Centennial State Zoomers

So that Chicago area production was not quite the world virtual premiere of The Enchanted Bookshop. Montezuma-Cortez Middle School in Cortez, Colorado streamed their Zoom performance of the play on May 9, which you can view above (the play itself starts at 12:37).

This production was different in a couple ways. First, it was more of a reading. Most of the kids memorized their lines, and they all wore costumes, but the stage directions were read by a narrator.
And second, the cast used screen sharing to show all speakers in a scene at once.

The Chicago production only showed one actor at a time, which gave it a slick, movie-like feel but required each of the performers to turn their camera on before they start speaking and turn it off after they're done.

Screen sharing gives the production more of a theatrical feel because it allows the audience to keep track of who's in the scene. It's also easier to manage since each actor only has to turn their camera on when they enter and turn it off when they exit.

I think both are great choices. It's really up to the director as to what they're going for.

Like the Chicago kids, the ones in Colorado did a Q&A after the show (that starts at 1:53:19). If this is a new trend, I like it! Maybe we can keep it going after the pandemic is over and we can all perform live again.

Zooming along

The last couple months have been brutal for amateur theater, with thousands of shows being cancelled or postponed.

Pioneer Drama Service and other publishers have done a great job bringing out tons of new plays designed to be performed over Zoom or other social apps, AKA "virtual theater". But I'm glad to see that some drama teachers are making Zoom work for traditional plays as well.

That's what's happening on Saturday, May 30 at the Chicago area's Kids W.A.Y. Acting Academy. Jossie Harris Thacker, a former dancer on In Living Color, founded the academy several years ago to provide a safe place for kids to develop self-confidence while practicing their performance skills. She also offers classes that teach kids how to use their acting tools to combat bullying.

In early March, Harris Thacker was deep into rehearsal with The Enchanted Bookshop when the statewide shelter-in-place order went into effect. Instead of cancelling the show, the resourceful director decided to move it online.

Her biggest challenge in rehearsing on Zoom? Getting twenty kids to sit still!

Their hard work paid off, and the production is now getting a lot of media attention, including a write-up on the Chicago Now blog and even a mention on local TV.

It may be the world's first Zoom production of this best-selling play.

Harris Thacker encourages everyone to watch tomorrow's Zoom broadcast. If you'd like to support these amazing kids by tuning in, please register on the academy's website (its free!). The show starts at 6 p.m. CST, and will be followed by what's sure to be an animated Q&A with the cast.

I know I'll be there!

My 9th year sales

It was supposed to have been my best year yet. Over the last twelve months, I had not one but two new plays come out--a musical version of my top-selling play and my first foray into the ever popular pirate genre. Add to that the steady number of hits my other thirteen plays had been getting and I should have seen a tidy increase in royalties over last year.

Then COVID-19 happened.

Schools and community theaters started shutting down in mid-March and the number of new bookings went to zero practically overnight. Although I haven't seen too many cancellations, most of the performing groups are pushing their already booked productions into next year. And that means they're pushing back the payment of their performance fees as well.

As they should. Nothing is more important than keeping every single person healthy and safe.

But I'm trying to make a full-time living as a writer, and this whole mess just pushed that goal out another year or two. If I was 25 or 30, that wouldn't be a big deal. But I'm 57. And I'm not getting any younger.

So the year was a tough one. But not as tough as it could have been. While most of my plays showed a dip in productions, the musical had a very strong start and several older plays show surprising strength, which bodes well for their longevity in the school and community theater market.

My total number of productions for the year was 309, a 14% drop from the 361 I had last year. That drop was entirely due to losing the last six weeks of the year, and if hadn't been for the COVID-19 crisis, I would have made it over the top.

For the third year in a row, my bestselling play was, of course, The Enchanted Bookshop. This year it had 119 productions, which is down from the record-breaking 156 it had last year but is a pretty good showing for an abbreviated year. And it's already got 27 productions booked for next year.

My #2 play for the year was Million Dollar Meatballs, topping You're Driving Me Crazy! for the first time. With its 32 productions, this restaurant farce is really proving to be an evergreen play, and I couldn't be happier.

One of my brand new works, The Enchanted Bookshop Musical, was #3 this year with 27 productions, an impressive number for a large-cast musical in the middle of a pandemic. Interestingly, although it was third in the number of shows, it was second in terms of revenue due to the additional royalties I get from the sheet music and CD sales. In fact, this musical and the play that inspired it generate more in royalties than my other thirteen plays combined. But perhaps the best thing about the show is that it got me two of my three new countries this year: Greece and India.

My #4 play was my collection of driver's ed shorts, You're Driving Me Crazy!, with 25 productions. That's a significant drop from the 39 shows it had last year and the high-water mark of 61 it had in 2016-2017, its first full year of publication, and is a much bigger drop than you'd expect from the quarantine hit alone. Recently, however, Pioneer Drama Service has been promoting it as something that can be easily adapted to virtual theater (think Zoom) so, with any luck, things will pick up soon.

Most of the rest held steady or showed only a slight dip so I won't bore you with the details. But I do want to mention Babka Without Borders, my quirky comedy set on the border of two mythical European countries. Although it only ranked #9 out of my 16 plays, it was by far my most improved play of the year, going from a big fat goose egg in its first year of publication to a respectable 11 this year. And to provide the icing on this coffee cake (ha! get it?), it also brought me my seventeenth country with a production in South Africa.

In their annual letter that accompanied the royalty check, Pioneer warned their playwrights to expect even fewer productions next year as large public gatherings are limited by continued social distancing requirements.

I hope we get a vaccine soon, for the health of theater as well as my pocketbook. But more important than those is the health of you, the actors and directors and crew members who make theater happen.

Be well. Stay safe. And keep the faith.

We'll get through this. Together.

Golden State trouble makers

Nearly all of this spring's theater productions may have gotten cancelled due to the COVID-19 crisis, but some schools are digging into their archives and posting productions from the recent past.

That's the case with Valley Christian Middle School in Cerritos, CA. They performed Trouble in Paradise Junction way back in November and just posted a video of it to YouTube (seen above).

I have a soft spot for this school because this is the second play of mine they've done in the last year, having produced The Enchanted Bookshop last March (you can find their recording of that show on my Video page).

I'm super impressed with their production of Trouble. Here you've got a show that calls for eight widely different sets--from a diner to a dance studio to a sprawling town square--and yet they were able to make it all work by swapping out a few simple set pieces. The performances were great, and they got a ton of laughs from the enthusiastic audience.

Great jobs, guys! Stay healthy, and I hope to see you back on stage again soon!

You can go home again

Thirty-nine years ago, I couldn't wait to leave my hometown.

I wasn't the only one. In the early 80's, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin (population 14,000) seemed like a dead end to me and a lot of my classmates who were heading off to college. We wanted to move to the city, make our fortunes, live the big life.

I was reminded of this yesterday when an old friend posted the above video on Facebook. It's an episode of Around the Corner, a Milwaukee-based PBS show that profiles the many proud towns and villages of the Badger state.

Last week it was Beaver Dam's turn, and as I watched it, I was happy to see that the community theater--the place where I first fell in love with theater--is thriving.

Back in my day, they used to perform their shows in the town's only movie theater (a single screener, of course), and they made room for the stage by pulling out the first few rows of seats. Well, as the video shows, that same group has just moved into a large, dedicated venue equipped with the latest sound and lighting equipment.

But the video reminded me of all the other things Beaver Dam has going for it--then and now. The county fairgrounds (at one time, the Dodge County was the largest county fair in the county). The beautiful old library (now a museum). A wonderful park system. And, of course, Beaver Dam Lake. It was too shallow and muddy to swim in, but I have many fond memories of fishing and ice skating on it.

Yep, Beaver Dam was a pretty terrific place to grow up. And it only took me thirty-some years to figure that out.

I get an agent

Followers of this blog know that since my Hollywood manager dumped me in November, I've been looking for a literary agent. I even made it one of my New Year's goals, vowing to submit my chapter book adaptation of The Enchanted Bookshop to 100 literary agents.

Well, it didn't take that many. After querying 37 agents, and getting only one read request, I received an offer for representation from Stephen Fraser of the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency.

I couldn't be happier. Steve is one of the most experienced and respected agents in the biz, and he has big plans for The Enchanted Bookshop (more on that in a future post). And unlike my previous agreement with Gravity Squared Entertainment, this one has no expiration date. Steve is in it for the long haul.

I also like that the agency has an office in Los Angeles. Turns out they do a fair amount of business selling the TV and film rights for their literary properties. So in a roundabout way, I may get my stuff out to Hollywood after all.

But first we've got sell the book.

Will the COVID-19 crisis make it tougher? Maybe. But people have to read something while they're shut in, and although individual bookstores are suffering, online book sales are going strong. And publishers are still buying.

Some of you may be wondering how I managed to get Steve's attention. It was, after all, a completely cold submission. Stephen didn't know me from... Douglas Adams. Well, here's the query letter I used:

Stephen, 

I've written a 9000-word manuscript for the first in a series of chapter books titled The Enchanted Bookshop.

Synopsis: After magically coming to life, Dorothy Gale, Tom Sawyer, and Pollyanna "splorge" into other classic novels in order to help a struggling bookshop owner, but in doing so they accidentally alter the very stories they enter, forcing them to make things right before they return. 

I'm an award-winning children's playwright with 16 published plays and over 1600 productions in 17 countries. The Enchanted Bookshop is based on my play of the same name. Teachers love the play because it celebrates the joy of reading in a fun, fresh way.  They love it so much, in fact, they've made it one of the best-selling plays in the country, booking over 400 productions in its first three years. A musical adaptation was released last year and it looks like that's going to be a big hit too.

The first 20 pages of the manuscript are pasted below. Thank you very much. 

Best regards,  

Todd Wallinger

That's about twice as long as it needs to be. And that's because most agents don't give a flying fig about your publishing history. But I thought it was important to show that The Enchanted Bookshop is already a proven concept, especially since the premise of a bookshop where the book characters come to life isn't exactly original.

Did it help? I don't know. But I like to think it didn't hurt.

What was more important was the logline. I must have spent two full days crafting that one sentence. But I think it paid off. The logline sets up an expectation in your reader, and a good one not only defines the main conflict in your story, but does so in a way that helps the reader imagine where the story might lead.

Of course, the best query letter in the world won't snag you an agent if the story itself isn't good. That's why I worked for months to make sure the manuscript was as polished (and typo free!) as it could be.

As it turned out, the follow-up to my query was as important as the original submission. After Steve read the manuscript, he asked if I had ideas for the next book or two in the series. Fortunately, I was able to send him seven, and that's because I'd already put together a pitch bible for my studio submissions.

Now, this isn't as important with middle-grade or YA novels, as those tend to be stand-alone. But chapter books are usually sold as a series, and if you want to pitch one, make sure you have at least a logline for the next couple entries.

Steve has already submitted the manuscript to several big publishers so all I can do now is wait. I'm knee-deep into my next project, so I've got plenty to keep me busy.

But am I on pins and needles, hoping to hear something soon from one of the publishers?

You'd better believe it.

Making connections

Oh, what a different a month makes.

On the last day of February, we were all going about our everyday business. Going to work. Eating at restaurants. Rooting for our favorite sports teams.

Now it's the last day of March, and thanks to the coronavirus, we're all holed up in our homes.

So how are you doing? Are you staying healthy? Are you staying sane?

I'm definitely the former, though how long I can maintain the latter remains to be seen.

I kid, I kid. Actually, I'm staying quite busy and that's because I still have my day job. The company I work for has been deemed an essential business, but this is Arizona, so golf courses and nail salons are considered essential businesses as well. I am, however, working from home.

I won't lie. I love working from home. It almost makes up for not being able to go out to restaurants or movies.

I love sleeping in a little later. I love not having to deal with crazy drivers. I love taking puppy breaks throughout the day. And I love going for walks with my family at the end of the day.

This little girl needs some lovin'.

It's the kind of simple, laid-back lifestyle I've always hoped I'd have if (when?) I'm finally able to write full-time.

Unfortunately, it looks like that last part might be delayed a while. Due to the pandemic, schools and community theaters are cancelling their productions left and right, and every playwright I know has seen their royalties go to zero.

I'm going to be fine. But I feel bad for the drama teachers and student actors who've been working so hard on their shows--shows which may never see the light of day.

So I was glad when Pioneer Drama Service approached me this week about participating in a new program. It's called Playwright Connect, and it's a way for Pioneer to link up drama teachers with the author of their cancelled spring show. As playwrights, we're here to help the show go on.

Want us to watch a virtual performance of your show? We can do that! Want us to offer feedback new scenes your students wrote? We can do that too! Or we can hold an online Q&A with your cast and crew. It's all up to you!

Interested? Email Pioneer at connect@pioneerdrama.com or give them a call at 800-333-7262 (but note their new limited hours on their website). Their staff will be happy to help you figure out what makes the most sense for you.

I'm really excited to be a part of this new program. I hope you'll take us up on it.

Yes, we'll get through these difficult times. But it will be a whole lot easier if we do it together.