Theater News, some of which is tragically late.

It has been and is shaping up to be a hectic theater year at Plossville. 

Godspell at The Wilton Playshop in Wilton CT.

1st off, Laura is now serving as The President of our local community theater, The Wilton Playshop some 30 years since the last time she so did. She's been busy building a terrific team of volunteers at the recently turned 86-year-old theater. This brings me to theater news part two...

I was asked in late January/early February if I'd be interested to step in as the director of the spring production of Godspell at the theater. I said yes and had a great time with a phenomenal cast and crew creating one heck of a show. Audiences loved it, The folks at the theater loved it and I loved creating something wonderful with them all.

The cast of The Addam Family at Musicals
at Richter in Danbury CT.

About halfway through pre-production for Godspell, I received a call from Musicals at Richter in Danbury Connecticut offering me the Director position for their first summer production of "The Addams Family". It's an outdoor venue and I've only done one outdoor show before in Stratford but I said yes. We are in the middle weekend of a highly successful and critically acclaimed run. We close on Saturday, July 22nd so get your tickets soon.

The one show that I had planned for this year was The Wilton Children's Theater Summer Stage Jr. production of Disney's Jungle Book Kids. For those of you who may be unaware of the multiple script versions that one musical can have, there can be four or more. Usually, there is the full version, then there might be a "School Version", a Junior version, and a Kids version. The latter is a 30-minute one-act.

The 2023 cast of Jungle Book Kids for
Wilton Children's Theater's SummerStage Jr.

The cast this year was wonderful and the young actors had a terrific time putting it together. They also had the benefit of staff and interns who were in the show the last time that I directed it. 

All in all a great year for theater so far here at Chez Ploss. Now on to the fall and Elf Jr. for Wilton Children's Theater!

Big News (Sort Of): New Video!

The Christmas Truck

We've been all over the place here at Plossville.

But, we are working on adding more "Quickie" Videos to the Youtube Channel! The first one is already been posted and we will have another one next Sunday.

This one is "The Christmas Truck" and was inspired by conversations with some very talented, more than me, friends over dinner last night and "The Rivet Truck" seen below. There's even a video of Skip drawing it on the YouTube Channel.

From all of us at Plossville, have a happy and safe holiday season.

The Rivet Truck

Big News: I Have Two Bunnies, Kindle Edition....Edition

L-R: Bunny Matumbo Smith, Eric Butternose Bunny,
and Francis McGill Smartypants III
have undergone a little freshening up in preparation
for the new Kindle Edition of "I Have Two Bunnies".

The first legit Kindle Edition of one of my books is in the review process at Amazon and should be available in a few days. It started off as an "I wonder if..." and here we are 24 hours later having freshened everyone in the book up a little with the Kindle Edition done and in the can as they say.

Update: You can purchase the Kindle version of this book now at Amazon!

Work is proceeding on I have Two Chickens and the goal there is to be done and published before school opens in a few weeks.

It's an exciting time here at Plossville!

Big News! Visiting Author and School-wide Book Walk

Big News!

I will be the visiting author at Miller-Driscoll School this week. I'll be presenting to 1st and 2nd graders in live sessions throughout the day and to Kindergarteners via a group zoom session in the afternoon.

I'll be sharing how I started, what my process for writing and illustrating is (hint: It's still a work in progress), and the dreaded word "editing".

In addition to the talks my book, "If I Had a Gift", has been disassembled and recreated as a book walk in 13 different 24x33 inch posters posted around the school with the illustration and text from each page along with a QR Code that links to a video of me reading that page!

Big shout-outs to Kathryn Coon our principal and Jeanine Hussey one of our library media specialists for giving me the opportunity and helping make this happen!

"Chickens" Work Update

Work proceeds and is, in fact, speeding up ahead of some big news coming in April/May (no I don't have a book deal). The checklist follows.

• The backgrounds have been updated and are, as far as I am concerned, complete.
• Sketches for all pages have been completed.
• The book has been trimmed of what, upon review, seemed like undeeded content and has gone from over 40 pages to a reasonable, and industry-standard, 32. 
• Character style, process, and colors have been finalized.
• The inside front cover and page one artwork are complete.
• Moving ahead on the rest.

Betty Jane McPhearson is, in fact, a chicken.

Francis McGill Smartypants III

Mamba Kuku

New Quickies Coming!

One of the things that's different at school this year is that teachers are always looking for different things to make the day, which is by need and design unfun, fun.  One of the things that a couple of teachers in my school do is to show my Quicky Drawing videos of which there were three.

That has prompted me to dedicate myself to making more videos. There are a total of eight "in the can" set to premiere on Sundays and Wednesdays and more are in the works. I've even purchased a new rig to get a better view of what I'm drawing!

So here is the first. The Unicorn.

Out and About: Other People Reading My Book Edition

It's been an amazing school year this year so far.

First, this is my 15th year in my school. That fact brought the realization that "If Picasso Were a Fish" and "If I Had a Gift" both turned 14 this year.

That, in turn, sparked another couple thoughts.

• The students who first saw and reacted "Picasso" are all neck deep in college or military service or the start of their 20's.
• The young woman on whose birthday sheet "Gift" was based, is also deep in college (she was in second grade at the time).

Then also the realization that I have not finished a book in a while.

So, I have six new books in a restarted pipeline. 

Now as to the title of this post...

The administration in my preK-grade 2 school reads a different book to each grade every year. This year, I'm blown away by this, they chose If I Had a Gift as the official book to read to every second grader in my building. 

I'm humbled beyond belief. 

I'll keep you posted on the pipeline.