OU alum, Jacob Juntunen‘s play “In the Shadow of His Language, was chosen as a a Finalist for the 2014 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award.
In 2005, the Tony Award-winning Alliance Theatre in Atlanta established the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition, which is the only national competition that transitions graduate student playwrights to the world of professional theatre. Each year, the theatre solicits the work of third-year MFA playwriting students from 36 of what it considers to be “the country’s leading graduate playwriting programs.”
An in-house panel of readers evaluates approximately one hundred submitted scripts each year and selects a slate of semi-finalists. The semi-finalist scripts are then sent to a national panel of theatre professionals for judging, resulting in the selection of four finalists and one award-winning play. Since 2005, the playwriting program at Ohio University has had finalists in 2007, 2009, 2013, and in 2010, third-
year Ohio University MFA playwriting student, David Robinson’s play was named winner.
Of the 36 programs that the Tony Award-winning Alliance Theatre considers to be “the country’s leading graduate playwriting programs,” only 21 of these programs have had students who either won or placed as finalist since the inception of the program in 2005. Of these 21 programs, only UT-Austin and Julliard surpasses Ohio University’s record of achievement of four placements in nine years. Yale University, NYU-Tisch, and University of California at San Diego all have matched Ohio University’s record of achievement. The record of achievement of the playwriting
program at Ohio University has surpassed the playwriting programs at University of Iowa, Columbia University School of the Arts, Boston University, University of Southern California, Hunter College, California Institute of the Arts, Northwestern University, NYU Musical Theatre Writing Program, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Hollins University, The New School for Drama, Catholic University of America, Florida State, and Carnegie Mellon, well as the other 15 playwritingprogram in the nation that have not placed in this one-of-a kind competition.
