Major Voices of the American Stage in Residence at the OU MFA Playwriting Program:

Here's just a few of the distinguished playwrights and artistic directors who've worked directly with OU playwrights recently: Nationally acclaimed playwrights Lee Blessing, Deborah Brevoort, Rick Cleveland, Eric Coble, Rebecca Gilman, Julie Jensen, Jon Klein, Sherry Kramer, Quincy Long, Julie McKee, Suzan-Lori Parks, Milan Stitt, and Susan Yankowitz, in addition to Chuck Smith (Artistic Associate, Goodman Theatre in Chicago), Janet Allen (Artistic Director, Indiana Repertory), Mead Hunter (Literary Director, Portland Center Stage), Sandy Shinner (Associate Artistic Director, Victory Gardens), Ed Herendeen (Artistic Director of the Contemporary American Theater Festival), Dennis Zacek (Artistic Director of Victory Gardens Theater) and critic Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune.

Guest Artists in Residence as Respondents, 2008 OU Playwrights' Festival:

Darrah Cloud’s most recent work includes the stage adaptation of Disney’s classic, SNOW WHITE, now playing at Disneyland. Her adaptations of Willa Cather’s O PIONEERS! and THE BOXCAR CHILDREN, with composer Kim D. Sherman, have toured all over the United States. O PIONEERS! was filmed for American Playhouse with Mary McDonnell in the lead. Her play THE STICK WIFE continues to be produced all over the U.S. and Europe. HEARTS ARE WILD, a rock musical with composer George Griggs opened in Pittsburgh at City Theater in January, 2006 and SABINA, a chamber musical about Jung, Freud and Sabina Spielrein, with book by Willy Holtzman and music by Louise Beach, is in the works, as is MAKEOVER!, a musical based on the lives of female cosmetics moguls in the 1950s. HEARTLAND, an original musical, also with Kim D. Sherman, has been produced in the regional theaters since 2000. She has won numerous awards, including an NEA and a Gilman and Gonzalez-Falla Award. She has written ten movies for television and is an alumna of the Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa (poetry) and New Dramatists in New York City.

Brian Dykstra most recently performed his one man show The Jesus Factor for three months at The Barrow Street Theatre in NYC and various locations around the country. He also appeared in his play Strangerhorse at The Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca, NY. Previously, his play Clean Alternatives was produced at The Kitchen, in New York City at 59E59, and then Edinburgh, Scotland where the play won the Fringe First Award at the International Fringe Festival. Hiding Behind Comets won and then was denied the Rosenberg New Play Award in Cincinnati, Ohio and the award was subsequently discontinued after 17 years. No explanation was given, but there seemed to be some issue with content. The play was produced at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, 29th Street Rep in New York, Eureka CA, Boston, and Birmingham AL. It went on to win the National Theatre Conference Award for outstanding play. Forsaking All Others was performed in Los Angeles, New York, and London. His acclaimed one man show, Brian Dykstra: Cornered & Alone ran the four months leading up to the unfortunate re-election of 2004, at the Triad in New York City. There have been handfuls of one act plays produced all over the place. Brian is an HBO Def Poet and appeared in the first episode of Chappelle’s Show as the right hand man to the Blind White Supremacist Clayton Bigsby played by Dave Chappelle. He just finished two new plays, A Play On Words and The Two Of You which will open the Kitchen Theatre 2008-09 season. His latest play, Education is about what happens when a high school senior decides to set up an art project that burns a flag. Spill The Wine is opening on May 28 at GayFest in NYC. He is a playwright fellow at The Lark Play Development Center.

David Toney: Through the Robert & René Glidden Visiting Professorship, the May 2008 OU production of Charles Smith's Knock Me A Kiss was able to bring alum and distinguished actor David Toney to play the role of W.E. B. Dubois. A nationally recognized actor, playwright, screenwriter, and educator, David Toney has worked primarily as a stage actor, distinguishing himself time and time again in New York City, Washington DC, and throughout the country. He earned a BFA in Comparative Arts and an MFA in Acting (both from Ohio University) and as an accomplished playwright with dramatic works he focuses primarily on the African American experience. David Toney has been recognized not only with productions of his plays but also with awards and grants. His play Kingdom received a nomination for Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical at the Helen Hayes Awards in 2006, as well as the Theodore Ward Prize for Best African American Play/Finalist (sponsored by Columbia College). A Ford Foundation Grant is sponsoring the development of his play A Borrowed Heart. His writing in other mediums include authoring the screenplay for House Party III, produced by New Line Cinema, and time spent as a staff writer for the groundbreaking comedy show In Living Color for Fox Television.

Sandy Shinner is the Associate Artistic Director of Victory Gardens Theater, recipient of the 2001 Tony Award for Regional Theater. She has directed over 100 productions, most recently the world premieres of Four Places by Joel Drake Johnson and I Sailed with Magellan adapted by Claudia Allen from Stuart Dybek’s book at Victory Gardens, Joel Drake Johnson’s Tranquillity Woods for Steppenwolf’s First Look Festival and Jeffrey Sweet’s Bluff at the 78th Street Theatre Lab in New York City. She also directed the World Premiere of Memory House by Kathleen Tolan at Actors Theatre of Louisville’s 2005 Humana Festival (“Best of Fest” for Director and New Play by the Kentucky Journal) and Victory Gardens. She directed the World Premiere of Trying by Joanna McClelland Glass starring Fritz Weaver and Kati Brazda at Victory Gardens and that production transferred Off Broadway. She was recognized as a Finalist for the 2004-05 Joe A. Callaway Award for Outstanding Director of Trying by the SSDC Foundation and nominated for the Joseph Jefferson Award. She has directed the world premieres of nine plays by Claudia Allen including: Hanging Fire, a co-world premiere with Florida Stage Company; Fossils (with Julie Harris, and for the Sacramento Theatre Company); Cahoots (with Sharon Gless); Winter (with Julie Harris and Mike Nussbaum). Other recent work includes the world premieres of Before My Eyes and The End of the Tour by Joel Drake Johnson, Homeland Security by Stuart Flack, Ariadne's Thread by Ann Noble, Battle of the Bands by Dean Corrin, The Glamour House by Lydia Stryk. Committed to developing new work, she has also directed premieres by Steve Carter (Spiele '36 or The Fourth Meda ) at both Victory Gardens and Theatre of the First Amendment), Sally Nemeth (Spinning into Blue, and Holy Days for Rivendell Theatre), Darrah Cloud (The Stick Wife), Jeffrey Sweet (The Value of Names, With and Without, and Bluff, at Victory Gardens and the Phoenix Theatre), Theresa Rebeck (View of the Dome). She frequently leads workshops on new play development at area universities, and has been a panel member for the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative. She has also worked with the Shakespeare Festival of Dallas, the Temple Civic Theater and as producer/director for the Summer Theater at Mount Holyoke. She is an editor of Victory Gardens Theater Presents: Seven New Plays from the Playwrights Ensemble, recently published by Northwestern University Press.

Guest Artists in Residence as Respondents, 2007 OU Playwrights' Festival:

DEBORAH BREVOORT is an alumnus of New Dramatists. She is the author or numerous plays and musicals including The Women of Lockerbie, (silver medal, Onassis International Playwriting Contest; published by Dramatists Play Service) Blue Moon Over Memphis, a Noh Drama About Elvis Presley, (published by Applause Books) The Poetry of Pizza, a comedy about love, The Blue-Sky Boys, a comedy about NASA’s Apollo engineers, and two plays published by Samuel French: Signs of Life, a comedy about faith and doubt, and Into the Fire a magic realism play set in Alaska. She is two-time winner of the Frederick Loewe Award in Musical Theatre first for King Island Christmas, with composer David Friedman, and then for Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing, with composer Scott Richards. She has received grants and commissions from the NEA, NFYA, Rockefeller Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and others. She was one of the original company members with the Perseverance Theatre in Alaska and currently teaches in the MFA programs at Columbia University, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and Goddard College. Her website address is www.DeborahBrevoort.com and www.kingislandchristmas.com .

JULIE JENSEN was reared in southern Utah. She has a Ph.D. in theatre from Wayne State University in Detroit, and has taught playwriting at seven different colleges and universities. She worked as a writer in Hollywood for five years and until recently directed the graduate playwriting program at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. She is now Resident Playwright at Salt Lake Acting Company. Jensen is the recipient of the Kennedy Center Award for New American Plays (WHITE MONEY), the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work (THE LOST VEGAS SERIES), and the LA Weekly Award for Best New Play (TWO-HEADED). She has received the McKnight National Playwriting Fellowship (WAIT!), the TCG/NEA Playwriting Residency (WAIT!), and a major grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts (DUST EATERS). She has won the Mill Mountain Theatre Playwriting Competition three times (TENDER HOOKS, LAST LISTS OF MY MAD MOTHER, and TWO-HEADED). Her play, TWO-HEADED, was included in the volume Best Plays by Women, 2000, and she has twice been nominated by the American Theatre Critics Association for the best new play produced outside of New York (LAST LISTS OF MY MAD MOTHER and DUST EATERS). Her work has been produced in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well as in this country in New York and theatres nationwide. She has been commissioned by Mark Taper Forum, ASK Theatre Projects, Kennedy Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Salt Lake Acting Company, Geva Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company and National New Play Network. Her work is published by Dramatic Publishing, Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts, Inc., and Smith and Kraus.

DENNIS ZACEK has held the position of artistic director at Victory Gardens Theater for 29 years, and received the 2005 Jeff Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chicago Equity Theatre. He, his wife Marcelle McVay, and the theater are co-recipients of the 2001 Regional Theater Tony Award and he is also the recipient of the 2004 Artistic Leadership Award from the League of Chicago Theaters. Mr. Zacek and Ms. McVay received the 1999 Rosetta Lenoire Award from Actors’ Equity and the 1998 Sidney R. Yates Arts Advocacy Award from the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation. He has directed 175 productions in his career, including, most recently, the world premieres of The Family Gold by Annie Reiner, Affluenza! and The Old Man’s Friend by James Sherman, Unspoken Prayers by Claudia Allen, The Action Against Sol Schumann and Flyovers by Jeffery Sweet, Blissfield by Douglas Post, The Sutherland by Charles Smith, and others. Additional projects included Marisha Chamberlain’s Scheherazade (National Winner of the FDG/CBS competition), John Olive’s Clara’s Play (production and direction award- the Academy of Theater Artists and Friends), and James Sherman’s Mr. 80%  (direction award- the Academy of Theater Artists and Friends). Mr. Zacek directed Arthur Cantor’s production of James Sherman’s Beau Jest at Lambs Theater in New York, where it holds the record as the longest-running show in the history of the theater.  Other New York credits include Lonnie Carter’s The Sovereign State of Boogedy Boogedy, presented by Woody King’s New Federal Theater, and Charles Smith’s Jelly Belly, which was produced by the New Federal Theater. Mr. Zacek is a professor emeritus of Loyola University and is included in Utne magazine’s first-ever “Artists Who Will Shake the World” list.
Guest Artists in Residence as Respondents, 2006 OU Playwrights' Festival:

Eric Coble (MFA, Ohio University, 1993) referred to by American Theatre Magazine as one of the seven national playwrights to watch in 2004, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and bred on the Navajo and Ute reservations in New Mexico and Colorado.  His play "Bright Ideas" appeared Off-Broadway at the Manhattan Class Company, directed by John Rando.  His scripts have been produced throughout the U.S. and the world including productions at The Kennedy Center, Actors Studio, Playwrights Horizons, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alliance Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Curious Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Stages Repertory, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and the Laguna Playhouse.  Awards include the AT&T Onstage Award, National Theatre Conference Playwriting Award, and an NEA/TCG Playwright in Residence Grant.  Coble is a member of the Cleveland Play House Playwrights Unit, where he writes for several nationally broadcast radio programs and has four screenplays in the labyrinth of Hollywood.  His play “Natural Selection” received its premiere this spring at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Ed Herendeen (MFA, Ohio University, 1980) founded the Contemporary American Theater Festival in 1991. Through his leadership the Contemporary American Theater Festival has produced 14 World Premieres, commissioned 7 new plays, expanded its audience from 200, in the Eastern Panhandle of WV, to over 11,000 including, in 2002, people from 27 states and the District of Columbia and has gained a reputation as one of America’s most important producers of new work. In addition to his work as the Producer of CATF, his directing credits include the following World Premieres; The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa by John Olive, The Occupation by Harry Newman, Miss Golden Dreams, A Play Cycle by Joyce Carol Oates, Compleat Female Stage Beauty by Jeffrey Hatcher, Carry the Tiger to the Mountain by Cherylene Lee, Bad Girls by Joyce Carol Oates, Octopus by Jon Klein, Psyche Was Here by Lynn Martin, What are Tuesdays Like? by Victor Bumbalo and Still Waters by Lynn Martin. Other CATF directing credits include The Late Henry Moss by Sam Shepard, Thief River by Lee Blessing, Something in the Air, Gun-Shy, and Below the Belt by Richard Dresser, The Water Children by Wendy MacLeod, BAFO by Tom Strelich, Lighting up the Two Year Old by Benjie Aerenson, Beti the Yeti by Jon Klein, Shooting Simone by Lynne Kaufman, Alabama Rain by Heather McCutchen, Black by Joyce Carol Oates and The Swan by Elizabeth Egloff.

Jacquelyn Reingold (MFA, Ohio University, 2004) is a playwright from NYC.  Her play String Fever had a sold out run Off-Broadway at Ensemble Studio Theatre, starring Cynthia Nixon and Evan Handler, is published by Dramatists Play Service and in Women Playwrights: Best Plays 2003, and recently produced at Theatre J in Washington, DC. Her other plays Girl Gone, 2B (Or Not 2B), Acapulco, For-everett, Dear Kenneth Blake, Dottie and Richie, Tunnel of Love, Joe and Stew’s Theatre, A.M.L., and Freeze Tag have been produced or developed in New York at the MCC Theatre, EST, Naked Angels, HB Playwrights Theatre, the Atlantic Theatre, the Drama League at HERE; in Los Angeles at the Canon Theatre, Theatre of NOTE, City Garage, ASK; at theatres across the country; and in London and Hong Kong. Things Between Us, a collection of her one-acts, was recently published by DPS. Other work is published in Best American Short Plays 2000, 1998, 1997, and 1995, New Dramatists: Best Plays 2000, Women Playwrights: Best Plays 1994, and by Smith and Kraus, DPS, Heinemann, and Samuel French. Her play Acapulco was recently optioned for film, and she has written for NBC’s Miss Match starring Alicia Silverstone, and MTV’s Daria. Awards include two commissions from EST/Sloan Foundation, New Dramatists’ Joe Callaway Award and Whitfield Cook Awards, the Kennedy Center‘s Fund for New American Plays’ Roger Stevens Award, and two Drama-Logue Awards. Jacquelyn is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, and an alumna of New Dramatists. She has written and directed many plays with the Hell’s Kitchen kids of The 52nd Street Project. She received her MFA in 2004 from Ohio University, and she teaches writing at NYU and Goddard College. She loved being a graduate student in OU’s Playwriting Program.

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