Survival Island! to be published

Just two months into the new year and I've already got two new plays accepted for publication, both with Heuer Publishing.

I already told you about my first ten-minute play, Fear of Clowns, which was accepted last month. Well, today I got the news that the company will also be publishing my reality show satire, Survival Island!

I'm very happy about this. Heuer has been getting a healthy number of productions for The Last Radio Show and I'm confident they'll do equally well with this comedy about a team of reality show contestants who must learn to survive for real when the show's host and crew meet an untimely (but comical) end.

The play has a cast of 10 (1M, 1F, 8 and), uses a single beach set, and runs about 75 minutes.

I've talked before about the inspiration for the play (think Gilligan's Island meets Lord of the Flies). I've also posted several photos from the world premiere at Jacksonville (NC) Performing Arts in November. So at that's left for me to do is to share one of my favorite scenes.

This is the scene in which the contestants learn of the demise of the crew. We meet six of the eight contestants here, each of which is an over-the-top version of the types of contestants you see on shows like Survivor! and The Amazing Race.

KEANU:  (ENTERS LEFT wearing CHASE's safari hat.) Whoa! You dudes are missing it! The view from the top of the volcano is totally tubular!

EDITH:  Sorry, Keanu, but we have bigger problems to worry about.

SHANNON:  Like what are we going to eat?

ANDREA:  And how can we build a shelter?

BUFFY:  (To KEANU.) And where did you get that hat?

KEANU:  What? This hat?

BUFFY:  Yeah. It looks just like Chase's hat.

KEANU:  Gnarly, right? I found it at the top of the volcano.

ANDREA:  Wait a minute. You found Chase's hat at the top of the volcano? 

KEANU:  Yeah. So?

ANDREA:  So did you find Chase?

KEANU:  No. Why would I find Chase?

ANDREA:  Because he should have been under the hat!

KEANU:  Oh, right, right. (Thinks.) No. I didn't see Chase anywhere, but I did see, like, a profusitude of footprints.

EDITH:  Really? Where?

KEANU:  Oh, man. They were all around the edge of the volcano. And here's the weird part. They were all pointed in the same direction.

EDITH:  And which direction would that be?

KEANU:  Toward that ginormous hole. You know. The big orange one.

ANDREA:  (Panicking.) The ginormous hole? Keanu, are you telling us Chase and his entire crew feel into the volcano. 

KEANU:  Huh? Oh, whoa! I guess I am!

SHANNON:  Oh, no! That's awful!

BUFFY:  Did you happen to see Chase's backpack, Keanu?

KEANU:  Backpack?

BUFFY:  Yes. You know. Canvas bag. Shoulder straps. Usually some kind of designer label.

KEANU:  Nah, dudes. I didn't see anything like that.

OTHERS:  Auggghhhh!

BUFFY:  I can't believe they're gone!

EDITH:  I know! Such a tragic loos of human life!

BUFFY:  I was talking about our cell phones!

MICHAEL:  How are going to contact the base camp?

SHANNON:  How are we going to contact our friends and families?

BUFFY:  How are we going to contact our agents and business managers?

SHANNON:  I knew it. We're all going to die. We're going to die a slow, agonizing death from dehydration. And starvation. And that horrible volcan erupting all over us!

I expect the play will be released this fall. In the meantime, if you'd like to read the whole script, email me at todd.wallinger@gmail.com and I'll send you a free perusal copy. Or read the synopsis and cast list on the New Play Exchange.

Survival Island! comes to life

The contestants signal for help from a passing helicopter

The world premiere of my new comedy Survival Island! is in the books--and what a premiere it was! The show was produced by my friends at Jacksonville Performing Arts in North Carolina, and they went all out in creating the set and costumes for this reality-show satire. They even built a volcano at the entrance to the theater! Best off all, the audiences loved it.

Getting this premiere was especially important to me because my usual publisher, Pioneer Drama Service, passed on the script. I fully intend on submitting it to another publisher, but before I do that, I wanted to get at least one production to prove the play is not only producible but marketable. 

Of course, the production photos--JPA took over 200 of them!--will also help.

Investment banker Michelle seeks to
corner the market in seashells

Pioneer didn't tell me why they passed on it, and I didn't ask. But I suspect it may be because they felt that the play was too grim.

Admittedly, Survival Island! starts a little darker than most of my plays. The play centers on the eight cast members of a Survivor!-type reality show, and as soon as filming for the show is about to begin, they discover that the entire crew perished when they fell into a volcano. Now the contestants are entirely on their own.

At first, they vow to work together. But soon, they divide into competing mini-countries when their only food source runs low.

Anthropologist Edith and chef Andrea
disagree about the best way to run the island

Toward the end, they finally learn to work together, but not until after an epic fight in which their few remaining bananas serve as effective, if very silly, weapons

That's when they finally come up with the solution that'll allow them to get rescued: Build a battery out of a banana so they can charge the one satellite phone they have (yes, banana batteries really work!).

Only then does the crew reappear, revealing that the volcano incident was all a ruse. They'd faked their deaths in order to heighten the tension and increase the show's ratings.

So yeah, the play ends up being not as dark as it sounds.

The Battle of the Bananas

Now that JPA has produced the play and sent me their photos, I have everything I need to submit it to the next publisher on my list. Which I will do, as soon as I figure who that is.

In the meantime, you can license the play directly from me for the very reasonable fee of $60 per performance. For a free perusal script or to discuss licensing further, simply email me at todd.wallinger@gmail.com.

Building the banana battery

Survival Island! available for licensing

So I've got a brand new play for you. It's titled Survivor Island! and before I submit it for publication, I'm licensing it directly to schools and community theaters so that I can work out any bugs and make it the very best it can be.

Survivor Island! features a cast of 10 (3M, 3F, 4 any). It's the closest thing I've ever written to a true ensemble piece, with no single lead and 8 of the 10 parts being fairly substantial. It requires only a single beach set and runs a very brisk 70 minutes. 

The play was inspired by--big surprise!--the TV reality series Survivor! I always thought it was funny that, while the living conditions faced by the contestants on the show may be difficult, they are nowhere near being a true survival situation. This made me think: what if a bunch of mostly pampered city dwellers signed up for a survival reality show only to be forced to fend for themselves when the show's host and crew disappear in a tragic accident.

Okay, so it's a little dark. But not that dark. The characters are over-the-top parodies of the types of personalities you often see on these shows. And both the situations they get into and the dialogue among the characters are very comical. In tone, I figure it's halfway between Gilligan's Island and Lord of the Flies.

Here's the full synopsis:

What's the most popular reality show on TV? Survival Island!, of course! And host Chase Conroy promises that this season will be the most thrilling one yet. Not only is the island they've chosen surrounded by the most shark-infested waters on earth, but the jungle is teeming with poisonous plants, and there's an active volcano right in the middle of it!

Behind the scenes, Chase assures the eight contestants that there's nothing to worry about. His number one job is to keep them safe. Of course, that's before Chase and the entire crew fall into the volcano. Now the contestants are on their own with no boat, no food, and no way to communicate with the outside world.

At first, they vow to work together to get rescued. But when one of the contestants—a quiet, shy librarian named Shannon—discovers the island's lone banana tree, she decides to use that knowledge to fuel her own ambitions, leading to a war between the haves and the have-nots. A war fought with bananas, of course!

My good friends at Jacksonville Performing Arts in Jacksonville, North Carolina, will present the world premiere in November. In the meantime, I'm looking for additionally producing groups who would like to produce this raucously funny, thought-provoking play.

Interested in receiving a free perusal copy of the script? Then email me directly at todd.wallinger@gmail.com. There's absolutely no obligation to perform the play. I won't even bug you about it.

If you decide to perform it, just let me know the dates. The licensing fee is $60 per performance and includes the right to make as many copies of the script as you need for no additional cost. I would greatly appreciate it if you could give me feedback on the production challenges you faced and any suggestions for improvement you may have, but this is by no means required.

Oh, and did I mention that every script includes instructions on how to build an actual functioning banana battery (a key plot point in the play)?

Theater AND science. Would could be better than that?