When You Tire of Groveling

Contributed by Stephen Bittrich

I’ve been writing plays for Off-Off-Broadway theatre for about 26 years, and I love it!  But sometimes … like when you can’t cajole the artistic director (no matter how much you grovel) into producing your play, or when you’re having trouble rallying the troupes because it’s primo catering season, or (as in my case recently) when you’ve been hanging out with your mom in Tennessee for a year because she’s doing chemo and radiation … sometimes you just need to diversify your creative portfolio.

As a playwright and lapsed actor, I’ll share several different ways I’ve tried doing this.

1) Play to Screenplay
Opening up a play filled with minimal locations, big ideas and lots of dialogue into a screenplay told with images … and a lot less dialogue … is one route.  Still, it’s a tough road because you always seem to be begging people to read your stuff … or paying them to.  After much coughing up of entry fees, pleading and imploring I’ve had a few exciting chapters on that front – like getting rather close in the first Project Greenlight contest and shaking hands with Harvey Weinstein’s golden boys (Ben and Matt) and on another occasion having a play turned screenplay optioned by a prolific production company (the deal’s still in progress).

2) Webseries
If screenplays that don’t get made start to get you blue, you can always try a more DIY route -- the webseries.  I went that route creating a series called Off Off about 5 guys in their 40s to 50s creating free theatre … perhaps past the age when it’s still sexy.  I had to cut the production of the series short to be with Mom, but we’ve got 7 episodes in the can thus far, and we’ve had about 10,000 views to date.  Do you realize how many Off Off Broadway plays I’d have to do to reach that size audience?  Of course, it’s a little depressing when our most popular episode (by FAR) features a beautiful woman in a tight jogging outfit. We smartly cast someone who already had a big Internet following, and her episode significantly out performs the episodes which feature the mugs of us crusty old guys.  Still, it is cool to know that basically I own the “network” (a.k.a. the website) and can cancel the series whenever I want … or never!  Ha!  (Oh, the seductive allure of power.)



Monetizing a webseries (beyond little dribbles) and building a substantial audience is really challenging.  It’s near impossible to predict something that will go viral.  It takes a lot of relentless work on social media bothering your “friends.”  But I can happily report that the greatest boon is this -- I learned so much about how to tell a story each time we made an episode; in some episodes we were more successful than others, but I always learned and improved.  And I got the opportunity to return to acting in a low-pressure environment with friends. 

Sometimes with a webseries it starts to get exhausting to rally the troupes.  There’s usually one person who is the engine behind it getting made or not getting made.  That’s about the time when the podcast is your friend.

3) Podcast
When I was in Tennessee I needed a creative outlet where I didn’t have to rely on anyone else, and by chance, around this time I started listening to the addictive WTF.  Marc Maron delivers a riveting interview, and I was particularly drawn to the format – long substantial conversations.  Not like the tired late night talk show formula – joke, joke, roll the clip.

I think podcasts lend themselves most easily to comedians or artists who are promoting some sort of ongoing show (perhaps a one person show) because it’s a great way to build an audience.  Marc Maron goes to do stand up in say, Des Moines, and now he’s drawing not only those who like comedy in general, but also those who are fans of his podcast.  And the podcast show can be whatever you imagine for the auditory palette, from straight interviews, to improv, to radio theatre, to current events.

My podcast is an extension of the Off Off world – titled Off Off Pod, and it’s an interview show where I have free flowing conversations with artists of different levels and disciplines.  No matter how high we’ve risen, a part of us is always “Off Off” … the place where true artistic freedom dwells.



The podcast is so much more within my control than anything I’ve ever done.  I can always find someone to talk to for an hour, but their commitment is minimal.  I’m the one in the driver’s seat whose job it is to capture the interview, edit out all the “uhs,” add music or effects, write the website entry, send out the newsletter, and promote on social media. 

The challenge, as always, is building audience.  But the appeal is, I can make it what I want.  I’m thinking of adding in short video segments where I start dabbling with something akin to stand up and calling it “Off Off Topic.”  It is, after all, my world to create!

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Stephen Bittrich  is a playwright, actor and web designer who recently moved from NYC to Austin.  He currently helps web clients who want to set up their own podcasts achieve their goals, including the soon to be released podcast All Things Being Equal which will help cross promote a one woman touring show by actor/writer Gioia De Cari. [http://unexpectedtheatre.org]

How to Create a Webseries or How We Created “OFF OFF”

Contributed by Stephen Bittrich.

Little tasks.  Big friends.

I would say that’s my secret in a nutshell.  That’s how the rather large and daunting project of creating Off Off, a webseries for people who never give up on their dreams was accomplished.

I wish the digital and Internet technology available now had been around 20 years ago … when all my friends were younger and little less jaded by life and the business, but then it wouldn’t be the same show!

Obviously you want to have the big dream, visualize the pie in the sky idea of what it can be, but “become rich and famous” is hard to check off on your to do list, and let’s face it, your series going viral would be a little like getting struck by lightening.

Little tasks bring you incrementally closer to the big dream. 

The first little task, the most important one is to write.  I’m a playwright/screenwriter, so that was something I was going to do myself, obviously. 

I’m a firm believer that it all starts with the story.  (Not just “idea” but “story.”)  That’s your foundation, so write the first season and have at least a good idea of where it’s going for three or four seasons.  Plan out way ahead, so you don’t write yourself into a corner. 

Some people say you should write only for what resources you have.  I think you certainly need to be very mindful of that, but allow yourself a few extra things that will take some work to find (locations or sets or costumes) as long as it’s adding to the story.  You want this to be special and look like some work was put into it!  Don’t just shoot your apartment.

When webseries first came out they were mostly 3-5 minutes of crude college humor, meant for a quick laugh, but now I see a lot of different lengths and genres.  The show SubmissionsOnly with the adorable and highly watchable Kate Wetherhead is about 22 minutes, the exact length, smartly enough, of a half-hour sitcom (without commercials).

Another task: find a location.  We thought we had a location, and it fell through.  But don’t give up.  Set your sites on one location.  Follow through.  If it doesn’t work out, on to the next location.  The next task.  Someone will say “yes.”

Task: cast the series.  You’ll be tempted to use your friends, and I think this is a good thing because you absolutely need your talented friends to pull this off for little to no money, but add some new blood in as well.  Cast SAG actors.  The New Media agreements with SAG pre-merger are doable and friendly to self-productions, and I assume the same will be true of the post-merger agreements.

Task:  director of photography.  What an important position!  I had an old friend from my Project Greenlight Contest days message me on Facebook (while I was talking the project up) and ask what he could do to help.  Turned out he had a Canon 7D (great camera – wonderful in low light), a DAT recorder, microphone, a few lights, and the know-how.  He could do a lot to help!  The digital cameras are so sophisticated these days that the lighting becomes less of a daunting task.  Get someone who really knows the camera to run it. 

With the digital technology such that it is today, you can even affordably edit yourself if you absolutely must with Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere.  I edited the first episode.  I’m hoping to hand that task off at some point.

The marketing campaign has its own series of mini-tasks – planning publicity shots or art (look beforehand at the sizes of images needed on various websites, so you can plan out dimensions ahead of time), building a great looking website (I happen to do this for a living), making cards to hand out, joining all the social networks, creating a youtube or vimeo channel.

At some point run a fundraising campaign on indiegogo.com or kickstarter.com.

Bottom line is that you can do this for little or no money depending upon how many willing, talented friends you have.  Set your sites on little tasks and check them off one by one as you inch closer to your goal.

How a Playwright Caught the Webseries Bug & Created Off Off

Contributed by Stephen Bittrich.

So I was lying in the Critical Care Unit at Lenox Hill Hospital in October having just suffered a massive pulmonary embolism.  (That is blood clots traveling from your extremities, in this case the legs, up through your heart and into your lungs blocking your airways.  Rapper Heavy D died from one in December.)

And I thought to myself, “Okay, maybe I could die.  Possibly.  Hopefully we’ll get this under control, but there it is … my mortality staring me in the face.  What do you want to DO, Stephen?”

Webseries might seem like an odd thing to top one’s personal bucket list.  Others might choose jumping from a plane, climbing a mountain, or feeding the hungry in some impoverished corner of the globe.

I’d been developing an idea for about a year, a webseries about 4 guys in their 40’s running an Off-Off-Broadway theatre, and it seemed everywhere I went I had people telling me why I couldn’t do it, shouldn’t do it, or how I needed to change it.

We playwrights are often times beholden to someone else saying, “Yes, you are worthy.  We’ll produce you” or “We’ll read your play” or “We’ll develop this writing.”  That can be frustrating when you’re not in a groove.

And even after you are in a groove, you’re sometimes surprised at the response when you say, “I want to spread my wings … since we’re all doing this for little or no money.  I want to try something different.”  Surprised by a response like, “No, no, don’t spread your wings.  We don’t see you that way.  Keep doing what we already know you can do.” 

At least that’s what I was getting.  It was time to take charge of my own destiny!

I’m now going to give my friend, Michael Cyril Creighton a plug because he’s the reason I thought I could do it.  In mid-2009 Michael started a webseries called Jack in a Box about a bitter, snarky actor who works in a box office.  He happened to work in a box office in real life at the time.  I have no idea how bitter he really is.  He’s a pretty nice guy.  I became aware of his series about episode 6 or so, and I liked it so much I went back to watch the first, and I was amazed that at the time the pilot had about 3,000 views (it’s now closer to 34,000).

I started thinking about all the plays I’d done in 50-99 seat theatres over the years.  Had I even reached 3000 people?  I did the math.  Yes, I probably had, but it must have taken me a decade to reach that many people.

Now Michael’s case is unique.  He’s clearly got the mojo going now – just got nominated for a WGA Award for “New Media.”  I wasn’t under the impression that I’d get 3000 hits over night, but he inspired me to stop listening to the no’s and maybe’s.

By now my own series Off Off is not just talk anymore.  We’ve shot and posted our pilot episode and a behind the scenes look at the making of the pilot.  Saturday we’re shooting episode 2 and a mini-episode.  How did we make it happen?  That I will tell you in my next blog.

Will I stop writing plays and doing theatre now?  Of course not.  Nothing can replace the love of that live experience.

But I’ve really been enjoying working on Off Off.  It has been a lot of work, and it’s difficult sometimes to inspire the troupes, but probably not any harder than inspiring them to perform for free in an Off-Off-Broadway venue! 

Guest Blogger of the Week: Stephen Bittrich

We are excited that this week's guest blogger will be Stephen Bittrich.

Stephen Bittrich is a playwright/screenwriter/actor who has had over 30 of his plays (one-acts and full-lengths) produced on the Off Off Broadway scene.  He’s had several plays published over the years (Smith & Kraus, NY Theatre Experience, Dramatics Magazine) and just sold a screenplay based on his play Healer to an indie film production company.  Currently he is the creator/writer of Off Off, a new webseries about 4 guys in their mid-40s who run an Off Off Broadway theatre and begin to question if they’ve passed the age when doing so is still sexy.  Off Off is a webseries for people who NEVER give up on their dreams.  For more details visit www.OffOffWebseries.com or www.StephenBittrich.com.