Imagine my surprise when Google’s AI bot told me that my dad was Elvis. I’d been using Google’s lens app to ask about images from my father’s Korean War photos. When I showed it a picture of my dad in uniform, Google confidently reported that he was Elvis. Elvis!

My dad had a pretty storied past, serving in both WW2 and Korea, and earning numerous medals for valor. He even had a decent singing voice. But he was decidedly NOT Elvis.

This is precisely why at ReadAloudPlays.com we don’t rely on AI for anything. Not research, not images, not text, not our website design, nada.  We regard the authenticity and originality of our reader’s theater plays as sacred.

In addition to identifying my dad as Elvis, AI told me that a bombed out street in Saigon was downtown Tacoma, Washington. It also identified a man of some importance appearing in three different images as three different people (a chief surgeon of a MASH unit, a brigadier general, and a well-know 4-star general).

While AI may be useful when it comes to finding a good deal on a “smart” TV, it has a long way to go when it comes to more complex matters. (After all, it’s learning from us. How smart that is that?)

All the plays available through ReadAloudPlays.com and our storefront at TpT are 100% human-made. I’ve been a professional children’s theater playwright for almost 30 years. Like any half-way decent writer, I toil over my keyboard looking for just the right word, the right plot twist, and the right bit of spice. Most of my plays first appeared in Scholastic classroom magazines such as Storyworks, Scope, and Junior Scholastic, which means they were scrutinized by professional editors and readerships over half a million.

I’m sure somebody could ask AI to create a script for them, but I’m confident the product would lack originality, creativity, and purpose. It would be flavorless. It would have too much exposition. It might even feature an Elvis look-alike walking down a bombed-out street in Tacoma.

For the absolute best reader’s theater, stick with ReadAloudPlays.com. Our plays are modestly priced, created with kids and teachers in mind, and 100% human-made. This is great time to grab some of our holiday plays such as A Christmas Carol, The Gift of the Magi, and others. They’re all available on our storefront at TeachersPayTeachers.

And to honor my dad (and mom, who also served!), here’s a free download of my Veterans’ Day play script. It originally appeared in my Scholastic book, Symbols of America.

Happy directing!