Our MTH Family
Will Osborne
An internationally produced and published playwright and book author and respected director, teacher and actor, Will Osborne enjoys a career in professional theater that spans four decades. His play Smoke & Mirrors, a comic murder mystery co- authored with Anthony Herrera, has been produced in theaters throughout the United States, as well as in South Africa and Korea. In 2007, collaborating with Randy Courts, he provided book and lyrics for Magic Tree House: The Musical, a full-scale, Broadway-style family musical based on the bestselling series, which traveled to 54 cities around the country.
Will's writing for musical theater also includes Saddle Jazz, a Western Swing musical (music and lyrics by Nick Plakias); The Wonderful O, an adaptation of the James Thurber novella (also with Randy Courts), produced at the West Bank Café in New York and the Leonard Bernstein Institute in Nashville; and, collaborating with Randy Courts, Jenny Laird, Murray Horwitz, and Allen Toussaint, a collection of musical adaptations of Magic Tree House adventures that have been performed nationwide.
Will Osborne has authored more than a dozen books for children and young adults, many co-written with his wife, Mary Pope Osborne, including the Magic Tree House Fact Tracker series, two retellings of Greek mythology, A Time to Dance for the My America series, and a picture book, Sleeping Bobby, with award- winning illustrator Giselle Potter. He has also created several highly acclaimed multi-media shows for the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill, N.C., two of which featured William Shatner and the late Walter Cronkite.
Will is a member of the Dramatists Guild, a founder of The Writers Group in New York, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – and lead vocalist and guitarist for the blues/R&B group WillPower.
Natalie Pope Boyce
Natalie Pope Boyce is co-author of the best-selling nonfiction Magic Tree House Fact Trackers and has written over thirty Fact Trackers. Like her sister, Mary Pope Osborne, Natalie grew up on Army posts all over the world. She has also worked as a children's librarian and as a teacher of English as a Second Language.
She is a seasoned traveler who lived in Ireland and Germany for several years before moving to Mexico, where she lived for ten years. Natalie now lives in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in a 175-year-old house, where she spends her time reading, writing, gardening, listening to music, and visiting with her sister, Mary.
Jenny Laird
JENNY LAIRD was a long-time Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists where her play Ballad Hunter was first produced and received a Joseph Jefferson Nomination for Outstanding New Work as well as the Cunningham Prize for Playwriting. Her play Sky Girls premiered at Northlight Theatre and subsequently had its West Coast premiere at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. Sky Girls was the recipient of the Selma Melvoin New Play Award, as well as grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her play Only The Sound also premiered at Chicago Dramatists and won the 2003 Joseph Jefferson Award for Outstanding New Work and garnered an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, as well as Mill Mountain Theatre’s New Play Award.
Jenny is grateful to have had the opportunity to work with so many other wonderful theatres dedicated to developing and producing new plays; some of her favorites include: WP Theatre, The Road Theatre, The Asylum, API, Stage 3, Rivendell Theatre, Horizon Theatre Company, The New Harmony Project and The Utah Shakespeare Festival.
Since 2006, Jenny has had the privilege and joy of collaborating with Will Osborne and Randy Courts on a collection of theatre adaptations of Mary Pope Osborne’s bestselling book series: The Magic Tree House. Most recently, she has been busy adapting a selection of Magic Tree House books into graphic novels, all published by Random House Children’s Books.
Randy Courts
RANDY COURTS is a composer, lyricist, pianist and music producer. He began writing musicals at the age of 23, received his first commission from the legendary producer Joseph Papp to write the musical Cowboy for the Public Theater and, to date, has written music and lyrics for over thirty pieces of theater which have been produced all over the world. These include, in collaboration with playwright/lyricist Mark St. Germain, The Gifts Of The Magi, Johnny Pye And The Foolkiller, and Joseph And Mary, all for the Lambs Theater Company; and Jack’s Holiday, for Playwrights Horizons.
Since 2006 Randy has been collaborating with writers Mary Pope Osborne, Will Osborne and Jenny Laird in adapting selections from Ms. Osborne’s bestselling Magic Tree House series for the musical stage. The team has created nearly a dozen musical shows, which have been performed and toured throughout the US and internationally.
Randy is a recipient of the AT&T New Plays award, the ASCAP Popular Panel award and an Outer Critics Circle award nomination for best musical. His work has been published by Music Theatre International, Samuel French/Concord, Dramatists Play Service, Fireside Theater, Dramatic Publishing Company, and Augsburg/Fortress Press.
Cindy Mill
CINDY MILL is the Director of Mary Pope Osborne's Classroom Adventures Program and Magic Tree House Worldwide. Cindy has an extensive background in production management, having produced and coordinated worldwide multi-media events, executive meetings, new product launches, and videos for clients including Snapple, LEGO, American Express, National Geographic, and international meetings for IBM Software Sales. In addition to corporate events, her production credits include documentaries with Maysles Films, an NBC Primetime Special for Disney/Triage Films, TV commercials, and music videos.
Cindy manages Mary's Classroom Adventures Program (CAP) which she and Jack Desroches of Milestone Productions created with Mary and her husband Will and launched in 2012. For CAP, Cindy directs the development of resources for educators, oversees grant awards to individual Title 1 school teachers, and coordinates extensive book giveaways across the country. Cindy also manages Magic Tree House On Stage and enjoys connecting the two ventures by organizing book giveaways in conjunction with many of the Magic Tree House TYA shows. Cindy is grateful to work closely with Mary and Will on a wide array of special projects for Magic Tree House.
Paula Cirillo
PAULA CIRILLO is an Educational Contributor and Consultant to Mary's Classroom Adventures Program. She was a teacher for many years beginning in Rhode Island where she taught early elementary students and later, secondary school special education students. Paula was the managing director for a high school troupe she created called “Friends and Company.” There, her students integrated into mainstream education through an arts program of dance, music, and drama.
Paula began her adventure with Mary Pope Osborne while teaching second grade in California by winning the Random House Magic Tree House Educator of the Year Award in 2009. “The love of these books created a magical enthusiasm with my students,” she said. “They were reading all the books they could get their hands on.” By comparing and contrasting the content of the books and building a tree house, the students became “specialists” in the content of their chosen book. These interactions gave them confidence and a thirst for reading and exploring connections to the world.
Paula continues to create new lessons for the program to help other teachers share the excitement of reading Magic Tree House books with their students.
ABOUT MAGIC TREE HOUSE®
Widely regarded among parents, teachers, and librarians for its power to instill a passion for reading, Mary Pope Osborne's award-winning Magic Tree House series is an international phenomenon that has sold more than 143 million books worldwide since its debut in 1992, and has been translated into 39 different languages in over 30 international markets.
Magic Tree House Fact Trackers is a bestselling series of nonfiction books that expand on the Magic Tree House fiction books. The nonfiction books are co-written by Mary and her husband, Will Osborne, and Mary and her sister, Natalie Pope Boyce.
Magic Tree House fiction titles are all available as eBooks and Listening Library audiobooks narrated by Mary Pope Osborne.
The first Magic Tree House Graphic Novel, Dinosaurs Before Dark, was released in 2021. Adapted by award winning playright, Jenny Laird, and illustrated by comic artists and sisters, Kelly and Nichole Matthews, many more Magic Tree House books will be transformed into Graphic Novels in the coming years. Mary is very excited for this new format to inspire children to fall in love with reading!
Visit MagicTreeHouse.com and the Magic Tree House Facebook page for more information about the series, activities, and more.
FIRST BOOK is a nonprofit organization that provides new books to programs and schools serving children in need. First Book has distributed more than 225 million books and other resources to underserved children and schools. Through the First Book Marketplace, books and resources are made affordable to their member network of over 550,000 educators who serve kids in need.
RANDOM HOUSE CHILDREN’S BOOKS (RHCB) is the world’s largest English-language children’s trade book publisher. Creating books for toddlers through young adult readers, in all formats from board books to activity books to picture books, novels, and nonfiction, the imprints of Random House Children’s Books bring together award-winning authors and illustrators, world-famous franchise characters, and multimillion-copy series. RHCB is a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
