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."
Pollyanna
Classic by Craig Sodaro
68 pages
6 m, 18 w, doubling possible
Adapted from the book by Eleanor Porter. It's the early 1900s and young, frightened Pollyanna Whittier arrives in Vermont, full of hope that her new life with Aunt Polly will help ease the pain of her parents' deaths. But Polly Harrington has only taken her niece out of a sense of duty and quickly regrets it. The girl immediately begins making friends with the very people Polly Harrington has worked hard to either ignore or run out of town. Pollyanna seems to find joy in everything and gradually brings the town to life. But when Aunt Polly finds her niece hel...
Cat and Mouse
Drama by Craig Sodaro
66 pages
2 m, 3 w, 1 flexible
Nora Marsh has lived with the burden of a father who's been branded a traitor. She has tried to keep their inn, the Cat and Mouse, running smoothly, but her father's depression and drinking after his return from the World War II European front has made life difficult. Her life begins to further unravel when a new border, Daniel Cavell, turns up missing. Kate Sherwin, the local Civil Defense warden, and Cavell's mother, Ruth, begin a search which ends when his body is found in the window seat of the inn's living room. Kate has long suspected Nora's father Harr...
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...
Prom Night Fright
Comedy by Craig Sodaro
59 pages
10 m, 15 w
There are a few little obstacles with the prom this year. First, it's taking place at an abandoned inn, which not only needs to be fixed up (with a bulldozer!) but is inhabited by the ghosts of a gangster and his moll who are not happy about being disturbed. Next, the kids on the prom committee have dates with all the wrong people and can't stop playing dating roulette. And finally, the love-starved janitor who has been dreaming for 20 years to marry Miss Gray, their teacher, is holding everyone hostage. And you thought not knowing how to dance was a problem!...
Tom 'n Huck
Classic by Craig Sodaro
59 pages
27 parts, approx. 10 m, 15 w, 2 flexible
The irrepressible Tom Sawyer, his best buddy Huck Finn, and many other beloved characters created by Mark Twain come to life in this all-American adventure. When the two boys are accused of stealing Becky Thatcher's gold necklace, and with even Aunt Polly and the Widder Douglas doubting them, Tom and Huck decide to take off for the swamp. The real culprit, Herman Cornwallis, is delighted to see them run away so he can have more time with Becky. In the swamp the boys meet up with Mary Meechum, thought to be a witch. The three accidentally overhear the suspicio...
Sinbad
Comedy by Craig Sodaro
60 pages
11 m, 17 w, 22 flexible, much doubling possible
This sparkling adaptation of one of the most beloved tales from "The Arabian Nights" will take you aboard a dazzling, fun-filled, theatrical voyage. All of Sinbad's adventure-filled travels come from his desire to win the caliph's daughter, Minerva. In the land of Hashmona he presents the perfect present to its insatiable queen and is rewarded with gold and jewels for a dowry. But when he returns to Bagdad to claim the princess, his rival, the despicable Semitar, kidnaps Minerva. Sinbad sets sail to rescue her, but finds himself stranded on Paradise Island, w...
Alice's New Adventures in Wonderland
Fantasy by Craig Sodaro
67 pages
5 m, 8 w, 23 flexible, doubling
Alice has accidentally discovered a strange new world and she's convinced her two friends to explore it with her. They meet the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, and Tweedledee and Tweedledum, all on their way to the castle for the Princess' homecoming from college. But the Princess is now a tattooed tough girl who has brought home some very unsavory friends. The Queen has them all arrested and the King allows them one phone call. They call Monstressa, an opportunist who wants to turn Wonderland into an amusement park. Alice and her friends must...
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...
Phantom of the Soap Opera (Musical)
Musical by Craig Sodaro
73 pages
8 m, 9 w, extras
Bring the mysterious Phantom to your stage in this Broadway-quality musical with eight original songs. A Phantom, who inhabits the depths of a TV studio, creates murder and mayhem when he seizes a beautiful soap opera heroine, for whom he has an obsessive love. The cast and crew, including a haughty, aging actress, a scatterbrained secretary, an uptight director, a long-suffering writer, a leading man who is a star on a rival soap, and others are thrown into chaos. A laid-back police detective decides he'll trap the Phantom at a masquerade ball! Lighthearted ...
Half Frozen
Comedy by Craig Sodaro
48 pages
3 m, 7 w, 2 flex
Poor King Augustus and Queen Regina! Their kingdom is half frozen because of a curse placed on their daughter, Princess Mirabelle, and nobody seems to know how to break the spell. When the Princess’s latest suitor, Prince Tomaso from a neighboring kingdom, is frozen by her touch, matters are no long inconvenient—they’re downright dangerous. Tomaso’s father threatens war if his son is not returned safely. As a last resort, the Queen texts a writer who gives advice in her “Leave It to Lilith” daily column. Lilith says the easiest way to break the curse is to go...
Is There a Doctor in the House
Comedy by Craig Sodaro
70 pages
7 m, 15 w, 6 or more flexible, doubling possible
Nurse Betty has been bumped off because somebody at County General doesn't want the world to read her novel "ER Confidential." But whose secret has she uncovered? Surely not the two candy stripers who earn extra money by smuggling in fast food to the patients. Maybe it's bossy Nurse Rackett, who longs for the good old days. Or could it be Dr. Nan Jeffries, hoping to escape her mother's clutches and marry Orderly Dan...the guy who once had a fling with Nurse Betty. What about Will Bates, the multigazillionaire computer genius who's supposed to be recovering up...
Nuptialknots.com
Comedy by Craig Sodaro
64 pages
7 m, 10 w
Rhoda Raines desperately needs money to pay the rent on her beauty parlor, so she decides to check out a computer dating service in hopes of finding a rich man to marry her spoiled daughter Olive. She logs on to www.nuptialknots.com., and no sooner than Rhoda can say, "Wash, rinse, and set," prospective grooms are dropping in all over the place. There's a "British aristocrat"; a Hollywood producer; a guy who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt; an old codger; and even an undercover cop. Mix in Ronnie Harper, the owner of the local Kwiki Mart (who really loves Olive),...