WILD SMASH HIT

By all reports -- please read Skye's amazing comment on yesterday's post -- the SALLY COTTER premiere at St. Margaret Mary's was nothing short of blockbusting. This is amazing news. I can't wait for video. For now, here are some photos, probably many more to come.

Congratulations, from the bottom of my hear to cast and crew. I couldn't have asked for a better opening.



Dave, Harmonica, and Sally. Great uniforms, though this was a Catholic School, so they might have had some on hand. I'm intrigued that they went with the head scar for Sally. I don't mention one in the script, but it's so key to Potter. I've often wondered if schools would give her one. So far the vote talley is Scar 1, No-Scar 2. (obscure "Arrested Development" reference)




The Beetles, rocking out to their hit song "I Wanna Hold All Six of Your Hands"


I love Professor Underdrawers here. He will be my new Twitter avatar, shortly.



Shape and the Slymythings, which would be a great name for a Wrock Band.



Ursa, trying to taste Sally and Friends as they hide under the cape. Skye calls this "The Licking Scene" which it certainly is, though taken out of context that sounds a little odd.




Nicely creepy letter people ... either that or a whole lot of people are about to die in Funky Winkerbean. (Obscure reference, I know)


The Censor. I'm very intrigued to see how people approach this character. This look is great. Will other Censors rock the argyle sweater vest? We'll see.



Ed Herdturd Molar and the Magic Rock



Great looking Lord Murderdeath. Scary!


The full cast looks great together.



Look at this! T-shirts! They made t-shirts for my play! How awesome is that?

Roll out the red carpet!

Tonight's the night folks! World premiere performance of SALLY COTTER AND THE CENSORED STONE. The cast and crew at St. Margaret Mary's in Winter Park Florida are mixing up their Witch's Brews, practicing getting the flunch through the spoodle, and fitting on their Beetle antennae. Let's all wish them broken legs and big, big laughs. I'm very excited, but probably not half as psyched as they are.

I've been in touch with Skye Dumoulin, the director. She and her cast have been working impossibly hard to get this together and I'm sure it will pay off big time. I really wish I could be there.

Listen up, Southern California! Somebody put on a darn SALLY COTTER production that I can actually go see!

Skye's put some photos online, so here's a glimpse of what the good people of Winter Park will be seeing tonight!













It's always a thrill to see actors dressed as characters you've created. Okay, sure these "characters I've created" are really just parodies of characters JK Rowling created, but it's still a special feeling.

I'm not the first to say this, and this isn't the first time I've said it, but at the moment, SALLY COTTER AND THE CENSORED STONE is just a script, words on paper. Tonight, when there are actors living out that story and an audience following it, laughing and applauding, it will truly become a play. I'm so grateful to Skye and her gang for making this happen and for all the other productions that are coming up in the next few weeks.

This production, by the way, is the only one I can truly attribute to my activities in fandom. I met Skye on MyLeaky and she seemed eager to read the play and then ever eagerer to produce it. I love the people in Potter fandom. They're just wonderful, wonderful people.

Plus, Skye lives in Orlando, which is about to become the hub of Potter fandom, with the theme park opening next year and two enormous Potter Conferences in the next two years, Infitus in 2010 and LeakyCon 2011. So it's really good to have a connection there.

Oh, plus Skye is totally awesome as a person.

Curtain up!

Productions! We've got productions!

Wow! Haven't been bloggin' so much lately.

Sorry about that, but SALLY has been busy. At the moment we have SIX productions scheduled for this fall and I know of two more that have been announced but not fully booked. I've contacted the directors of all of these productions so I hope to have pictures and updates and all that cool stuff. Here's where the show is going up. More info can be found here http://www.facebook.com/sallycotterandthecensoredstone (yeah, we have a Facebook page now, too)



St. Margaret Mary School Winter Park, FL
Oct 30, 2009

Milford High School Milford, DE
Nov 5, 2009-
7-Nov-09

St. Thomas Aquinas High School Dover, NH
Nov 12, 2009-
13-Nov-09

Birch Run High School Birch Run, MI
Nov 12, 2009-
14-Nov-09

Plymouth North High School Plymouth, MA
Nov 20, 2009-
22-Nov-09

Waukee Community School District--Prairieview Dallas Center, IA
Dec 4, 2009- 5-Dec-09

I wish the best of broken legs to all these productions and I hope there will be many more!

In which I invent a brand new genre

So as I've become more and more involved in fandom, I'm really coming to like and respect Wizard Rock. I am not a musician or a singer, so I would not ever attempt to generate any of it myself. But I am a comedian and so I officially declare myself to be the first ever Wizard Stand-Up AKA Wand-Up Comic. And, as Harry and the Potters were the first real Wrock band and so they got to "be" Harry ... I get to be Harry, too.

Dean on Spinnerscast

Whoops! Haven't blogged in a while, and I totally forgot to mention my most recent podcast appearance!

Quinn and Juan from Spinnerscast interviewed me over a month ago and the episode has been available since, like July 8th. So, sorry about the delay. (I also have several WWDD scripts to post)

Great interview, of course. I had a lot of fun with those two. Listen and you'll hear me discuss A VERY POTTER MUSICAL, The HP Alliance, and I'll reveal two character names from the possibly-upcoming SALLY COTTER sequel!

Click here to listen!

WWDD -- The HP Alliance in Los Angeles and the Dumbledore Movie Theater Challenge

On July 14, 2009 there was a HUGE party for the opening of the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie. My wife and I went there and it was fantastic. I got to meet 3/4 of Pottercast, and members of the Whomping Willows, The Remus Lupins, Marked as His Equal, and Tonks and the Werewolves, not to mention lots and lots of Potter fans. Oh, and I saw the movie, too. I'll write more about that later, but for now IT FREAKIN' RULES.

I was officially there in my capacity as a member of the Harry Potter Alliance. We were doing the Dumbledore Movie Theater Challenge. I provided name tags which Bre and the Merch ladies handed out to fans to write about what they learned from the late, great Albus Dumbledore. I also shot some video:

SEVERUS REJOINED and the HP Alliance

Here's the latest in my series of What Would Dumbledore Do playlets. I'm in the home stretch now. Only three major characters left, really and I think two of them will share one play.

To be honest, this is the big one. This is the death and the set of revelations that followed that so much of the series hinged on. I was a little hesitant to try this one, since it's so major and there's so much to say.

So how'd I do? Um ... okay. Others could have done better, but I think I contribute something here. Hope you like it.

SEVERUS REJOINED
a very short play by Dean O’Carroll

Lights up on a playground. It greatly resembles the one near Spinner’s End where SEVERUS SNAPE first met LILY EVANS, but it is cleaner, brighter, impossibly perfect.

SNAPE is there. His eyes are closed and he has a look of great focus, as if he were trying to burn something into his memory. Eventually he opens his eyes and sees his surroundings.

SNAPE
I see.

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE enters.

DUMBLEDORE
Severus! I must say, of all the places I have met with people on their journeys, this is by far my favorite.

SNAPE
Why am I not surprised?

DUMBLEDORE
How did he do it?

SNAPE
The snake. He used the snake on me. I imagine he considered that an honor.

DUMBLEDORE
Care for a go on the swings, Severus?

SNAPE
Thank you, Professor, no.

DUMBLEDORE
Suit yourself.

SNAPE
If you have further instructions for me there is no reason to be coy.

DUMBLEDORE
No, no Severus. Your job and mine are done. Responsibility lies with Harry Potter now.

SNAPE
So Lily’s son marches off to his death. I assume he will be joining us shortly.

DUMBLEDORE
Yes, but, I hope not for long. Perhaps you have deduced my theory.

SNAPE
That the Dark Lord’s curse will destroy the part of his soul inside the boy and Potter will be unscathed? Yes, I thought that might be part of your calculations. You’ve gambled a great deal on chance and theory, Professor.

DUMBLEDORE
And before me stands perhaps my greatest gamble, one which has returned my investment a thousandfold.

SNAPE
Yes. Well done. Once again your insight reigns supreme. And for the rest of us, for Moody and Scrimgeour, even Black? Should we take solace in the validation of your brilliance? Is that our reward as well?

DUMBLEDORE
I cannot speak for the others, but I had never thought you joined our side in search of reward.

SNAPE
No. No, and I never asked for one. I sought only … only …

DUMBLEDORE
Redemption?

SNAPE
I will kindly ask you not to put words in my mouth, Professor.

DUMBLEDORE
Of course.

A long silence as DUMBLEDORE swings gently.

SNAPE
Is … she here?

DUMBLEDORE
She is.

SNAPE
And … him as well.

DUMBLEDORE
They made a pledge to be bonded for all eternity, Severus. The one silver lining of their tragic early deaths was that they would never have to be apart.

SNAPE
Then even now I am … I am never …

DUMBLEDORE
Severus, your life was painful, woefully short, and often unfair. I will never deny that. For your sacrifices you have my endless gratitude and my deepest admiration. But your life was not devoid of joy and you are too intelligent and mature a man to claim it was.

SNAPE
I … do not claim that.

DUMBLEDORE
Are you familiar with a Muggle poet by the name of Omar Khayyam?

SNAPE
No.

DUMBLEDORE
He once wrote:
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
Ah, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

SNAPE
I have no ear for poetry, Professor.

DUMBLEDORE
How little you understand yourself, my friend. What was the last thing you saw in all your life?

SNAPE
Eyes. Those eyes.

DUMBLEDORE
And was that not paradise enough?

SNAPE
… It was.

DUMBLEDORE
Then perhaps it is time for you to be reunited with someone who is hoping to see you.

SNAPE
No! No, Dumbledore! I could not! I couldn’t!

LILY POTTER is there.

LILY
Hello, Sev.

SNAPE turns and sees her.

SNAPE
Lily.

DUMBLEDORE
And at this point my exit is long overdue. Farewell.

DUMBLEDORE goes.

SNAPE
Is he … ?

LILY
James didn’t come. He might like to see you later. But he understood that I needed to talk to an old friend.

SNAPE
I …

LILY
We used to have wonderful talks, Sev. I miss them.

SNAPE
I thought you had nothing further to say to me.

LILY
That was a long time ago. Quite a bit has happened since then. Let’s have a swing and a chat. We have a lot of catching up to do.

LILY sits in a swing and gestures for SNAPE to join her.

SNAPE
And … things will be just as they were?

LILY
Well, probably not exactly. And you know they cannot be the way you wanted them to be.
(Pause.)
But … a swing … a chat … maybe a laugh or two?

SNAPE
… Paradise enow.

She smiles. He sits in the swing next to her. They begin to talk as …

The lights fade.



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