Plays and screenplays happened sort of serendipitously, the result of buying a formatting software for screenplays called Scriptware. I’d wanted to write a screenplay based on The Island novel, which I finally did. But prior to that, Curtis Matthew came to the Beef Stew poetry readings several times (actually, he became rather a nag) to talk up a one act play contest that was being held by the Pennsylvania Playhouse. He wanted the Prague bunch to contribute.

So I wrote one titled Colors to get familiar with the Scriptware software and it won—one of three chosen to be performed. Misha and I went to see it during the three days of performance in May of 1999, which led to a three month tour of the United States, because she’d never been there. But that’s another story . . .

Writers know what to expect when a book gets published—familiar words between pages. But it’s really a strange sensation to have something I wrote be acted out on stage, the words being spoken to an audience.

It was scary.

It was great.

I wrote Uncle Oscar for the next year’s competition and it didn’t even make the shortlist. Life’s like that. 1998 Colors  – a one-act stage play, winner of the 1999 Pennsylvania Playhouse competition 1999 The Island – a screenplay based on the novel 1999 Uncle Oscar, a one-act play