Rumpelstiltskin rave

The illustrious Bill Wheeler, theatre critic for the Colorado Springs Independent, attended the Black Box Theatre production of Rumpelstiltskin, Private Eye and gave it a glowing review. I'm too humble to quote the whole thing here (no, I'm not), but I'll leave you with this one tidbit because it really gets to the heart of what I try to achieve in all of my plays:

"Wallinger's script has something for everyone. The kids connect to the fairy tale characters and the constant physical comedy. Adults get a big dose of puns. Everyone has a good time, and the good guys win in the end. It doesn't get any better than that."

I'm glad that for this play, at least, I may have hit the mark. You can read the whole review here.

Meatballs in the Middle East

Million Dollar Meatballs is circling the globe. After a run in Taiwan in February, my restaurant farce landed at the American International School in Abu Dhabi last month.

Great costumes, guys! And I love the foodie posters on the walls.

Lester wins big in Ontario

Just got word that St. Peter's Catholic Secondary School of Barrie, Ontario cleaned up at the Sears Ontario Drama Festival district competition with my one-act comedy Long Tall Lester. They won awards for acting (three, actually), stage management, technical achievement, outstanding production and spirit. In fact, it was the most awarded show at the festival. The students now move on, competing April 15 at the West Region showcase in Cambridge, ON.

You can read the whole story here.

Congratulations, everyone! And break legs!

Update: At the regional showcase, the school picked up awards for comedic performance and musical composition/performance. Nice job!

All the news that's fit to print

I just got some very good news. Three more schools have booked productions of my plays. But these aren't just any schools. They're old friends: all three of them have performed my plays before.

One was a middle school in TN that performed Long Tall Lester in 2012 and is now doing Rumpelstiltskin, Private Eye. The third is a high school in KY that performed The Butler Did It! in 2014 and is now doing Million Dollar Meatballs. The third is a junior high in TX that performed The _urloined Letter in December and is now doing Million Dollar Meatballs.

As word gets out about my plays, I'm seeing more and more of this, and it occurred to me that some directors might like to know when I've released a new play.

That's why I've decided to launch a quarterly newsletter, which I've titled The Playful Playwright. It'll be chock full of things that will help you, the drama teacher or community theatre director. Yes, it'll have news on my latest releases, but it'll also include free script offers, costume and set ideas, writing tips and, what may be the most exciting, world premiere opportunities.

How do you sign up? I'm glad you asked! Just look for the SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER box in the upper right corner of this blog and enter your email address. No names, no phone numbers, no credit card numbers, no shoe sizes. Just one little old email address. Simple!

Look for the first issue to come out later this month.

Get with the program

I wanted to share this cool program from a young artist at Theisen Middle School in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Full-color, computer-generated graphics can be very eye-catching, but sometimes hand-drawn pictures are the best. Great job!

Overcoming stage fright

I recently received an email from a young man who'll be appearing as Frankie in his school's production of Million Dollar Meatballs. The show opens in two days and he was feeling a bit nervous. Did I have any advice for him?

Unfortunately, he contacted me through my bio page on the Pioneer Drama Service website and when I tried to reply to the email address he entered, it was rejected by his school's server.

I don't want him to think I'm ignoring him, so I thought I'd reply here. After all, there must be a lot of students out there who are struggling with stage fright.

To be honest, I haven't done a lot of acting, but I have done a fair amount of public speaking and the stage fright with that can be just as bad. Here are some things I did to overcome that stage fright:

1) Do some deep breathing and stretching exercises before you go on stage. This will help you relax.

2) After you're done, stand tall and maintain a confident posture. It's hard to feel nervous when you look like you're ready to conquer the world. You might even try out a superhero stance, which has been shown to decrease feelings of stress and increase feelings of power. Just remember: it's Superman, not Ant-Man.

3) Get your mind off the performance. Read something. Talk to your friends. Play a game. This helps put things in perspective, reminding you that there's a lot more to life than this one show.

4) Remind yourself that the audience is on your side. They're rooting for you to do well. But they're also very forgiving when things go wrong.

5) Realize that stage fright usually only happens before the show. Once you get on stage in front of an audience and start bringing your character to life, you'll forget all about being nervous.

I hope this helps!

If you ever have problems contacting me through the Pioneer Drama Service website or other means, please feel free to email me directly at todd.wallinger@gmail.com.

I promise you'll get a reply.

Rumpelstiltskin, Private Eye costume ideas

My editor at Pioneer Drama Service tells me that Rumpelstiltskin, Private Eye has gone off the charts recently. The play has booked 51 productions since last May and he continues to see several new orders almost every day.

With so many schools and youth theatres producing the play, I thought it might be helpful to show some pictures from those productions. It's always fun to see the creativity of the designs, and it might inspire some of you as you work on your own designs.

For this post, I'm going to show you costumes for the dynamic duo themselves--Rumpelstiltskin and Ugly Duckling--around whom the play revolves. You can see there are lots of variations, especially for Rumpelstiltskin.

Some go for the classic gumshoe look, giving him a dark suit and fedora. Some go more gnome-like with a beard and fairy tale garb. Still others prefer a hybrid look, combining a beard with a trench coat. And one school went in a completely different direction, decking him out like Sherlock Holmes with a frock coat and deerstalker hat.

It's all good. The only limit is your imagination. And maybe your budget.