Playwright and actress Arla Ralston has written and produced three fictional plays based on the stories in On the Outside:

Mark’s Story: A half-hour, one-act play about a young man named Mark, a composite character based on several men featured in the book. Mark learns about living "on the outside" after spending his entire childhood in an institution. The play is geared to junior and high school students, and is available on videotape with a study guide.

Darlene’s Story: A half-hour, one-women play based on the life of Ilene Messick. As a young mother, she was institutionalized for seizures and spent the next thirty years of her life there. This live performance by Arla Ralston includes slides and excerpts from the book, and is followed by a discussion with Howard Cobb, one of the people featured in the book.

On the Outside: This full-length play features a cast of twelve. It was performed at several locations in West Virginia in 1998. The script is available for use by community theatre groups.

"I wanted to make sure that I did the stories justice," said playwright Arla Ralston. "I didn’t want to romanticize, simplify or duck the really hard issues that have been a part of the deinstitutionalization process. I didn’t want to take people’s complex lives, full of ongoing struggles, and turn them into a ‘they lived happily ever after’ story."

"When I heard about the play, I was apprehensive," recalled Ken Ervin, who spent four years of his childhood in an institution. "I worried that it was going to end on this "up" note, that we’re institution-free and everything is good. I felt that the play was very powerful. It showed you the myriad of different perspectives all the people had and the variety of different lives they had. I liked that the Mark character was angry and that he was allowed to stay angry, and that he was channeling that anger to do positive things."

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