Today’s Stage

At all times, theatre is a reflection of the society in which it lives. And there is no better time to use the power of the theatre to look in on the world around us. If you really want to hit your audiences with a play that is perfect for today’s stage, check out “A … Read more

“Short” is “In”

Have you noticed lately that “short” is “in”? I’m not referring to height, of course. I’m talking about short everything from Twitter to Texting to Instagram and Snapchat. It’s no wonder that movies are getting shorter and that yes, even theatre is following suit. Ninety minute or less full-length plays without intermission are becoming quite … Read more

The Play of the Month

Most of you are busy during the winter setting your schedule for next season. Coming up with works that will fill seats is often as difficult as finding new works that set the stage for the kind of theatre you want to produce— that is, theatre that is relevant to your audiences. With that in … Read more

Move Your Way to Memorization

I belong to several online discussion forums including “Plays and Playwrights” and LinkedIn’s “Theatre Producers”. When I opened my email yesterday, I saw the question posed, “Does anyone have any Memorization Techniques?” Seems “Keith” was going to be playing a large role in 3 weeks, (dress in one; tech in 2) and has 275 lines … Read more

Keeping Play in Drama

School will be out soon and educational institutions, arts groups, and parks and recreation departments are busy organizing camps and activities to keep the young ones safely and positively occupied during summer break. Whether you are an arts expert or a theatre neophyte, drama with kids may seem daunting. But the truth is, there are … Read more

When the Lights Come Up

Today is one of those days. I’ve spent half the day procrastinating and the other half emailing and now the third half (yes, I realize what I said) will be spent hopefully doing something useful. Today started just fine. I was hyped about getting lots done: getting info to the newspaper about the new play … Read more

The Good, The Bad & The Funny

Heading into the new year looking back on all the good things that have happened at Heartland Plays in 2014.  We still consider ourselves a young publishing company having launched our interactive website in November of 2010.  But thanks to your interest in our plays, we now show up on the first page of a … Read more

Write Your Own Play

As one playwright to another, it isn’t much fun when anyone, let alone a stranger reading your script, tells you “what” you should have written, “how” you should have written it and “why” you should change it.  And yet, I’ve been fortunate to have work accepted for critique at professional workshops which proved to be … Read more

Bring On the New!

I was just checking the “view” log on some of the plays in the Heartland Plays online catalog. At least 50 of the new plays in the catalog have had over 1000 hits. Okay, so that doesn’t mean they have been read in their entirety 1000 times, but it definitely means a whole bunch of … Read more

A Sad Loss: Playwright Jim Curran

Today I received an email informing us that playwright Jim Curran passed away Friday evening, July 18.  I share this news with sadness even though I knew Jim only through our many correspondences when we published two of his works, “They’re Irish, They’re Catholic, They’re Guilty!” and “The Burning of the Old House.”  James Joseph … Read more