It was just about 14 years ago (March of 2012) that my two-actor play ‘Pinky’ debuted. Easily my most successful play to date, in terms of productions its had since then, ‘Pinky’ features two adults (35 to 55) taking turns telling a story about when they were fantasy-loving, Dungeons-and-Dragons’ playing teenagers. One has a crush on the other. One isn’t so sure. Both are obsessed with “The Beauty and the Beast.” One dreams of the perfect romance, and has a list of ten attributes that person will have. The other has only seven of those attributes, and vows to transform themselves into the person of their loved-one’s dreams. Treasure hunts are involved. It gets crazy. It’s a lot of fun.

Throughout the play, each actor slips back and forth between their adult narrator self and their teenage self. Whenever the story involves their teenage friends, they transform into them, too. It’s a real tour-de-force, and it’s proven to be an attractive challenge to actors eager to stretch themselves to playing seven or eight different characters in the same show. I know from experience, this is a hard show to perform, but that’s one of the things that actors love about it.

And audiences have loved it just as much, young and old. Because of the subject matter, teenagers are often a big part of those audiences. Scenes from the script have even been used as acting and directing exercises in high school and college theater classes.

And routinely, what I hear from young actors is, ‘I wish this were written for teens to perform, because it’s about our lives.’ Of course, it’s NOT written that way, so older actors end up having all the fun. And it is fun. In its world premiere at Sebastopol’s Main Stage West, and again a year later in a production at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse – both under the direction of Sheri Lee Miller – I played the part of David and Liz Jahren played the part of Pinky, and neither of us were teenagers at the time.

Well, after more than a dozen years, I’ve decided there’s no reason there couldn’t be TWO versions of ‘Pinky,’ so I am currently in the process of adapting my own play, transforming it from a two-hander for adults into a 12-person play for two adults (the narrators) and 10 teens playing all of the young characters, including a young David and Pinky. It is my hope that this new version will make it possible for high schools and colleges to present the show.

What’s fun about this is the freedom it gives me to truly do a full adaptation. I’m doing more than just changing who says what. I’m reimagining the characters, expanding them. Characters that had only a few lines in the original will have much more to say and do. I’ve added a Silent Ensemble who step in and out of scenes as wordless “extras,” with plenty of physical comedy and stage business to do. And I’ve even changed a couple of plot points to make it work more seamlessly.

I expect to have the first working draft done sometime this summer, and then will look for a school or youth program to assist in workshopping it. That will be fun. Not only will this new version with a whole new title – currently “Beast Hearts Beauty” – give me another play to share with the world, it will serve as a gift to the many teens who’ve embraced this story over the years. By now, of course, some of those who saw it in its debut will be too old to play the teenage versions, but that’s okay, because the original version still exists for anyone bold enough to take it on.