Tag: theatre

Margerumalia – Social Prescribing

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – August 21, 2026

Looks kind of intimidating all in caps with red drop shadows like that, but it’s quite the opposite. It’s the prescription for better health through “social connection and community-based activity.” 

I heard about social prescribing through a story on the PBS News Hour podcast and it made me think about how much of it is the opposite of our experiences with social media.

This comes naturally to me, but presents a challenge to others. For me, the solitary task of writing is much farther outside wheelhouse than the prescription to make social connections and get involved in community-based activity. Some of the key prescriptions for better health—both mental and physical—are nature, movement, the arts, service and connection.

I walk every day through the woods. I teach acting, direct plays, write plays, poems, and stories. I volunteer to help out at my public library. And the subbing I do at my local Jr/Sr High School is part payment and part service.

Connection? Oh, yes, theatre is always a group effort and I love the connections I make there. Two writing groups and a monthly lunch gathering at the co-working studio have fostered my connections as well.

Nature AND Connection? I have so many dog friends who welcome my attention and wag their tails enthusiastically as I greet them each by name. I even know the names of some of their humans!

Here’s Lana, who likes to run at me full tilt from fifty yards away!

From what I’ve read on socialprescribingusa.com, these kind of activities are proven to stimulate better mental health and physical health, and they have the data to back it up. I’ve also met many people for whom these prescriptions are fear-filled and triggering. They need to get their prescriptions in smaller doses. 

The introvert may not be keen about the idea of joining the ranks of a theatre company, but maybe they enjoy playing the guitar or a piano. They can do that alone or they can get together with one other person and play together. The introverts I’ve met are usually fine with one-on-one interaction.

And one doesn’t need to visit a kennel of excitable dogs to experience the love of one dog. In fact, people with therapy dogs are siphoning off some of their anxiety through the service animal. That’s a social prescription.

So much rage and fear is jammed into our heads through social media that a quiet calm conversation with another person has been proven to reduce blood pressure, calm the flight-or-flight response, and deepen breathing. If that’s the purpose of the prescription then I’m all for it.

My wife and I returned to watching episodes of Ted Lasso recently and I felt myself laughing with good humor instead of experiencing the anxiety-ridden laughter of so many other comedies.

Please treat yourself kindly and embrace the resulting benefits.

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 – The Bound of the Basketballs

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – August 10, 2026

Does that title sound like a pastiche of Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles? I hope it does, because that’s the intent. Here’s how it came about.

During the dress rehearsal of the short play festival in June I was sitting in the audience with my friend Steve Martin (not the Steve Martin you’re thinking of) who, like me, wrote and directed his own short play.

“Did you notice,” asked Steve, that almost every play is broadly comical and very silly except ours?” 

His play was a very affective story about someone who lost a loved one but gets a glimpse of her in a mystical way before losing her again. Mine was the dystopian future of an America without rights or the freedom to speak of such rights.

“Yeah,” I said, wondering where his train of thought was going, “I did notice.”

“Let’s make a pact,” said Steve, “Both of us will write witty inane comedies for next year and submit them to the festival.” 

“Agreed!” I said, knowing he posts puns almost daily on Facebook. We shook on it and the wheels began to turn.

Last week I recommended a Librivox recording of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mystery The Hound of the Baskervilles. This week I’ll introduce you to my notes for Eric Margerum’s Shirley Combs mystery “The Bound of the Basketballs.”

When I showed Steve my Notes page for this idea he waved it away, grinning “I got it just by reading the title!” And so the process begins.

Since all of Doyle’s novel is narrated by Dr. Watson, my short play will begin with a narration by Dr. Weston. Probably ending the opening speech with a remorseful sentence wishing that the renowned detective were there to help solve the mystery.

“But I am here,” says the voice of Shirley Combs before she steps into the light, “I’ve been here all along.” She enters with a self-satisfied grin in the guise of cleaning woman that is identical to the character that Carol Burnett used to play on her TV variety show.

Substituting for the English Moors will be the Basketball Floors, with an oft repeated adjective like “vast,” “desolate,” or “sinister” to evoke imagery similar to that found in the novel.

And the pernicious murder mystery to solve will be the death of Tracee Park, the young Hoosier upstart fresh out of college who took the WNBA by storm. Her detractors referred to her as “Trailer Park” before her unfortunate demise. “No more free throws for that trailer trash.”

The rest of the cast will rely on one actor quickly changing costumes to present characters like Coach Fanny Bright, Inspector LeStreet, and Concessionaire Morrie Arty.

I’ve given myself one more challenge, to come up with a satisfying resolution to the mystery that makes the audience admire the plotting skills of the writer. If that’s doesn’t happen, I’ll just make it a silly ending that employs a cringe-worthy pun.

Challenge Accepted!

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 – Girl Dads

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – July 24, 2026

I was reading a post on Substack the other day when another short play started germinating in my mind. While I was on my morning walk I started writing it in my head.

The Substack author, Sasha Brown-Worsham, described an incident that happened to her 19-year-old daughter. She was at the beach with her friends when they walked off to get food and she was suddenly alone. 

An older man took the opportunity to approach her, started asking uncomfortable questions and wouldn’t leave her alone. When a dad in his 40’s saw what was happening, he approached her like an old friend and successfully deflected the advances of the other man.

Later, the daughter told her mother that she and her friends have a name for men like that: Girl Dads. Men who quietly steer other men away from a girl who doesn’t want the attention nor the expectations that go with it.

While walking, I came upon a young 20-something who was taking pictures of plants at the edge of the path. I could tell she was aware of my approach, and I wanted to put her at ease so I pointed to her phone and said “My wife has an app she uses to identify wild plants she wants to learn the names of.”

Her face lit up and she returned my smile showing me her phone. “I do, too!”

“Those are great.” I said cheerfully, and continued on.

Later, when I saw her again we exchanged waves and smiles.

My short play now begins with that young woman taking a picture of a plant when the unwanted stranger approaches. I currently have him in my script as “CREEP,” but I’ll have to come up with an actual character name. 

Unlike my normal process, I’ve written a page of dialogue for when GIRL DAD gets involved and prevents CREEP from making further advances. I’m not sure how CREEP operates and tries to manipulate GIRL, but pretty soon I’ll have to strip down and step into that godawful bog to figure out what he’ll say and do.

That’ll probably alter the lines I’ve written already, but it think that’ll feel like a deep cleaning and I’m totally up for that!

I replied to Brown-Worsham’s post with my intent to write a three-hander 10-Minute play, adding “I like to think the arts can set a trend to normalize this kind of heroism.”

It can be a high bar, but I now belong to a playwrights group and I intend to get their valuable input once it’s in good shape.

TTFN

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Speaking of the playwrights group, I promised to let you know how the evening of five-minute play readings went last week (A Fugesberg Fourth). I thought it went very well and was pleased that my play got laughs in all the right places. The other plays did, too, and I’m sure the playwrights were happy with the readings.

I also got to enjoy the company of many people from Civic Theatre who had been involved in the Short Play Festival a couple of weeks ago. Three of them responded to the offer to join the Greater Lafayette Playwrights Group and our little cabal of creatives continues to grow. I love that.

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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 – A Fuguesburg Fourth

Eric Margerum

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

Margerumalia – Playfest Performances

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – July 3, 2026

This credit and photo was on the screen in the Civic Theatre lobby and on the projection screen inside the theatre before the show began. Each of eleven short plays had one.

The Playfest Weekend went very well and I can report that opening night was one of the biggest audiences seen in 14 years of Playfest. That’s especially good news because it’s a Civic Theatre fund raiser. 

About “Out of the Abyss” specifically, I’m so proud of my actors and so pleased to hear many people in the lobby tell me that our play was their favorite. On closing night Debbie and I heard sniffles behind us and during the scene change I glanced over my shoulder to see a man wiping his eyes.

“Me, too,” I thought. “Me, too.”

I saw all of the plays grow tighter and more adept in their delivery throughout the last rehearsals and performances. Actors will tell you that audience response teaches them about the meaning of the play and how to deliver the lines. The comedies become funnier, the dramas become more stirring, and the light and sound changes flow without hesitation.

Highlighting a couple of moments from “Out of the Abyss,” there was a split second Hannah created for her character in which she assumed the pose of the Statue of Liberty. I took a screenshot of it from the video that Debbie made.

In every performance I heard an audible response from the audience when they realized the significance of her pose. It was brief but very effective.

My favorite moment for LH was around a line that I added at the first rehearsal. It was “I have…a dream.” He delivered it with such power, such force, and he knew exactly how long to pause for the ellipsis. It also evoked reactions from the audience that I can only describe as explosive.

Someone I went to high school with caught me after opening night and took my hands, saying, “You told my story!” When she saw my confusion she clarified passionately, “I’m a social worker just like her: helping one person at a time.”

I’m so glad I got that right. She felt seen, and wanted to get together later to tell me more. I agreed, happily.

Authors don’t always get direct feedback from their writing, but as the playwright and the director of this short play, I got to feel the impact of my words.

I’m grateful.

My actors got together and gave me a gift so I asked them if I could share the words they wrote inside the book. They said that would be fine.

This slim 80-page book by Walter Isaacson is already on the Bestseller list and I used a portion of that Greatest Sentence in my play. The one that begins “We hold these truths  to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”

Hannah and LH know that I’ve submitted this play to another play festival in Florida called Kaleidoscope. I told them that requirements for submission included naming two or three emotions that the play evokes. I decided on DESPAIR and HOPE and told them on the night of the final dress rehearsal for additional inspiration.

Their eyes lit up with those words and thus the underline of HOPE above.

I’ve also submitted the play to a publisher who wants a collection of short plays that are specifically science fiction. Mine qualifies because of its dystopian setting. 

It’ll be months before I hear back from either.

Meanwhile I’ll submit to other festivals and keep on writing.

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 – Opening Night

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – June 26, 2026

By the time you read this on Friday, it’ll be opening night of the Short Playfest at Greater Lafayette Civic Theatre.

Hearts are beating a little faster. Palms are moist. Everyone has wished one another to “Break a leg.” And then it’s lights up. Show time! 

Fun fact:

I was told for years that the good luck wish to break a leg was just a bit of reverse psychology. To say “Good Luck” outright would be bad luck. Then I heard that the expression was something said by understudies looking for their opportunity to take the stage.

Later, I heard something much more plausible. 

The curtains across the top of a standard proscenium stage are called teasers, they hide the lighting instruments from the view of the audience. The curtains on the sides that hide actors waiting in the wings are called legs, because they fall from the teasers down to the floor when hung properly. 

Back in the days of vaudeville—a live variety show—the performers only got money if their act was among those chosen. In order to go on stage, you had to break past the “barrier” of the legs. Break a leg and you get paid. No starving artist tonight. Now that’s good luck!

I still have yet to hear if that’s the definitive origin of the expression but I find it the most satisfying so I’m sticking with it.

My cast is very on top of the lines and the characters, and they’re deeply dedicated to the passion of the story. I told them I was blessed with a dream cast and they quickly returned the compliment. Not surprising for three people who were in tears on the first read-through.

I’ll be attending all three shows. I’d feel so out of it if I didn’t. It’s probably the actor in me who learned decades ago that “the show must go on.”

Go ahead, tell us to break a leg.

TTFN

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I had to share another kitten picture with you because the variety of colors is so interesting and rather beautiful.

On the lower left side you can see the edge of the window well cover I installed last month that the whole litter is now using as a slide. There’s also a second kitten down there, slightly out of focus but the tabby markings are a giveaway.

I have more photos and a video I plan to post on both BlueSky and Substack (margerumeric in both cases). 

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If you received this email because it was forwarded to you by a subscriber, welcome. You can also subscribe to get Margerumalia in your INBOX by following the link on my website: ericmargerum.com. A free story awaits you there.

Margerumalia – All I’m Asking For…

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – June 5, 2026

Photo: Yahoo! Entertainment

RESPECT. 

Aretha Franklin sang about it in 1967. “All I’m asking is for a little respect.”

It still holds the title as Rolling Stone’s Greatest Song of All Time.

Country singer Morgan Wallen recently demonstrated his frustration over a piano malfunction by flipping it over on stage. It broke. Now no one can use it. What a waste.

It was a wooden upright piano like you might have in your living room. I know I did.

Watching that video, all I could think of was the many professional musicians who so treasured their instruments that they set up charities to give young people the opportunity to have even a fraction of the joy and creativity that they enjoyed. Music is a gift. Having the resources to buy a piano, a drum set, a trombone, or a violin, is precious.

Someone who doesn’t appreciate that doesn’t deserve to be appreciated.

In my opinion.

Imagine a sous chef destroying his expensive knife collection because one of them slipped and made a faulty cut. Imagine a famous writer throwing down her typewriter because one key got stuck. Imagine a soldier bashing their weapon against a tank because it misfired.

Later, someone posted a video of Taylor Swift who also sat at a malfunctioning upright piano. What did she do?

She opened the lid and fixed the problem. Then she continued with her concert. 

RESPECT.

I can respect that kind of musician. I could even have respected Wallen’s choice to sing the rest of the song a cappella, which he did. I think that was a classy move. But then he ruined it by going back and destroying an expensive instrument, flipping it over so no one could ever use it.

“Hurry up and break things” is NOT an admirable path to success. It’s just an irresponsible approach to life. It’s childish. I cannot respect that.

Take a look around the room where you’re reading this…or the coffee shop, or the studio, or the reading nook…and appreciate what you have in your life. Now think of the people you appreciate in your life. That carries all the hallmarks of R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

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 – The First Rehearsal

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – May 29, 2026

The first rehearsal usually begins with a “table read.” That’s exactly what it sounds like, the actors and director all sit around a table and read the script out loud for the first time. 

In a full length production, the table read might also include an assistant director, the stage manager, and possibly a dramaturg, costume designer, or choreographer among others. But “Out of the Abyss” is a short play in a festival of short plays so it was just the three of us. 

We also have limited access to rehearsal space so, for now, I’m making use of my membership in a co-working space where I can reserve meeting rooms to rehearse in. The meeting rooms all have one glass wall, but experienced actors are used to both accepting and ignoring distractions.

I gave some background to the inspiration of the play, which was Ray Bradbury’s “To the Chicago Abyss,” and the tone I was trying to achieve. They already intuited that tone and by the end of the read-through we were all in tears.

Keep in mind that the actors had never even met, but their instincts were spot on and they were entirely enrapt in the story. I told them as much while I tried to swallow back my emotions and I knew we were off to an exceptional start.

We moved the tables out of the way and began blocking the play. What side would Libby enter from? Did Sam absolutely have to sit on the floor? When she strikes him, how should that be staged?

Through discussion and following actor impulses we answered each of those questions and added a few additional moves that “just felt right.” Experienced actors and directors know that those feelings are always golden, and we followed them.

The actor playing Sam has bad knees that won’t allow him to sit on the floor and we agreed that a stage block—a two foot cube painted black—would be in keeping with the dystopian setting, especially if it was dented and battered.

We worked out all those blocking details about half a page at a time and then ran the play from beginning to end. Again—even with scripts in hand—we were choked up and the actors speculated that this will probably happen every time. 

I hope so, because that means they’re “in the moment” and not playing at the emotions. Of course, I’d like to see the audience equally moved. I’m pretty sure they will be.

Opening night is four weeks from the day this newsletter is posted.

TTFN

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If you received this email because it was forwarded to you by a subscriber, welcome. You can subscribe as well by following the link on my website: ericmargerum.com. A free story awaits you there.

Margerumalia – The Auditions

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – May 22, 2026

Auditions always give me a jittery feeling inside, even when I’m behind the director’s table. I always want everyone to do well so they can walk away feeling like they gave it their best shot. Actors in these auditions witness the readings of every other actor in their time slot, and read from at least two different plays.

We call it a reading because they stand up with script in hand, but we expect to see some eye contact and hear some expression. A little movement usually helps, too. Nothing like a good gesture to illustrate a point.

Our festival director reminded us that we didn’t need to see everyone read every role in our plays, or we’d be there all night. One experienced director scoffed at the idea, and assured those around him that he could cast his play even if nobody read for it at all.

No, that wasn’t me, but he was right.

With eleven short plays, the director’s table was well populated with directors. I knew about three-quarters of them and was interested to watch how everyone operated. I was pleased to see that they were all encouraging to the actors, applauding at the end of every reading, and generous with their laughter even after hearing the same punchline for the seventh time.

Hey, a good delivery deserves a good laugh.

I recently restarted my acting classes and gave my students a chance to practice a couple of pieces from the festival. (They were available to read on line.) Two of them came to the auditions and one of them was cast in a play. I was especially happy for him because he had auditioned for every Civic Theatre production for a year or two. His dogged determination to land a role finally paid off!

They both showed that they had listened to my instructions and I thought they performed well. I was a proud papa. So many people auditioned that a little more than half the actors got cast.

My play, “Out of the Abyss,” was one of the few dramas amidst a canoodle of comedies and I was glad to see actors treat it seriously. My male cast member is someone I’ve directed before and I’m fully confident about his abilities. The female cast member was someone I’d never seen before but it was clear she had talent and I was glad to be able to secure her for this play. 

Both actors complimented my writing of the play and had high praise for the subject matter. That was a nice topping to the whole process and I look forward to working with both of them.

First rehearsal is Saturday!

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 – The Happiness Advantage

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – May 1, 2026

Look at that happy baby soaking up the summer sun in his oh-so-debonaire plastic pants! That’s Baby Eric running across the backyard to Mommy who’s holding the camera. He’s a little out of focus but my folks wouldn’t know it until they got the film developed. Today my iPhone would’ve captured the un-blurred enthusiasm in that boy’s face.

Side note: that’s my dad crouching over the garden at about half the age that I am now.  Time is such a surreal phenomenon.

Other side note: look at that old automobile in the neighbor’s carport! That’d be in a classic car show today. 

“You were a very happy baby,” my mom told me.

I was. I am. Happy, that is, not a baby. I’m not wearing waterproof undies anymore. Not yet anyway.

I’m currently reading a book called The Happiness Advantage that the chair of the Communication Department recommended when I was a dean at Vincennes University. The book is all about the advantages of positive psychology and the seven principles of a mindset that “fuels success and performance at work.”

I heard a woman in a recent podcast telling about a job she had as a teen making smoothies for people. She confided to her boss that she was bored and just wanted to go home. The boss suggested that she see every customer as an opportunity to make someone’s life a little better.

When she embraced that idea by being helpful and enthusiastic, looking for the opportunity to bring a smile to the face of every customer, her whole perspective of the job turned around. She enjoyed going to work. To this day, she still remembers that job as her favorite. That’d be the happiness advantage in a nutshell.

I haven’t finished the book but so far it’s been reinforcing my own worldview—the one I was born with. I look forward to reading about how the seven principles can be applied to life in general. Like everyone, I’ve had my share of bumps and bruises that life dishes out. I’d like to learn the way to keep those setbacks from getting the best of me.

I want to know how to help others accomplish that, too.

Here’s another picture of me a few years later that tells you a little bit more about my personality.

My imagination said, You’re flying, and so, of course, I was. It also helps to have your eyes closed. The reality behind closed lids is even more vivid than the one surrounding you. 

So vivid that my dad would accuse me of playing stupid when I suddenly exited my dream world and wanted to know what people were talking about. I knew better than to explain that I wasn’t playing stupid, I just wasn’t paying attention to the conversation. There’s no good path out of those woods. Either I’m stupid or you’re boring.

Look at the photo again. See how the sleeves are rolled up to accommodate my little five-year-old arms? I continued wearing that costume for years, growing into those sleeves and the rolled up pants. Family friends started calling me Super Eric. I’ve had very few nicknames in my life but I think I like that one best.

“You were such an easy child,” my mother told me, “I could set you down in the middle of the living room with a box of toys and you’d entertain yourself for hours.”

I gave free rein to my creativity and that was always a great experience. I’ve done the same for years in the theatre, and am applying the same approach to my writing. I hope my writing entertains you and keeps you out of boring conversations.

I also hope your creativity gets a chance to play.

TTFN

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If you received this email because it was forwarded to you by a subscriber, welcome. You can subscribe as well by following the link on my website: ericmargerum.com. A free story awaits you there.