December 16, 2012
Wanted: Church or Local Theatre Group to Stage My One-Act Comedy
Posted by Michael in : Writing , add a comment
Not long ago, I put the finishing touches on a one-act comedy and now I’m looking for a church that’s interested in staging it.
The one-act is titled “Bowled Over” and it features four actors – two men and two women – who play all 16 parts. The play is a sketch comedy set in a bowling alley. There are 10 sketches in the play. Run time is estimated at a little over an hour.
July 13, 2012
Writing Comedy is Serious Work for This Minister
Posted by Michael in : Writing , add a comment
Just finished my first day at the 18th annual Karitos Christian Arts Conference in West Chicago. I attended four workshops and the afternoon general session featuring Glenn Kaiser.
I plan to write more about some of the workshops that I attended in the next few days, but I wanted to write up some quick thoughts this evening about the workshop on stand-up comedy.
Allen D. Edge led the session. Allen is an ordained minister and a stand-up comedian. Now there’s a combination.
May 26, 2012
Best Performance by Lead Actress in Play: Fourth Chance to Win a RileysDiner Script
Posted by Michael in : Contest , add a comment
Here’s your fourth and final chance to win a free sketch from RileysDiner in our Tony Awards contest. Pick who you think will win in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role of a Play.
Details for the entire contest are available in an earlier post. If you haven’t voted in any category, voting is still open in all four categories until noon (CST) June 9.
To enter, send an email to rileyscontest@gmail.com to tell us the winner in the Best Lead Actress in a Play category. Please include your name, address and the name of the play you’re voting for. We keep your information confidential. It isn’t provided to anyone else.
You’ll be entered into our random drawing to win a free script for a correct vote in each category so that’s up to four chances to win. Remember, you can vote only once in each category. Anyone voting for more than one entry in a category will be disqualified.
- Nina Arianda, Venus in Fur
- Tracie Bennett, End of the Rainbow
- Stockard Channing, Other Desert Cities
- Linda Lavin, The Lyons
- Cynthia Nixon, Wit
The drawing will be held immediately after the broadcast of the Tony Awards on June 10. The winner will be posted on the blog.
May 19, 2012
Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Play: Third Chance to Win a RileysDiner Script
Posted by Michael in : Contest , add a comment
Are you ready for your third chance to win a free sketch from RileysDiner? This time, we want you to pick who you think will win in the category of Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role of a Play.
For details for the entire contest, check out our earlier post. Remember, if you haven’t voted in the first two categories – Best Play and Best Musical – you can vote all the way until noon (CST) June 9.
To enter, send an email to rileyscontest@gmail.com to tell us the winner in the Best Lead Actor in a Play category. Please include your name, address and the name of the play you’re voting for. For the record, your information is confidential. We don’t provide it to anyone else.
If you’re correct, you’ll be entered into our random drawing to win a free script. The drawing will be held immediately after the broadcast of the Tony Awards on June 10. The winner will be posted on the blog.
- James Corden, One Man, Two Guvnors
- Philip Seymour Hoffman, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
- James Earl Jones, Gore Vidal’s The Best Man
- Frank Langella, Man and Boy
- John Lithgow, The Columnist
You can vote only once in each category. Voting for more than one entry in the same category will disqualify you. Vote today!
May 12, 2012
Best Musical: Second Chance to Win RileysDiner Sketch
Posted by Michael in : Contest , add a comment
Here’s your second chance to win a free sketch from RileysDiner. For details for the entire contest, check out our earlier post.
For your second entry, send an email to rileyscontest@gmail.com to tell us the winner in the Best Musical category. Please include your name, address and the name of the play you’re voting for. For the record, your information is confidential. We don’t provide it to anyone else.
If you’re correct, you’ll be entered into our random drawing to win a free script. You can still vote in the Best Play category, too. The drawing will be held immediately after the broadcast of the Tony Awards on June 10. The winner will be posted on the blog.
You can vote only once in each category. Voting for more than one entry in the same category will disqualify you. Break a leg!
May 7, 2012
Best Play: First Chance to Win RileysDiner Sketch
Posted by Michael in : Contest , add a comment
Here’s the first of four chances to win a free sketch from RileysDiner. Check out our earlier post for the details on the entire contest.
For your first entry, send an email to rileyscontest@gmail.com to tell us the winner in the Best Play category. Please include your name, address and the name of the play you’re voting for.
If you’re correct, you’ll be entered into our random drawing to win a free script. The drawing will be held immediately after the broadcast of the Tony Awards. The winner will be posted on the blog.
You can vote only once in each category. Voting for more than one entry in the same category will disqualify you. All the best!
April 29, 2012
Four Chances to Win RileysDiner Script in Our Tony Awards Contest
Posted by Michael in : Uncategorized , 4comments
Watch for our Tony Awards contest next month on our Facebook page for up to four chances to win a free script from RileysDiner.com. Here’s how it works.
The Tony nominees will be announced May 1. Each Saturday in May, we’ll post one of the categories here on the RileysDiner blog, and you email us to vote for who you think will win. The categories will be Best Play, Best Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play, and Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play.
For each winner you correctly name, you’ll be entered into our drawing to win one of our nonroyalty sketches. (Reading copies of our one-act Christmas scripts are not eligible.) Correctly vote for all four winners, and you’ll have four chances to win.
You’ll have until noon (CST) June 9 to vote. You can only vote once in each category. We’ll draw the winning entry after the Tonys are broadcast on June 10. The winner will be announced on our blog and will have 30 days to select their script. If they don’t choose a script, we’ll draw another name and give that person 30 days to choose their script. And so on.
October 29, 2011
“Judgement House,” Other Scary Church Plays Thrive on Manipulating People
Posted by Michael in : Acting , add a comment
Years ago, I went to a performance of "Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames" at a church near my home in the St. Louis metro region. The play was a series of vignettes depicting different people dying and facing their eternal judgments.
Some went to Heaven; others were dragged away screaming to Hell. As a drama, it was predictable. With each scene, you were introduced to new characters, at least one of whom was going to die in the next few minutes.
While much of my recollection of that production is fuzzy, two scenes left strong impressions. One featured a young woman who commits suicide and then is sent to Hell; the other told the tale of a father and teen son killed in a car accident followed by a demon tormenting the father as he watches his son dragged off to Hell first.
February 11, 2011
How To Know When You’ve Got the Right Ending for Your Script
Posted by Michael in : Writing , 2comments
Endings are hard.
I’ve been working on a long overdue new sketch for the website. When I read what I’ve written so far, I’m really happy with it until I get to the end. It just sort of stops. Something about the ending doesn’t work for me. I know that it’s not ready. It doesn’t tell the audience that the story is done. It’s made me think about how important the right ending is to a story. And – spoiler warning – I’ve been thinking about some of my favorite endings.
January 20, 2011
Three Sweet Church Drama Scripts for Valentine’s Day
Posted by Michael in : Writing , add a comment
Valentine’s Day is less than a month away. That’s still enough time to 
put together a drama for the Sunday before the holiday. We have three scripts – “He Shoots, She Scores,” “The Wedded-Bliss Title Agency” and “Escape to Nowhere” – that you could order from the RileysDiner menu. Place your order today, and you’ll have a PDF of the script emailed to you within 24 hours.