Christmas in July

Star* Publish Times – July 1, 2007

STAR* AUTHORS KICK OFF CHRISTMAS IN JULY

Billie A. Williams (script writer of A Christmas Dream) and Janet Elaine Smith (author of the original novel A Christmas Dream) will discuss the soon-to-be-released play on Monday, July 2, on Janet's program "Marketing for Fun and Profit." It can be heard at http://internetvoicesradio.com/ at 9:30 p.m. ET. "Marketing for Fun and Profit" is sponsored by Star* Publish LLC, and they strive to bring you a variety of interesting and cutting-edge issues every week.

The 3-act play is geared towards small-medium sized community theater groups, highschool/college drama clubs, dinner theaters and the like. The setting is quite simple, and the cast less than 20 people. The co-authors are already gearing up for a marketing campaign to hit community theaters as soon as the script is available. Their goal is to have it presented in at least one theater in each of the 50 states. Lofty? Perhaps, but as Susan Quincey (the heroine in the book) will tell you, "Miracles still happen, especially at Christmas time."
The book has been compared by many readers to Miracle on 34th Street. They already have one prepublished review, which can be seen

here. ( http://starpublishnews.tripod.com/id6.html )

A Christmas Dream 3-Act Play

My very first attempt at writing a three act play will be released next month. A Christmas Dream is a novel written by my dear friend Janet Elaine Smith. When she mentioned she'd love to see it be produced as a play I had just finished several screen writing courses and belonged to an RWA Screen Writer's group. I volunteered to give it a try.

I had a good deal of fun taking on the challenge of this medium. It is quite different than writing a novel - I had a couple dozen of those already published. The thing with a play is - the dialogue must carry the whole show. The characters must be what the narration of a novel creates for the reader. Certain things cannot be done on a small stage in the time of an hour or so that a stage play uses. Sets must be changed--quickly for the most part--they can't involve a lot of cumbersome extras - a herd of horses - or the like. The danger is that the playwright is so familiar with the story that he/she thinks the words carry the image she hoped to present. This may not be true.

A novel may be 2-300 pages where as a script for a movie is rarely more than 120 or so. A play is even less. A rule of thumb is 1 minute of performance time per page of script. So, the problem becomes; how do I, successfully, show the story my friend has written and keep it in tact and yet structure it to fit in the alloted time frame of a 3-Act Play.

Stay tuned as we examine this phenomina.

Happy Writing!

Billie