Voices of a Revolution
The United States government has brought a case against the Board of Lady Managers, the women’s committee behind the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, accusing them of promoting dangerous feminist ideas. Called to testify are three real historical women: Julia Grant, widow of President Ulysses S. Grant; Ida Lewis, celebrated as America’s bravest woman for her […]
Stories & Novels: The Writing Behind the Performances
Tom’s storytelling doesn’t stop at the stage. Alongside six decades of acting, directing, and producing, there’s a running thread of prose — personal essays, memoir pieces, and novels in progress that dig into the same well of memory that fuels the plays and the music. A handful of personal essays are already out in the […]
Send in the Clown
It is 1960, and The Bobo the Clown Show is a beloved children’s program in need of a bigger sponsor. When the new sponsor demands a young sidekick to help sell toothpaste, six-year-old Tommy E. wins the role, much to the fury of Stu K., the weary, struggling actor who has played Bobo for years. […]
Andersonville
Based on the real diary of Union soldier John Ransom, Andersonville brings to life the brutal conditions inside the infamous Civil War prison camp, and the friendships that kept its prisoners alive in spirit even as their bodies suffered. Through John’s relationships with fellow captives, the play finds unexpected moments of hope, humor, and human […]
1960 World Series With Papa
This one’s from the archives — a story I first wrote a few years back, and it’s always been one of my favorites to tell. It felt right to give it a proper home here. In 1960, at the age of six, I went to the World Series. The Pittsburgh Pirates won the World Series […]
The Lesson
Inspired by actual events, The Lesson looks at a single day in July 1978 in a small South Carolina town, a date that fell on the fourteenth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. The play follows two generations of white men shaped by very different Southern and Northern upbringings, whose paths cross in a series […]
Bedlam at Bethlehem
At Shady Acres Retirement Home, the residents are gearing up for their annual Christmas Eve Nativity play, and nothing about it is going according to plan. Ethel, the self-appointed director and overzealous Virgin Mary, tries to wrangle a cast of scene-stealing seniors, each one bringing their own gloriously wrong idea of what the story of […]
What’s New at tommyerb.com (A Quick Tour)
If you’ve visited tommyerb.com before, you’ll notice things look — and work — a little differently now. Here’s a quick rundown of what changed and why. Everything lives under one roof now. Instead of scattered links across Facebook, Instagram, and half-finished pages, the new site organizes everything I’m working on into clear sections: theater, publishing, […]
A First Look at Tommy Erb’s Five New Singles
With five new songs about to drop, it felt like the right time to give a quick first look at what’s coming—and the mix is a wide one. The Moment Our Eyes Met and Sassy Southern Girl lean into the kind of storytelling you’d expect from someone who spends most of his time writing for […]
The Play Catalog Is Now Live
After years of writing, I finally sat down and did the unglamorous work: gathering every script I’ve written into one organized, browsable catalog. It’s live now at tommyerb.com/play-catalog, and it’s bigger than even I expected. The catalog includes full-length plays, one-acts, ten-minute pieces, and monologues — more than 70 works in total, spanning drama, comedy, […]