Musical/ 3 characters (1 woman, 1 man, other any gender) + 6-9 ensemble/ One Act
Synopsis: Tinkertown is a place of ideas … For in this imaginary land we meet three very creative characters: Travis Tee, inventor, tinkerer, thinker, and toymaker extraordinaire; and his two assistants, Gadget, the engineering mastermind, and Sprocket, the mechanical genius.
It seems that Travis has forgotten how to think! How will anything get done? Everything has stopped! Nothing can being made anymore if Travis can’t think! For everyone knows you must be “a thinker if you want to tinker!” Help arrives via a rocket fueled by children’s creative energies, and once they arrive … the sheer excitement ignites Travis into “super-thinking”!
It rekindles the creative spark that gives him ideas to start tinkering once again. Six 2-3 minute songs will carry the audience beyond the threshold of adventure and into the journey.
Visual needs can be kept minimal, focus will be on the organic creative stimuli to encourage audience to think about the process of creation while they are yet emerged in it.
Most of Tinkertown: Where Creativity Comes to Life may be read by clicking on the “Read It Now” button above. To obtain a complete reading copy, contact C. Michael Perry at cmichaelperry53@gmail.com.
Contact Information:
Amateur and professional rights:
C. Michael Perry
Ph.: 801-550-7741
cmichaelperry53@gmail.com
or
Coni Koepfinger
Ph.: 412-983-1029
koepfingerc@gmail.com
About the Creators::
Coni Koepfinger (Book and Lyrics): Winner of the 2021 Olwen Wymark Award by the Writers Guild of Great Britain, Coni Koepfinger believes creative energy is never lost — it simply changes hearts, heads and hands. She is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon (Literary and Cultural Theory MA 2002) and Penn State (Theatre Arts BA 1980), and also a member of the National League of American Pen Women, Theatre for Young Audiences/USA, the National Association of Musical Theatre, the Lifeboat Foundation, a lifetime member of the Dramatists Guild, a former board member of the International Centre for Women Playwrights, and former committee Chair for the League of Professional Theatre Women. Her work has been produced by the Gene Frankel Theatre, the American Theatre of Actors, the Rogue Theatre Festival, the UNFringed Festival, The Secret Theatre, the Manhattan Repertory Theatre, Cosmic Orchid, the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, the Harlem Me Too Project, Untold Stories of Jewish Women, The Producers Circle at the Players Club, the Playbill Virtual Theatre Festival, Open Eye Theatre, the Phoenicia Playhouse, and Theater for the New City. Her published plays and musicals can be found at Leicester Bay Theatricals and Next Stage Press. Her most recent work, The Unusual Chauncey Faust, won first place in the 2025 15 Minutes of Frame Play Festival, presented at the Gene Frankel Theatre.
As an academic, Coni has enjoyed teaching at various major universities, including Duquesne, Carlow, and Point Park, specializing in composition, literature and playwriting, and developing a new pedagogy that examined the stages of creative form, something she applies to her own writing as well. Website: www.awakeneddreamtheatre.com.
C. Michael Perry (Music and Lyrics) was born in Colorado and raised in Chicago. He discovered theatre in high school and has built a lifelong career in theatre, film, and television. A graduate of Brigham Young University with a BA in Theatre, he has worked on more than 25 major network television shows, 300 commercials, and two feature films. On stage, he has performed before over 2,000 live audiences across the United States and Europe, earning multiple acting awards for his leading and supporting roles.
As a director, he has helmed over 40 productions at the community, educational, and professional levels and choreographed more than 50 shows. His work has also been recognized for excellence in lighting and scenic design.
An Emmy Award–winning composer, playwright, and lyricist, Perry has written or co-written over 30 musicals and 20 plays produced nationally and internationally. His credits include Cinderabbit (PBS), Entertaining Mark Twain, Anne with an ‘e’, Great Expectations, and The Miracle of Mirador. In addition to his theatre work, he is the author of several fantasy-adventure novels, including The Miracle of Mirador and The Blood Rose of Panador, the first two installments of his Daniel Light and the Children of the Orb series.
Perry is the founder of Leicester Bay Theatricals, which publishes and licenses nearly 500 plays and musicals worldwide. He lives in Newport, Maine, with his wife, Sharon, and is the proud father of four grown children.
Tinkertown: Where Creativity Comes to Life was first produced by the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in November 1998.