It’s been a minute since I last posted anything on my site!! Jeez.  My big news is I’m having another world premiere. The second in a year.

This times it’s my play A Frosty Night. It’s a commission from The Human Race Theatre (where This is Tom Jones! had its world premiere last year.) in Dayton, Ohio.  The theatre has leaned into doing an adults only holiday show. They want people to come out and see something other than A Christmas Carol.

Emily Wells, the artistic director at The Human Race Theatre, approached me about writing a show for them. I pitched her a few ideas and we landed on A Frosty Night. It’s a comedy about a love triangle with Mrs. Claus, a certain Snowman, and that snowman’s human wife, Sharon. Love, life, and friendship are at risk in a comedy about infidelity, secrecy, lies and the choices we make.

I just finished a weeklong workshop of the show and I’m thrilled with the shape of the script.

The Cast and Director

The cast is going to be amazing. Christine Brunner, Mierka Girten, and Tim Lile will play Mrs. Claus, Sharon, and a certain snowman. Emily Wells, who also directed This Is Tom Jones! will be directing.

Clockwise from top left: Tim, me, Mierka, Christine, Emily

The Details

A Frosty Night
Human Race Theatre
Dec. 11 – 22
Click for tickets

The post Don’t Miss A Frosty Night World Premiere appeared first on Mark Brown - Writer.

Here’s a lyric video I put together for the song “Prison Lament” from my show Tom Jones the Musical. I wrote the song and then it took Paul about four hours to put together the arrangement.

Tom has been found guilty of killing a man and sits in his prison cell, lamenting (see how I got the title of the song?) his fate.

Paul, besides being the musical director for Pink and the TV show The Voice, also used to be in the bands Nelson and Whitesnake. He got to tap into his 80’s hair band vocals for the recording. And did he warm up? No. Kids, don’t try this at home.

You can see even more about the show at the official website Tom Jones the Musical.

And check out more videos at my Youtube site.

Thanks for visiting.

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It’s here! The concept album for my show Tom Jones the Musical is now out and available wherever you stream music.

I really want to get this show out into the world. I’m really proud of what my good friend Paul Mirkovich and I did with the 1960s British Invasion-inspired music (I penned all the songs and he made them sound fantastic). And a huge thank you to all my friends who gave up their free time to record the songs and get paid in bagels. (If the songs stream enough, I’ll actually be able to pay them).

Some days I feel like Sisyphus with this show, but I haven’t come this far to only get this far. If you could help me out I’d really appreciate it. It’ll only take a couple of minutes, won’t cost you a thing, and will make a huge difference for me.

Here’s how. Any or all choices will be awesome:

1. Go to your streaming service of choice
2. Follow my artist page
3. Stream the songs
4. Put the songs on a playlist
5. Share the music with friends

The most popular streaming services (with links to the album or my artist page) are:

1. Youtube Music
2. Spotify
3. Apple Music
4. Amazon Prime Music
5. Pandora

And if you can—and I can’t believe I’m going to say this because I’ve always mocked people who said it—subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Thank you so much! I hope you’ll think the songs are groovy, baby.

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I’m contemplating changing the title of my musical adaptation of the novel “The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling” from “Tom Jones the Musical” to “This is Tom Jones.” What do you think?

[poll id=”6″]

Here are some of the songs from the show.

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COVID-19, begone! Ye shall not destroy the arts!

My play The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge will be produced by Orlando Shakes in a Video on Demand virtual theater experience, from December 10 – 20, 2020.

Some dear friends of mine are in this production. Philip Nolen, who did the original workshop and world premiere of the play, and who has been an inspiration to me for my writing, will play Ebenezer Scrooge. Anne Hering, who I’ve known forever and has been in several of my shows, will play Mrs. Cratchit, Sarah Wainwright, and The Translator (The Ghost of Christmas Future doesn’t speak english after all).  Sarah Hubert, who was in a reading of my play “The Gentleman Thief” and helped me translate the Feydeau play Monsieur Chasse (which became my play A Hunting We Will Go!) will play The Ghost of Christmas Present, Fan, and Belle. And all three are members of my pseudo-virtual-theatre company Quarantine Rep.

Quinton Cockrell and I worked together a lifetime ago at Orlando Shakes. And I have no idea who the other actors are. But they better not blow it. I kid I kid. Or maybe not.

Not a Typical Streaming Production

The show won’t look like your basic Zoom-like meeting. Orlando Shakes is coming up with a cool digital set design. From what I understand, all of the actors received a green screen and lighting. It looks like it’s going to be very cool.

About the Production

Here’s what the press release has to say about the show.

In this laugh-out-loud, twisted take on the holiday classic, it’s one year after A Christmas Carol and Scrooge has returned to his miserly ways… The Ghosts of Christmas are on trial for breaking and entering, kidnapping, slander, pain and suffering, attempted murder, and the intentional infliction of emotional distress. Both silly and sweet, The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge is a heartwarming comedy for the whole family!

“This show is just packed with Christmas cheer and plenty of laughs,” says Jim Helsinger, Orlando Shakes’ artistic director and director of this production. “And it adds a delightful twist to the classic Dickens tale. With this Video on Demand experience, patrons can enjoy theater for the holidays from the safety of their home.”

Dec 10 – 20th.

Tickets cost $15 per person to stream. $10 for students.

Available now by phone (407) 447-1700 ext. 1 or online at orlandoshakes.org.

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Poe: Deep Into That Darkness Peering, a play I co-wrote with Mark Rector, is now running at Orlando Shakes. It’s a streaming production, so you can watch it from anywhere in the world, and in whatever clothing you’d like.

What the Heck It’s About

In a fury of wild panic, Edgar Allan Poe bursts into a room of trusted friends convinced enemies, who seek to destroy him, pursue him. To save his own life, Poe undertakes a desperate wager: he must unravel an intricate puzzle that draws him into the horror-haunted dreamland of his stories and poems. As the threads of his life and his writing intertwine, he confronts the phantasms of his past – the women he loved and who died too young, his cruel stepfather, the critics who sneered at his talent, and the personal demons that drove him to write his masterpieces of mystery and imagination. Stories and poems featured in the play include: “The Black Cat,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,” “To My Mother,” “The Conqueror Worm,” “For Annie,” “A Dream Within a Dream,” “Alone,” “Lines on Ale,” “The Bells,” Annabel Lee,” and “The Raven.”

(Photo Courtesy Zach Lane)

Show Info

I think the show is loads of fun and creepy. Theatres nationwide are struggling. Many are going under. Please take 95-minutes out of your day and support theatre and the arts. Tickets are a mere $15.

The show runs from October 22 – November 1, 2020.

Click for more about the show and tickets.

The Creative Team

Edgar Allan Poe: Steven Lane
Director: Cynthia White
Scenic Designer: Chris McKinney
Lighting Designer: Rob Siler
Costume Designer: Alison Reid
Costume Manager & Wardrobe: Denise R. Warner
Wig Stylist: Denise R. Warner
Costume Special Thanks: Stephanie Stachow and Debbie Warner
Sound Designer: Britt Sandusky
Producer & Cinematographer: Jim Helsinger
Post Production Manager: Christian Knightly
AEA Stage Manager: Paige Gober

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I’ve been working on a one-act version of “Around the World in 80 Days.” With most theatres only streaming productions, I feel shorter plays (no intermission) are going to be more popular. And for years my friend David Emmes has been pushing me to do a one-act version.

I’m changing it up a bit from the two-act version, so I went back to the book to look up a few things. I came across this passage from the book. It’s been 20 years since I wrote the script and I can’t remember what I was thinking when I transformed what Verne wrote to what I wrote. (Frankly, I can’t remember how I do that with most of my adaptations. When I go back and look at what I’ve done, I usually feel like someone else wrote the scripts.) And it appears I took another section of the book and put it in the scene after the watch business and before ‘Passengers will get out here!’

Anyway, I felt it was fun to revisit.

What Jules Verne Wrote

The next day Sir Francis Cromarty asked Passepartout what time it was; to which, on consulting his watch, he replied that it was three in the morning. This famous timepiece, always regulated on the Greenwich meridian, which was now some seventy-seven degrees westward, was at least four hours slow. Sir Francis corrected Passepartout’s time, whereupon the latter made the same remark that he had done to Fix; and upon the general insisting that the watch should be regulated in each new meridian, since he was constantly going eastward, that is in the face of the sun, and therefore the days were shorter by four minutes for each degree gone over, Passepartout obstinately refused to alter his watch, which he kept at London time. It was an innocent delusion which could harm no one. The train stopped, at eight o’clock, in the midst of a glade some fifteen miles beyond Rothal, where there were several bungalows, and workmen’s cabins. The conductor, passing along the carriages, shouted, ‘Passengers will get out here!’

What I Wrote

SIR FRANCIS. At half-past twelve the train stops at Burhanpur. Towards evening, we enter the Satpura Mountains, and the next morning, at eight o’clock-

PASSEPARTOUT. Four o’clock.

SIR FRANCIS. (looking at his watch)  No, it’s eight o’clock.

PASSEPARTOUT. (looks at “his” watch) My watch says it is four o’clock.

SIR FRANCIS. I’m afraid your watch is slow.

PASSEPARTOUT. My watch? A family watch, monsieur, which has come down from my great-grandfather? Slow? It doesn’t vary five minutes in the year.

SIR FRANCIS. Have you adjusted your watch since leaving London?

PASSEPARTOUT. It is a perfect timepiece!

SIR FRANCIS. I don’t doubt that. But since you are constantly moving eastward, the days are shorter by four minutes for each degree gone over. Therefore, you will need to adjust-

PASSEPARTOUT. I will not adjust my great-grandfather’s watch!

SIR FRANCIS. Very well. The next day, at eight o’clock-

PASSEPARTOUT. Four o’clock.

SIR FRANCIS. The train rushes through a glade some fifteen miles beyond Rothal. (sotto voce) It’s eight o’clock.

PASSEPARTOUT. I heard that.

SIR FRANCIS. Ah, we’re speeding along now.

PASSEPARTOUT. It says here that India is very dangerous. Is that true?

SIR FRANCIS. Not all of India is dangerous.

PASSEPARTOUT. That is a relief.

SIR FRANCIS. The area we’re passing through now, however, is extremely dangerous.

PASSEPARTOUT. It is?

SIR FRANCIS. Yes. Thanks to Feringhea, the King of the Stranglers.

PASSEPARTOUT. King of the Stranglers?

SIR FRANCIS. Yes. He and his men, in honour of the goddess of Death, strangle victims of all ages. This area can scarcely be travelled over without corpses being found in every direction.

PASSEPARTOUT. How horrible.

SIR FRANCIS. Yes.

PASSEPARTOUT. I hope we get out of here soon.

SIR FRANCIS Don’t worry. This locomotive is guided by an English engineer and fed with English coal. We’ll be in Calcutta before you know it.

The train stops.

The INDIAN TRAIN CONDUCTOR enters.

INDIAN TRAIN CONDUCTOR. Passengers will get out here!

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COVID-19 be damned. My play The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge is full-steam ahead this December at Orlando Shakes in Orlando, FL.

I don’t need to tell you that COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on the theatre community (and every other community). But after much planning, Orlando Shakes will produce a video-on-demand production of my play.

Nothing compares to actually being in a theatre, but these are crazy times and I’d love for you to see the show. And the great part is, you don’t need to be in Orlando to see this production. Heck, you don’t even need to be in this country. (And really, let’s face it, we’d all like to be in New Zealand right now).

Video on demand is available December 10 – 20. Tickets are on sale now! 

Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Don’t ingest Clorox.

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The great thing about having a Christmas show along with other scripts means that this is the most wonderful time of year for productions of my shows. This holiday season has been a busy one. December 6 is a particularly busy day. I have 5 productions opening that night. I’m very grateful for theatre choosing to do my shows.. Here are some of the productions around ye olde globe.

December 3 – 22. Around the World in 80 Days at the Istanbul State Theatre in Istanbul, Turkey

December 6 – 15. The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge at Sapulpa Community Theatre in Sapulpa, OK.

December 6 – 22. The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge at Clarion Performing Arts Center in San Francisco, CA

December 6 – 22. The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge at Peninsula Community Theatre in Newport News, VA

December 6 – 15. The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge at Epping Community Theater in Epping, NH

December 6 – 15. The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge at the Evendale Bell Tower Center in Cincinnati, OH

December 10 – 28. Around the World in 80 Days at the Waterfront Playhouse in Key West, FL.

December 12 – 14. Around the World in 80 Days at Mansfield Timberview HS (I love it when schools do my shows)

December 13 – 22. Around the World in 80 Days at Savannah Rep PLAYShop in Savannah, GA.

December 19 – 29. The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge at the Lake Country Playhouse in Hartland, WI

Last Month

I’m not sure what productions I had last month, but I do know of these two.

The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge at the Volcano Theatre Company in Volcano, CA

The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge at the Southfields Theatre Group in Southfields, England

The post It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year appeared first on Mark Brown - Writer.

We debuted five songs from Tom Jones the Musical at the Rockwell Table and Stage. We were part of the Foundation for New American Musicals’ Musi-Cal night. It was a raucous good time. Here’s a video of the performance of “Spend the Night With Me” featuring Jennifer Sun Bell and Eric B. Anthony.

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