Kenny Chumbley
he, him , his
Rantoul, IL
publisher, author, playwright. Author of several books and four plays with music.
Biography

Author, publisher. BA, University of Illinois, MA & MDiv, Trinity Theological Seminary. Author of Ol' Pigtoes (illustraed children's book), The Green Children (illustrated children's book), and The Green Children musical play. The play premiere in Champaign, IL, in September 2017, and in Dundalk, Ireland in November 2019. Author of The Kingdom of Dreams, A Tale of Oz (produced August 2021), Travis-Another Day Older and Deeper in Debt (unproduced), and A Goblins Christmas Carol (produced November 2023). Author of ten articles on fairy tales, published in Modern Literature (modernliterature.org).

Agent Information

none at present, but seeking representaiton

Plays

by Kenny Chumbley & Jim Mcguiggan

The story comes from a 12th-century English legend about two children, a boy and girl, who emerged from a hole in the ground near the town of Woolpit, England. They were completely green and would only eat green beans. In the legend, the boy dies early on, but the girl is taken in by a knight. As she grew older her greenness faded. After reading this story, I decided to turn it into a Celtic faerie tale and then into a musical play.

 

The play includes:

Twelve songs using traditional Celtic airs

A Riverdance reel 

An enchantment or two 

A battle scene

Lots of laughter, suspense, love, and dreams

Cast:
by Kenny Chumbley

In his map of the Land of Oz, L. Frank Baum had an area he called "The Kingdom of Dreams," which he never mentioned again in any of his 40 books. I decided to write the story of the Kingdom of Dreams and turn it into a play with music. The play was produced (four performances) in August 2021.

Cast:
by Kenny Chumbley

My retelling of the forgotten Dickens' short story--"The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton"--that eventually provided the storyline for A Christmas Carol. The show was produced to sold-out audiences in November 2023. There are twelve songs, eight of which are original. 

Cast:

Successes

The Green Children, 2017 Literary Classics Enchanted Page Award winner

The Goblins and the Gravedigger: winner, 2019 Moondance International Film Festival; Best Script, 2019 (Fall) California International Shorts Festival