ANDREW BISS

I’m very happy to report that London ’s Bigger Fish Theatre will be producing ‘The Craft’ as part of its SHORTSTUFF2 production at the White BearTheatre on 26 June, 2017. This will mark the 15 th production of the play to date and this production in particular promises to be an excellent one.  That said, I should point out that neither Jude Law nor Charles Boyer will be in the cast lineup, or any inhabitants of London Zoo for that matter.  Bigger Fish Theatre was formed in 2017 by Charlie Burt, Michal Horowicz and Alasdair Melrose with the aim to produce original drama and music theatre. All three met at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and are clearly blessed with frighteningly high levels of taste and discernment having chosen to produce The Craft⸮ I only wish I could be there in person to see it, but instead I’ll just wish the cast and crew and everyone involved in the production to break a leg! Details on purchasing tickets will be availabl...

My short play ‘Carbon-Based Life Form Seeks Similar’ will be produced this coming weekend as part of the Tortilla Entertainment Company’s new short play festival Tortilla Twister 2017. The event runs May 19, 20, and 21, and takes place at the Alliance Francaise, Bangalore . Full details are available here . The five-minute version of the play is now available in the anthologies 105 Five-Minute Plays for Study and Performance from Smith & Kraus Publishers and 5-Minute Plays (Applause Acting) from Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. This marks the first time I’ll have had a play produced on the continent of Asia and I’m very grateful to Anita Mithra at Tortilla Entertainment Company for making this possible.

If the title of this post brings to mind images of intimate, candlelit gatherings of Dublin ’s polite society making small talk while sipping on Negronis and Pink Ladies, allow me to clarify. ‘Cocktail Conversation’ is a one-act play I wrote some years ago now – in 2002 to be precise – but which is sadly just as relevant today as it was back then. It was written in response to a dispiriting news article I’d read which attributed a new rise in HIV infections among young people to advances in antiretroviral drug therapy (commonly referred to as “drug cocktails”). The perception had begun to form among the younger demographic of the gay community that HIV infection wasn’t really such a big deal anymore since these drug cocktails essentially allowed you to live forever  – or at least to a close approximation of a normal lifespan. The play is written as a comedy, but is subtly underpinned by a sobering reality in the lives of its two protagonists. It’s centered around two young...

‘What’s the Meta?’ is to be produced at SUNY Jefferson in Watertown, NY, as part of an evening of 8 ten-minute plays taking place on April 7, 2017. Interestingly, while ‘What’s the Meta?’ may not be my most produced play – ‘The Craft’ recently earned that distinction after finally beating out ‘Indigenous Peoples’ – it is almost certainly my most read play. First published in the Smith & Kraus anthology ‘ The Best Ten-Minute Plays for 2 or More Actors, 2009 ,’ it was subsequently picked up for a second publishing deal by the noted literary scholar Michael Meyers for the Bedford/St. Martin’s tome ‘ The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing (10th Edition) .’ That weighty, best-selling textbook is still studied at colleges and universities all across the country, arguably giving that little play the largest audience of any of my works to date. And there’s nothing the matter with that!

‘The Craft’ has been selected for production by the Parish Players of Thetford Hill, Vermont, for their 11th Annual Ten-Minute Play Festival this February. Based at the Eclipse Grange Theatre , the Parish Players have been bringing the classics, musical comedy, contemporary drama, and original works to their community for over 50 years. Produced by Leah Romano & Duncan Nichols, this year’s festival will take place at the following dates and times: Thursday, February 9, 16 at 7:30pm | Friday - Saturday, February 10-11, 17-18 at 7:30pm | Sunday Matinées February 12, 19 at 3:00pm The Parish Players is an incorporated not-for-profit organization staffed and run entirely by group of admirable volunteers.

Monologues from ‘The Craft’ to be Published in New Anthology Two monologues from ‘The Craft’ are to be included in a new anthology from theatrical trade publisher Smith & Kraus, Inc. , entitled ‘222 More Comedy Monologues, 2 Minutes And Under,’ edited by John Capecci and Irene Ziegler. Publication expected early 2017. It’s been an astonishing 12 years since I had monologues from ‘Cuthbert's Last Stand’ and ‘Kitchen Sink Drama’ published in this forthcoming book’s predecessor, ‘ 222 Comedy Monologues 2 Minutes and Under, Volume 4 ,’ so I find it somewhat remarkable that after all these years we’re both still going strong. One of the things I like most about these collections is that they’re specifically focused on comedy monologues. Comedic writing is all too often made to take a backseat to its dramatic counterpart, and that’s both unfair and unfounded. It’s as if, in the process of making someone laugh, a work of comedy becomes viewed as something frivolous and triflin...

‘The Craft’ will be making its Philadelphia premiere next month when the University of Pennsylvania’s Theatre Arts Council will be producing the play as part of its annual One Acts Festival. A total of four plays will be staged during the event, which takes place on February 3rd and 4th, 2017. More details will be available on the Theatre Arts Council’s website in the coming days. While ‘The Craft’ has been produced in several different countries and many states across the U.S., this latest production will mark the play’s official hometown debut.