The Scene Podcast
An Interview with Tracy Wells (Fast Food, Rotten Apples)
Episode Summary
On this week’s episode of The Scene Podcast, host Justin Borak welcomes playwright Tracy Wells, whose work has become a go-to resource for schools and community theatres looking for smart, producible scripts that honor real-world constraints without shrinking the storytelling. With more than two hundred published plays and skits produced across the U.S. and internationally, Tracy writes with the practical needs of directors and educators in mind, including limited budgets, small stages, and the challenge of giving a large cast meaningful moments to shine. Justin and Tracy talk craft, writing for young performers, and what it takes to create theatre that is both achievable and artistically satisfying. It is a genuinely useful conversation for anyone teaching, directing, or writing theatre right now.
Episode Notes
- Guest: Tracy Wells
- Playwright ofWhistle Stop, Totally Murder!, Angels of Bataan, One Stoplight Town, A Night Under The Stars, Finding Corey Taylor, Happily Ever Before, The Man in the Brown Suit, Great Expectations, The Little Mermaid, Anne of Green Gables, Les Miserables, Pride and Prejudice, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rotten Apples, Eclipse, A Trip To The Moon, Eerie Academy, Night of the Macabre, Swan Lake, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, The Phantom of the Opera, The Tale of the Nutcracker, Emma, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Spaghetti Western...Or Mission Im-Pasta-ble, and many more.
- Official Website: https://www.tracywellsplaywright.com/
- Tracy Wells Bio: Tracy Wells’ love of theater started at an early age when her parents took her to see big name shows in local community theaters. She loved the characters, the scenery, the costumes, and most importantly, the beautiful stories that came to life before her eyes. As a teenager, Tracy joined her high school drama department and got her own taste of small stage stardom—as well as her first glimpse into the challenges that schools and community theaters face, such as limited budgets, little to no stage or storage space, and the lack of scripts for large cast sizes. Upon entering adulthood, Tracy settled into life as a wife and mother, but the theater came calling again when her husband accepted a job as a junior high drama teacher. Once again, those challenges presented themselves—little to no budget, a small stage with only a few working lights, and difficulty finding scripts with enough roles for his ever-increasing class numbers. That is when playwriting entered Tracy’s life. With the start of school quickly approaching, Tracy decided to pen her first one-act play, an adaptation of O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi”. The play was well received by the students, and Tracy decided to seek publication for the script as well as continuing to write more one-act plays and eventually full-length plays as well. Tracy now has more than two hundred published plays and skits with a number of publishers and her plays have been produced all across the country as well as internationally. When she writes a play, Tracy continues to keep in mind those challenges she recognized all those years ago on the high school stage—limited budget, small stages, and the desire to let each character shine. Tracy continues to write plays for the youth and Christian market and resides with her husband and two children in Metro Detroit.
The Scene Team
Links
Special Thanks
- Jennifer Isaacson
- Lauren Kardos
- Jeffery Keilholtz
Show Contributors
- Leah Barker
- Justin Borak
- Jim Colleran
- Zach Dulli
- KJ Lampar
- Tracy Wells