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!

My 15th year sales

When I decided to become a full-time writer two years ago, I'd hoped that the huge boost in writing time (from 1 1/2 hours a day to 4 hours a day) would pay off just as hugely in my royalties. Unfortunately, that didn't happen last year, when my royalties were up only 6% over the previous year.

Well, I'm happy to report that this year I finally saw the boost I've been waiting for. My royalties were up a whopping 35% while my productions were up the same percentage--from 451 to 608. I'm now making about 60% of my annual income from writing, and if I can somehow replicate that growth in each of the next two years, I'll be able to live solely on my royalties (and maybe take that trip to Europe!). 

Part of that boost came from having more plays published, of course. Last year at this time, I had 31 plays in print. Now I've got 35.

But more importantly, most of my older plays showed very little dropoff in the number of productions they received. Some even saw a small bump. And it was the best year ever for The Enchanted Bookshop Musical and Lights! Camera! Murder!, both of which have been out for seven years

This year, my plays have also appeared in four new countries, making for a total of 28 countries.

Now that we've dealt with that, let's jump into...

The top five

1) The Enchanted Bookshop--122 productions

Normally a play will peak in its first full year of publication, with its popularity waning in the subsequent years until it flattens out at a level about a half to a quarter of that.

Well, there's been very little waning for this incredibly popular play. After a record-setting 156 productions in the 2018-2019 season, The Enchanted Bookshop has snagged at least 100 productions each year since then (except for the two COVID years, of course). And the 122 productions it got this year is the second-best showing it's ever had. 

But that's not all. This year, The Enchanted Bookshop got me my 25th country when it was performed at a secondary school in Cyprus. And did I mention that it remains Pioneer's top-selling full-length play?

2) Bringing Down the House--68 productions

This extra-large comedy continues to surprise me. Last year, it managed to debut at number three on this list, garnering an impressive 36 productions in its first nine months of publication.

This year, it managed to snatch the number two spot. The 68 productions it got is more than any of my plays not titled The Enchanted Bookshop have ever gotten. And that's good enough to make Bringing Down the House Pioneer's fifth best-selling full-length play.

Reports from schools and theater companies confirm that it really does bring down the house wherever it plays. And one of those places was Maui OnStage in beautiful Wailuku, Hawaii, where it became my first staged production in the Aloha State (my only other Hawaiian credit was a COVID-era production of my virtual comedy You're Virtually Driving Me Crazy!). Aloha, indeed!

3) Freaky Tiki--62 productions

They say music is the universal language, but this play convinces me that farce is just as universal. In its first full year of production, this Hawaii-set comedy was performed in Japan (my 26th country), Portugal (my 27th country), Indonesia, and Canada.

I never expected this one to do so well, but maybe I should have. After all, it's another over-the-top comedy in the spirit of Million Dollar Meatballs and It's a Madhouse!, two plays which have done extremely well for me over the years.

But this one goes even more over the top than those, featuring an opera singer forced to communicate by clown horn, a tiki figure that magically disappears and reappears, and a chase scene involving a hot-headed French chef and a human-sized lobster. You might even learn a little Hawaiian from it.

4) The Worst Fairy Tale Ever--48 productions

Last year, I had a hunch that this one-act comedy--my first in ten years--was going to be big. Just a few weeks after it was published, more than one drama teacher (okay, two) wrote to tell me how excited their kids were to produce it.

Well, that excitement continued throughout the year, allowing The Worst Fairy Tale Ever to debut at number four on this list.

Of course, it helps that this is by far my easiest play to produce. It has a cast of just eight, no set except for a single stage cube, and no costumes other than an assortment of hats, making it perfect for cash-strapped schools and theaters.

It was inspired by the madcap comedies of London-based Mischief Theatre, including the megahits The Play That Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong. I even wanted to call it The Fairy Tale That Goes Wrong, but that idea was quickly squashed by my lawsuit-adverse publisher. Now, with the success of this play, I'm thing about launching my own series of everything-that-can-go-wrong-will-go-wrong comedies. The Worst Murder Mystery Ever anyone?

5) The Enchanted Bookshop Musical and Too Many Ghosts--33 productions

For the first time ever, I have a tie in my top five list, this time between the musical version of The Enchanted Bookshop and my haunted house comedy.

I don't know why the musical popped up this year, but I'll take it. Especially since the show got me my 28th country with a youth theatre production in Trinidad and Tobago.

As for Too Many Ghosts, I couldn't be more thrilled. I love this play. Like really, really love it.

One reason is that it's my most cinematic play. Not only is it highly visual (some of the photos I've seen of the ghost effects have blown me away), but the script is plotted like a big-budget movie. If I hadn't failed so miserably trying to break into Hollywood several years ago, I'd be tempted to adapt it into a screenplay.

The other reason is that it includes a subplot unlike anything else I've written. I don't want to give it away here--you really owe it to yourself to read the script--but it's quite sad, and I hope that the play draws a few tears as well as laughs.

Feeling grateful

So, yeah, it's been a fantastic year, and I owe it all to you, the drama teachers and theatre directors who've produced my plays over the last twelve months. I can't thank you enough. But I'm definitely going to try. And what better way than with a great big colorful...