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Here are a couple photos from the Esparto High School world premiere of BAD SUBSTITUTE.

(You can read the script here!)

It’s June, and by now most schools are out for summer break – yay!

Thankfully (because I love to write), I’ll be working throughout the summer. I have at least one commission on deck, tentatively titled TWO-FACED: A TRAGEDY…SORT OF, a highly theatrical comedy about what it takes to be part of every group at school.

I’m also revising HORROR HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL (which I may retitle “Horror High: The Musical”) for Gladstone High School’s summer program. I’ve found a great composer, Ryan O’Connell, who is revamping much of the music, including adding two new songs to the show! I’m thrilled to have a chance to revisit this show and do the rewrites necessary to make it awesome. The script should be available Fall 2012.

I’m also working with a great group of playwrights on a collection of ten-minute plays called EXPOSED! TRUE STORIES OF WHAT REALLY HAPPENED. Each of these pieces will be perfect for forensic competitions and festivals, so keep your eyes peeled for the Fall 2012 release of this hilarious collection.

In early late Summer/early Fall I’ll be traveling to California State University: Stanislaus for a workshop production of my new musical ANGELS! This is a family-oriented musical about the Afterlife. Basically, the entire audience has passed on, and while they wait for their paperwork to be processed (because even in the Afterlife civil servants move slowly), they are entertained and educated by a group of angels performing a musical review. I’ve already done one staged reading of the script, and am really excited to get it up on its feet this Fall!

I hope you all have a great summer!
Sean

I had quite a few people ask me about the understudy mentioned in my blog post, “The Gifts You Give Away“. How did his performance go?

I got this email from Michelle, the drama teacher:

“Sorry it took me so long to reply. Wrapping up the school year has been insane! However, Casey’s performance was amazing – he brought something different to the character than Taylor, but it was just as good. I am going to pass your email along to the cast and crew of our little production. It will mean a lot to them. Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. It has meant a lot to us and brought a personal aspect to performing your play. I always believed that both laughter and tears are cathartic experiences, but laughter has a healing quality that humans need so badly in this day and age.

Have a Great Day!
Michelle“

I received an amazing email from a drama teacher in regards to a performance of one of my plays, HORROR HIGH. It inspired me to write a blog post for the Playscripts website, and I reprint it here.

I received this email from a drama coach who had directed a production of one of my plays.

“During the performance last night, one of the audience members was laughing so loud, I thought he had been drinking (haha). He approached me after the play was over. It was a community member who lost his wife to cancer last fall, and his son, Casey, is an extra in the play. He said that since his wife had passed, he had been unable to laugh – until he saw your play. For a couple hours, he was able to forget everything and just laugh. He wanted to know who wrote it. He plans on coming again Monday.

Well, his son is an understudy. When I told the cast what Casey’s dad said, the student for whom his is understudying decided to let Casey play Victor on Monday. It’s going to be a surprise for Casey’s dad. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Michelle Miles
FHS Drama Coach”

My response:

Dear Michelle and the cast and crew,

I can’t tell you how flattered I am to receive this email. Reading it reminded me of an exchange I had years ago with a really great improv teacher. I was bemoaning the fact that, because of the war, we had been adding more and more serious scenes into our graduation show. He asked me, “Why do you think people come to the theater?”

“To be entertained.”

“No, they come to be affected.”

I think most of us, when we realized we were destined to work in theater in some capacity, proceeded because we wanted to be part of entertaining audiences, and then, years later, we learned our relationship with the audience is a little more complicated than that.

Maybe the audience doesn’t think of it in those terms, but in truth they are there to be affected, manipulated, moved by the experience. Laughter is certainly part of that, but so are tears, anger, and heated conversations in the parking lot after the show dissecting the meaning of what they’ve just seen. We want to affect the audience, the audience wants to be affected. A perfect, symbiotic relationship.

But sometimes, sitting in that darkened theater, there is an audience member who doesn’t want to be affected. Sometimes that person needs to be affected.

A very smart actor with whom I often work once said, “The most important gifts you receive are the ones you give away.” Casey’s father has given you the most important gift someone in the theater can receive; He made what you do matter. And in turn, you gave him the gift of affecting him in the way he needed most at that moment. Many speeches are given by many theater practitioners about the importance, honor, and responsibility of the theatrical arts. I can’t think of a better example than this one. You never know when someone like Casey’s father will be out there, but you should always assume they are, and approach the stage as if tonight’s show can be a transformative experience.

(And just to be clear, I’m speaking of everyone involved in the show. Without the director, playwright, costumes, props, sets, lights, stage manager, running crew, or the person handing out tickets and programs, Casey’s father wouldn’t have had that experience.)

Speaking of gifts, I must applaud the actor who stepped aside so Casey could take his role for the evening. When you hear actors speak of other actors as “gifted” and “generous,” generally that refers to their onstage habits. Rest assured, your generosity and gifts were definitely on stage that night, even if you weren’t.

So, again, thank you for the email; thank you for choosing my show; and thank you for reminding me of what’s important about what we do.

Sincerely,
Sean Abley

MAY NEWS!

I have a new commission in progress – TWO-FACED: A TRAGEDY…SORT OF for Colonial Heights High School in Colonial Heights, VA! Very excited about this one! I was asked to come up with a show that had a lot of roles for girls (naturally) with the option to use highly stylized staging, dance, music, etc. So I came up with a story about a girl who is trying to be popular with two cliques – the Cheerleaders and the Mathletes. Problem is – she has to be two different people!

TWITTER AND FACEBOOK!

Who isn’t on Twitter and Facebook these days? Answer – No one! (Okay, that’s a weird double-negative, but you get the point)

CLICK HERE for Facebook
CLICK HERE for Twitter

MAY PRODUCTIONS!

BAD SUBSTITUTE
Esparto High School, Esparto CA

THE ADVENTURES OF ROSE RED (SNOW WHITE’S LESS-FAMOUS SISTER)
Southside School, Hollister CA
Lakeview High School, Lakeview OR

THE RISE OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
Barnhart School, Arcadia CA

HORROR HIGH
Firth High School, Firth ID

Have a great May everyone!

BREAK A LEG to the cast and crew of Esparto High School’s production of BAD SUBSTITUTE! Have a great time tonight, everyone! And big thanks to Wayne Hall for bringing me in to write the play!

END OF THE WORLD (WITH PROM TO FOLLOW), the two-act drama/comedy originally commissioned by West High in Torrance, CA, is now available from Playscripts! END OF THE WORLD… is a large cast show with lots of meaty roles that high school actors can really sink their teeth into. What would you do if you knew the world was ending?

APRIL PRODUCTIONS

THE ADVENTURES OF ROSE RED (SNOW WHITE’S LESS-FAMOUS SISTER)
Montcalm Community College, Sidney MI
Paola Community Center, Paola KS
Venture Heights School, Martensville, SK Canada

THE RISE OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
Prairie Grove High School, Prairie Grove AR

Just finished the first draft of a new commission, formerly UNTITLED SHAKESPEARE PROJECT, now called BAD SUBSTITUTE. This is a fun one-act (potentially large cast if there’s not doubling) about the insane titular character holding a class hostage and inducting them into the “Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare” mindset. Or attempting to, anyway. This was the second commission for Esparto High School, the folks who brought me on to co-write WE WISH YOU A MERRY SPENDMAS! last year.

BAD SUBSTITUTE will go up in a couple months, and then it will be available for future productions! Contact me on the “Contact” page if you’d like to read the final product!

Happy (Belated) New Year!

I have a lot of great news to announce!

First, 2012 started off great with a new commission! Currently titled UNTITLED SHAKESPEARE PROJECT (I guess I should say current UNtitled), this one-act comedy about the worst substitute teacher in the world trying to teach a class about William Shakespeare and his supposed rival Francis Bacon was commissioned by Esparto High School in Esparto, CA. (I wrote WE WISH YOU A MERRY SPENDMAS! with their drama teach, Wayne Hall, last season). This is going to be really fun, smart comedy with a new take on Shakespeare and his works!

Also, two past commissions are now (or very soon) available in a published version! DOUBLE TROUBLE ON THE PRAIRIE, commissioned by Gerry Roe and the Virginia City Players in MT, is a comic melodrama (in fact, it’s almost a parody of a melodrama). You can get a copy from Brooklyn Publishers! This is a really fun play – check it out!

And THE END OF THE WORLD (WITH PROM TO FOLLOW), commissioned by Christy Orabuena at West High in Torrance, CA, is about, yes, the end of the world. This two-act drama with comic elements will be available very soon from Playscripts (and is currently available for productions with scripts provided by me!) You can sign up to be notified when the published version is available.

They say what you’re doing at the beginning of the year is what you’ll be doing for the rest of the year, so here’s to a fun, prolific 2012!

I’ve been working on a spec one-act called HISTORICALLY BAD FIRST DATES for a couple months now, and I finally have a first draft! This script hasn’t been commissioned by anyone, it was just an idea I had that I thought would be funny, so I figured why not write it in my spare time. Happily, I haven’t had a lot of spare time lately, with two other commissions taking up most of it. But with THE END OF THE WORLD (WITH PROM TO FOLLOW) in rehearsal, and the first draft of WE WISH YOU A MERRY SPENDMAS! (formerly CHRISTMAS REUNITED) completed, I got to jump back onto HBFD.

Any schools out there want a crack at the first production?