ANDREW BISS

The Royal Court Theatre is currently running a project called GRIT , which is a collection of short/small works that are about acts of everyday resistance, revolution and defiance. The pieces can be created in any medium - words, videos, images or audio – and those selected will be put up around the theatre, as well as online at their Tumblr site created for the project. Today I was pleased to see that the extract from my extended monologue play “A Small Act of Vandalism” has been chosen for the project and can now be seen online along with all of the other pieces selected thus far. I would encourage anyone to head over to the site to take a look around as there are many truly excellent submissions – text and images – on display.

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.

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?

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...