General – Page 3 – Plays To Order

THE END OF THE WORLD (WITH PROM TO FOLLOW) first draft finished!

Wow, my brain is fried! After literally writing all day, I’ve finished the first draft of THE END OF THE WORLD (WITH PROM TO FOLLOW) for West High School in Torrance, CA! This writing retreat is definitely paying off, despite the beautiful weather and the swimming pool outside that calls to me constantly. It’s been very carrot-and-stick this week, with me making deals with myself to keep pushing forward with writing. “Write two pages, and then you can jump in the pool.” “Finish this draft, and you can eat as much bad fast food as you want for dinner…” (For the record, I scarfed down a bunch of Wendy’s burgers as my reward…)

Now back to CHRISTMAS REUNITED. My goal is to have a solid first draft by the beginning of next week…

Writer’s Retreat!

I’m currently in Palm Springs at a friend’s house on a self-enforced writer’s retreat. Away from pretty much all distractions – and the noise of the city – I’m here to write for four days! So far, so good – I’ve made some great progress on Act Two of THE END OF THE WORLD (WITH PROM TO FOLLOW). This is a large cast show, so keeping all the storylines and characters straight is a challenge! But by the end of the week I hope to have a solid first draft of the whole show…

CHRISTMAS REUNITED is up later this afternoon – I’m bouncing back and forth between the two, and they couldn’t be more different! End of the world drama/comedy in the morning, wacky holiday comedy in the afternoon! I’m sure this is strengthening my brainpower in some way… 🙂

WELCOME TO PLAYS TO ORDER!

It’s been a busy Summer and Fall! I was lucky enough to be invited to direct the world premiere of my play THE ADVENTURES OF ROSE RED (SNOW WHITE’S LESS-FAMOUS SISTER) at Arizona Broadway Theatre this past summer! What a thrill to work in such a beautiful theater with such a talented cast! Many thanks to everyone at ABT, especially Kiel and Cassandra Klaphake (Executive and Artistic Producers, respectively) and Kurtis Overby (Artistic Associate) for bringing me in!

Coming up are two very different commissions:

THE END OF THE WORLD (WITH PROM TO FOLLOW) was commissioned by Christy Orabuena at West High School in Torrance, CA. After a great consultation with her students last spring, she and I decided a comedy/drama about the last 300 students on the face of the earth would be the perfect play for her very talented students to handle. This is a large cast, two-act show, and I’m really looking forward to the rehearsal process (which starts in about a month.)

Then there’s CHRISTMAS REUNITED, which I’m writing with Wayne Hall for his drama group at Esparto High School in CA. This was an idea Wayne brought to me – what would happen if all rights to Christmas were co-opted by giant, megachain SprawlMart? Suddenly Santa is out of a job, and Christmas lists are just barcodes to be scanned in by “Rollback,” the new Christmas icon. This will be a great holiday comedy for all ages, and hopefully I’ll be able to get up to Esparta to see the world premiere!

Remember – if you need a great, ORIGINAL play for your group this year, drop me a line and let’s talk about the possibilities!

Sean