Year of Release: 2002
Directed by: Michael Tulloss
Writing Credits: Logan Lee
                            Ryan DiGiorgi
Genre: Comedy
Tagline: A new play by Logan Lee and Ryan DiGiorgi
Description: Two average (or perhaps below average) guys can't pay the rent, so they concoct an elaborate scheme to cheat a kind young woman out of her money.  But when they find out that her father is a prominent mob boss, the plan changes.  Now they've got to figure out how to get their money and get out with their lives!
Background: Cost of Living is Lazy Bear Productions ' first play, making it an important part of the Lazy Bear catalog.  Each year, the Mockingbird Theater in Nashville asks local playwrights to submit new plays for their consideration.  Logan saw an ad for this event in the paper and suggested to Ryan that they enter.  Logan came up with the plot and first act.  Then after a brainstorming session between the boys, Ryan penned the second, and Logan finished up with the third.  At the last possible second (do to Ryan's ever present procrastination), they mailed it off, but unfortunately it was not picked up.  They always go for southern-themed dramas, it seems.  However, about a year and a half later, Logan discovered that the Chattanooga Theatre Centre was looking for scripts for their Festival of New Plays.  Three scripts would be chosen for staged readings, while a forth would be given a full production.  Logan and Ryan tweaked the script a bit to excise a smoking scene (the CTC frowns on open flame), but other than that, they submitted the same version the Mockingbird Theater was given.  On May 23, 2002, Ryan and Logan received an email from Chattanooga Theatre Centre producer Jeffrey Brown congratulating the boys on achieving runner-up status.  Cost of Living hit the big time with staged readings at the Theatre Centre on July 26 at 8:00pm, July 27 at 8:00pm, and August 3rd at 4:00pm.  Logan and Ryan proudly attended the August 3rd performance, after which their egos were inflated at an awards ceremony where Jeffrey Brown announced that while there was no real order among the plays (except for the winner), Cost of Living was the informal first runner-up.

Runtime: 120 minutes

Cast

Jack Harkleroad	....	Steve
Joe Smith	....	Ralph
Randy Forester	....	Big Tony
Nicole Bergeron	....	Linda
Richard Bonnington	....	Narrator, Johnny
Andy Gross	....	Mitchum, Bruno, Mayor Thomas M. Paige
Marty Malone	....	Kline, Vince, Spanish Monk
Katrina Petrigac	....	Stella
Sherry Bonnington	....	Loren, Banquet M.C.

Produced by:  Jeffery Brown

Trivia

• Logan wrote the first act (under the working title "The Con Men") on 16 sheets of notebook paper mostly during study hall his senior year in high school. Click here to see the very first page EVER!
• On July 18th, 2002, about a week before the staged readings, Logan and Ryan received an email from producer Jeffery Brown asking for permission to move the intermission. They had no problem with this and appreciated being asked first. This was one of only three notable changes made to the play by the Chattanooga Theatre Centre. The other two were the addition of a narrator type character to read the stage directions (since they would not be performed by the actors), and changing the character Loren from a male to a female. The gender switch may have been a creative decision, a necessity due to lack of actors, or perhaps just a mistake.
• The Taluccas live on Elm Street.
• Ralph's line "If I were Superman I would fly you away" is a line from the Kinks song "(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman". The Kinks are Logan's favorite band.
• Ryan was careful not to give details of the play’s antagonist Big Tony to his Italian grandparents, especially his grandfather who resents any portrayal of Italians as Mafioso goons.
• Ryan named the characters Bruno, Big Tony, Vince, and Loren after his father and three uncles. All proud Italians. The real Loren is an outstanding pianist, like his character.
• Steve's line during his impersonation of the Spanish maid translates to "No steak in my house!" The original Spanish line Logan wrote translated as "Mrs. Phillips is having my baby", a rumor Logan started about his High School Spanish teacher. Ironically enough, she actually DID become pregnant soon after Logan started the rumor. Logan still denies any involvement. Mrs. Phillips is also mentioned in the "Thank Yous" in the credits of Dr. Logan's Day Out.
• Logan knew that the line "Holy Mother of Chevy Chase." would NEVER play well, but refused to cut it. Needless to say, only Logan laughed when it was performed.
• Logan named the mayor after his and Ryan's good friend Tommy Paige, who diehard fans will remember as “Nipple Guy” from Logan and Ryan’s Wacky Comedy Hour. Tommy was also in the study hall in which Logan wrote most of the first act. Early in the play, Johnny mentions another mobster, Big Gary. Logan named this character after Gary Wade, another friend from his study hall.
• Steve's line "Oh! Woe is me! My life is a misery!" is a quote from "The Sword of Damocles" from Logan's favorite play "The Rocky Horror Show".
• After the Chattanooga Theatre Centre production, the cast told the audience that they enjoyed the description of the Spanish monk in the cast of characters list. Ryan and Logan had simply written “the…uh…Spanish monk…”
• Logan and Ryan wondered if the cast would have any difficulty figuring out how to read the dialogue which had been written basically as Logan and Ryan would say it. They all met and exceeded the boys’ expectations, but, after the show, confessed that they never understood the following exchange:

Tony: What? Yeah, Mayor Paige and me go back a long time.
Ralph: Really?
Tony: Yup, back to ‘Nam.
Ralph: You were in Vietnam?
Tony: No, ‘Nam!
Ralph: Ah.

The boys assured them there was nothing to get. The only other section they had trouble with was remembering just how "The Song That Never Ends" goes.
• No matter how many times Logan and Ryan reread the script they invariably found new errors in grammar or spelling. These were inconsequential, though, to their biggest mistake: After the script had been proofread several times, they realized that during a scene where everyone toasts “To Ralph!”, only one of the characters should have actually known his real name.