June, 2013

Home of the Great Pecan West Coast Premiere.

My play Home of the Great Pecan will be performed in the Blak Box of the Hi-Desert Cultural Center in Joshua Tree, California from June 28 - July 13th. Click the banner link below for details and/or tickets.

February, 2012

New Webseries. We've begun production on my next BIG project -- a webseries I wrote and created called Off Off. For more information and to watch episodes as they are released for FREE -- www.OffOffWebseries.com.

Off Off is about 4 guys in New York City in their 40s who run a small Off Off Broadway theater.

"When you're in your 20s, 'starving artist' is sexy. When you're in your 40s...well..."

This has been a recovery month after spending four days in the hospital following a massive pulmonary embolism! Nice to still be here. And I feel a resolve to pull off something big soon. Keep checking back...

October, 2011

My play, Home of the Great Pecan, just got published on Indie Theatre Now.

And 2 scenes and one monologue from the same play will be published next year by Smith and Kraus in The Best Women's Stage Monologues and Scenes 2012 and The Best Men's Stage Monologues and Scenes 2012.

Please check out the updated website for Home of the Great Pecan --

Am teaming up on a writing project with Karen Moline. Very excited but can't talk too much about it yet!

May, 2011

My new one-act, Jubilation, Mississippi, will be presented in May, 2011 at The Drilling Company. The whole evening is entitled Happiness. I'm acting in the evening too!

For the 4th year in a row I directed the PS 87 Haunted House entitled Zombie Labs based on an improv scenario I wrote.

This was to raise money for the school and was produced by The Drilling Company.

This is one of the nice parents we recruited this year to be a zombie.

September, 2010

Published. Looks like my one-act, Hole, will be published by Smith and Kraus next year.

July/August, 2010

I am in the midst of a workshop which is great fun. I'm turning my one-act, Hole, which was performed this May by The Drilling Company, into a full length play. I'm working with fellow friends (and artists), Dave Marantz, Heather Leonard, Dan Teachout and Steve Sherman, and we're meeting each week at the Drilling Company Theatre, and I promise 10 new pages per week. It's been a great way to work! As a writer, I love feeling connected to a community (as opposed to working at home alone for months), so this has been a great experience. On August 30th, 2010 at 7:30 PM we will have a semi-staged reading of the new play at the theatre. The date is set. I can't get out of it! I hope you'll join us at the Drilling Company Theatre at 236 West 78th Street, 3rd Floor.

June, 2010

A reading of my play in development, The Acquisition, will be presented at The Drilling Company with the following cast:

Erin Mallon as Julia Hightower, Elizabeth Norment as Isabelle / Mrs. Hightower / Sally / Lady Woolcock, John Golaszewski as James Hightower / Jean Legard / Charles Hightower / Captain Sinclair, Kendall Rileigh as Mary Dunning / Anna Worthington, Stephen BIttrich as William Ainsworth, and John Wiggins as Mr. Hightower / Colonel Blackburn.

This is probably the best play I ever wrote. I hope it gets produced some day. The costume budget is a challenge.

Screenplay Optioned. My new screenplay, Healer, based on my play of the same name was optioned by Past Present Productions. Past Present Productions is hoping to produce this feature length film in Spring of 2012. I'll keep you posted.

My new one-act, The Hole, will be presented in May at The Drilling Company. The whole evening is entitled Faith.

Once again I directed the PS 87 Haunted House entitled Zombie Labs based on an improv scenario I wrote.

This was to raise money for the school and was produced by The Drilling Company.

To see a great video of the make-up being applied to Tom Demenkoff click here. That's my ex-wife Paula doing the make-up.

My brand new full-length play, Healer, was presented as a semi-staged reading on January 6th, 2009 at 78th Street Theatre Lab by the Drilling Company. Healer was the first expansion of Drill Co.'s "Discovery Series" model (this expansion was originally suggested by me incidentally), which takes a play in its infancy (or various stages of development) and puts it through a series of weekly rehearsals with actors and a director, culminating in a reading of a new draft (or sometimes a first draft) of the play for an audience in a theatre. In the case of Healer the play started as 22 pages of new material in late November of '08 and after 5 consecutive weeks of meetings and a little holiday break for the playwright to finish the play, a solid draft of a brand new full-length was created! The workshop was directed by Rob A. Wilson. I must say, this was the most fun I ever had writing a play. Much less isolating to work with other creative people during the writing process. I'll always do it this way in future if I can. Below is the postcard that we made for the project, followed by a rehearsal photo:

An informal reading of scenes from 2 my new full length plays in progress (Healer and Lyra) will be held at the 78th Street Theatre Lab on Tuesday, November 18th. (236 West 78th Street). This event is hosted by The Drilling Company.

7 PM. (Event expected to last about 60-70 minutes. Join us for cheese, crackers, soda, wine afterwards.) The reading is free.

Love to hear your feedback as I continue to flesh these plays out.

Once again I directed the PS 87 Haunted House entitled Zombie Labs based on an improv scenario I wrote.

This was to raise money for the school and was produced by The Drilling Company.

My friend Lisa Peart was the cheerleader zombie this year.

Drilling Company hosted a reading of my play in development, Even. The reading was directed by Will Pomerantz and featured as actors Jane Guyer, Diana Ruppe, John Heath and yours truly. It was part of The Drilling Company's Discovery Series.

December, 2007

I'm published!

Not the first time and hopefully not the last, but I have a short play in a book that was released this month called 2006: The Best Ten-Minute Plays for 2 Actors. The book includes my short play, The Proposal (which also happens to be the opening scene of a new full-length play called, The Acquisition).

Copies of the book may be had at Barnes and Noble's website: 2006: The Best Ten-Minute Plays for 2 Actors.

That's a production photo from my play on the cover featuring actors, Stephanie Cozart and Josh Foldy. The director of that production was Carol Halstead. The photo is by Fred Marco.

My big "production" for October is a Haunted House on October 26th, which is part of a fund raiser for my daughter's school, PS 87.

September, 2007

My new play, Even, will be read in Hudson Warehouse's Fall Reading Series, Monday, September 10th at 7:30 PM at Where Eagles Dare at 347 West 36th Street, 1st Floor, NYC. Free. The reading will be directed by Dan Teachout and feature actors Ron Dreyer, Jane Guyer, Megan MacKenzie Lawrence, and yours truly. reservations call: (212) 877-0099.

August, 2007

I'm playing the Porter and a few other roles (a witch!) in Hudson Warehouse's outdoor production of MacBeth directed by Richard Harden (far right in picture below) -- Thursdays - Sundays in August (2007) at 6:30 PM at the Soldier's and Sailor's Monument in Riverside Park (89th Street and Riverside, NYC).

May, 2007

My new one-act, God's Signature, will be produced in The Drilling Company's May (2007) Justice show at 78th Street Theatre Lab. Go to The Drilling Company website for the exact dates and times. Runs May 9th - May 27th.

May, 2007

The Drilling Company will be presenting a semi-staged reading of my new full-length Regency Era play, The Acquisition, directed by Will Pomerantz at 78th Street Theatre Lab (2nd Floor) on Monday May 14th, 2007 at 8 PM as part of their "Discovery Series." 78th Street Theatre Lab is located at 236 West 78th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam.

The reading features actors Stephanie Cozart and Douglas Harmsen.

Best subway is the train to 79th Street Station. This is a free event, though we'll ask for a donation of $8 or anything one can give.

The "seed" of The Acquisition was a one-act called The Proposal, which was produced by The Drilling Company at 78th Street Theatre Lab in June, 2006. See a picture from The Proposal below:

Michael Criscuolo · June 16, 2006

"The most successful works here are the simplest. Brian Dykstra's Bells and Whistles and Stephen Bittrich's The Proposal couldn't be more different story-wise, but both have clear points of view. In the former, Dykstra skewers covert doubletalk as several government agencies try to one-up each other in breaking an enemy code; in the latter, a marriage proposal is extended to a Jane Austen-type heroine who must choose between pragmatic comfort and societal ruin. Both writers have a definite take on the evening's theme-Dykstra posits that national security is handled by ego-driven idiots, while Bittrich puts his protagonist's stability squarely in her own hands-and both plays are done well by their respective directors and casts.

Directors Laura Strausfeld and Carol Halstead do good work with Bells and Whistles and The Proposal, respectively. Halstead also turns in a humorous performance in the former play, while Stephanie Cozart and Josh Foldy shine in the latter piece. And, actors Don Carter, Hamilton Clancy, Bill Green, and David Marantz all give excellent performances in several of the plays."

The Proposal will be published in Spring, 2007 by Smith and Kraus.