ANDREW BISS

‘The Craft’ was announced the ‘Best of the Decade’ winner on September 6th, 2018 at the Minnesota Shorts Play Festival in Mankato, Minnesota, which restaged their best reviewed shows from the last nine years of producing the festival. The play also garnered best actress and best actor awards for its talented cast of Callie Sonnek and Zach Bolland. Hearty congratulations to all! Director Chad Brancamp, with Callie Sonnek and Zach Bolland.

I’m pleased to report that my play “A Rebel Among the Wretched” has been selected for publication in the forthcoming anthology “The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2016,” published by Smith & Kraus, Inc., edited by Lawrence Harbison. The play itself was a Heideman Award finalist and is one of my personal favorites, so I’m hoping this additional exposure will lead to many more productions in the coming years. This will be the 7th edition of Smith & Kraus’ “The Best Ten-Minute Plays” anthologies I’ll have had a play of mine included in, with 5 already in print, and the 6th (“The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2015”) - which includes “The Craft” - due to be released next month.

I’m very pleased to announce that “The Craft” has been selected by Lexington, Kentucky’s Studio Players for inclusion in its 2014 10-Minute Play Festival. Established in 1953, Studio Players are Kentucky’s oldest community-involved theatre, and I’m proud to have my play be a small part of their long history. The festival takes place from the 7th to the 10th of August, so if you’re in the area at that time do try to go along and see it. More details should be available on the company’s website closer to the opening.

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.