As you may have gathered from my posts, I love live drama and I feel blessed to be in a situation where I can write and produce my own plays for the stage. I’ve written a bunch of them now – I haven’t promoted them for sale or haven’t shopped them around for publishers, at least not at this point. But most of them are on Amazon.

My latest play, which I wrote with five student writers, Grandparents’ War, is closing in on its world wide, 3-show engagement at Penang Performing Arts Centre on May 22 and May 25. Today we had an all day rehearsal followed by a photo-shoot. What a great day! I’ll post some of the photos later.

What is Grandparents’ War all about?

It’s an epic clash of cultures. A young couple (Chinese wife and American-British husband), who have been estranged from their overbearing parents, are preparing for the birth of their first child. The grandparents-to-be all show up, unannounced and unwanted, at the same time. The proud retired American colonel immediately clashes with the arrogant Chinese businessman while the Chinese Confucianist mother riles the feathers of the mother-earth-loving, new-agey British mom. Chaos and hilarity are the main ingredients of this play, but it also ultimately has a good message about diversity and cultural understanding.

Here’s a short excerpt. In this scene, the colonel arrives and immediately gets on the nerves of his son, Dwight. Check out this exchange:

DWIGHT

What are you doing here? We haven’t heard from you in two years and then you show up unannounced at a really bad time.

COLONEL

You may not have invited us to your wedding. You may not have taken that job I arranged for you in New York. You may not have joined the military like your old man. But despite all of those disappointments, when we heard about the baby, your mother and I wanted to put the past behind us, because that’s what adults do. That’s what we did to the Japanese after the war.  We said to them, ‘You may have butchered our lads in the hell-hole of Tarawa, but we are going to build your country strong again. With no hard feelings. Because we are Americans – and that’s what Americans do.’

DWIGHT

Dad!

COLONEL

Colonel! So what is it that you are doing these days? Saving some yellow-bellied salamander?

DWIGHT

Your life – our life – depends on the yellow-bellied salamander and all the other species of fauna and flora which contribute vitally to our ecosystems-

COLONEL

My life depends on a cold hard piece of steel, all 44 magnums of it, strapped around my ankle, ready to defend this generation of weak-kneed sissy Americans from imminent attacks from terrorists who want to kill us. I’d like to see your yellow-bellied salamander do that.

DWIGHT

Colonel, you haven’t brought a gun into this house, have you?

COLONEL

That’s classified information.

Grandparents’ War:  May 22, 7PM; May 25 2PM & 8PM (PenangPAC)

Here’s the play: http://www.amazon.com/Grandparents-War-Mark-W-Sasse/dp/1481951211/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1367671360&sr=8-3