Third year MFA Dana Lynn Formby has been named a finalist for the 2009 Alliance Theatre Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition. From the Alliance web site: “The Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition (GPC) is a one-of-a-kind national competition that transitions student playwrights to the world of professional theatre… Each year, approximately 30 graduate playwriting programs across the country are invited to have their final-year students submit a play to the competition. An in-house panel of readers at the Alliance Theatre reads and evaluates the scripts, and selects a slate of finalists to be advanced in the competition. Those scripts are sent to a national panel of three theatre artists for judging.” The other four finalists this year include MFA writers from NYU, Cal Arts, Julliard and the New School. As a finalist for her play The Small of Her Back, Formby will receive a reading at the Alliance Theater as well as readings in New York City as part of the Alliance’s annual fall reading series to introduce the playwrights to the New York theater industry. This marks the second time in three years an OU playwright has been a Kendeda Finalist; 2007 alum Merri Biechler was a finalist in 2007.http://www.alliancetheatre.org/newplay.aspx?id=34
