By day, the students at Freeport Junior High School are used to seeing Dan O'Donnell around the halls, keeping the place clean and tidy. But when the bell rings at the end of the day, O'Donnell puts on another hat: director and award-winning playwright.

For the past 20 years, the Freeport man has been writing and directing original plays for the school where he works as the custodian. Several scripts have been published and also have been staged by students at other schools across the country and in Europe.

The school's most recent production, "Days of Our Nights," is a soap-opera spoof that was performed Thursday and Friday night by a cast and crew of 29 junior high school students.

O'Donnell fell into his dual roles of writer and director many years ago by happenstance.

"I started by helping out a friend," who was directing the play. "The next year, he couldn't do it, so I took it over," O'Donnell explained. "I got the rights to do a play, and I really didn't like the way it turned out, so I gave it a shot and tried to write my own."

That proved to be a smart decision. Over the next two decades, O'Donnell would write dozens of scripts. He's lost count of the number and says it's somewhere between 30 and 40. It takes anywhere from four to six weeks to complete a play, he said.

"You come home from work and sit down and start working on it an hour or hour and half every night. If you get into a good pattern, a good habit of working, it makes it a lot easier."

He specializes in comedies, which work well for his 12- to 14-year-old actors. And despite the cast's youth, O'Donnell says he crafts the scripts with both kids and adults in mind.

"I try to find a balance between putting in things that the children can associate with, and also the things the adults can relate to."

"He likes to challenge them," said O'Donnell's wife, Linda, who has worked side-by-side with her husband from the beginning. She has co-written some of the scripts and also helps in the production process by designing sets, costumes and props.

"My wife does most of my set decorations, costumes and makeup." O'Donnell says, "In fact, (she) and I spend many evenings brainstorming about the plays and the ones we want to do," he said. "She even helped me write a couple of plays and that's a lot of fun, just her and I going back and forth."

In fact, the entire O'Donnell family gets in on the act. The couple's three children have all been involved in the junior high productions.

Daughter Casey, now 31, "was in one of the first plays her dad directed here," Mrs. O'Donnell said. Son Kerry O'Donnell, 40, helps his father put up and take down the set each year. And some of the props are on loan from a theater that is co-owned by son Sean Michael O'Donnell and fellow Freeport native Todd Collar, The New Olde Bank Theatre in Verona, Allegheny County.

"This is his calling," said Mrs. O'Donnell. "The children respect him, and they like him. They do what he says."

"He's fun to work with," said eighth grader Kristi Howard of Sarver. "He gives us tips on how to say stuff, where to move, how to be more funny, but at the same time, he lets us do with the role what we want."

It's evident during rehearsals that enthusiasm and dedication overcome inexperience as O'Donnell works with the young actors. During the final days of rehearsal, he sits in an empty auditorium intently focused on the actors, jotting notes as the action unfolds on stage.

"That is the best part about it," he said, "to see them take a script that they've never seen before and see them get into it and start to develop it."

His wife agrees.

"I love watching the children from the first time on the stage to how they grow into it. I just love it. ... It's so weird, but as aggravating and crazy as it is now, after the cast party, it will be like, 'What now?'

"You miss it when it's over. There are too many good things about this not to like it. Seeing those children, those young adults ... you get a bond with each kid, and you meet a lot of super parents, too."

She said many of their former actors come back year after year to watch the play. She noted this year's production was written and performed 13 years ago, and "the girl who played the 'jungle girl' will be coming on Friday night. I plan on introducing her to the girl who plays that now. I think that will be cool for them to meet."

O'Donnell also clearly has fun with his scripts, sometimes at the expense of his co-workers. But they don't seem to mind a bit.

"I did a script one time called 'Mr. Isenberg's Neighborhood,' he said, referring to the school's now-retired principal, Robert Isenberg. "I had something about every teacher in there in it, and even poked a little fun at the superintendent at the end."

The reaction was entirely positive. "If you can't find humor in yourself, then you can't find humor," he said.

"The school district backs their theater very well," he continued. "I've been very fortunate as far at the administration and teachers. They back us 100 percent."

"I often receive positive comments from parents about the plays that Mr. O'Donnell writes and directs at the junior high," school Principal Don Dell said.

"It is also very evident to see the impact that Mr. O'Donnell has on students. Numerous students come back from the senior high or beyond to watch the junior high play. When the play is over, Mr. O'Donnell seems to be swarmed by students that participated in plays during their time at the junior high. Obviously, he has impacted many students' lives," Dell said.

While many of O'Donnell's scripts are tailored specifically to a Freeport audience, some have a broader appeal. Several have been published and are available for purchase by other schools or theater companies. Mars High School staged "Surviving Reality" last year.

"It was a real thrill to see my play put on by another school district," O'Donnell said.

The script "was easy to stage and easy to produce, and the cast really enjoyed performing it," said teacher Charlesa Fassinger, who has directed plays at Mars for 30 years. "I've never had that happen before, where a playwright comes to the performance. It was really a nice way to top it off. He's a very talented gentleman," Fassinger said. "It was really special to meet someone like that."

O'Donnell's talent was recognized in 2005 when his script, "Murder by Indecision," won the Shubert Fendrich Memorial Award for Best New Play of the Year. The title is awarded by the Pioneer Drama Service, a script publishing company in Colorado, to one new work each year.

"It was a real surprise," O'Donnell said of the award. "It's nice because now that script will always have that mark with it when it's listed in the catalog."

The future might have more accolades in store for the writer/director. For the first time in two decades, he didn't write a new stage play this year, instead choosing to focus his creative energy down a new path — children's books.

And perhaps he just might see one produced on stage someday.