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! 

Route 66 comes to Route 66

Of all my plays, It Happened on Route 66 has the strongest sense of place. One of my goals in writing this 1950's comedy was to capture the ambience of the hundreds of small towns along the Mother Road, and of one very small town in particular--the unforgettable Winona, Arizona, where the play is set.

I wanted theatergoers to feel the dust in the air of that high desert town. I wanted them to hear the roar of the cars rushing just outside the diner. But most of all, I wanted to capture the hope that Route 66 held for so many people as they headed west toward what they believed was the Promised Land.

Which is why, once the play was published, I was excited to see where it would be produced. Would it be embraced by the bustling cities and those quaint small towns along its length? Would it find a home in theaters much further away? Would it get produced internationally at all?

I was pleasantly surprised. The play was a huge hit from day one, garnering 57 productions its first full year of publication. Nine of those productions were in Canada, one was in Australia, and one was in New Zealand. The rest of the productions were scattered all over the United States, from Vermont to California and Florida to Oregon (no Maine or Washington yet). But none of those productions were in a city or town along the Mother Road itself.

Until now. Ghost Light Youth Theatre, a branch of River Cities Community Theatre in Bullhead City, AZ, is performing the show tonight and tomorrow.

I've never been to Bullhead City--it's four hours away from my home in suburban Phoenix--but it always pops up on our statewide weather forecasts and I've always been fascinated by the name.

Turns out its history is just as fascinating.

The town of 43,000 is located on the Colorado River, directly across from the famous gambling town of Laughlin, Nevada. It was first known as Hardyville, being founded in 1864 as a steamboat landing for the gold, silver, and copper mines in the area.

After silver prices declined in the 1890's, it became a bona fide ghost town, only to be resurrected with its current name in 1942 when it became the base for construction of Davis Dam. Ironically, the highway predated the rebirth of the town as the Arizona section of Route 66 was completed in 1926. 

Yes, you can still drive (or get down on your hands and knees and kiss, if that's your thing) the original asphalt of Route 66 through Bullhead City. In fact, the best-preserved section of the entire highway is the 73-mile long section from Kingman to Seligman just east of Bullhead City.

And where did that crazy name come from? From Bullshead Rock, a prominent rock formation that was almost entirely submerged by the lake formed by the dam (take that, rock!).

Unfortunately, I can't find any history on the theater company itself, but judging from its Facebook account, it appears to be a healthy, vibrant group that has already been around for quite a few years. 

My ultimate dream for this play, of course, would be to have it performed in Winona. But seeing as Winona is an unincorporated village without a school let alone a theater company, that seems highly unlikely.

So what do you say, Flagstaff? You're the nearest city to the setting of the play. How would you like to be the next Route 66 town to produce it?

Mouse in the House to be published

It may be a week before Christmas, but I already got what I asked Santa for. Pioneer Drama Service just informed me that they'll be publishing my 35th play, Mouse in the House. And unlike the creature in that C. C. Moore poem, this mouse is definitely stirring!

The play is a wild farce in the spirit of my full-length comedies Bringing Down the House or It's a Madhouse! It has a cast off of 33, slightly smaller than those two plays. And it requires only a single living-room set.

Here's the synopsis:

To solve their financial woes, Jeff and Quinn are forced to sell the charming Victorian home that Quinn inherited from her parents. Unfortunately, just as their open house is about to start, Quinn spies a mouse in the upstairs hallway.

Their realtor Moira is mortified. She wants to hire an exterminator to get rid of the mouse before any potential buyers see it. Kindhearted Quinn, however, insists that no traps, cats, or poisons be used. And so, unknown to the others, each of the three calls an exterminator specializing in "humane" methods.

One uses kazoos, one uses Viking weapons (Quinn didn't say anything about war hammers), and one dresses in a mouse costume in an attempt to get rid of the rodent. The result? Pure havoc as the exterminators prove better at chasing off the potential buyers than the mouse!

How did I come up with the idea? Well, that's an interesting story in itself.

When I brainstorm ideas for new plays. I usually start with the location. I ask myself: what setting is fresh and new (for me, at least) and offers a lot of potential for humor?

That's how I came up with Freaky Tiki (Hawaiian resort), It Happened on Route 66 (1950's diner), and Whole Latte Love (coffee shop). But after completing my last play, Mall Madness (1980's food court), I was stuck. I couldn't think of a single setting that met my requirements.

Then one day, I was watching the Netflix series No Good Deed and as soon as I saw that it was set during an open house, it hit me. I don't always need a unique location. A unique situation can work just as well. And an open house is one situation that's rife with possibilities.

I tossed around the idea of having a murder occur at an open house, but that seemed a little too dark for me. So then I imagined what else could go wrong during that open house. I thought about the couple having their pet hamster get loose, or their pet snake. But then I realized the only really good idea is to have a mouse running amuck in the house.

And not just any mouse. This mouse would be their neighbor's super-talented movie star mouse (think Stuart Little if that film had featured a real live rodent instead of a CGI figure).

It was a natural. All I had to do was throw in a few crazy exterminators, a money-hung realtor, a pair of obnoxious HOA officers, a confused pizza delivery person, and I had my plot.

Oh, one more thing. Mouse in the House wasn't its original title. I actually submitted it to Pioneer as Eek!

Personally, I loved the title. To me, it instantly created a picture in the mind of what is was about--and a funny one at that.

But it immediately ran into problems. When my editor Brian received my email featuring the one-word subject line of Eek!, he freaked out, thinking I'd found a mistake in the script they'd just released (my one-act comedy, A Fine-Feathered Murder). Needless to say, he was relieved to learn that subject line was merely the title of my latest play.

Then when I received the acceptance email today, Brian addressed the title again. He said that when the staff there started reviewing the script, some of the readers thought it might be a ghost story or a mystery.

It made a lot of sense. To me, "eek" always meant someone had seen a mouse, but a quick Google search showed that, yeah, some people use it for ghosts as well. And Merriam-Webster simply defines it as an interjection "used to express surprise or dismay". Which I guess includes everything you might be scared by, from spiders to zombies to public speaking.

So I agreed to dump that title. Fortunately, Brian already had another one ready to go: Mouse in the House.

I liked it. A lot. It tells you what the play's about. And it makes it clear that the play is a comedy.

I still have a couple months to see if I can come up with something even better. But for now, Mouse in the House it is. Look for this furry farce to receive a spring release.

No, not that kind of spring.

Crowley County HS joins the club

A big shoutout to Crowley County High School in Ordway, Colorado for becoming the sixth member of my five-timers club, that very elite group of theaters that have performed my plays five or more times. 

Located in the high plans 50 miles east of Pueblo, CCHS may be a small school (just 250 students strong!), but it's got a super active drama club. These talented students produce two full-length shows a year, hold a ton of fund-raising activities, and even have their own Facebook page.

Here are the plays of mine they've produced:

The Enchanted Bookshop

An Enchanted Bookshop Christmas

Whole Latte Love

It Happened on Route 66 (shown above)

George Washington Ate My Homework (coming November 23-25)

Oh, and that production of The Enchanted Bookshop? Its cast represented almost 10% of the entire student body!

Keep it up, Charger Drama. You're doing a fantastic job!

Mall Madness is now available!

Just in time for the new school year, Pioneer Drama Service has released my 29th play with them (and 33rd overall). Set in the 1980's, Mall Madness is a lighthearted romp through all those great fads of that wonderful decade: Rubik's cubes, Dungeons and Dragons, Sony Walkmans (Walkmen?), Swatch watches, boomboxes, and, of course, Air Jordans.

To read a script sample or review ordering info, visit the play's web page here.

It's a Mall World After All

Most of my early plays were set in fairly generic settings: an Old West town, a French restaurant, a mythical kingdom. But I've been having fun lately placing my plays in oddly specific locales.

It Happened on Route 66 is set at an actual 1950's diner in Winona, Arizona, which I made a point of visiting last year and discovered it to be very different that the diner I'd imagined when I was writing the play.

Thirty Minutes Till Boarding, a play I'm currently developing with Belmont Day School in Massachusetts, takes place at gate E7 of Boston's Logan Airport. 

And while the abandoned theater of Bringing Down the House is completely made-up, I placed it on a very specific street in Lower Manhattan for one very good reason.

Mall Madness is no different. I could have set it in any 1980's mall. But I decided to plop it down right in the middle of the Glendale Galleria in the San Fernando Valley of California. Why? Well, I wanted the laid-back, Southern California vibe that the characters in movies like Say Anything and Fast Times at Ridgemont High had. I also found that there are a ton of videos and photos of the place online, which inspired my own writing.

The Glendale Galleria also has a fascinating history in itself. It was the home of the very first Disney Store. The home of the very first Panda Express. It appeared in a number of 1980's movies, including Miracle Mile and Valley Girl. And Billie Eilish recorded her music video for her 2021 single "Therefore I Am" in the empty, after-hour corridors of the mall.

Of course, I don't expect directors to make their set a carbon copy of the Glendale Galleria. That would be insane. But I think that having something to look at will inspire them in their own work. They may end up going in a completely different direction. But at least they'll have a starting point.

Those Golden Treasures

One more thing about the play. Mall Madness is one of my few plays that features a full, minute-long monologue.

I know, I know. I should write more monologues as a way to introduce directors and actors to my plays through the audition circuit. And I've tried. I've really tried.

The thing is that my characters absolutely refuse to talk that long. They like to get to the point, their dialog taking a rat-a-tat rhythm that keeps things moving.

Well, that all changed when Darla, a teenage employee of Rooster Ray's, America's Poultry Palace, took the stage in Mall Madness. Her job was to hand out samples of the latest high tech food product: chicken nuggets. And she took that job way too seriously:

I understand, ma'am, but I'm not allowed to give you any more. My manager was very clear about that during my training. Why, I remember it as if it were yesterday. Come to think of it, it was yesterday. "Darla," he said. "Do you see this chunk of chicken in my hand? Well, this is no ordinary chunk of chicken. Oh, no! This chunk of chicken is going to change the world! For too long, mothers have suffered the backbreaking burden of roasting entire chickens in their ovens. For too long, their husbands and children have grappled with scrawny drumsticks and unwieldy wings at the dinner table. But today we are on the verge of a new dawn. Today the chicken chunk has eliminated those hassles forever by offering a source of protein that is not only easy to cook but delicious to eat as well. Which i why we must treat them as the golden treasures they are. No not hand them out willy-nilly. They are much too precious for that. No, our corporate rule--and it is an ironclad one--is that you are to distribute only one sample per customer. Not three. Not two. Not one and a half. Just one. One chicken chunk, now and forevermore.

Summing it up 

Mall Madness is a big, fun comedy jam-packed with crazy characters like Darla. But it's not all yuks. There's also a heartwarming message about teenage relationships and figuring out who your real friends are. And, of course, there's a ton of cultural references that will make any child of the 80's smile.

I think you're really going to love it.

You can check it out here.

UPDATE: Mall Madness booked its first production on August 27, just 6 days after it was released. That's a new record for me. Thank you, Mascoutah Middle School of Mascoutah, IL!

I'm thinking it's going to be very popular.

My 14th year sales

Another theater season has come and gone, and I'm happy to say that this one truly was a banner one. But--and it's a big but--it had to be. Since I'm now a full-time playwright, and my playwriting income is only about a third of my old engineering income, I need to keep growing my royalties by a healthy percentage each year if I want to make a go of this.

The best way to do that, of course, is to get more productions. And the best way to do that is to write more plays. Which is why I've been working like crazy, cranking out plays quickly while maintaining the quality people have come to expect.

But not just any plays. It's also important to keep the market in mind and write what schools and community theaters are looking for. And a couple of results from the past year have me rethinking this whole thing.

More on that later. In the meantime, let's take a quick look at...

The numbers

A year ago, I saw a massive bump from the previous year. My production count was up 16% and my royalties were up--get ready for it--44%. Maybe I was a little delusional, but I was hoping for something similar this year. Unfortunately, I fell short. I had a total of 451 productions, which is up 8% over the previous year while my royalties were up only 6%.

It's not that my new plays didn't do well. They did. It's just that some of my big hits from the previous year dropped off a little more than expected.

Still, I'm not worried. I've seen quite a few of my plays pop up again in a year or two so I'm hopeful that will happen again over the next twelve months.

And besides, that 451 is an all-time record for me so I really can't complain.

The top five

1) The Enchanted Bookshop--118 productions

My most-popular play for the eighth year in a row was this magical comedy. That 118 is actually an amazing number because it represents the second highest production count this play has ever had.

The Enchanted Bookshop is truly the Energizer Bunny of plays. It just keeps going and going and going.

It's the only one of my plays that theaters repeat, sometimes as often as once a year. It's also the only one of my plays (besides The Enchanted Bookshop Musical) that regularly appears in professional theater seasons alongside such big-name works as Clue, Matilda, and Into the Woods.

2) It Happened on Route 66--48 productions

For the second year in the row, my second-most-popular play was this 1950's romantic comedy. And I couldn't be happier.

I love this play. I love the characters. I love the humor. I love the cool diner setting. And I'm grateful that so many people around the country seem to love the play as well.

I can't wait to see how well the brand new musical adaptation Route 66 does this year.

3) Bringing Down the House--36 productions

My third-most-popular play was this backstage comedy. What's especially impressive is that this was only a partial year for the play. It wasn't even released until August.

I've got be honest. This one surprised me. I never dreamed it would be this popular. I wrote it simply because a school commissioned me to write it. They wanted a play about a musical rehearsal that keeps getting interrupted so none of the characters actually get to sing. As a result, the play calls for a lot of different musical tracks which are only played for a few bars.

The play is pretty quirky in other ways as well. There's a swordfight between a group of confused protesters using the handles of their protest signs against a band of sledgehammer-armed demolition workers, There's another swordfight involving actual swords. And then there's a dance involving aliens, pirates, and several crates of dynamite.  

The reason I think it's so popular is just the sheer size of the play. It calls for a cast of 40, similar to my play It's a Madhouse!, which has also been wildly popular. So it's clear that a lot of schools are interested in plays that give a large number of students an opportunity to perform.

And this one definitely does. Unlike some plays that achieve their large cast sizes by plugging in a nameless chorus, my plays always give each character a name, a unique personality, a specific goal, and at least a couple of lines guaranteed to get a laugh. 

So one of the changes I'm planning to make in my career is to focus a lot more on huge-cast plays like this--even if they're not commissioned.

4) The Enchanted Bookshop Musical--27 productions

My fourth-most-popular play was this musical adaptation of The Enchanted Bookshop. This was another surprise because those 27 productions are the most it's received since its inaugural (and COVID-shortened) season of 2019-2020 and a big boost from last year's 15 productions. I don't know what happened to bring it back to life, but I like it.

5) You're Driving Me Crazy!--25 productions

My fifth-most-popular play was this collection of four driver's ed-related shorts. Ten years in, it's still getting a healthy number of productions.

Earlier this month, Pioneer released The Worst Fairy Tale Ever, my first one-act play since You're Driving Me Crazy! and I'm already hearing from teachers who tell me how excited their students are to perform it. So I think that's going to be a big play this year. And I'm going to watch it closely because I may start writing a lot more short plays.

Honorable mentions

I do want to give a shout-out to three plays that just missed being in the top five: Million Dollar Meatballs (also in its tenth year) and It's a Madhouse!, both of which snagged 24 productions, and How to Enchant a Bookshop, which was right behind them with 23 productions.

It's a Madhouse!, of course, has a one-act version titled simply Madhouse!, and if you combined the two of them, they would account for an impressive 47 productions. So even though the first of those two plays dropped off my top five this year, the pair remains a production powerhouse.

Finally, this was the first full year for How to Enchant a Bookshop and I find that particularly interesting because when I first submitted the play, there was some concern that it might cannibalize sales from the other Enchanted Bookshop plays. Seeing that two of them are still in my top five, it's heartening to know this didn't happen.

Final thoughts

So yeah, it was a good year. Sure, I wish some of my plays had done a little better and that my royalties had grown a little more. But still, it was a record-breaking year in many ways and I couldn't have done it without you, the drama teachers and theater directors who've chosen my plays over the years.

So let me just leave you with a large and very heartfelt...

Route 66 comes home

I've talked before about how rare it is for me to see one of my plays. About 90% of my productions come from schools, and I tend to avoid those because the presence of the playwright can be intimidating, something young actors don't need when the focus should be on them and the development of their skills in a constructive, pressure-free environment.

In fact, the last production I saw was An Enchanted Bookshop Christmas all the way back in December 2023. That was a wonderful show and I was gratified by how warmly the audience responded to it.

So I was excited this weekend to see Center Stage Theater Group bring my diner comedy It Happened on Route 66 to life in the Phoenix metro area, where I live.

I'm familiar with most of the theaters in town, but I'd never heard of this happy band of thespians. A quick Google search told me they're one of the newest companies in town, having only been around since 2023.

Center Stage is the brainchild and passion project of Helene Benigno, a director, actor, and playwright in her own right. In just two years, she has built a dedicated stable of community theater veterans with whom she produces plays like Love, Loss, and What I Wore and Lizzie Borden of Fall River.

When I contacted Helene, she said she'd be thrilled to have me attend the show. And so earlier tonight, I journeyed westward with my wife to the suburb of Buckeye, where the company was performing my  play at a local high school.

As soon as I stepped inside the school's cafetorium, I knew I was in good hands. The set looked great. Although the company had rented the stage for only two performances, they managed to put together a set that was both appealing and lovingly detailed, establishing a fun, nostalgic mood for the performance.

Even better, the place was packed. I'm guessing at least two hundred people were there. The air was electric. And so, as I settled into my seat, I couldn't wait to see the cast bring my familiar lines to life.

Only it didn't start familiar, and for a few minutes, I wasn't sure what was going on. Sans dialogue, a young waitress entered the diner and promptly fell asleep at one of the tables, only to be chewed out by an irate Cookie, also sans dialogue but with plenty of amusingly angry gestures.

Turns out this was nothing more than a way to get the audience to take their seats, since Helene's pre-performance announcements immediately followed this scene. I thought it was really fun because it basically played out how Sally's coworker Deedee quit, an event which Cookie only briefly mentions near the beginning of the play.

I don't know the name of the actress who played Deedee (she's not credited as such in the program), but I'm 99.9% certain she's the only person who's ever played this role.

The show was fantastic. I hate to pick out any single performers since they were all so good. But I would like to mention Ashley Fergus-Crane, who played movie star Lovey Lamour exactly as I'd always imagined her, with plenty of sass in the beginning, but gradually revealing her human side as she interacts with the everyday people who pass through the diner.

Helene told me she's a huge fan of physical comedy, and it showed. She gave her cast free rein to play with the script, and they found plenty of stuff to work with. My favorite bit was the way Ashley awkwardly stuck her fingers inside the water glasses as she carried them to the customers--something she came up with herself and which got loud guffaws every time she did it.

I also really liked Mallory Kochmann, who blended a wide-eyed innocence with just the right amount of spunk in her portrayal of movie-obsessed waitress Sally. In fact, she seemed to win the hearts of the audiences as much as she did Roscoe's heart, earning a heartfelt "aw" from the crowd as she declared her undying love for her geeky boyfriend.

And Kathy Berrens was hilariously tough as diner owner Cookie (it's always fun to see whether a theater goes with a male or female in this role--both work well!). Every one of her tirades got big laughs from the audience. And this constant grousing only made it funnier when she totally fan-girled out at crooner Johnny Jerome's surprise appearance in Act Two.

Speaking of surprises, there was an especially clever one at intermission when Helene announced that she would give two free tickets to whoever found a particular object under their seat. The object? The C that was blown off of the Cookie's Diner sign (you can see me holding it in the photo at the top of this post).

Cute, right?

Helene put her own twist on the ending as well. In the script, I have the lights dim as Cookie wipes the counter after bidding a pre-fame Elvis goodbye. Instead of this, Helene had Cookie stroll over to the jukebox, where she punched the button for "Hound Dog." This led seamlessly into the curtain call as the cast shimmied and shook their way onto the stage to the real Elvis's iconic tune.

After the performance, I chatted with the cast and signed their programs. They bombarded me with questions about my thoughts on the performance and what other plays I was working on, but there was one question I myself was dying to ask.

Sheehan Servais played both a hilariously hungry Otis and the King himself. He played them so well, in fact, that I didn't even realize they were done by the same actor until he came out for the curtain call.

Now I wish I'd asked him how he managed the quick change since the script goes right from Otis's exit to Elvis's entrance with only a quick laugh and a wipe of the counter by Cookie between them. But no. The question I asked was how he managed to put away so much food during the hour and a half of the play.

The production notes at the end of the script suggest that the actor deposit some of the food into a hole drilled into the top of the counter. But I watched for that and didn't see Sheehan doing anything like that.

The answer was simple. Sheehan did eat all of the food he was served during the play. He just skipped dinner those nights.

I guess that's one of the advantages to being in your twenties. You know, the insatiable appetite and all.

Anyway, it was an amazing show, and I feel very lucky to have seen it.

Thank you, Helene and the entire cast and crew. You made this playwright very proud.

Instant Five-Timer

I've spoken before about my Five-Timers club, that elite group of schools and community theaters that have performed five or more of my plays. It usually takes a few years to achieve that lofty status. After all, producing groups generally like to mix things up by performing plays from a variety of playwrights.

So I have to give a big shoutout to Plain Dealing High School (Go Lions!) of Plain Dealing, LA, which became the fifth member of my Five-Timers Club--literally overnight--by booking five different plays of mine yesterday. 

The five plays are:

It Happened on Route 66 (my newest blockbuster)

Million Dollar Meatballs (a perennial favorite)

The Butler Did It! (an old classic)

You're Driving Me Crazy! (short and oh so sweet)

The Purrfect Crime (an overlooked charmer)

All five plays are scheduled for this school year, so I'm guessing they may be in-class readings rather than full productions. But they're all officially licensed and paid through Pioneer Drama Service so what the heck. I'll count them.

And no, my Five-Timers Club may not come with a jacket, like Saturday Night Live's version. But it does get you my everlasting gratitude and appreciation.

Thanks, PDHS! And break lots and lots of legs!

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.

Route 66 learns to sing (and dance)!

Musicals have always played a big role in my life. I was nine years old when I first fell in love with them, seeing You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown at my hometown community theater. I loved the songs. I loved the humor. I loved the performances. But I especially loved the fact that the actors were people I knew from around town. Seeing them bring those beloved comic strip characters to life was a new form of magic for me, and that magic continued for all the other shows I saw on that stage, from Mame to Camelot to 1776.

Not surprisingly, cast albums played a big role in my life as well. Every summer, when my family piled into our station wagon for our annual two-week camping trip--sometimes east, sometimes north, usually west--it was often cast albums that provided the soundtrack. Our favorite, the one we nearly wore through from replaying and replaying, was My Fair Lady. As I looked out the window, the spectacular mesa-dotted landscapes filled me with wonder, but a part of me found that Lerner and Loewe score to be just as wondrous.

Then there was the time I decided to crack open the big freestanding cabinet in our basement--the one which was primarily used to hold up my dad's ashtray and had remained unopened for years--and discovered it held a veritable treasure trove of cast albums. The shows represented were a little weirder than what the community theater or our summer camping trips offered. I remember Li'l Abner was there. And something called Fiorello! But Camelot was there. And The Music Man. And--oh, my goodness!--West Side Story. That last album was the one I snuck up to my bedroom so I could fall asleep to those brilliant, heartbreaking melodies night after night.

So yeah, musicals have always been important to me. But I never dreamed I'd help write one.

Which is why I was so thrilled six years ago when Pioneer Drama Service approached me about turning my play The Enchanted Bookshop into a musical. And why I'm just as thrilled that they've now offered to do the same for It Happened on Route 66.

The title of this musical jaunt down America's Highway? A very succinct Route 66.

Last time, Pioneer contracted Stephen Murray to provide the music and lyrics. This time, it's the prolific Scott DeTurk, who has worked extensively in TV and industrial films and has been produced at important regional venues like Denver's Buell Theatre and Minneapolis's Guthrie Theatre. And did I mention he studied under the late great Lehman Engel?

I'm excited to see what he comes up with. The play features not one but two romantic couples so I expect there will be some great love songs. But there's plenty of potential for comedic tunes as well, from diner owner Cookie lamenting Otis's gluttonous ways to Sally teaching Lovey all that colorful diner lingo. Of course, seeing that the play is set in the 1950's, it's a no-brainer that the score as a whole will be inspired by those great early rock 'n roll songs.

Look for Route 66 to come out sometime in 2025.

Tennessee Route 66 wins Pioneer photo contest

A big congrats to Mt. Pleasant Middle School in Mt. Pleasant, TN, for winning Pioneer Drama Service's annual photo contest. The winning photo can be seen at the top of this post, which came from their production of my 1950's diner comedy It Happened on Route 66. The contest judges noted that the photo won for the dynamic action and expression of the young actor as well as the fine detail of the costumes and sets.

I remember seeing the school's production photos when I first came across them on Facebook last November, and I couldn't be prouder for their well-deserved victory now.

For their prize, the school gets $250 towards their next Pioneer production and this awesome photo will be included on the cover of Pioneer's fall catalog.

But wait, there's more! Caledonia-Mumford Middle School in Caledonia, NY received an honorable mention for the action-packed photo below, a fun glimpse into their production of my treasure hunt comedy It's a Madhouse! They earned this honor for capturing the madcap energy of the play and for the keen attention detail in the set.

Well done, all! And don't forget to enter next year's contest, which should open sometime in the spring!

My 13th year sales

When I set out to write this post, I was going to use the word "gangbusters" to describe how this theater season went for me. But then I went back to look at what I wrote last year and realized I'd used that same word then.

So what word is stronger than gangbusters? Stellar? Dynamite? Fantabulous? Nifty?

Okay, so maybe my favorite thesaurus app throws in a few clunkers. The point is you can pick any one of those words and they wouldn't do justice to how successful this year was for me. Here are just three of the highlights.

I had a total of 420 productions, 16% more than my previous record of 362, set all the way back in that pre-COVID year of 2019. 

My royalties were an impressive 44% higher than my previous record, which was set just last year and which I'm definitely not going to share here (sorry!).

I also added three new amazing countries to my life list, making a grand total of 24 (still no South America though!).

The top five

The Enchanted Bookshop was my best-selling play for the seventh year in a row, with a whopping 109 productions. That's the most it's had since 2020 (actually, the 2019-2020 season, with the tail end of that season being clipped due to COVID-related theater closures). While most of my plays drop 50% or more within three years, this play has shown incredible staying power. In fact, its production count has dropped only 30% in five years and had held pretty steady the last two years. Besides that, the play got me my 22nd and 23rd countries this year with productions in Abuja, Nigeria and Jakarta, Indonesia. And did I mentioned it already has 43 productions booked for next year? Wowzuh!

It Happened on Route 66 was my second best-selling play with 57 productions, this being its first full year of relief. And that's a whole story in itself. For years after writing The Enchanted Bookshop, I've been trying to replicate its success, but my subsequent eight plays received only a small fraction of that play's productions. Then along came this love letter to the Mother Road, proving that a completely different story--if it's the right story--can get halfway there.

If the success of It Happened on Route 66 was a pleasant surprise, the numbers for It's a Madhouse! were an even bigger surprise. This crazy treasure hunt farce got an impressive 41 productions this year (again its first full year), making it my third-place play. But if you combine that number with the 33 productions received by Madhouse!--its one-act version and my fourth-place play--you get a total of 74 productions--almost Enchanted Bookshop levels. And the royalties for this one-two punch were 82% of the those that my top-earning play received.

Two new hit plays in one year? I'll take it.

With 24 productions, fifth place goes to my coffee shop comedy, Whole Latte Love. This was the play's first full-year as well, but it was down a bit from the 28 productions it got the year before, mostly because that year was practically a full year. It's too early to know for sure, but I expect that this love-filled play will continue to pull healthy numbers over the next few years.

But wait, there's more

Further down the list, I have to give a shout-out to my restaurant farce Million Dollar Meatballs, which has been going strong for nine years now. And by strong, I mean it has gotten 20 or more productions every year except for the two COVID-affected years. As Adam Sandler would say, not too shabby.

I was kind of blown away by this one, but An Enchanted Bookshop Christmas is defying the play-aging odds. This was its fourth year of publication and it somehow managed to earn more royalties this year than it did in any of its previous three years. Like 50% more. This has never happened to me before. A little elfin magic? I have to wonder...

Finally, I have to mention my collection of driver's ed skits, You're Driving Me Crazy!, which, like Million Dollar Meatballs, continues to receive 20 or more productions a year in this, its ninth year. Even more amazing, this year the play got me my 24th country, with a production in Rzeszow, Poland. 

The big question

I've been racking my head lately, trying to figure out why my last four plays have done so well. In last year's wrap-up, I suggested that it may be because I've been concentrating more on single-set, contemporary plays. I'm sure that's helped, but it doesn't explain why my cat inheritance comedy, The Purrfect Crime, has never done super well.

Then I realized that all four plays came after my two-year hiatus from writing plays to try to break into novels and screenplays. How did that go? Not well.

But maybe I learned something in those two years. I spent so much of that time studying the Hero's Journey and learning to apply those lessons to my novels and screenplays that my plays may have benefited as well. I feel like they're stronger now. Tighter. More character-driven.

I know they have a lot more heart.

Anyway, I want to thank all of the schools and theater companies who performed my plays this year. I love you all!

And if you enjoyed my current plays, just wait. There's more great stuff right around the corner. Stay tuned!

Finding Winona

Setting has always been of the utmost important to me. Often, the germ of an idea for a new play comes not from the plot or a character, but from the setting, whether that setting is a creepy mansion, a failing French restaurant, or a bookshop.

So I suppose it's ironic that the setting of my plays rarely includes a specific city.

Location, Location, Location

It Happened on Route 66 is the big exception. From the get-go, that play has been about capturing a specific time and place, so when I first sat down to write it, it was important to me to set it in a real town along the Mother Road and to bring that town to life through the specificity of the dialogue and the richness of the characters.

During my initial brainstorming, I considered several small towns along that fabled highway. Tulsa. Amarillo. Flagstaff.

But when I remembered that famous line from the song "Get Your Kicks on Route 66," I knew that Winona, Arizona had to be it.

Route 66 Trivia: Being east of Flagstaff, Winona is the only town that's out of order going east to west in that song.

It didn't hurt that I've lived in Arizona for the last seven years so I already knew what small Arizona towns are like. However, I've never been to Winona itself.

Until today.

My wife and I were in Flagstaff to cheer on our daughter in her first 38-mile ultra-marathon, and the day after the race, as we headed back to Phoenix, I managed to talk them into buzzing through the tiny town. After all, it's only 13 miles east of Flagstaff--a quick jaunt, no?

I wanted to see how close modern-day Winona was to the quaint roadside town of my imagination. I especially wanted to see if there was actually a diner there. And could it possibly be named Ookie's?

Gettin' My Kicks

I've always loved Route 66 towns. Tulsa makes a big deal about being the birthplace of the highway, apparently because the guy who first pushed for it came from there, and I remember taking a picture of a big Route 66 sign on one of the bridges over the road downtown.

Not the largest Route 66 sign in the country.

Flagstaff is pretty much built along the old highway, with many Route 66-themed burger joints and other restaurants stretched along its length.

But my favorite Route 66 town has to be Williams, Arizona. We spent a weekend there a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it. That town, by the way, calls itself the Gateway to the Grand Canyon, even though it's 54 miles away from that big hole in the ground. But there's no bigger town closer to the canyon, so I guess they can get away with it.

Route 66 Trivia: Williams was the last town on Route 66 to be bypassed by Interstate 40.

What I love about Williams is that even though it's pretty small, it really crackles with life. And that's due its ties to the Main Street of America.

The main drag is lined with neon signs that hark back to the time when Route 66 was in its heyday. And it seems that every other shop in town sells some kind of Route 66 memorabilia. But the town also has some great restaurants and brewpubs, and a killer view of an extinct volcano named Bill Williams Mountain to the south.

Prices are cheap in Williams.

So I had high hopes for Winona. The town had lived and died by its connected to that legendary highway so I figured there would still be a lot of remnants from its glorious past.

My pre-trip research held promise. It revealed that a gas station named the Winona Trading Post had been built along Route 66 in the late 1940's. It was the main business in town back then, and--miracle of miracles--it's still in operation today in the same sand-colored, cinder block building. What's more, a photo of an old postcard I found online showed that the sign on the store boasted a cafe.

I had my diner!

What once was.

An inconvenient truth

I'm not embarrassed to tell you that my heart was racing a little as we pulled off I-40 onto the frontage road that led to the gas station.

That's when it saw it. The cafe sign was gone. There was no diner anymore. The building had been turned into a convenience store.

Let me correct that. An extremely tacky convenience store.

Smiling on the outside. Crying on the inside.

Of course, they had some cheap little Route 66 trinkets for sale. There was even a little exhibit of historical items from the road on display. But sadly, no sign of the cafe itself.

Still, I stood in that store for a few minutes and tried to imagine the millions of travelers who'd passed through the cafe over the years. Who were they? What were their stories? And did they ever order the all-you-can-eat special?

I went outside and looked around. I smiled to see that there was a garage next to the store. I later learned it had been built in the late 1940's or early 1950's so my play wasn't completely accurate when it said that the nearest garage was in Flagstaff. But I thought it funny that there was a tow truck out front, just like the one from Ed's Towing that Sally told Lovey was getting repaired.

Looks fine to me.

As for the rest of the town, it mostly consists of a few dozen houses scattered over the foothills to the north (Winona has never been incorporated so I have no idea what the population is). But I instantly recognized one sight that loomed over the town like a dark cloud on the horizon.

It was the Darling Cinder Pit Mine, which Sally referred to as the largest cinder pit mine in the country. When I got back home, I went online to reconfirm this fact. Turns out it's actually just the largest cinder pit mine in the state--and might not have even held that title in 1955, when the play was set.

Clearly, Sally got some bad info.

Not the largest cinder pit mine in the country.

After taking a few pictures, I climbed back into our car and we headed home.

Final thoughts

Was I sad that I didn't get to see the cafe where It Happened on Route 66 might have happened? Sure. But then so much of that once-vital highway has been lost to time, I shouldn't have been surprised. And I wasn't.

Still, I'm happy I went, if only to get a sense of what might have been. I'm even happier to see how popular the play has been with schools and community theaters. The sets I've seen photos of do a fantastic job of bringing to life the diner I'd hoped I'd see. And in this way, on stages all across the country, Ookie's Diner remains open for business.

May it never close.

Chi-town Bookshop makes reading fun

 

When I lead workshops at schools or theater conferences, one of the most common questions I get is: Which of your plays is your favorite? I'm not the first writer to say that choosing a favorite play or novel or story is like choosing a favorite child. You just can't do it.

And that's what I tell them.

But they never let me off the hook, so I usually turn the answer around to something like: This is what I like about some of my plays.

I truly believe The Last Radio Show is my funniest play, especially with the way the skits-within-the-play capture the rapid-fire cadence of those old-time radio shows.

Million Dollar Meatballs is a perennial favorite of producing groups, remaining as popular today as it was when it was first published nine years ago, and has the best physical humor of any of my plays.

I'm really happy with how my latest play, It Happened on Route 66, turned out. While it has a similar humor to my other plays, this 1950's-set comedy adds layers of romance and nostalgia that seems to hit a sweet spot with audiences.

And of course I have a special fondness for The Enchanted Bookshop. Not just because it's my best-selling play, but because schools and community theaters have found a ton of creative ways to use their production to encourage kids to read.

Some theaters give a free book to each child in the audience. Others encourage kids to attend the play dressed as their favorite book character. Still others have characters from the plays read books to the kids, either before the show or in on online promo.

The Kirk Players of Mundelein, IL have found yet another way to make reading fun.

This long-running community theater (58 years and counting!) is performing the show April 5-7, and to encourage kids in their community to read, they're holding a drawing for two free tickets to the show. To enter the drawing, kids need to read one of the books referred to in The Enchanted Bookshop and comment on the theater company's Facebook page as to what they liked about the book.

That's a lot of books to choose from. For those keeping score at home, these are the books on that list:

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Heidi

Pollyanna

Oliver Twist

Treasure Island

Doctor Doolittle

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Frankenstein

Hopalong Cassidy

White Fang

Moby Dick

Robinson Crusoe

Little Women

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Crime Never Pays

20,000 Years in Sing Sing

Mary Poppins

Don Quixote

Gone with the Wind

Not all of these books have characters in the play, of course. Some, like Moby Dick and Don Quixote, are only mentioned in passing (although the Don Quixote character does play a major role in my lighthearted prequel, How to Enchant a Bookshop).

Anyway, I love the idea of this drawing. I'm sure it'll motivate a lot of kids to read, although there's at least book on this list that I hope no kid picks up.

It could really be a slog.