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Wednesday, May 06, 2015

Reading the Plays 952 miles from Broadway

Growing up in a medium sized suburb of a medium sized city did not always cater to my aspirations of seeing major Broadway plays after all I was a young aspiring actor and writer. My aspiration needed some inspiration. But back in those days, there were some issues - first of all, I was no where near Broadway. It was about 952 miles away. Oh sure, St. Louis was fortunate enough to be a stopping point on many "touring companies" of major musicals - I saw "Grease" and "A Chorus Line" when they came through but it seemed the demographics of our area only called for Musical Theatre. Musicals are fine but I wanted the dramas, the comedies, the plays where someone didn't burst into song every 5 minutes.

If I was lucky,  a local college or Rep company would produce Eugene O'Neil, Tennessee Williams or Edward Albee. Not much singing in the works of these playwrights. But the chance of a local theatre hosting something really good - that is beyond the endless loop of "Harvey", "Our Town" , ""Blythe Spirit", "You Can't Take it With You" - you know, the very safe, fan favorite, family approved fare - chances were slim to none anything cutting edge and/or epic would ever appear here 952 miles from Broadway.

One boring afternoon while wandering aimlessly in a local library I found the Theatre section I found a copy of  "The Zoo Story" by Edward Albee. Eureka! Also a collection of O'Neil and Pinter. Wow I thought, (or something like "wow') if I can't see these plays, I can read them!  I continued on this engrossed path to read as many modern non-musical plays as I could. From Mamet to Sheppard and everything in between.

All of these years later, I have had my own plays produced around the country and abroad and realized one day - the only way anyone could see, hear or know about my scripts is if they went to see them. What were the chances my play were being produced in their area? Or even 952 miles away? Yea, probably not. So,  why not publish the plays in book form so they could be discovered and read? Why not cut that distance down for people from the stage to the home? Again, I thought something like Wow. So I did and have. My plays are now in printed book form and kindle available in many outlets but Amazon being the main supplier. To aspiring actor, director or writer out there - you don't have to travel to see what I do. You can read it in the comfort of your own space.  Here is my author page.


Lee Mueller's Plays


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