Author: Erb Publishing

The SW Florida Talent Registry started as a way to cast Building Paradise, Tom Erb’s Summer 2026 workshop production in Venice, Florida. But signing up is not tied to that one show. It is an ongoing list, and it is worth joining even if this particular production is not the right fit for you.

Why It Outlasts One Production

As more Erb Publishing titles get picked up by schools and community theaters around the region, a standing list of local actors, directors, stage managers, stagehands, designers, and musicians becomes more useful, not less. The registry is where that list lives.

What It Takes

If you’re auditioning, bring a headshot and a resume or CV. If you’re applying as a director, designer, crew, or musician, bring whatever best shows your work, a resume, portfolio link, reel, or bio all work. Auditions and interviews, when they come up, are private and scheduled individually based on your materials and your location. Signing up takes about five minutes.

Join the SW Florida Talent Registry.

Three more Erb Publishing titles have gone to print. Corruption Has a Face, Cissie, and Dance of the Woolly Monster are now published in paperback through our print-on-demand partner, joining Standing Room Only as titles you can hold in your hands, not just read on a screen.

This is the first news out of Erbana Productions, the umbrella home for Erb Publishing, Erbana Repertory Theatre, and the SW Florida Actors Registry. More is coming from every corner of it in the weeks ahead.

Corruption Has a Face is a full-length drama in two acts. When Diane comes forward with what she knows, the fallout reaches every desk in the building. It follows the federal employees, attorneys, and administrators of a Washington, D.C. agency as a whistleblower’s report forces each of them to decide what loyalty is worth.

Cissie traces the life of Bertha Honore Palmer from a Chicago debutante to one of the shrewdest developers and social forces of her age, through marriage, motherhood, grief, and the land deals that helped shape Venice, Florida. A single actress plays Bertha from young womanhood into her sixties, with a company of four moving through the family, friends, and rivals around her.

Dance of the Woolly Monster is a comedy for a five-person ensemble. A small book club takes on Gary Zukav’s The Dancing Wu Li Masters, and the physics turns out to be the easy part. Five neighbors, still figuring out who they are to each other, run into new ideas colliding with old grudges, harder history, and the things nobody in the room wants to say out loud.

All three join Standing Room Only as paperback editions from Erb Publishing, now available through our shop. Visit each play’s page in the Catalog for the full script, licensing details, and casting notes, or head straight to the Shop to order your copy.

Erb Publishing is introducing three standing offers for the schools, community theaters, and independent producers we work with. Here is what is new.

Free Digital Listing

Every script accepted into the Erb Publishing catalog gets a free digital listing on erb-publishing.com, cover art, synopsis, cast size, running time, and licensing information included. There is no charge to the playwright. Hardcopy printing through an outside print partner is coming soon for theaters that want a bound script.

Free First Production

Any theater producing its first show from our catalog pays $0 in licensing fees for that production. Script purchase is still required, but the licensing fee itself is on us, one time, for each new theater working with Erb Publishing.

Free Season, On Us

Theaters programming four or more titles from the Erb Publishing catalog in one season license the entire season for $0. Script purchase is still required for each show, but licensing fees for the whole season are waived.

Standard licensing fees, before any offer above, run $11 to $79 per performance depending on a play’s length. Full details on all three offers and the fee schedule are on our Special Offers page. Questions? Reach out to submissions@erb-publishing.com.

Licensing a play should not be more complicated than the production itself. Here is what the process looks like when a school or community theater licenses a title through Erb Publishing.

Find the play

Start with the catalog, filterable by category, cast size, and running time, so you can narrow things down to what actually fits your program and your cast.

Preview it

Most catalog pages include a synopsis, cast and genre details, and a short explainer video, enough to make a real decision before you request the full script.

Request licensing

Use the “Inquire About Licensing” button on the play’s page, or email submissions@erb-publishing.com directly, with your production dates and venue.

Standard licensing fees run from $11 to $79 per performance depending on the play’s length, and script purchase is separate. New theaters get their first production free, and any theater programming four or more titles from our catalog in a season licenses the whole season free. See our special offers for the full breakdown.

Work directly with the source

Erb Publishing is a small, playwright-founded house, not a large clearinghouse. Licensing questions get answered by people who know the material, and terms can be worked out directly rather than through layers of a large organization.

Browse the full catalog at erb-publishing.com/catalog to find your next production.

Building Paradise is one of the full-length historical dramas in the Erb Publishing catalog, written by Tom Erb.

The play also has its own dedicated page on tommyerb.com, with more background on the production and the story behind it. Erb Publishing is where a school or community theater goes to actually license and stage the play.

Why it works for schools and community theater

Historical drama gives a cast and a director real material to dig into: a specific place and time, real stakes, and characters shaped by history rather than invented from nothing. It is a strong fit for a program looking for a full-length main-stage piece with substance.

Watch before you license

A short “Watch the Explainer” video is available on the play’s Erb Publishing catalog page, giving directors and drama teachers a quick preview before requesting the full script.

Interested in licensing Building Paradise for your next production? Use the “Inquire About Licensing” button on its catalog page, or reach out directly at submissions@erb-publishing.com.

Erb Publishing is open to submissions from playwrights writing for schools, community theaters, and independent producers, not only from our founder, Tom Erb.

What we are looking for

• Full-length plays, generally 60 minutes or longer
• One-act plays
• Ten-minute plays
• Monologues, standalone or in a themed collection

All genres are welcome: comedy, drama, musical (book and lyrics), family and youth theater, and more. The common thread is that the material has to be genuinely stageable by a school or community theater: reasonable cast sizes, practical production demands, and a script that is ready to be read and cast, not a rough draft.

How to submit

Use the submission form on the Submissions page to send your script. It walks through the same details we look for: title, category, cast size, running time, and a link to the script itself. Prefer email? You can also send everything directly to submissions@erb-publishing.com.

What happens next

Every submission is read for fit with the catalog. If a script is accepted, Erb Publishing handles the publishing and licensing side, so the playwright does not have to manage rights requests and contracts directly.

Full details are on the Submission Guidelines page.

Erb Publishing is now open. We are a play publishing and licensing house built for schools, community theaters, and independent producers looking for scripts that are ready to go up on stage.

A licensing house handles two things for a playwright and a producing group: it publishes the script, and it grants the legal right to perform it. When a school or community theater licenses a play through us, they get a clean, production-ready script and the performance rights to stage it, without having to track down the playwright directly or guess at the terms.

Erb Publishing was founded by Tom Erb, an actor, director, producer, and playwright with decades of work in the theater. You can read more about that background at tommyerb.com. Erb Publishing itself is a separate, dedicated home for the licensing and publishing side of that work, and for the plays themselves.

What is in the catalog

The catalog covers full-length plays, one-act plays, ten-minute plays, and monologues, across comedy, drama, mystery, history, and family-friendly work. Every title is written with a real classroom, black box, or community hall in mind, not an abstract Broadway stage.

Submissions are open

Erb Publishing is not only publishing Tom Erb’s own plays. We are open to submissions from other playwrights writing for the same audience: schools, community theaters, and independent producers who need material that is ready to cast and stage.

Browse the catalog, read the submission guidelines if you are a playwright, or reach out about licensing a title for your next production.