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."
Sunrise Boulevard
Drama by Craig Sodaro
64 pages
6 m, 14 w
"Leave It to Daddy" is the most popular family sit-com of the '70s. So it's a national tragedy when the actor playing the father is murdered by none other than his TV wife, Norma Dreadful. Even though the law cannot find enough evidence to convict her, the public does, and Norma goes into seclusion in the very house where the show was filmed and the murder took place. Twenty years later, two young journalists finagle their way into the house and get Norma to tell her side of the story. The country has forgotten and forgiven, and Norma is even offered a role i...
The Jungle Book
Classic by Craig Sodaro
71 pages
7 m, 9 w, 25 flexible, doubling possible
Adapted from the stories by Rudyard KiplingHere's an energetic dramatization of the classic tale of Mowgli, the man-cub, who was abandoned as a baby in the jungle and raised by wolves. With Baloo, the bear, and Bagheera, the panther, as mentors, the growing boy has no trouble avoiding Shere Khan, the tiger, who wants to eat him. But when his two protectors leave him alone in the jungle to test his mettle, Mowgli suddenly finds he's got more trouble than he knows how to handle. The monkeys kidnap him and haul him off to the Forbidden City. Then two hyenas, who...
Jo White and the 7 Campers
Comedy by Craig Sodaro
20 pages
3 m, 11 w
Take seven inept campers who must win a variety show competition on which the whole camp's reputation is based and what have you got? Instant disaster! Luckily for the campers, Jo White, who would rather sing than whistle while she works, has escaped to their cabin. Hilarity and confusion follow, but the camp's reputation is saved!
High Spirits
Comedy by Craig Sodaro
56 pages
4 m, 6 w
Cliff Rundle accompanies his on-again, off-again girlfriend Jackie to an old Hollywood Hills mansion where she has been hired to kick a few lingering spirits out of the house. While Cliff claims he's gone along for moral support, he's really scouting the place as a potential site for a pilot episode of his TV show, "Mansion Makeover." Jackie has brought along her video man, audio girl, and a psychic to help her banish any ghosts. Unfortunately, the only one who ends up seeing any ghosts is Cliff. He finds film star Natalie Fairchild and four others, a directo...
Twice Upon a Time
Fantasy by Craig Sodaro
57 pages
Large, flexible cast, much doubling (minimum 8 m, 8 w, 6 flexible)
Here are the hilarious stories that start after the traditional tales end! Consider Cinderella and her Prince, who are now ruling the kingdom. Little does Cinderella know The Dice Girls, the entertainers she's arranged for a state dinner, are really her stepsisters and stepmom, ready for revenge! Or how about poor little Pinocchio? The Blue Fairy never got around to getting rid of his wooden head, but it may be a good thing considering the evil plan he's overheard involving the Lampwick and Foxy. And finally Snow White, who's running her own fashion boutique,...
House of the Seven Gables
Classic by Craig Sodaro
72 pages
7 m, 11 w, doubling possible
Hawthorne's masterpiece comes vividly alive in this adaptation which begins at the gallows as Colonel Pyncheon greedily steals the land of Matthew Maule to build a magnificent house. But with his dying words, "God will give you blood to drink," Maule curses the Pyncheon family for generations. A hundred and fifty years later, Hepzibah Pyncheon, an aging old maid, is forced to open a cent shop in the now decrepit house to keep herself and her child-like brother from starving. It seems all hope is lost for the family. But that's precisely when pretty, 17-year-o...
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Colosseum
Comedy by Craig Sodaro
71 pages
7 m, 16 w, 2 flexible
When Simplcuss, a naive Swiss farmer, heads for Rome to follow his dream of becoming a stand-up comedian, little does he know what adventures are in store for him. Stumbling into the house of General Spurius Sillius in search for food and water, he's mistaken for the dreaded gladiator, Terribilus, who is due to fight in the Colosseum the following day. Not only does Simplcuss have to figure out how to save himself, but he's overheard the General's wife, Drusilla, and Senator Publius Piscious plotting to kill the Emperor's daughter and the Emperor himself! Mat...
Edelweiss
Drama by Craig Sodaro
68 pages
3 m, 11 w
As the Nazi noose tightens around the neck of the common German, the effects are felt even in a classroom at the Scholoss Strasse School for Girls. Dorchen Werth, a young teacher just beginning her career, sees her students as a microcosm of society. Eleanore is in love with the local Hitler Youth leader; Hilde is a hard worker who strives to protect her young sister, Gertrude; Lilli is desperate to find a man who will show her affection; Paula has aspirations to attend the university; Renita is afraid because of her heritage; Annabelle is torn by divided loy...
The Canterbury Tales
Classic by Craig Sodaro
70 pages
17 m, 22 w, 8 either, doubling possible
Geoffrey Chaucer introduces us to a group of 14th century pilgrims preparing for their journey to Canterbury the next day. He proposes that each tell a story going to and from the shrine, but the group is so anxious they begin immediately. The Physician begins with the tale of a wicked judge who desires his scribe's sweetheart for himself. Can the young scribe save her from the unwanted marriage? The Pardoner tells the next tale of three thieves who plan to find Death and kill him, but their greed leads them directly to him. The Nun tells the story of Chantic...
Once Upon Camelot
Fantasy by Craig Sodaro
56 pages
14 m, 14 w, 2 flexible
All the luck in Camelot has been bad lately, and the Brotherhood of Peasants, Serfs and City Scum expect King Arthur to do something about it or else! Merlin has become a fly, and Morgan LeFey and her minions waste no time in turning Arthur's three most loyal knights, Sir Tin, Sir Loin and Sir Cuss, into a frog, a rock, and a grasshopper. Not even Queen Guinevere nor her ladies of the court can fight the king's evil half-sister. It takes Threadbare, a lowly weaver, to turn the tables on Morgan in this hilarious romp through a Camelot that never was. Additiona...
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 ...
The Invisible Man
Classic by Craig Sodaro
55 pages
6 m, 6 w
A mysterious stranger, swathed from head to toe in clothes and dark glasses, seeks a room at a peaceful English inn. He claims to be a scientist. When the curious innkeeper's wife spies upon him, she is terrified to find he has no face. The stranger then reveals he is indeed invisible and proceeds to menace the countryside. A young, handsome doctor must finally stop him. Special effects are no problem. When the Invisible Man speaks but is not seen, he is behind a screen. The fight scenes "between" the Invisible Man and the other lodgers is action your actors ...