to produce it.

Around this same time, I also received an email about the play from a high school director in Nebraska who had come across the synopsis somewhere. It turns out she wanted to perform a slimmed-down version of the play for competition. Unfortunately, she needed it by November 3, and I told her that would be impossible as Hillcrest has exclusive rights through November 10, when they plan to perform it.

Adrian's school was the one I visited back in 2024 and I had a fantastic time there. He's currently looking into having me visit again, but even if that doesn't work out, I'm still excited to work with him because he intends to include me in every detail during the run-up to the show, from creating the promotional materials to developing the script.

In the meantime, Don't Rock the Boat! remains available for licensing directly from me.

Oh, you want to know more about the play? Well, let me tell you about it.

Don't Rock the Boat! is a romantic comedy set in the 1930's. It has a cast of 18 (4M, 10F, 4E), uses a single set representing the promenade deck of an ocean liner, and runs about 90 minutes.

Here's the synopsis:

It's hilarity on the high seas as Maisie and Lulu, two American pickpockets in Liverpool, escape the police by using the tickets they stole to board an ocean liner bound for New York. Unfortunately, they discover that the tickets belong to the princess of a small European country and her private secretary. Now Maisie and Lulu are forced to impersonate the pair for the duration of the voyage—or be thrown in the brig!

Against her better judgment, Maisie soon falls for a charming prince who's also on board. But when she learns that a matronly passenger is wearing a diamond necklace worth three million dollars, she risks everything to steal it. That's when the prince reveals that he's really a private detective who was hired to guard the necklace. Now he'll stop at nothing to identify the thief who stole it and lock him (or her!) away.

If you love those classic screwball comedies like It Happened One Night and His Girl Friday, you're going to love Don't Rock the Boat! And if you have no clue what these movies are, then you owe it to yourself to at least read the script. I guarantee it's one of the funniest things I've ever done. And all you have to do is email me a request for a free perusal script at todd.wallinger@gmail.com. Easy peasy!

Wyoming Bookshop showcases the magic of stories

Casper Children's Theatre of Casper, Wyoming, is a busy, busy place, with three age groups working on shows simultaneously and a production calendar that never lets up, not even for summer.

Tonight they open a three-day run of The Enchanted Bookshop, and it promises to be a hit. At least, if you believe this writeup of the show by Nick Perkins in the Oil City News.

Executive director Audrey Egan said she chose the play for two reasons. The first is that it has "a lot of really fun characters". Because they're an educational theatre, they seek out shows that offer their students a wide variety of ages, accents, and personalities to play.

The second reason is just as important. "[I]n our ever increasingly digital age," Egan goes on, "we thought that showcasing the magic of books and the magic of stories and the magic of theater was kind of a cool element..."

As it turns out, many of the students had no idea who some of the characters were. And I guess that makes sense. When I was a kid, many of the characters--Tom Sawyer, Robin Hood, Heidi--were featured in popular movies. But nowadays, Hollywood would rather base their features on comic books and video games than books. 

In any case, the kids came up to speed on their characters quickly. Now Egan can't wait for audiences to see the show.

"They'll be able to spend time as a family, see the magic of theater and maybe even see the sparkle and the comfort of reading and of literature."

Break legs, all! And make sure to sprinkle that magic on everyone who comes!