Drama teacher Nick McDaniel has become a published playwright of an original production that debuted with Poplar Bluff High School students on stage at Kay Porter Theater.
The Poplar Bluff native received word one year ago that “The Green Murders” would be picked up by Heuer Publishing. The full-length farce/mystery was listed for sale by the near century-old publishing house in September.
“To see it go from an idea we were discussing, to a draft read in a class assignment, to a play on stage, to a published work has been a long, rewarding process,” recalled McDaniel, whose career spans a decade.
He wrote the first draft of the ‘whodunit’ for a table read with his students in order to avoid the cost of a script during his first year of teaching, he recalled. With encouragement from his class, the 95-minute play would ultimately premiere in April 2023, featuring 16 drama students who passed the audition.
The senior student cast for the lead was Dawson Vaughan, who went on to study musical theatre at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, graduating in October. Vaughan portrayed Harold Green, a character who—following his father’s suspicious death—gathers the beneficiaries for a will-reading with a hidden agenda: he believes one of them is a killer.
“I genuinely believe if enough people hear or learn about it, it could get picked up and performed in a Broadway theatre,” said Vaughan, who has returned home for the time while he looks to begin his career. He will be playing Seymour in “Little Shop of Horrors” with Center Stage at Three Rivers College in March.
Reminiscing about “The Green Murders,” Vaughan said it was a memorable experience being able to draw on a director who actually developed the characters. “He could give direct insight into what the true meaning of a line or scene was,” the alumnus recalled.
From the director's chair, McDaniel reflected on how the actors helped fill plot holes, for example the original story's setting was in the 1950s, until they researched that answering machines—a subplot—did not become mass-produced until years later. “The first draft of it is almost unrecognizable,” the teacher noted.
He learned the good news last year by happenstance, while following up with Heuer Publishing on another submission, when he remembered that he had even sent in "The Green Murders" for consideration. He had included a note politely asking for feedback instead of another rejection letter. “Kindness paid off,” McDaniel said, emphasizing the difficulty of getting unsolicited work read due to most publishers being so backlogged with unopened scripts.
Looking ahead, McDaniel has a couple more plays nearly finished and several in earlier stages, and would like to expand his author credits if time permits. He will receive a percentage of royalties from sales of "The Green Murders," which is available for purchase online through Heuer Publishing, based in Iowa.
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Cutline: Nick McDaniel, PBHS drama teacher, holds a published copy of his original play, “The Green Murders,” while standing next to the promotional poster displayed in the Kay Porter Theater.