Paul Bishop (character)

Paul Bishop is a fictional character played by H. Fritz Bishop in the 2017 play, Paul Bishop is Directing a Play.

Paul is a fictionalized characterization of Fritz Bishop and like his real life counterpart, he is an actor, writer, and director, having spent fifteen years involved with theatre through varying capacities.

Paul is widely hated within the theatre community of Sydney, Nova Scotia, being one of the few actors to be "blacklisted", meaning that he is not cast in any productions or employed by other local directors.

Development and Casting
The character was created by Fritz after the premiere of Damned at the 2016 One Act Play Festival in the Boardmore Playhouse. Fritz conceived the character as being the personification of his reputation within the theatre community as an obnoxious, unprofessional alcoholic with no respect for his peers or theatre itself. Fritz then pitched the idea to the cast of Damned for production in next year's festival, to which the cast all agreed to join the production.

After completing production on Bigsby, Fritz began writing an initial draft of the script with John Bury, Mitch Murrant, and Rachael Murphy. After the play was picked up by Todd Hiscock for development and production as part of the 2017 One Act Play Festival, various cast members dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.

Despite multiple revisions to the script, which were made to accommodate changes in the cast, the character of Paul Bishop remained relatively unchanged with a slightly more antagonist relationship being developed with the character of Michael and Deion. The play within Paul Bishop is Directing a Play which the character of Paul wrote, entitled "Family Values", closely resembles the plot of Damned and largely centers around the protagonist's troubled relationship with his late father and girlfriend. Rachael reveals that the play is also heavily influenced by the real life failed relationship of Fritz and his ex-girlfriend.

In the introduction of the play, the character of Paul is said to have disappeared three weeks before the premiere, "Missing" posters were distributed throughout CBU to promote the play.

As part of the 2017 One Act Play Festival, the cast of Paul Bishop is Directing a Play were awarded "Best Ensemble Cast".

Appearances
Paul Bishop is Directing a Play (2017)
 * "Paul Bishop"