Newsletter – July 17, 2026
I was invited to join the Greater Lafayette Playwrights last month just as the group was planning an evening of short play staged readings around the fictional small town of Fuguesburg. (Aptly pronounced FEW-guess-burg for our presentation.)
A menu of possible scenarios had been created for the playwrights to dabble in, from the initial parade, to the fireworks finale, and the dozen or so playwrights called dibs on a corner of small town life. This would give the audience a chance to see the residents of Fuguesburg from several angles. I chose the dessert table where the townsfolk were placing their themed creations to be judged and awarded.
I told Debbie that I felt like I had been given the chance to join a writer’s room for a sitcom or a sketch comedy like SNL. We offered up our ideas for a bunch of different scenarios, and we got the chance to make reference to the subject of other’s short plays. In improv or music, this is called riffing on an idea. Not ripping off an idea, but building on a theme by referring to themes of others. It’s a fun way to get the creative juices flowing!
My short play “Just Desserts,” for example, makes reference to the annual Miss Fuguesburg contest. Knowing that Neil was going to write about that event, I asked him if it would be okay to include a reference to last year’s winner, and I told him my idea for a joke about the men at the kissing booth. One doesn’t want to hijack a kissing booth joke from the playwright who’d created the event in the first place. I got the okay and went from there.
I also had my characters gossip about Mayor Maynott’s DWI and checked with the playwright who had written a welcoming speech to to the townsfolk which clearly shows him as corrupt and rather dodgy about following the law. This, too, was given the thumbs-up. That playwright also gave me the mayor’s correct first name as opposed to the one I had invented for that little tidbit.
Other playwrights got in on that kind of collaboration and the result will be an interwoven story with plenty of comedy and several tender moments that are quite endearing.
By the time you see this newsletter the free performance of staged readings will have been given two days ago, but I promise to let you know how it went.
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
Eric Margerum 