Stephen Hotchner received his bachelor's degree from Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass., his master's degree from Stanford University, Stanford, Calif., and his Ph.D. from the University of Denver. He taught college for 25 years in English and theater departments and has been teaching at Cocopah Middle School, Scottsdale, Ariz., since 1994. Hotchner's plays for children are published and produced all over the country. His original storytelling participation play, The Dinosaur Play, was produced at the Arvada Center for the Arts, Arvada, Colo., for several hundred performances in 2006. He has directed and produced 12 plays for children. Hotchner is the author of Dracula, a full-length play version of the Dracula legend, and Love Is a Hot Fudge Sundae, a play about teenage suicide. He has two grown daughters, a stepdaughter graduating from Occidental College in Los Angeles, two Cavalier King Charles spaniels (one with a crooked mouth and a gorgeous tail and the other with a crooked walk who dances for her supper), one surviving cat (the other three along with his two beloved terriers passed on in one year) and a life partner who somehow puts up with his eccentric mind and habits. She deserves a biography of her own.
