Mike Mariano

The program for the Rivier production of The Marley Show claims the play takes place in upstate New York. Could it? Let’s use context clues!

Eva claims to have lost Moe on “Route 45”, a number Dean picked at random. U.S. Highway 45 isn’t a good fit; it seems to be known by that name only in Wisconsin and Illinois. New York State has no State Highway 45, and possibly no significant County Route 45.

However, there is a Route 45 in our very own home state of New Jersey, and—as Bill claims—it runs through farm country. New Jersey’s Route 45 runs roughly parallel to the Turnpike, running from Salem north to Westville. One of the more significant towns on Route 45 is Mantua; perhaps The Marley Show takes place here.

There are a few inconsistencies: no Mantua restaurant overlooks “the bay”. The closest location for Chez Chez would be an hour across the state in the Egg Harbor Township area. And Moe must be genuinely mistaken when he thinks the Canadian border is only ten miles away.

Obviously, this is all trivial speculation, but it’s nice to think that The Marley Show might be the second most famous work that has scenes set in Mantua.

Five minutes into writing my Ibsen play and I’m having a crisis of faith.

So far it isn’t even slightly Norwegian. It isn’t yet sexy, which makes it a lousy companion to Menage a Sartre. Unless things pick up when the good Doctor S. makes his entrance, I may have to start over.

Therefore, my eye is wandering to other projects. On Saturday, Dean made a reference in casual conversation to a character from our long dormant Marley Show rewrite—a character we hadn’t even written. Further thoughts on Now Departing, as we’ve been calling the revised play, made me think of a different approach to the play. We were considering the play’s theme to be “death.” But it might be more interesting to tie everything together under the theme of “thievery.” As it stands now, Bill will loot corpses and steal girlfriends, and the revised Del will also be looking to take something of his own.

Last night I had my fifth or sixth idea for a Now Departing opening (It involves Bill doing inappropriate things with balloons.), so maybe now is the time to start writing it.

I also had another idea for a full-length which would combine the historical inaccuracy of this fairy tale with the real-life crimes at Guantánamo with my own Wish Fulfillment. If I can pull that together I think I’d really like the results.

A site redesign is still in progress, but I think all of the plays have landed in the right spots. Ironically, my more recent work is temporarily stuck with their old designs. Feedback is welcome, let me know if you get hopelessly lost.

New is a Productions page, which will serve as an archive for productions of my work. I will soon tear through my scrapbooks and update the links which currently go nowhere.

Here’s the thing: I have a very incomplete history of my work. There are cast members, performance locations, and even entire productions that I know next to nothing about. I need your help!

If you have been involved in any production of my plays (The Marley Show, The Bill Show, and Jack, Wanda, and Ben especially), please write to me! Let me know names, dates, etc. If you can also send me something like a program, please do so.

Some groups have already sent me plenty, and that’s great. You will see it here soon.