Rich, Author at Rich Helms

Ten Thousand Kilometres

2 May 202623 March 2026 by Rich

Synopsis: “You have cancer” is a statement no one wants to hear from a doctor. “Your treatment will take months” is even worse. When a wife receives unexpected news that her cancer treatment will require months of chemotherapy, radiation, and countless hospital visits, she and her husband search for a way to cope with the emotional weight of the journey.

This 10-minute audio drama for three actors is set entirely inside a car but is really a story about the emotional miles travelled when life suddenly changes for the worse.

The husband proposes an unusual coping strategy: they’ll imagine each hospital drive as part of a cross-Canada road trip, from Gander to Vancouver, one appointment at a time. Over the course of 71 trips to and from hospitals and along seemingly endless hospital corridors, they travel farther west, guided by a calm dashboard GPS voice they name JoAnne. They measure their progress in imaginary kilometres and with the distractions provided by audiobooks, gas stations, and places to eat.

Routine medical journeys become scenes of humour, anxiety, reflection, frustration and grace as they discover that imagination and their senses of humour can make even the hardest journeys bearable. Along the way, they confront hair loss, treatment setbacks, fatigue, unexpected laughter, roadside comforts, and the small victories that sustain them.

As treatments near completion, their imagined journey mirrors their emotional one — not just enduring illness, but discovering how imagination, companionship, and humour can transform hardship into shared adventure. Ten Thousand Kilometres is a road trip through uncertainty, resilience, and love, where the destination matters less than how you travel together.

Now includes an epilogue that reveals what comes after the journey ends.

Taking Turns Holding On (Monologue)

22 April 202623 March 2026 by Rich

Taking Turns Holding On is a deeply personal and often humorous monologue about a long marriage shaped by illness, loss, and resilience. Moving through decades of shared experience, from the heartbreak of stillbirth to cancer, chronic illness, and recovery. It explores how caregiving is never a fixed role, but a lifelong exchange. In the face of … Read more

Four Actors. Four Leads. One Afterlife Diner

25 March 202612 March 2026 by Rich

My graduate project, After, was originally written as a 90-minute audio drama. While I loved the story, I discovered that marketing a long audio drama was challenging. So I began experimenting with 10-minute stage plays. That turned out to be a valuable lesson. Short plays are actually harder to write. There’s no room for fluff, … Read more

My Grey Commencement – How my Education Came Full Circle

25 March 202611 March 2026 by Rich

On Nov 2, 2023, I went to my commencement at Humber College to receive a Playwright Graduate Certificate. Humber graduated about 2,600 students and celebrated with five ceremonies, so it was me and about 500 other students. I walked into the hall, and the ticket collector directed me toward the audience area. I pointed out that I was one of the graduating students. Her eyes widened and she said, “Oh, OK.” She instructed me to go to the end of the long entry hallway and pick up my gown. Each step was met with a look of surprise by the youthful grads. As we queued in the hall by discipline, I looked around and realized I was the only grey-haired student in the room. While my fellow graduating students were in their 20’s and 30’s, I was 72. They were all fresh faced and excited. I kept looking for a chair so I could sit down, as my hips hurt.

Wedding Toast (Monologue)

25 March 202610 March 2026 by Rich

I don’t think you realize that my family is from the hills of the south. Why even my mama is here from Tennessee. Ben, to welcome you to the family, I would like to offer an old family toast. May your banjo play bright and crisp May your coffee be dark and rich May your … Read more

Standard Play Script Formats

25 March 20269 March 2026 by Rich

In 2023, I took a graduate program on play writing. For the course my mentor wanted the script done in Microsoft Word. I have Final Draft 12 and like it, but MS Word had several advantages for me. First, both my mentor and my wife are fluent Word users. I also have Word of my iPad and iPhone. For full length plays Final Draft is wonderful. It offers many capabilities far beyond MS Word. Most professional movie screen plays are written in Final Draft. For a full length play it makes sense. Short plays on the other hand do not need the advanced features. As most of my writing is short plays now, I mostly use MS Word.

The Diner Cycle

6 April 20267 March 2026 by Rich

SYNOPSIS: The Diner Cycle is a series of 3 short plays set in a mysterious diner that exists somewhere between life and whatever comes next. One by one, strangers arrive—confused, searching, or unaware that their lives have just ended. Guided by those who came before them, each must confront unfinished questions, unexpected truths, and the possibility that helping someone else move forward may be the only way to move forward themselves.

The diner never closes. The coffee is always hot. And the conversation continues.

The Diner Cycle brings together three short plays:

Dear Angie
Open All Night
After: Death Is Just the Beginning

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Dear Angie: Open All Night

25 March 202627 February 2026 by Rich

A second act to Dear Angie, set twenty years later — with the diner open again.
SYNOPSIS: Dear Angie: Open All Night is a heartfelt two-act, 20-minute, play set in a small diner where food and compassion are served without menus. Angie, a warm-hearted diner owner with an uncanny ability to sense what people truly need, helps her patrons navigate love, loss, and life’s everyday struggles — until a mysterious visitor reveals her gift has a deeper purpose. Twenty years later, the diner exists in a place between life and death, where souls arrive seeking comfort, understanding, and closure. When a former customer returns under unexpected circumstances, Angie helps him confront grief and forgiveness.

Summer of 69 Job (Monologue)

25 March 202625 February 2026 by Rich

Synopsis: Fresh from his first year of university and confident from prior camp experience, a young Rich Helms takes a summer job as a counsellor at a boys’ camp for inner-city kids near the soon-to-be legendary Woodstock festival. Expecting a routine summer in the woods, he instead encounters culture shock, rough language, unexpected humour, and eye-opening social realities that challenge his assumptions about the world.

Through comic mishaps, awkward first impressions, and unforgettable camp moments — from Ex-lax-laced hot chocolate to watching the moon landing together — the experience becomes both hilarious and formative. By summer’s end, Rich returns home changed, carrying with him new perspective, colourful vocabulary, and a lasting appreciation for how profoundly a single summer job can reshape how you see people and yourself.

Defining Moments (Monologue)

9 March 202625 February 2026 by Rich

Synopsis: In this autobiographical monologue, playwright Rich Helms reflects on the formative experiences that shaped his lifelong curiosity, ambition, and unconventional path. From an intellectually restless childhood obsessed with knowledge, through academic challenges and early breakthroughs in mathematics and computing, he charts the small but pivotal moments that quietly redirected his future.

Blending humour, insight, and personal history, Defining Moments explores how seemingly ordinary events — a librarian’s rule, a classroom challenge, a bold academic gamble, even a job interview — accumulate to define identity. The piece becomes a thoughtful meditation on curiosity, persistence, and the unpredictable moments that steer a life’s trajectory.