In TV land, Alfalfa leaps to the top of a milk box and exclaims, "Let's put on a show!" It isn't long before an old blanket is drawn across a clothesline and half a dozen aspiring little rascals enter stage right from a barn door.

In the real world, it doesn't happen that way. Most playwrights never see their scripts come to life at all, but four Butler County authors are managing to have their plays produced on actual stages in a school, community theater and New York stage.

A version of "Sleeping Beauty" is one such production, set to be performed this month at the Comtra Theatre in Cranberry Township. The revamped script was co-written by Lynn Snyder of Cranberry and Karen Baier of Penn Township, who have worked in other capacities on previous Comtra productions."I've been directing for 10 or 12 years," said Snyder, who began as an actress and worked her way up to director. "I've probably done about a hundred shows at Comtra."Snyder and Baier played fairy godmothers in last July in Comtra's production of "Snow White," and that's when Snyder was inspired to write a new treatment of Sleeping Beauty. She asked Baier to help.Snyder and Baier had a vision that featured three unique and quirky fairy godmothers, whose human counterparts are peasant women that care for Sleeping Beauty in her infancy. Baier said they completed the script in six weeks."We each wrote a first act," said Baier. "She gave me hers, I gave her mine and then I put them together. It went very fast. It just wasn't that difficult."Both actresses portray fairy godmothes who provide laughs for adults as well as children."I used to do about seven shows a year. I just got it down to three shows a year," said Snyder of her role as director, which allows her to choose the plays performed.When recently asked by Marie Teets, who owns the theater, Snyder suggested "Sleeping Beauty."Though Teets allots her an expense account for each production, Snyder ends up picking up part of the tab for plays she directs, including this one."It costs about $500 and she'll reimburse you about $200," said Snyder, who also hosts cast parties.Baier contributed her share of production costs in a labor of love."I'm sewing night and day, " said Baier whose vision included the costumes. She has designed 43 costume pieces for the play.Color was important in creating the delicate pastel flowered gowns for the three principal fairies, Baier said.The fairy who wears blue has her head is in the clouds. The one donning pink is feminine and flowery. The fairy that Baier plays wears green, indicating something of an earth mother.The comedic fairies wear coordinating colored wigs and headpieces and each carries a matching wand fashioned from a variety of items such as silvery tinsel and pink fur to a turkey skewer."The three fairies snip at each other like humans do. Their personalities (and color schemes) carry over to their human counterparts," said Baier.Baier said she also used color to help identify the characters for the children. "All of Sleeping Beauty's family are in teal and the prince's family wears black and gold," she said.Both women are finding it hard to concentrate on their lines while watching their vision unfold at rehearsals, but Snyder said it's better to be involved."I always try to do something little. Say something does go wrong on stage , you can always save somebody."

While Snyder wasestablishing herself with a community theater, Gary Watkins, a playwright and drama teacher at Seneca Valley Middle School, won the trust of the school's drama department.Although Watkins' play "There's a Sucker Born Every Minute" will be performed tonight and tomorrow at the school, he has written more than 70 plays for junior high students, and most of them have been performed at least once in his drama classes since he began teaching at Seneca in 1989."I never had to ask anyone's permission and have no restrictions," said Watkins, who began writing plays for his classes because it was hard to find professional plays appropriate for seventh and eighth graders with roles for 26 females and two males."Once you've done it for so long, they trust you. I've never had any complaints."Watkins said as he got to know the students each semester, he began customizing the plays to fit the talent and personalities in each group."Every student gets a part designed to emphasize what he can do. Once I had a kid who couldn't memorize lines, so I wrote him a part of a Ninja warrior who didn't speak."He said he also tries to imagine what would entertain the father of a 14-year-old as he waits for his daughter to make her entrance.His latest creation, "There's a Sucker Born Every Minute," takes place backstage at P.T. Barnum's first circus show."Tom Thumb gets sick, Jumbo the elephant escapes to the streets of New York, and Jenny Lynd gets laryngitis. A woman in Florida is doing it now," said Watkins, who sells his scripts on his Web site, www.stagewright productions.com.Watkins markets the scripts by sending e-mails to a list of teachers every spring and fall when they are setting their budgets. The scripts sell for $30 each, and for $60 Watkins will also customize the script to fit the teacher's needs. "If she has a kid who's a gymnast, we include a gymnast."This year's show will include an original song written by the brother of Jennifer Mitnick, a Seneca Valley Middle School world history teacher who helps to direct and produce the plays.Michael Mitnick, now studying music at Harvard, wrote a song for a knife thrower who breaks into song while breaking balloons that surround his nagging wife. The title is "Sometimes I Wish My Aim Weren't So Good."Watkins' wife, Kathleen, also a Seneca Valley Middle School teacher, assists him by providing sets and costumes, keeping production costs to a minimum."The budget that we work with is what we made with last year's show. The school district doesn't really provide a budget," Watkins said.

Though money isn't much of an object for Watkins, Baier or Snyder, it is the most important element in getting a professional production onstage, according to Evans City playwright, Dr. Brad Levinson.About 15 years ago, Levinson, a surgeon, wrote his third play, "A Ritual of Faith," based on the true story of a 19th century Italian Jewish taken from his parents by the Catholic hierarchy, a common practice in those times."It's about the power that ritual has over human beings," Levinson said.With the encouragement and input of his wife, Laurel, Levinson rewrote and tweaked the work and entered it into a Theater Resources Unlimited competition. It won a producer's reading in September 2001 in New York City."What was so shocking was the standing ovation for about 10 minutes," he said.After his success in New York, he began to pursue the daunting task of getting his play produced in a professional theater.He decided to aim high, which is his nature, he said. But aiming high, he learned, includes a high price, about half a million dollars to premier the play Off-Broadway. He lowered his aim a little."I knew that the single most important thing was to get a theater, a good theater in a reputable city as soon as possible."It made sense to shoot for his hometown of Pittsburgh, a respectable arts center, and he began trying to raise the $35,000 it would take to have the play produced there with an equity cast.He put down $2,000 of his own money to reserve the Hamburg at City Theater in Pittsburgh and started looking for other investors and a producer."I went to people who were not necessarily interested in theater, but had money. It was shocking how many would give and give right away."Levinson had built some important theater contacts at Carnegie Mellon University after a successful staged reading of his second play, "Francis Gallagher," and wound up with producer Ken Kaiser, who had attended the CMU reading and Jose Zayas, another CMU graduate to director "Ritual.""Ritual of Faith" opened at the Hamburg on April 12, 2001, to packed performances, fairly good reviews by Pittsburgh critics and an enthusiastic audience. Many of those who saw the production would be approached by Levinson to invest in his next professional production of "Ritual." For that, he needed about $75,000."The reason for taking it to another theater city, which was Chicago, is that if it did pretty well, I could get it to New York. … I had to personally go to people and ask for $5,000 to $15,000 - money which they would most likely not see again," he said.The Chicago run had mixed reviews and Levinson was not totally satisfied with the production, but the audiences liked it, and he had a strong belief in his play. He decided he had to get it to New York.By then, Levinson had learned something about getting a play to the New York stage."If you want to do it, do it non-profit," he said. "People will give more because they also get a tax deduction. But to do it non-profit, you have to find a non-profit theater. You must have a contact who likes you and will accept it in a non-profit."It wasn't easy, but Levinson made that contact, found investors to join him in supplying the $300,000 needed and the show opened at the Emerging Artists Theatre on 42nd Street in New York in the spring of 2004."It got great reviews in the New York Times and the Post," said Levinson, who was very satisfied with the production and the reception it got from tough New York theater audiences.But in spite of his ultimate success in realizing his dream of getting his play to New York, Levinson discourages people from writing plays. He said it is difficult to write something that producers will consider today: a play with two to six characters, two hours or less in length, that is cost effective and has a nice story."I would never encourage someone to write plays. If you write a book, it's done. But you have to get a play to a stage. Eugene O'Neil wouldn't have done it today."