How Plays2Play was Born… The Genesis of the Dream. It was my dad’s 75th birthday and he had invited my siblings and I to visit him and celebrate. I gave my dad a shirt that said “Best of Dad Ever” (though he doesn’t remember because he forgets everything). We talked about my mom traveling the globe, checking off places on her bucket list, so we asked my dad for his bucket list. That’s when he told us he had none. Zilch. Zip. Nada.
We pushed harder asking what does he want to accomplish while he still can. His response was to bring one of his ideas to life. Each week for the last 25+ years, he had a new crazy inventions that he thought would change the world. Most of his ideas were related to dating as he was seeking a lasting relationship. But now that he has found a soul mate, the ideas have shifted from meeting new people to enhancing a relationship.
Bringing an idea to life should follow ones passions, yes, but I expected he would choose an idea that also matches his strengths. My dad is a seasoned contra dancer, a super handyman, a house builder, a volunteer tax preparer, a teacher of defensive driving, a gardener, a former professional driver, a tv addict and former high school science teacher. Now it’s also important to point out his handicaps. To illustrate his technical competence, consider that he is one of the last people on earth to use a flip phone and his ability to navigate a computer is from 1980. His reading and writing are functional and basic, explaining why he flunked freshman English four times and is never found reading a book. Never. And with all of his weaknesses, his bucket list idea, the one out of hundreds to invest in and bring to life for his birthday, was a website and web application of two-person plays, merging his technological illiteracy with his lack of reading and writing.
Perhaps what I should have done is the same thing everyone else does with his ideas – smile and walk away. But instead I said “tell us more”. My dad told my siblings and I that he had this idea where two people would read a play together and that would be an enjoyable activity. And that they needed to chose from short four-page plays. And after reading the play they would chit chat about the play, which would be some more time to enjoy each other. At the same time that they would share this experience of acting and get to learn more about one another.
My siblings did the same thing everyone else does – they smiled and walked away. Actually they did offer help finding resources and writing but everyone is busy and these things take a lot of commitment. I wanted to give my dad this wish, to make his idea into a business. Having just earned my P.M.P. Project Management Professional certification, and having a profession as a Software Engineering Manager, I took on the job of designing the details and workflow, creating a budget and task list, hiring people to do the work and coordinating the effort.
My dad would finance the project (this being the key differentiator between just “having an idea” and actually bringing an idea to life). He would also make many of the choices for how the website would work. That was the birth of the business – June 6 2018. I quickly found out that, aside from him turning on his computer, I was on my own. I called him almost daily to review the next steps and when possible tried to keep things moving.
Then my dad (and remember his strengths above) started writing plays. Clearly I could see that grammar was not important to him. Neither was spelling, content, the flow of the dialogue nor the ideas, all which made reading a painful experience. So we hired writers and editors to create quality plays. After the handiwork of the professionals, one could hardly recognize the plays he wrote – you’re welcome.
My first choice to build the website and application was a professional web developer named Dave Weaver. His company Webais has completed many Fortune 500 projects for me and I knew he could bring this to life.
Now the site is built, plays are written and users can easily buy and share plays. We have an online bookstore (IRS code 451211). We are ready for you to help make our brand known.
The shared experience of 2 plays is under $2.00, which has created a “cheap date” for millions of people tired of the same old dinner and a movie routine and are looking to spice up a date with a new fun dating experience.
