ANDREW BISS

Yes, today is March 27th, the occasion of World Theatre Day. Apparently, this annual day of celebration for all things theatre is quite popular and revered in some parts of the world, but not, it would seem, well...in these parts. Let's be honest here, anyone outside of the theatre business is unlikely to have a clue that this event actually exists, and even if they did, probably wouldn't give a flying toss about it anyway. But exist it does, and I've been racking my brain to come up with an appropriate way of marking the event myself. I haven't been very successful. The problem is, I'm not entirely sure what it is that I'm supposed to be celebrating. Is it myself, in as much as I'm a part of "world theatre"? If so, it feels slightly awkward, rather like singing "Happy Birthday" to yourself. Or is it the general concept of theatre itself that we're supposed to honor? And if that's the case, how does one honor a concept? Conceptual...

I recently received word that my play "Cafe Grotesquerie" had been selected for an annual one-act festival in New York entitled "Vignettes for the Apocalypse" produced by a very interesting company called EndTimes Productions. I thought I'd have a lot of difficulty finding a home for this particular play, oddity that it is, but I must say it would seem to be right at home in this festival. It's billed as focusing on pieces with horror, sci-fi, political, or dystopian themes, and my play most definitely belongs in the latter category. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what they do with it, and more than happy that this strange little play wasn't as hard to place as I'd imagined. Like they say, everybody's somebody's baby.