The Butler down under

And check this out. The Cowra Musical and Dramatic Society of Cowra, New South Wales, Australia is having a reading of The Butler Did It! on November 23, with an eye toward doing a full production next year.

The best part? The reading is taking place at a boutique winery named Kalari Cellar Door. Wish I could be there to enjoy some great Australian Shiraz with the reading.

Break a leg, everybody!

The Wanderer wanders east

Got a nice mention today in The Day, the newspaper for New London, CT. My 10-minute play The Wanderer is having its 2nd production this weekend and next by the Stonington Players as part of their Table & Chairs festival of minimal-set plays.

It also happens to be my Connecticut premiere. 24 down, 26 to go.

I've always liked this play about an elderly man trying to reconnect with his son after getting arrested for shoplifting, if for no other reason than it's my lone drama in a long list of comedies. And the article backs this up, using it to show the breadth of the offerings at this year's festival.

I wish lots of broken legs to my director Vic Panciera and the casts and crews of all the plays at this year's festival.

Show me the Butler

A big Show Me State shout-out to Selath-Hornersvlle High School Drama Club in beautiful Selath, MO. Not only are they doing my new play The Butler Did It! this weekend, but they got written up in the local newspaper for it (love the costumes!).

Break legs, everybody!

Judgment at Nuremberg

One of the best parts of being a playwright is reading articles about productions of your plays. If the plays we worked so hard to pen are our children, then those articles are like letters from our kids. And we all know how rare those are...

Yesterday, I got news of a production of The Butler Did It! by the Nuremberg Community Players in Pennsylvania. It's the second production for my play. Or maybe the third. The world premiere was done by the Eureka Community Players of Eureka, MT back in August.

But the PA production is the first one to get written up in the local newspaper. And from the looks of it, the cast is having a ball.

I think the audience will too. The theatre company had the clever idea of having the audience vote on who they think "did it" during intermission, with prizes going to the winner (Hint: Buy a script!).

But if you hear news of a severe dinner plate shortage in the Wilkes-Barre area, I had nothing to do with it.

Bright young minds

I'll be leading a workshop titled "Writing the Play Inside You" at this year's Colorado State Thespian Conference. I believe everyone's a playwright, which is why I'm so excited to work with the bright young minds at the conference. I'm not going to teach them how to write a play. I'm going to guide them along their own creative journey so that they can pen their stories in the boldest, most meaningful way.

The conference will be held December 5-7 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. I'll be leading two sessions: 8:30am and 10:00am on Saturday, December 7.

If you're one of those bright young minds, please stop by. We're going to have a lot of fun. And you may just go home with the beginning of a great play.

Two new playwriting workshops

The Pikes Peak Writers Conference just gave me their decision on my workshop proposal for next year's conference. Not only do they like it, but they want me to do a second workshop on playwriting.

Last year, I taught a basic class on breaking into playwriting. It was your standard marketing class covering what kinds of plays publishers are looking for and how to submit to them.

As mentioned earlier, I was disappointed in the turnout. Only six people showed up, although I have to admit they were a great group, enthusiastic and attentive.

Still, the low turnout bothered me. It may have been because my workshop was scheduled for Sunday morning--the tail end of the conference--when many people had already taken off and everyone else had their braisn fried from listening to a weekend's worth of talk talk talk. Or it may just have been because most of the attendees weren't interested in playwriting.

I decided to find out. I came up with a workshop that would play on my strengths in theatre while appealing to the novelists who make up the bulk of the attendees. The title? Theatre Games for Writers.

My thought was this: Writers expend huge number of grey cells to craft their characters. But there's a group of people who spend just as much as writers: Actors.

Their techniques differs, of course. While writers are usually told to fill out long, boring forms detailing their characters' strengths, weaknesses, secrets and favorite ice cream flavor, actors are taught to think on their feet, to do improv, to act out of impulse and emotion.

So what if a bunch of cerebral, introverted writers used the same techniques as more impulsive, extroverted actors?

The results could be disastrous. Or they may be exactly what some writers need to break out of their creative straitjackets.

Either way, we'll find out next April, when the 22nd annual Pikes Peak Writers Conference is held at the Marriott Hotel in Colorado Springs.

My second workshop? I'm going to focus my marketing class a little more tightly while adding an enticing parenthetical to the title: Writing Plays for the (Surprisingly Lucrative) School Market.

Free copies of Kill the Critic!

Now that the world premiere of Kill the Critic! is wrapped, I'm focusing all of my marketing efforts on getting a second production. (And third and fourth...)

Any playwright who's ever gone this route knows how difficult and frustrating it can be. Most theatre companies won't even read new works, and those that do often take a year or two to get back to you.

But I know my play is good. Damn good. Everyone who saw it loved it, and that includes teenagers and old-timers, theatre professionals and people who never go to shows. In fact, it got more laughs than just about any play I've ever been to.

So I know that if I can only the word out, it'll be a hit.

That's why I'm giving out free copies of the script. If you'd like to read the play for possible production, email me your address. I'll send you a bound, lovingly printed copy of the script.

Or you can read the first 20 pages of the script by clicking here.