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 ties 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?
