So with the theatre industry largely imploding and productions being canceled right and left. It’s incredibly disappointing for all performers and everyone else who works behind the scenes to get a show up. My heart breaks for everyone who was so excited to put on a show and now can’t. As a playwright, I’m just sitting here watching productions being cancelled and feeling pretty helpless. In fact, feeling pretty helpless really sums up this whole weird experience.
But I ultimately realized there is at least one thing I could do and that was to make a many of my plays as possible easily available in the event schools and other groups wanted to use them for distance learning, virtual productions or independent study.
To that end, here’s a few things I’ve set in motion to hopefully make it a little easier to do theatre during this very weird time.
Virtual Classroom Scripts and Plays Approved for Live Streaming
I have authorized any of my plays (including those published through YOUTHplays or Playscripts) to be performed via Live Streaming. Whether you want to stream a reading live using something like Zoom or Google Meet or record your production and share it later on Facebook or YouTube, I’ve got you covered.
Don’t worry about the distance, I’ve got plenty of ways to get you everything you need for your whole group digitally. Drop me an email with what you need and we’ll make it happen! Playscripts also has brand new Virtual Classroom Script editions of several of my plays at a special price.
Upcoming Publications
I’ve been very busy the last few weeks and the result of that is I’ve got a new play being published every week in April. To make them as accessible as possible, I’ve taken four of the most popular plays from my Tale of Tales project and made them available in affordable eBook and Paperback versions coming out next month. Depending on the retailer, many are already available for pre-order.
These are…
- The Fourth Orange and Other Fairy Tales You’ve Never Even Heard Of – Paperback edition just went on Sale April 3rd
- The Fourth Orange (one-act version) – Coming April 10
- Goosed! – Coming April 17
- The Myrtle – Coming April 24
These are all priced much lower than traditionally published scripts in the hopes that groups that are struggling right now can find a good but affordable option for future seasons and theatre competitions in a happier future. All of these plays are large cast comedy crowdpleasers so they’re a nice distraction from everything going on right now.
While these are the only titles I plan to release in print for now, I’ll have two additional Tale of Tales plays, Vardiello and The She Bear, available digitally in the weeks following. (Arm Candy is still available for productions but I’m not planning on publishing that for a little while yet.)
Monologues
I’m not the biggest fan of monologues but I acknowledge they are an important part of the theatrical form and have been stockpiling a growing stash of them as I practice the format. Comedy and drama, parts for everyone for kindergartners up through elders, I’ll be releasing these on my website in the coming weeks for anyone to use for practice, classroom study or auditions so stay tuned for that.
Plays In Progress
In addition to everything above, I’ve got several plays in progress that are ideal for distance learning and I hope to have them out as soon as I can. Unfortunately, the current state of the world is not great for being creative or getting much of anything done at all so I can’t make any promises of exactly when I’ll have those available but they are in the pipeline.
Livestreams, Virtual Class Visits
I’m home with my kids right now, doing the homeschool thing, but if I can help out by doing a livestream with your group, I’d be happy to! We can talk about playwriting, writing in general or one of my plays. I’m here to do whatever I can to make this easier on everyone!
On a personal note, my daughter, who is in 1st grade, was supposed to be in her first real play, a play about the colors, next month and was incredibly excited because she was playing her most beloved color: Pink. Obviously, it’s highly unlikely that that production will be happening so we are feeling your same heartbreak over here.
That said, the kiddo and I are filling that void by writing our OWN color play in which she will play ALL the colors for the amusement of her grandparents over video chat. So if there’s any market for a color play largely written in collaboration with a very strange 7 year old, I’ll unleash it upon the world once we are done with it.
Lemons. Lemonade. We’re all doing the best we can.
Last but not least, if you are one of these people who have “all this free time now” I keep hearing about (and yet have not experienced???) and you were thinking about trying your hand at some of this writing stuff yourself, may I humbly recommend my beginner writer’s guide, Building a Writing Life? It’s an inexpensive, user friendly guide to starting a writing habit even if you’ve never written more than a sentence before and I think you’ll really like it.
It’s a positive, gentle read for a negative, harsh time.
Everything is scary and weird and uncertain right now. I am thinking of all of you out there trying to keep the light on and sending you strength and hope. Please let me know if there is anyway I can help you or your programs out!
Stay safe out there everyone and let’s all do what we can for each other.