Stephen Bittrich grew up in the small town of Seguin, Texas, but has lived in New York City from age 22 on (though he’s currently in Tennessee now caring for his mother).
His first play was a 35-minute Star Trek tribute in junior high school where he penned himself into the starring role of Captain Kirk.
After college, he moved to New York to be an actor, but soon put his English major skills to good use writing plays during the slow acting periods. He often wrote late at night during one of his survival jobs, graveyard shift security guard at The Equitable building in mid-town.
When his daughter was born he decided the life of the playwright would offer him more opportunities to be near her during the important years, so he cut way down on the acting focus and concentrated on the daddy and writing focus.
His short plays Brain Sucking (Dramatics Magazine, 1995), Duty Honor Country (The New York Theater Experience, 2005), The Proposal (Smith and Kraus, 2006), and Hole (Smith and Kraus, 2011) have been published, as well as monologues in Best Men’s Stage Monologues 2005, Best Men’s Stage Monologues 2012, and Best Women’s Stage Monologues 2012 (Smith and Kraus).
For over a decade he has worked primarily with The Drilling CompaNY on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. There he’s had 14 new short plays and 2 full-lengths produced and there he’s also gone on to develop 5 new full-length plays: Big Apples, The Acquisition, Even (adult content warning), Healer, and Hole.
One of his plays was recently optioned by the film company Past Present Productions, and he worked on writing the screenplay version. The project is currently in development with hopes to shoot it as an independent feature.
He was a Top 30 Finalist out of over 5000 entries in the first Project Greenlight (an HBO reality show) with his screenplay, Desert Rites, based upon his play of the same name.
His plays are often done by high schools and colleges. If you’re a student or theatre educator, check out his his popular full-length comedy, Home of the Great Pecan, a cross between Greater Tuna and Plan 9 From Outer Space that has been produced from Joshua Tree, California to East London, South Africa. (Click here to read the first scene of Pecan.)
He created and wrote and webseries called Off Off about 5 guys in their 40’s trying to run a small Off Off Broadway theatre in New York City.
His ten-minute plays (like his favorite La Mouche) are performed in high schools and colleges across America. Whole one-acts and excerpts from other full-lengths may be read for free on his website – www.StephenBittrich.com