Plays

The theater department at my alma mater, Wheaton College, commissioned me to write two plays in the years after I graduated. One was War in Heaven, a musical, written with composer Tony L. Payne (now dean of Wheaton’s conservatory), based on a novel by Charles Williams. The other was The Final Beast, based on a novel by Frederick Buechner. One of my most nervous moments ever was sitting next to Buechner during the premiere of that play, wondering if he’d like it. He was gracious. . . . In the late 1980s I wrote a one-act, YMI that was produced at the Ritz Theatre of Oaklyn, NJ. . . . In the late 1990s I wrote most of a musical called Creating, which was created by a group of actor friends I directed. We performed it one summer, rewrote it, and performed it again before enthusiastic, but generally small, audiences. . . . I should include nearly twenty years of Christmas plays written for my church drama group, most of these about a half-hour long (and available at www.hopedrama.com). . . . Since 2003, I’ve been working as lyricist (also dramaturg and director) on the musical Jailbirds, with playwright Alex Wilkie and composer Andre Vermeulen. (Learn more at www.jailbirdsmusical.com.) . . . . I’m currently working on a full-length play, Intelligent Design, as part of my Master’s studies at Villanova, under the tutelage of award-winning playwright Michael Hollinger.