Bill Hyatt

About Bill Hyatt

BILL HYATT (He / Him / His) is a playwright and director (and occasional actor). Bill's plays often focus on the effects of governmental and social injustice, the capacity of individuals to take meaningful actions against injustice, and the consequences when those actions are taken.  And sometimes Bill writes comedies.

Bill's produced plays include It Came From Fukushima (Fringe Review - 2016 "Recommended Show"), How to Make a Video (2016 TBA Award, "Outstanding Production of an Anthology"), Christmas in Chechnya (2003 Backstage West Critic's List for Playwriting), Babe Hunting Season - an almost romantic comedy, Let it Ride, The Day I Lost My Boots, The Beauty of Growing Older, and Gray.

Bill's most political play, Christmas in Chechnya, was written shortly after the U.S. 2003 entry into Iraq. The play examines how wartime environments foster genocide, lawlessness and war crimes. Backstage West described the play as "an unrelentingly harsh slice of inhumanity. Set among a group of Russian soldiers, this depiction of man's descent from optimistic devotion through unwilling perversion into a void of feeling is not for the faint of heart." Bill continued his examination of the political and personal effects of war in his short play The Light Blue Sea, which looks at the confusion and consequences of soldiering in an ill-defined war-zone (Afghanistan).

Bill's most recently produced full-length play, It Came From Fukushima, reflects his fascination with political and economic realities: It Came From Fukushima is a comedic yet searing look at capitalism, the business of energy extraction, and the implications of corporate greed. The Fringe Review found the play to be "thought provoking" noting that "in between the well-timed humor there are deep seated environmental issues and serious provocations, so this is theatre that cleverly informs, which is always a good thing – and the characters are so interesting that the information and warnings are woven into the dialogue and visuals."

As a theater director, Bill is always thrilled to collaborate with playwrights and other generative artists in the shepherding of their new works to the stage.  In his two most recent directorial projects, PCSF Best Short Plays of 2020 and PCSF Best Short Plays of 2019, Bill had the opportunity to collaborate with several Bay Area playwrights in the world- and west coast-premieres of their one act plays.  In each production, a one act play that Bill directed was voted the "Audience Favorite" of the anthology.  

Bill also directs plays that are not premieres.  About his direction of Blessings: An Evening of Two Lee Blessing Plays, Back Stage West wrote: "Hyatt shines here as a director with an ear for language: The musicality of this piece is in perfect tempo, pitch and rhythm."  Perhaps his most thrilling directorial experience was not an individual effort on a fully-staged production, but rather a highly collaborative effort as one of many directors contributing to a staged reading of The Lysistrata Project (Ebell Theater, 2003), which was an international theatrical effort protesting the U.S. military entry into Iraq.

Bill is originally from Los Angeles, where he was a member of and resident artist at several Los Angeles-based theater organizations.  At the Company of Angels (Los Angeles' oldest repertory theater), Bill was a playwright and director member and the founder and facilitator of the Playwrights' Workshop at the Company of Angels.  At the Coop Theater (Black Box Theatre, Santa Monica, CA), Bill was an Associate Artist and the founder and facilitator of the Playwrights' Workshop at the Coop Theater.  At FirstStage (Hollywood, CA), Bill was a playwright member and the facilitator of their playwrights' workshop.  Bill is a longtime life-member of the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights (ALAP).

Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004, Bill has become an active member of several Bay Area-based theater organizations.  Bill is a playwright member at the Playwrights' Center of San Francisco (PCSF), where he has also served as a One-act Festival Producer, a Literary Committee member, and as a director for several fully staged productions. Bill is a playwright member of the Pear Playwrights' Guild (Pear Theatre, Mountain View, CA), where he has also served as a One-act Festival Producer and as the Playwrights' Guild Facilitator.  Bill is an individual member of Theatre Bay Area (TBA), and, in 2017, Bill was a finalist for the TBA Titan Award for Playwrights/Generative Artists.

Bill doesn't act too much, anymore. His most recent performance was his 35 minute(!) monologue, The Beauty of Growing Older. He found the solo performance experience to be quite different than writing or directing or even performing within an ensemble. He now appreciates actors more than ever.

Bill currently divides his time between the tech-savvy Silicon Valley and the wine drenched slopes of Sonoma County, but he always remembers fondly his roots in sunny, smoggy and "totally trafficated" Los Angeles.

For more information about Bill Hyatt and his plays, please go to www.billhyatt.com

Bill can be contacted at  bill@billhyatt.com