Bill Cissna is a Kernersville, North Carolina-based writer and editor.

What I Do

FREELANCE WRITING: I have written advertising, brochure, magazine and public relations copy for many years. My main non-fiction assignment, since January 2016, is as a freelance theater writer for the Winston-Salem Journal.

PLAYS, NOVELS AND OTHER FICTIONS: Since the mid-1980s, I have written short stories and novels, adding playwriting in 2006.

EDITING: In recent years, I have also edited and proofread several book-length projects for other writers. Contact me if you're interested in editing services on book-length projects.

My latest book-length project, recently updated: Collected Short Plays: One 5-Minute and Twenty 10-Minute Plays, available in bound book format, www.amazon.com.

Also available online at Amazon and in some cases, Barnes & Noble (for the Nook): detective novel A Simple Murder; general novel Fictionography of a Mental Coward; full-length plays Conversations in a Cafe, All About Faith, and Rehearsals; and Forsyth County, NC Place Names.

Premiered online on November 20 and 21, 2020, then available on the YouTube channel for The Little Theatre of Winston-Salem through November 29, 2020.

Events Future & Past

Upcoming:

Awaiting news on a production of "Rehearsals."

Most recent: "The Road Not Taken" was part of Phoenix Stage Company's International One Act Play Festival, mid-September, 2022 in Oakville, CT. 

"Communication Gap" and "She Won't Love You Like I Do" received second productions at U. Wisconsin-Platteville's directors' class Short Play Fest, May 5-7, 2022.

"Game of Chance" was part of the NC 10by10, Carrboro, NC, by Odyssey Stage - September, 2021, and  produced at Greensboro Playwrights Forum's EOSP #40, March 31-April 3, 2022.

A Zoom-recorded production of new script "The Blue Death" was produced by The Little Theatre of Winston-Salem - November, 2020.

"Venus/Mars" (10-minute play) live Zoom premiere, BrooklynONE Productions, Friday, May 15, 2020. View it and another short on YouTube.

"Communication Gap" was performed on February 15th, 2020, at ART-C Theatre, Winston-Salem, NC, directed by me.

Triad Playwrights Theatre produced full-length comedy "Rehearsals" at the Stephen Hyers Theatre, Greensboro - August 8-11, 2019.

10-minute short, "The Release," was produced at Evening of Short Plays #38, Hyers Theatre, Greensboro Cultural Center, March 14-17, 2019.

My adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" was produced by Kernersville Little Theatre, Kernersville NC, Nov. 29 - Dec. 9, 2018.

The second production of "She Won't Love You Like I Do:" Univ. of Wisconsin-Platteville, May 3-5, 2018.

10-minute play "The Road Not Taken:" Evening of Short Plays #36 (Greensboro Playwrights, Stephen Hyers Theatre), March, 2018.

"My Music": 35th Evening of Short Plays, Greensboro Playwrights Forum, March 9-12, 2017.

Short "At the Shrine": End of the Road Short Play Festival, South Baldwin Community Theatre, Gulf Shores, AL, 6/15 to 6/17/16.

A staged reading of full-length "Conversations in a Cafe" at BrooklynOne Productions, Brooklyn NY (5/14/16).

April 29 & 30, 2016: Studio 1, Burlington, NC presented seven of my short scripts in their 10-Minute Marathon.