Craig Sodaro
Craig Sodaro is one of Eldridge Publishing's most popular and prolific playwrights with over 60 titles currently in print. Most of his work is ideal for children's theatre and school performances, and several plays have been turned into musicals. His audience participation plays are extremely well received. For community theatre plays he writes under the pen name of Sam Craig. Mr. Sodaro taught for 33 years in public schools, but now writes full time. He and his wife Sue have four grown daughters. Here he speaks in his own words about his love of writing. "I always wanted to write. From the first time I read my first full-fledged book - a long-forgotten mystery - I wanted to be an author. I've always had an imagination that runs overtime. My mind has always been more interested in the possibilities of what if two times two equaled five rather than four. "I grew up in Chicago, but I don't think the Midwest has had a great deal of influence on my writing. I was fortunate enough to travel as a youngster, and the places we visited - the West, East, and South, all seemed steeped in atmosphere and dramatic possibilities. Eventually, I traveled to Alaska, Europe, and Africa, and each experience planted seeds for future stories. "I wrote my first play in high school - an anti-administration absurdist comedy performed in my last period art class. Our teacher turned a deaf ear to the proceedings, but we all caught her laughing. I liked this idea of audience response, and during college, I entered a playwriting contest. I won the fifty dollar prize and saw my characters come to life under the blue, red, and amber stage lights. I knew that this was the direction my writing obsession would have to take. "Success on stage would have to wait for a number of years, however, since I married, began teaching, and had four children and received many, many rejections slips. Eventually I found a formula that worked: large cast mystery with mainly female parts, one setting, and a lot of one-liners. Since then, I've written a hundred and thirty plays, many of which have been published and/or produced. I've had the thrill of walking down 54th Street in New York to a flag-adorned theater where one of my plays premiered. I've received terrific letters from kids who have had parts in the plays I've written, and I've found myself in Amazon.com. "Once in a while people ask me how I write so fast. I guess it’s that I have a lot of stories to tell. And idea will grab me, and then for quite some time—even while working on another script—I’ll keep thinking about the characters and develop the major plot points in my imagination. Once I sit down to the computer to write, the characters really tell the story almost too quickly for me to write down what they’re saying. And that's what I think playwriting is all about. It's telling a story in the simplest but most dramatic way possible. There's a ninety minute or so limit on reaching the climax, and for literature that's quick. I write fast simply so I can find out what's going to happen at the end, just like anybody who watches the play."
Just Desserts
Comedy Dinner Mystery by Craig Sodaro
41 pages
1 m, 4 w
Judge Reginald P. Cogsworth, a curmudgeon who hates sweets, is judging a charity bakeoff, albeit grudgingly. Countless entries have been whittled down to three: a tart submitted by Lucy "Scooter" Bright, owner of a nail salon; a Depression-era style cake by Edna Mae Carter, the local librarian; and a rich torte created by Margaret Mason, a local society lady. In the middle of tasting all the goodies, the judge falls dead, and it's up to Miss Peabody, the head of the contest, and the audience to determine the murderer. There are clues in the theatre, some hidd...
Last Gasp at the Last Gulp
Melodrama by Craig Sodaro
59 pages
6 m, 11 w
Doc Robbins, a dentist with a heart of stone, rules the town of Last Gulp with an iron fist. Though folks treat Doc with due respect as their mayor and the only “medical” man in the territory, there’s no shortage of suspects when he dies following a swig of rat-poisoned sarsaparilla. Everybody, it seems, had it in for Doc. Bonnie Vivant wanted to turn her old saloon into a fancy restaurant, but Doc wouldn’t let her. Three old prospectors Crusty, Dusty, and Musty, all resented the fact that Doc had jumped their claims and wondered if he ever struck it rich. Af...
Lethal Lecture
Comedy Mystery by Craig Sodaro
41 pages
2 m, 4 w
Every time Polly Peabody's in charge of something, it's murder - literally! In this hour-long play, she's program chairperson for Professor Hazelton Crandall's presentation, "Journey Through the Pharaoh's Tomb." Unfortunately, the poor professor needs his own tomb before Act I ends, because he's murdered. Miss Peabody narrows the suspects to four: the professor's estranged wife, who wants to sell the artifacts; the professor's vivacious, if vacuous, girlfriend; his longtime colleague and friend; and a reporter who'd do anything to get a story and keep his job...
Liberty Street
Drama by Craig Sodaro
74 pages
12 m, 13 w
Katie O'Brien and her four daughters land in America with plenty of hope and little else. They quickly fall prey to a scheming landlord, but despite this, one of Katie's daughters, Colleen, falls in love with his son -only to realize he may be as conniving as his father. Another daughter, Mary, finds herself torn between helping their desperate neighbors and keeping the trust of her family. The other daughters must cope with schoolmates who hate immigrants and a young bunch of pickpockets. Despite all the hardships, however, each of the newcomers ultimately c...
The Medici Code
Comedy Mystery by Craig Sodaro
68 pages
6 m, 11 w
When a mysterious old woman named Q slips tickets for a trip to Medici Castle to Lucy Lyons, she feels compelled to go there. Lucy, a classical scholar and cryptologist who is temporarily caring for her nieces and nephew, Emmy, Jess, and Ben, is intrigued by the remote, historical hotel. But the tour group they are with is strange, and soon one of the tourists suddenly disappears. His wife, however, seems more interested in getting a missing parchment back than finding her husband. Q appears and tells Lucy she needs to crack the Medici Code, a dangerous, long...
Monster Park
Fantasy by Craig Sodaro
64 pages
9 m, 12 w, 2 flexible parts
Professor Boris Conklin can now revitalize DNA samples from anyone (or anything!) in history, returning that person to life. Unfortunately, those who invested in Conklin's work want him to revitalize world-class monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy, and others to serve as attractions at his estate turned into an amusement park - Monster Park. But the Professor's down-and-out niece, Marlene, wants the estate for herself and plots to have her uncle hauled off to a sanitarium. She chooses the very weekend a test family is due to get a sneak preview of ...
Mummy Dearest
Comedy by Craig Sodaro
73 pages
8 m, 11 w, 3 flexible
A student archeological dig has yielded a lot of experience and many artifacts, but little excitement. That all changes when one of the girls finds a scroll she hopes to bring back as a souvenir. But when Benny, the guide, reads the scroll for her, they find out it's a curse. Soon, strange things start happening: Queen Nefutari's mummy, whose tomb the kids had been exploring, suddenly begins to walk. Then the headmistress is murdered in the very manner prescribed in the curse. The first-time-on-a-big-case inspector who arrives can't handle anything and keeps ...
Murder, Ahoy!
Comedy Mystery by Craig Sodaro
50 pages
3 m, 3 w, extras as desired
Ahoy, mystery fans! Book passage on the Titan, a cruise ship headed for the grave of the Titanic, where it hopes to bring up artifacts for auction. But when romance goes sour and the very wealthy and demanding Blake Witherspoon is murdered, a new course must be chartered. The social director tries to steer passengers back to having fun, but Tara Dawn DePue, a detective and antique dealer, decides to solve the crime. With the captain too sick to help, the audience and crew must try to find out who killed Witherspoon before the killer strikes again. Audience me...
Nesters
Drama by Craig Sodaro
76 pages
5 m, 5 w
A magazine reporter interviewing 95-year-old Caddy Miller expects to hear the story of a woman who tended house and stood by her man while they homesteaded. Instead, the reporter finds a real pioneer who carved a place for herself in the Wyoming Territory in the 1880s. In flashbacks we see how young Caddy arrives out West with her dour husband. All they have to do is make three improvements to the land and it is theirs, but Caddy finds her new life increasingly difficult. A local rancher resents the "nesters" moving in and resorts to killing their stock while...
The Nifty-Fifites Malt Shop Murder
Comedy by Craig Sodaro
65 pages
6 m, 14 w
A quintessential 1950s mom, June Seevers, and her committee are working hard to win the "Small Town USA" title and a cash prize for their town of Sunnydale. The judges are due in two days to verify that it is, indeed, an All-American, apple pie-eating, crime-free hamlet. Did we say crime free? Then what about the mysterious customer at the Malt Shop who falls over dead during the committee's final meeting? It looks like he was poisoned, and the victim's sister may be a committee member! But who? With the help of her family, the prissy librarian, and even the ...
Nobody Will Hear You Scream
Mystery by Craig Sodaro
60 pages
2 m, 3 w
Beverly Cain has escaped to an island home to recover following a tragic car accident. She had been driving and her mother, famed Hollywood star Fiona Street, had been killed instantly. Beverly, now confined to a wheelchair, blames herself mercilessly. Unfortunately, her sanctuary is disturbed by her estranged husband who has come seeking reconciliation. Or is it for another check to cover his gambling debts? Then an old friend of her mother shows up unexpectedly, complicating what Beverly had hoped to be a quiet weekend getting to know her long-lost half bro...
Nun of Your Business
Comedy by Craig Sodaro
64 pages
5 m, 14 w, 1 flexible part
If you're ready for some hard-nosed action, spying, deceit involving a stolen painting, a shady real estate deal, and an auto repair shop that's more a chop shop, stop in at the convent of St. Fermilda. The Sisters of Faith, Hope, and Charity are in the midst of all kinds of intrigue and they're not even sure how they got there! But don't think because they took vows of reverence and poverty that they'll let some hard-nosed hoods get the best of them. After all, the Sisters have work to do for the poor in this rundown neighborhood, and they're bound and deter...