ANDREW BISS

It’s been a long time coming, but Cuthbert’s Last Stand is finally available for purchase at Amazon’s Kindle Store. This is the original one-act play version, although I intend to release a short story version of the script in the coming weeks. Cuthbert’s Last Stand was one of my early successes as a playwright, and the play has remained popular to this day, largely due to several monologues from the play having been published in various monologue anthologies, such as 60 Seconds to Shine, Volume 1 , More Scenes and Monologs from the Best New Plays , and The Ultimate Audition Book, Volume 4 . With a running time of around 30 minutes, the length of the play was fairly standard for a one-act at the time that I wrote it. Since then, however, the meteoric rise in popularity of the 10 minute play has made it seem almost tome-like and quaintly anachronistic. But I suppose that’s quite fitting for a play I often describe as a contemporary comedy of manners. I’m currently preparing fo...

“The Craft” continues on its path to global domination with an upcoming production in Canada ( Dartmouth, Nova Scotia to be precise). The play is to be produced as part of a variety show opening the new season of Dartmouth Players . I hope all involved have a great time with the show and are able to get the theatre’s season off to a rollicking good start. I’ll have more news regarding “The Craft” coming soon. Stay tuned…

Yes, it's true, you can now view the Woy Woy Little Theatre's production of The Craft thanks to the deft filmmaking talents of Gavin Critchley, the show's stage director at the Woy Woy production and subsequent TheatreFest production. Not only do you get to experience Gavin's brilliantly put together film of the play, you also see what a truly excellent job he did at directing the play for the stage. As if that weren't enough, you also get to enjoy the amazing talents of Gerard Dunning and Helen Herridge as they navigate what is actually a very challenging piece of theatre to pull off. But pull it off they do, and in high style. I was so impressed by their performances and I can't thank them and Gavin enough for doing such a first-rate job with my play. I hope you enjoy watching the results of their hard work and incredible talent as much as I did. The production was filmed at the Peninsula Theatre, Woy Woy, NSW, Australia in May of this year.

I'm very pleased to report that my short play "Filler" will be published by theatrical trade publisher Smith & Kraus, Inc. , the largest publisher of trade theater books in the United States. The play will be included in the upcoming anthology The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2014, edited by Lawrence Harbison. Photo courtesy of Olybrius "Filler" begins as a fairly standard mystery thriller, then soon meta-morphs into an exposé of both the play and the playwright, before finally turning into a rumination on the meaning and fleeting nature of life itself. All that in around 10-minutes! "Filler" is, of course, taken from "The Meta Plays," my short play collection that takes theatrical conventions on a metaphysical joyride. The compilation can be performed by as few as 4 actors or as many as 18, all with minimal set and prop requirements.

"The Craft" hit the boards once again this past weekend at the Central Coast TheatreFest in NSW, Australia and was awarded best actress and best director honors in the process. My hat is off the incredibly talented team of Gerard Dunning, Helen Herridge and Gavin Crichley. The three of them once again brought my little play to life and were rewarded with another tremendous audience response to their hard work, talent and dedication. You did my play proud, guys, and I send you all my heartfelt thanks. I hope we get to repeat the pleasure at some future juncture. Hooroo for now!

Yes, "The Craft" continues its extraordinary Australian odyssey this weekend where it will be performed as a part of the 10th annual  Central Coast TheatreFest in Toukley, NSW. The play will be performed by the same team (actors Helen Herridge and Gerard Dunning, and director Gavin Crichley) that did such a terrific job with it at the Woy Woy Little Theatre earlier this year. Getting "The Craft" into TheatreFest proved to be not without its challenges, but the persistence, dedication and inventiveness shown by Gavin, Helen and Gerard in getting it on the bill without sacrificing the integrity of the play speaks volumes. Their determination to perform the play once more, despite some hurdles, shows me just how much they enjoyed working on the play, and which I must say I find quite humbling. Anyway, I hope they all break a leg this weekend, and more than anything I hope they have a rollicking good time. Also, I have to say I love the terrific graphic they...

I'm very pleased to announce that my short play "Filler"  has been selected for City Theatre of Independence's 5th annual Original Playwrights Festival , taking place July 11th - 14th at the Powerhouse Theatre in Independence, MO. The play is taken from my collection "The Meta Plays," a series of eight short plays that take a few metaphysical liberties with theatrical conventions. "Filler" at first appears to be a tale of undercover intrigue as two characters anxiously await the arrival of a third party. Soon, however, it becomes apparent to one of them that the third party is never going to turn up...not because of any slip up in their plan, but because the playwright never intended it to happen. They soon realize that their scene has very little to do with the rest of the play and that they essentially only exist as filler to pad out the overall length of the larger work, sending one of them into an existential crisis. In "The Met...

Tonight is (or I should say was in Australia at this point) the opening night for my short play "The Craft" at the Woy Woy Little Theatre on Australia's Central Coast, as part of their season of one act plays. I just want wish everyone involved in all three of the plays every success for the length of the run and I hope "The Craft" gets plenty of laughs. I also wanted to share this terrific graphic they've made for the show. Break a leg, all! I also heard word from the director of the recent New York reading of the play with Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company that it was a big hit with the audience, who "laughed their ***** off", according to reports. What more could I ask for?

Image courtesy of Apple's Eyes Studio / FreeDigitalPhotos.net I'm very pleased to have my short play "The Craft" receive an upcoming staged reading in New York by the Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company as part of their Spring New Play Reading series. The reading will take place on Monday, April 22nd at the West Chelsea Arts Building, 508 W. 26th St, 12th floor. This play is rapidly turning into one of my most popular one-acts, and I have a pretty good understanding of why that might be. Aside from the fact that it includes some fairly wicked humor/humour (and I say that in all modesty), I wrote it specifically as something that I thought actors would enjoy performing. As a former actor myself, I had plenty of insight into backstage/off stage/on stage drama, and of the many trials and tribulations that actors must often endure. Yes, there's plenty of sweat equity among those lines. Above all, though, it's a strange sort of paean to theatre itself, s...

You may remember a few months ago that I was happy to announce a new publication opportunity for my short play "What's the Meta?" in the upcoming tenth edition of the Bedford/St.Martin’s textbook The Bedford Introduction to Literature (which should be released any day now). I can now report that the play will also be featured in two additional publications by Bedford/St.Martin’s: Literature to Go, 2/e (softcover and electronic formats), and The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature , 10/e (softcover). The first book is scheduled to be released this summer, and the second at the beginning of 2014. The play was first published by Smith & Kraus in the anthology 2 009: The Best 10-Minute Plays for 2 or More Actors (Contemporary Playwrights Series). I'm so pleased to see this play take on a life of its own. I wrote it as a little homage or love letter to art of making theatre, so it's very gratifying to see it receive such a warm reception fr...

Well, here we are, almost two weeks into the New Year, and I'm finally making my first blog entry of 2013. And I'm happy to report that the year's started with some very positive news. Firstly, the alarmingly talented narrator Wayne Farrell and I recently received a terrific review of the audiobook edition of my BrokenWorld short story collection. It was so good to see Wayne getting the kudos he deserves for his work, as he really is that good. And, of course, it was lovely to see that someone enjoyed and "got" those stories as much as the reviewer seemed to. All in all a very gratifying response to our efforts, and I'm very grateful to the Narrator Reviews blog site.  I was also thrilled to find the cover for The End of theWorld has been nominated on a Pinterest page for Awesome Self-published Book Covers . The page was set up as an antidote to a very mean-spirited blog site that was ridiculing what it considered to be the worst self-publi...