Friday, August 23, 2024

Free Read Friday

Subscribers to Pioneer Drama Service's newsletter are already familiar with Free Read Fridays. At the end of each week, Pioneer promotes one or more plays from their catalog by providing a link to a free downloadable copy of the complete script.

My plays have appeared on Free Read Friday several times in the past, sometimes on their own, sometimes as part of a themed collection (recent themes have included Children's Musicals and Christmas in July).

It's always exciting to see what plays they offer. But today I'm especially excited because for the first time, Pioneer is devoting the week's theme to a single author's works. And that author happens to be, well, me.

The five plays they selected are tied together in three key ways. They're all 60-80 minutes in length. They're all single-set. And they all feature my unique brand of humor (Pioneer's words, not mine😁).

The five are:

It Happened on Route 66

It's a Madhouse!

George Washington Ate My Homework

Million Dollar Meatballs

Whole Latte Love

Unfortunately, if you don't already subscribe to the newsletter, it's too late to download these. But I'd still urge to subscribe as soon as possible because the next four Free Read Fridays will also offer five (or more) free perusal scripts.

Pioneer calls it their Five-for-Five, and I think it's a fantastic deal. Where else can you get 25 perusal scripts--a $200 value--for free? The themes they'll be offering are Halloween shows, murder mysteries, fairy tale courtroom comedies, and contest pieces.

And yes, you can unsubscribe at any time. To add your name to the growing list of subscribers, just fill out their form here.

Thursday, August 15, 2024

Kill the Critic! is now available!

I'm thrilled to announce that my 4th play of the year and 28th play overall has just been released by Heuer Publishing. It's called Kill the Critic! and it may be the funniest play I've ever written.

Set in 1955, Kill the Critic! is about Trevor Stanton, an impulsive young actor who kidnaps New York City's most powerful theater critic to prevent him from writing a negative review. There's just one problem. Trevor accidentally poisons the critic, and as showtime nears, he must take increasingly desperate measures to hide the corpse from a parade of outrageous characters.

It's the perfect showcase for a young male actor with serious comedy chops, especially if he's skilled at physical comedy. There's a ton of it in this play. But he must also have the endurance of an ox because Trevor has a whopping 511 lines and is on stage for the entire play, much of it running around in a frenzy.

And then there's Bertram Finch, the theater critic himself, who has much fewer lines but spends the play being dragged, shoved, carried, propped up, and manhandled a dozen different ways as a corpse. 


If you're a fan of my other, family-friendly plays, be aware that Kill the Critic! is not that. Some of the story revolves around alcohol, although none of the characters are ever drunk. Guns are drawn, as is a very dangerous frying pan. The play includes a few gags about sex, with Trevor's matronly co-star asking him whether he's sleeping with her only to get a part in the play. There's also some extremely mild cursing (three damns--that's it).

All of this may make the play inappropriate for some high schools and that's fine. But if your high school has performed shows like Moon Over Buffalo (alcohol!) or Mamma Mia! (sex!) or Guys and Dolls (guns! alcohol! also sex!), I'm confident you won't consider anything in this play objectionable.

Of course, most community theaters won't have those concerns, and a high-energy farce like this would be perfect for them.

The play runs about 90 minutes, has a cast of nine (4M, 3F, and 2 roles that can be any gender), and uses a single set representing a backstage dressing room.

If you love comedies, you really owe it to yourself to check out Kill the Critic! Just visit the play's web page, where you can download a free script sample and view some of the crazy photos from the original production.

Saturday, August 3, 2024

Ontario Bookshop Musical makes the grade

  

I love those profiles TV stations do of small towns in their area. It's a great way to remind us that every town--no matter how small--has a wealth of things they can be proud of.

Milwaukee PBS made one for my own hometown of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin four years ago and it was fun to see what host John McGivern considered notable about it. Wayland Academy, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, and the Beaver Dam Area Community Theatre are three that any proud Beaver would agree with (sadly, there was no mention of it being Fred MacMurray's hometown).

Well, apparently Smiths Falls, Ontario has plenty to be of proud of too, because this picturesque town on the Rideau River was recently profiled by the Canadian Broadcasting Company. And what they focused on was the town's historic train depot, originally built in 1912. Not only is it the home of the very cool Railway Museum but the Station Theatre, which is where the Smiths Falls Community Theatre performs.

And guess what play they're rehearsing right now? None other than The Enchanted Bookshop Musical (to see it, skip ahead 4:43 in the video above). Host Robyn Miller interviews a couple of volunteers and the young actress playing Margie, and it sounds like it's going to be a fantastic production. I already love the set!

The show runs August 16-25 so if you're in the area, be sure to check it out. This is one theatre company that's definitely on the right track (sorry!).

Thursday, August 1, 2024

Bringing Down the House is now available!

When Belmont Day School first approached me about writing a large-cast play--no, make that a huge-cast play (we're talking 40 roles!)--I expected it to be tough.

I mean, how do you come up with that many characters? How do you manage them on the stage? And how do you make sure every role is meaningful?

As is turned out, it was tough. But there were two steps I took to simplify things.

Making each role count

The first was to group characters together. I had the six members in the family. I had three ghost hunters. I had five tourists. I had five cheerleaders. And so on and so on. This made it easier to manage the characters because it allowed me to move them around in groups.

The second was to assign different personalities to each character within a group. For the cheerleaders, for example, I had a tough one, a sweet one, a bossy one, a confused one, and a perky one. In each situation they faced, I knew exactly how each of the characters would respond and I knew that each of those responses would be unique to that character.

It worked. The play was, for me, an artistic success, telling the amusing, action-packed, and yet emotionally powerful story of a dysfunctional family becoming, in the end, functional.

But it was a financial success too, as the play (along with its one-act adaptation) garnered 74  productions in its first full year of publication, placing it second on my list of popular plays.

Apparently, a lot of schools are interested in huge-cast plays. And it makes sense. After all, it allows them to involve a lot more actors in their program, including kids that may not have performed before but are eager to trod the boards with a small but laugh-worthy role.

An odd request

Well, now my second huge-cast play is out, and I have even higher hopes for it. This one is titled Bringing Down the House and it has an only slightly smaller cast of 38 (7M, 5F, plus 26 roles that can be any and extras). The play is about a struggling theater company that's forced to throw together a show in just two hours when they learn that the theater they rented is about to get demolished.

Sound crazy? It is. But there's an added twist that makes this one irresistible. Belmont Day School requested that it be a musical without songs.

What's that you say? How is that even possible? Well, the idea they came up with is that during the rehearsal, the various performers would prepare to burst into song, but each time they do, they get interrupted before they can even sing one note.

I loved it. And that's what led me to the concept of the theater being demolished in the first place. I mean, how can you even rehearse a musical when you have to deal with an endless array of intruders, from an annoying child actor to a publicity-hungry politician, and from a group of confused protestors to the bumbling demo crew itself?

The play is wild. It's fun. It's hilarious. And--big surprise!--it's easy to produce.

Keeping things simple

Since the play is a backstage comedy, you can use your own bare stage as the set, adding only a few minor items like a table, chair, and two building columns.

The props are fairly minimal as well, although there are two swordfights--one with stage swords and one with sledgehammers and protest signs (trust me, it makes sense)--so you'll have to prepare for that.

As for the costumes, those are almost entirely street clothes, with a few hard hats and professional outfits thrown in for good measure.

Okay, enough jabbering. You want to read the full synopsis, don't you? Well, you can find that on the play's web page, along with a free script sample and ordering info.

Hopefully, you'll have a lot more than two hours to rehearse this show.