
Nellie Bly’s World – THE VEILED PROPHETESS
This story was the basis for scenes in Nellie Bly's seventh novel, IN LOVE WITH A STRANGER, on sale now! New York World - Sunday, January 20, 1889 Nellie Bly Has Her Fortune Told by a Mysterious Witch. A Very Secretive Woman Who Imposes Upon the Superstitious, But...

Nellie Bly’s World – WORKING GIRLS, BEWARE
New York World - Sunday, February 3, 1889 Nellie Bly Exposes A Snare For Swindling Poor Women. A Contemptible Scheme To Rob Needy Girls Who Seek Employment. Heartless Women Who Promise to Find Work for Scarf-Makers and Lure Them Into Their Clutches—Demanding Pay for...
Nellie Bly’s World – IN THE MAGDALEN’S HOME
New York World - Sunday, February 12, 1888 Nellie Bly’s Visit to an Institution for Unfortunate Women A Wicked Girl’s Chances for Reformation—How Poor Creatures Abuse a Noble Charity—Matron Burr’s Experiences—The Girl Who Befriended an Unlucky Cat—The Toboggan Slide...
Recent Posts
Audition Advice – Part One
Six weeks ago, I held auditions at Eastern Michigan University for R&J. There was a great turn out, and my wife Jan (who helped me cast the show) and I were very impressed with both the talent pool and the interest in the show. Despite the over-air-conditioned...
Bootlegging, and Benvolio’s Death
Jay Donly, Sarah Leahy, Brian Carbine, Luna Alexander, Patrice Cross. Photo and lights by Jeromy Hopgood.If you wanted to throw my whole theory about the cause of the feud out of whack, you could point out to me that Lady Montague does not, in fact, have the final...
The Window Scene
People always speak of the Balcony Scene from Romeo & Juliet as one of the "greatest romantic scenes in literature." Perhaps it is. But it's also two teenagers on the phone late at night. It even comes complete with the...
Tybalt’s Ghost
Now that the show has closed, and the edits on the first third of the new novel are done, I can take some time to follow my weeks-old intent and talk a bit about show elements. The first I'd like to mention (mostly...
EMU’s own review
As a follow-up to yesterday's post, here's the review of the show from the Eastern Echo, EMU's internal newspaper: Reviving the comedy in classic ‘Romeo and Juliet’ EMU Theatre presents the Shakespearean classic in modern dress By Josh Coudret / Staff...
R&J Review
Here we are at the end of another week of piecrust promises - easily made and easily broken. I mentioned almost a week ago that I wanted to talk some about the delightful R&J I've spent the last month staging at Eastern Michigan, and some of the...
EMU Romeo & Juliet Preview
This Friday opens my most recent project: a modern-dress Romeo & Juliet at Eastern Michigan University's Quirk Theater. The cast is wonderful, moreso because it's the first time in many years that my Juliet, Romeo, and the boys have been age-appropriate...
Eerie
Okay, I'm starting to get creeped out. My son Dash was born well after I finished drafts for both the first and second novels in the Mercutio series. The fact that he is growing up to become the lead in that series is eerie beyond words. The physical part I can...
Students in Need
The students are back. How can I tell? Because I'm getting a load of hits based on variations of two basic searches: 1) Capulet-Montague feud 2) Macbeth "Tomorrow and Tomorrow" Speech I'm highly amused that my rather unconventional ideas for both of...
Friday Reading and Fight
This Friday I'll be doing a reading in Quirk Theatre on Eastern Michigan University's campus. It'll be a little different than my usual readings, as it will feature a staging of the central broadsword duel between Pietro and Marsilio. I'll be teaching...