Christopher Bryant – May 15 2016

Christopher is a Griffin Award nominated playwright who has worked with a range of companies including Apocalypse Theatre, MKA, ATYP, ACPA, La Mama, Theatre on a Horse and Monash University. His other works include Intoxication, 63 Days, Apartmentocalypse!, Acidtongue and Dollface, Eulogy, Rigor Mortis, A Reading List for the Outback Housewife and The Mutant Man, which was shortlisted for Belvoir’s 2014 Philip Parsons Playwriting Fellowship. Christopher was the inaugural (2015) recipient of the Russell Beedles Performing Arts Fellowship at the State Library of Victoria for his play The Other Place. After struggling with mental illness and alcoholism, Christopher is recovering from a head-on car crash and now, one year sober, is planning on completing the final term of his Masters of Writing for Performance at NIDA.

Third Reich Mommie
Playlab Indie, 2015; ISBN 9781925338003
1.5 hours; 3-4 cast members;
Cast age: 17, 40; Audience age: adult
In the camp tradition of the late sixties “psychobiddy” genre, this is Charles Busch on a day trip to the Grindhouse. Faded film star Bridgette Van Kamp has been a recluse since WWII ended, relying on the good will and obedience of her daughter Cassidy to get by. But Cassidy’s coming into her own: she’s 17 and counting, with the inexplicable bloodlust to prove it. Who is Cassidy’s real father? And what is the dark secret that lies beneath her mother’s refusal to leave the house?

Home Invasion
Australian Script Centre, 2015
80 minutes; 4 female, 2 male (can be less/more, as the director wishes)
Cast age: 18+; Audience age: teen, young adult, adult
This exploration of stardom and celebrity obsession focuses on three real life incidents: that of obsessive Paula Abdul fan June, who auditions for “American Idol” in an attempt to impress her idol; that of Sam, a young girl who enters a relationship with her mechanic, Anthony, and fetishises an imagined attack on his depressed wife, Carol, and her life with Anthony post-attack; and that of Carol, who has dreams wherein a ghostly JonBenet Ramsey visits her. The three women’s stories intertwine, with June visiting Anthony’s mechanic office to buy a make similar to Abdul’s car in her 1991 video “Rush Rush”, Carol’s dreams becoming more vivid and disturbing, and Sam convincing Anthony to go on holiday with her as she visits Carol and goes through with her attack.