←Recommendations of Thalia's B&B

A clever and quite funny look at what inspires a playwright and whether we can recognize the real people that may be the inspiration for various characters. Interestingly, the character who is somewhat clownish and the butt of the funniest line (having to do with brains), delivers perhaps the most insightful line, setting up the perfect ending. I can’t help wondering if Kim E. Ruyle was inspired by an actual B&B and if horses were involved! This is a great read and would be a joy to see onstage!

Many layers to this well-written short piece by Kim E. Ruyle: genuine warmth to the muse, humor to the eccentric B&B owners and a potential burgeoning imposter syndrome for our "main" character. Four well-conceived characters and simple staging. Bravo!

A somewhat meta play about writing and inspiration, with a biting twist at the end. I feel like these four characters have so much more to say! I am excited for Betsy's future as George's muse/competition!

An exploration on inspiration and leaves on thinking about what's the line in regards to how much to take.

This is a really warm piece of theatre from Kim E Ruyle who draws his characters so eloquently. As writers, we always look for inspiration from anywhere we can possible find it and sometimes it is there in front of us! Along with some really telling thoughts on the nature of playwriting and the audience we put our work in front of, this is a really fun piece - could definitely have legs as an expanded piece! Great stuff.

This is great fun, I think we can all relate to this one way or another. I often question the characters I've created: "are you real, do I know you?" Maybe there are snippets of real people in all our characters? Aside from this, I especially enjoyed Emmit when he finally woke up and joined the conversation!

When you tell people you write there is always the question of where your inspiration comes from but Ruyle answer the question clearly and concisely in this short but amusing piece. All of the characters are perfectly individual and the dialogue flows beautifully. Its a perfect example of taking a situation and deciding "there's a play in here somewhere".

The character of Thalia says at one point "People aren't really boring. They only seem boring." And it's true. There are hidden depths to everyone. And Kim Ruyle shows this in a most elegant fashion by giving us 4 characters having a seemingly innocuous conversation about creativity and where our inspirations come from. Although nothing earth shattering happens in the course of the ten pages, all four characters emerge as fully-fleshed out personalities, all fully capable of being the the most interesting character in their own life story. A wonderful slice of life in ten minutes.

Every character has an integral role in this piece centring on a self satisfied playwright and his wife thrilling one of their Bed & Breakfast hosts with tales of plays and their genesis. Yet in the end, the husband of the host stirs himself and brings a no nonsense and ribald view point, with truth in his tomfoolery and a healthy disrespect contrasting with his awestruck wife. An age old plot in many ways but still authentic with four roles for older actors in a believable situation and with a cliffhanger ending.

A B &B is a great place to set a play because there is an inherent awkwardness to it, at least for anyone not extroverted enough to find some level of enjoyment from it. There is plenty of awkwardness built into Ruyle’s play, with the playwright protagonist oblivious to the possibility that others might not fully appreciate his lecture on writing characters. There are wonderful insights here that I fully appreciate, such as his very astute observation that people are not really boring. “They just seem boring,” says George. This play is not boring. It’s quite intriguing!