Book Bits

DRAMA!
Everyone's A Critic

Careful. Potential spoilers ahead!

The unnamed coffeehouse at Malibu Colony Plaza where Bryan, Sam, Eric, and Matthew hatch their plan ... or scheme ... is (or was) a genuine local coffeehouse. In fact, I wrote that very scene while I was in that very coffeehouse to soak in the ambiance. Unfortunately, on my last visit to Malibu I discovered that it's now a Starbucks. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Eric Whitman's house is the only location that I've specifically placed in Malibu in the books. I never indicate where Bryan lives, even though I do have a specific house all picked out for him. And you're not going to find Orion Academy's Breakwater Drive on any map ... well, except maybe Mapquest, which once directed me to drive off a cliff. Eric's fictional house came very close to being destroyed during the Malibu wildfires in both January and October 2007.

Headmaster Collins was named after the Collins family from the gothic soap opera, Dark Shadows. I never got into the original daytime series (which was cancelled before I was born), but I was a big fan of the short-lived nighttime version that came out when I was in college. Why, you may ask, did I name the headmaster after a famous TV vampire's family? No particular reason.

I had Bryan's group choose to do a scene from Twelfth Night because it was the first pseudo-professional job I had in the theatre right out of college. Actually, it was the only pseudo-professional job I've ever had in theatre. Most of my time in theatre has been spent as a student or a volunteer. Very few people go into theatre for the money.

The joke about the Barry Manilow concert that Bryan and Drew went to with Drew's mom was thrown in there because Barry Manilow was almost the first concert I ever went to as a child. I wound up going to a baseball game instead.

Hope's stepmom, Kara Bow, is named in honor of Clara Bow a hugely popular silent screen star from the 1920s. I figured that was the kind of stage name Kara would create for herself.

Chapter Title: Noises Off is one of my favorite plays ever. I first fell in love with the movie version, but then got to see it on Broadway in the 2001 revival that starred an amazing ensemble, including T.R. Knight years before he went on to star in Grey's Anatomy.

Chapter Title: Crimes of the Heart was one of the many plays that I worked on in college. I handled publicity for the play, which mainly consisted of sticking up posters around town.

Chapter Title: Into the Woods. There was a time in my life when I was OBSESSED with this Stephen Sondheim musical and I knew I'd fit it in as a chapter title at some point in the series. It was originally in The Four Dorothys as the title for the chapter that became Desire Under The Elms (Well... They Could Have Been Oaks). I'm glad to say that the obsession has passed. Now, I merely appreciate the musical for its brilliance.

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DRAMA!
The Four Dorothys

The original book title was The Five Dorothys, until Wren was demoted to understudy. But it all balanced out in the end because we put her on the cover (or ... at least, her legs are on the cover).

The Saundra Hall auditorium at Orion Academy (a.k.a. Hall Hall) is named in honor of the college professor who had the greatest impact on my life. Sandi taught me more about myself than theatre, and more about theatre than anyone else. Sandi passed away several years ago, but she is always with me and a little piece of her is in every project I work on (though this is the first time I've actually put her in a book).

I chose Anything Goes as the title for the first chapter because it was the first play I worked on in college. I was on the set and paint crews (which is really funny if you?ve ever seen me try to build anything. Even the pre-fab furniture from IKEA is a challenge of epic proportions). Anything Goes was my introduction to the All Night Paint Parties. And let me just say, there is nothing like watching the sunrise out the doors of a theater.

The Charles Martin soccer field is named after the football stadium at my old high school.

You may have noticed that Bryan uses the term theater instead of theatre in his narration. While Bryan certainly has his own opinion on the proper spelling of the word, I usually go by the rule that a theater is the building in which theatre is performed. (Unless I am not really paying attention and use whatever spelling comes out of my fingers as I type.)

The vampire pact between Bryan and Sam is an actual pact I had with some friends in college. And no, I am not ashamed of admitting to a vivid imagination. It has served me well so far.

The full title of the David Mamet children's play mentioned in the first chapter of the book is The Revenge of the Space Pandas, or Binky Rudich and the Two Speed Clock. I was assistant stage manager on a production of the play in college. Being a directing major, most of the production work I did was as a stage manager and that was the first play I ever worked on in that capacity.

Chapter 11 Title: The play, The Front Page was made into the Cary Grant / Rosalind Russell movie, His Girl Friday, which is one of my favorite movies ever ... along with fellow chapter title Arsenic and Old Lace (another film starring Cary Grant). I highly recommend renting both these movies for two great examples of classic screwball comedies.

Chapter 16 Title: The Taming of the Shrew was my first real brush with Shakespeare. I performed in a scene from the play in my sixth grade English class during a mini-Shakespeare festival where the students acted out scenes from his most famous plays.

Chapter 24 Title: I was stage manager for a workshop production of No Exit in college. While I was in school, the theatre department introduced afternoon workshops of student produced plays. These would give the directing students the opportunity to showcase their work. It also allowed anyone interested in playwriting to premiere original pieces. It was in these Thursdays in the Studio that I learned how much I enjoyed writing and was able to develop my first two short plays. The first was a ten-minute play called Forever that followed Adam & Eve at they watched the evolution of man from above. The second was a comic one act play called Growth Spurts, which was about four friends growing up together from infancy through high school graduation.

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