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, 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, 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.

Note: For specific MFA playwriting program information on scholarships, admission, curriculum, degree requirements, or how to apply, visit the Ohio University School of Theater web site by clicking here. For the MFA news blog, the latest on guest artists in residence, MFA faculty news, current MFA student playwright bios, MFA playwriting festival scheduling and updates, and MFA playwriting alumni news please navigate using the links in the left column.