from the desk of the unknown penguin
tldr: I got COVID.
No idea how or where. I mean, it’s going around (I hear) but no one else in my house got sick.
Anyway, I have taken advantage of the isolation and done lots of work and a lot of non-work. Most of the writing has been on my TYA musical How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Frog! which I hope to have more news on soon.
Other than that we have entered one of the phases of the year where everyone is waiting for everyone else to get back from vacation and/or start school and/or decide to pick up their email again so we can start planning past the fall. These last few weeks of August are only bestest by the last few weeks of December in terms of nobody doing nothing.
But I’m not doing nothing.
I’m never not doing nothing. No no way, not no how!
- Patrick, 8/28/24 (dictated but not read)
pre-production
The Ferberizing of Coral
We’re almost done casting all the voice roles in the film version of my 10-minute play that won the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival. We’ll be announcing them at the launch of fundraising but I can tell you that our two new additions have been guests on The Original Cast and that fans of West Virginia-based D&D podcasts will be very happy. We’re also finalizing our fundraising campaign perks. Is there anything you like in a fundraising perk? I know we’ve moved away from tote bags and T-shirts so what intrigues you on a perk list these days?
Ken Ludwig’s ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas at Adventure Theatre MTC
Speaking of casting, we’re still deep in for the Christmas show I’m directing at Adventure Theatre MTC’s this year. The design team is in place (more on that later) but It’s a lot of talking and waiting and talking and waiting and waiting and waiting. In the meantime, ATMTC is about to go into rehearsals for She Persisted so get your tickets now!
production
Visual Literacy - 2nd Edition
A big part of my quarantine week was finishing up the first batch of rewrites for this 2nd Edition. Also trying to find images for this HUGELY visual text. Lots of flipping through Shutterstock and the Library of Congress and finding the right search terms. I can’t wait for the students to get this one next Fall! Check out the 1st Edition here.
post-production
Shakespeare’s Histories Podcast
This epic 24-episode dramatic podcast series of William Shakespeare’s Henriads for BraveSprits Theatre has taken a major final step. I delivered the final mixes to Charlene V. Smith for her last listens. It’s a lot for her to go through but we are SO CLOSE TO A RELEASE DATE! It’s been over 3 years since we started this project and you are going love it.
WILL Interactive
This giant industrial on sexual harassment and workplace violence is coming right along. I’ve given my final approval to the workplace violence parts which now go up the chain for notes from the producers. Still working through the first cuts of the other portion but I’m really happy with the result. There will be a teaser video for you at the end of this.
live on stage
Upcoming productions of Tinker Bell (available through Dramatic Publishing)
October 3 - Citrus High School (Inverness, FL)
October 31 - Valley Christian High School (Chandler, AZ)
November 15 - Spring-Ford Senior High School (Royersford, PA)
December 6 - Naperville North High School (Naperville, IL)
March 7, 2025 - Chicago Chrisitan High School (Palos Heights, IL)
Upcoming productions of The Velveteen Rabbit: A Toy Story (available through TRW)
May 2, 2025 - Conejo Players Theatre (Westlake Village, CA)
friends of the unknown penguin
Past guest of The Original Cast and all-around bon-vivant Kevin Winkler has a new book out from Oxford Univ. Press on the Divine Ms. M entitled On Bette Midler: An Opinionated Guide. If you’re familiar with his previous works Everything is Choreography: The Musical Theatre of Tommy Tune (2021) and Big Deal: Bob Fosse and Dance in the American Musical (2018), then you’ll know this is a must-read for theatre and music and musical theatre fans. You can read a FREE CHAPTER at this link!
from the vault
The Original Cast - Intermission: What She Said (Aug 28, 2019)
5 years ago was the (probably) last ever Page-to-Stage Festival at the Kennedy Center. And while I’ve written about why this is a crying shame, I come here today to remember the last show I had at the festival. After we did Tinker Bell together, Michelle Polera and I began working on a one-woman show for her. The result was What She Said, a script I am very proud of. In prep for it’s performance at that year’s Page-to-Stage, Michelle and I sat down with Nicole Hertvick of DC Theatre Arts to talk about the show and its development.