Behind The Scenes With Chagrin Falls Playwright Ed Walsh

Playwrights Ed Walsh (right in photo) and Robert Noll are venturing into the taboo. Opening a three-weekend run tonight at Chagrin Valley Little Theatre’s River Street Playhouse, the playwrights’ latest effort, Love, Honor, and Other Complications, is a romantic comedy about a man who takes a younger girl out on a date and finds out she is the daughter of his high school prom date — the woman to which he lost his virginity. A Chagrin Falls resident who worked for Cleveland Magazine from 1974 to 1992, Walsh began writing plays in his free time by Noll's encouragement. The pair would go on to collaborate, publishing a few plays and seeing even more performed, including Reptarium, which was performed off-off-Broadway. We went behind the scenes with Walsh to learn about his source of inspiration.

You went from working as a journalist to working as a playwright. Does it feel like you’re living the dream?

As far as dreams go, it’s difficult. It’s very competitive. You have to pitch your play just like you have to pitch your stories when you’re out there as a freelancer, journalist, novelist — whatever it may be. Also, language is terribly important and story sense is terribly important.

Are the people in Love, Honor and Other Complications inspired by people you knew in real life?

I probably incorporated myself into it because I was driving to a young lady’s house — I was quite a bit older than her; it was just a date, nothing serious — and the thought occurred to me, “Oh my god, what if her father went to high school with me?” And then I thought about it a little more, and I thought, “Boy, it would be really embarrassing if her mother went to school with me.” So I went to Bob and said, “I’ve got this idea. What if an older guy is dating a younger woman, and it turns out that, not only did he know her mother from high school, but he was her prom date?” So that was our starting point.

Why did you set out to create light-hearted romantic comedy?

It was a choice on our part. We weren’t interested in turning it into something dark or even gray. We decided right away, “No, we’re not going to try to turn this into Death of a Salesman or A Streetcar Named Desire.” It’s a light play. We just wanted it to be fun for the actors, the cast and the audience. There’s nothing profound in this play. It’s meant to be fun and hopefully interesting. We wanted to have something that would bring people a smile, and I hope we’ve done that.

Have you seen your own high school prom date recently?

No. That would’ve been perfect, but it’s not a perfect world.