A Drama Teacher's Adventures in Publishing

I have been flying high ever since Meriwether chose to publish my book, The Drama Teacher's Survival Guide. The book took me about twenty-five years from start to finish. I started working on the manuscript during a 100-day teacher’s strike in 1981.  I desperately needed to keep my mind off the anguish and trauma of the strike so I decided to go back to my thesis, pull out everything they had rejected and formulate what I really cared about. You know colleges have strict rules on how and what is put in the thesis.  I wanted to have a hands-on approach to directing high school theatre, not some cold, academic tome. 

I kept plugging away on it and then I discovered the computer.  I went wild!  Spent all summer with an Apple IIE, borrowed from school, with my department chairman as instructor and computer guru.  That fall the drama department bought their first Apple (Mac Plus, better known as The Mighty Mac) with a 20 meg. hard drive: “The largest hard drive I would ever need!"

For the next 11 years I spent my summers—when not doing summer theatre—working and revising. Along the way I had many wonderful readers who gave wonderful feedback.  After retirement I worked in earnest and by 2002 it was mostly complete.  I found an editor who kept it for four years when they decided that the company couldn’t publish it!

Then I started sending out letters. Meriwether liked it and the rest is history.  Now I am adding a blog to make my book complete.  This is a new adventure for me and I am excited to get started. I’d love to hear from any of you out there about theatre or any questions you have about your programs. Will have more coming soon.