Wade Bradford’s Blog

My girls are homeschooled — as you may or may not know. But that doesn’t mean they spend all day cooped up in the house. Once or twice a week they attend classes at the Huckleberry Learning Center. They take classes on art, geography, film making, and chess… And sometimes I help out by teaching theater and writing classes.

About a year ago, they wanted to create a play that was about artists, adventurers, and inventors from the turn of the century (late 1800s – early 1900s). So, I toyed around with a few ideas and TADA — I wrote “Impressions of Yesterday.”

The premise: two sisters discover an old trunk that is magically connected to an art studio in Paris, 1899. Out of the trunk pops Mary Cassatt, Monet, Degas, and many other iconic figures from the era.

The play is available at Playscripts Inc.

Over the last couple years, my girls have appeared in several children’s theatre shows at our beloved Canyon Theatre Guild. This gave me a chance to reconnect with young actors and children’s theater directors. Patti Finley said they were interested in doing a fairy tale story of Thumbelina, and she kindly allowed me to write the script.

Writing for children’s is a fun and challenging art form. You want the dialogue to be easy enough for the performers — but you don’t want to “talk down” to the audience or to the cast members.

As with Mermaid in Miami, I was adapting a Hans Christian Andersen story. And if you are an Andersen purists, you might not care for my adaptation. His story ends with Thumbelina marrying a fairy prince and living with the flower people — and thereby never returning to the human woman that raised and nurtured. My tale of Thumbelina focuses on a little girl (very little) who is trying to find her place in the world — and realizes that she and her mother need each other.

My good friend Fiona Perry starred as Thumbelina in the world premiere — and my two daughters had some good parts too!

Here are some photos from Mrs. Stafford’s drama class — (She also directed JT and the Pirates — thanks for your support, Mrs. Stafford!)

Learn more about Wade’s plays.

My friend Joshua and I, when were were struggling artists (unlike now — ha, ha), lived in Orange County without a car and without very much money to entertain ourselves. But we did have our roommate’s video camera. So we would often make these strange yet funny videos. One of them involved us just wandering the video store and using the produce for our prop comedy.

We made up a Headless Horseman character who used a cantaloupe instead of a pumpkin — and ever since then (even though I hate the taste) I’ve had an affinity for the fruit.

So — if you’ve ever seen my play “Conflict” and wondered why the playwright created a story about a young man who is obsessed with a cantaloupe — the source of his inner and outer conflicts — now you know why. No symbolism or anything. Just a fruit I admire.

“Conflict” was a script I wrote specifically for the Repertory East Playhouse. I entered their Page 2 Stage competition — and happily the script won! “Conflict” was produce and directed by a top-notch crew — and performed by a cast of talented actors. It was a joy to watch.

“Conflict” runs about 25 minutes, and like some of my other shorter plays, it has done quite well at drama student competitions.

Learn more about Wade’s Plays.

If you didn’t already know, I am madly in love with children’s literature. That’s why I am so thankful that I have children, so I don’t look odd when I’m reading Dr. Seuss or The Hobbit or Junie B. Jones.

I’ve always loved stories such as Peter Pan, Mary Poppins, and of course more modern kid’s books such as the Harry Potter series. But you know what I’ve never liked? CSI television shows. It started off with just one show — then they spun off with CSI Miami and CSI New York, and some CSI Navy show or something. And I thought it was a ridiculous amount of over-kill worthy of being lampooned. So, that was the seeds of CSI:Neverland.

So far this has become my most popular show — mainly because I full-on embrace silliness. And I had such a fun time creating the Peter character — this obnoxious, fun-loving man-child that has unlimited energy. I’ve had the pleasure of watching several schools perform the play — and each time, the director did a brilliant job of casting the right kid to play the lead role.

Check out this awesome commercial that some students posted on YouTube:

And here’s a breife scene which someone kindly posted:

Here’s an image from a different school production. Peter Pantaloon is talking to the “Lost Boys” — they haven’t aged as well as Peter, unfortunately.

Some of the monologues from the play have become popular too. There’s a Neverland 911 Operator speech that has been embraced by YouTube thespians.

Learn more about Wade’s plays.

Years ago, I was talking with TimBen at the Canyon Theatre Guild. He mentioned that he had wanted to do a Mummy play for Halloween, and that there weren’t any good scripts — comedy scripts — that explored the Mummy legend.

So, I undertook the project, wrote a script, gave it to the Canyon Theatre, and nobody liked it very much. But that never stops me. I took some notes, tightened it up, added some jokes, and sent it off to several play publishing companies. Eldridge liked it, however, they already have a Mummy script — “Mummy Dearest”, I believe. But, the newcomer play company Big Dog Plays scooped up the project.

I love the cover art:

The show runs about sixty minutes — and I’ve been tinkering with an extended version (although that project has been turning into something very different — but more on that later). I wish more theaters were interested in “Tuesdays with Mummy.” I’ve learned something important in the playwriting business: Halloween shows don’t sell very well!

In 2007 I had the pleasure of playing Mercutio at the Canyon Theatre Guild’s production of “Romeo and Juliet.” As a teacher, I have long since enjoyed reading the Bard’s work aloud. However, being able to actually perform it was a transcendent experience.

During the run of the show, I began to create a spoof of the play’s ending. I thought, what would happen if after Romeo drinks the poison, and Juliet supposedly kills herself, what if Romeo woke up and wasn’t really dead? From there, I concocted a ten-minute play that might be the funniest solid ten minutes I’ve ever written.

Heuer Publishing scooped up the script. They have a growing library of ten-minute plays — and so I was encouraged to create another one. So, I came up with “Hopeless Hamlet.” The premise of this ten-minute gem is that a student production of “Hamlet” goes horribly wrong when the ghost comes down with stage fright.

Both shows have been popular at regional and state-wide drama competitions. And I’m proud to say, Romeo Revised has won a handful of awards!