Tag: CivicTheatre

Margerumalia – My Play Was Chosen!

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – April 24, 2026

I’m pleased to announce that my 10-Minute play “Out of the Abyss” was chosen for this year’s Civic Theatre Play Festival in June. There are so many talented playwrights on this list and I am both honored and humbled to be among them.

“Out of the Abyss” is an homage to Ray Bradbury’s short story “To the Chicago Abyss” which he also adapted into a one-act play by the same name. In it, an old unhomed man is muttering memories of brands of coffee, cigarettes, candy bars, movies, and fresh fruit when someone tries to shut him up for fear he’ll get taken away. Remembering things is not allowed in this dystopia.

I thought I could capture a similar feeling by having my unhomed man muttering the words of famous documents and speeches that define who we are as a nation. He, too, is in danger of getting hauled away by the authorities so a social worker desperately tries to make him stop. My title suggests a hopeful outcome if it’s received as I imagined.

My daughter read the play and commented that the feeling of my short play is “uncanny” and I like that description a lot. She said it feels like something out of 1984. I agree.

The festival director asked if I wanted to direct my play and I enthusiastically said yes. I’ve directed short plays in the festival for the past three years, and one full-length play for the youth theatre. I’m particularly excited because the atmosphere is mutually supportive, generous, and encouraging.

After auditions, for example, directors discuss who they want in their plays, and follow up with alternate choices in a give-and-take process to help every play to achieve its best.

I remember realizing one year that a young man hadn’t been cast in anything even though he did a good job in the auditions so I volunteered to give him a role in the play I was directing. He did a good job and has continued to be involved in Civic Theatre since. That’s the outcome we want! 

The last time I directed my own play in this festival I was encouraged by fellow playwright Steven G. Martin to submit it to other festivals and competitions. That play, “Just Book Club,” ended up getting collected in The Best 10-Minute Plays 2024. (You can see the book cover on my website at ericmargerum.com.)

The county library Spring Author Fair was sparsely attended due, they said, to an all-morning rain followed by a university bug fair that drew a lot of attendance. 

Ever eat a bug? Not on purpose! Me neither. Apparently scorpion pops have been a big draw in years past. Eww.

The one book I did sell was to an old friend of my parents who told me that he belonged to a play-reading group and they had read my play “Just Book Club.” He said it was very good and he and his wife plan to come see my next play in June.

TTFN

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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles

Margerumalia – Another Opening, Another Show

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – June 27, 2025

By the time you read this it’ll be opening night of our Civic Theatre Short Play Festival. I’ve directed one of the plays and I’m looking forward to seeing how it’s received.  

Last year I directed a ten minute play with three cows, this year I’m directing a ten minute play featuring three bags of dog food and a Roomba. 

Spoiler alert, Woofy has died. 

The bags of dog food are sitting in the pantry contemplating their inevitable end. The Roomba has no lines, it just moves endlessly around the stage. It’s an absurdist comedy called “Best Before” by Judson Wright.

Like “Waiting for Godot,” perhaps the most well-known example of absurdism, “Best Before” has some comic banter as well as some existential suffering, but what really touches me in this play is the final sentiment: you mattered.

I do feel that everyone matters and that our ability to empathize is one of the greatest features of humanity. It wounds me deeply when I see people intentionally stomp all over that gift in an effort to enrich themselves or show off their ability to be a winner. What is it to win when so much is lost?

I’m not talking about the mistakes we all make, a failure to see someone else’s pain, or the moments of weakness that cause us to lash out. Those can be humbling when we realize what we’ve done and our better angels remind us to do better.

Empathy and love are mighty forces and they breed even more empathy and more love. My wife and I continue to talk about our daughter’s wedding last month and the incredible “village” of friends and family who wrapped their love around two people, putting all of their effort into making it a memorable celebration that they pulled off without a hitch. Of course it helped that most of them were theatre people who knew how to pull off a production, but even the DJ and the photographer said it was one of their favorite experiences. You know the feelings were shining through.

Empathy is also the realm of the artist. Some of the most moving songs are written by artists who observed someone else’s pain or their joy. The greatest actors have the ability to move you by bringing genuine feeling to their roles. Photographers excel at capturing poignant visions of the world around you. The best story tellers draw you into the world of their stories and your range of experience grows as you place yourself in the shoes of those characters. 

I encourage you to support the arts in a time when funds are drying up and empathy is at a low ebb. Go to the library. Go to an art gallery. Go to a play…

Be great. You matter.

TTFN

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