2016 OHIO UNIVERSITY SEABURY QUINN, JR. PLAYWRIGHTS’ FESTIVAL

The Visiting Mentors for the OHIO UNIVERSITY SEABURY QUINN, JR. PLAYWRIGHT’S FESTIVAL are:

Acclaimed Playwright, Merri Biechler
Director of New Play Development at the Goodman Theater, Tanya Palmer
Acclaimed Playwright Kara Lee Corthron.

Tanya Palmer is the director of new play development at Goodman Theatre, where she coordinates New Stages, the theater’s new play program, and has served as the production dramaturg on a number of plays including the world premieres of Smokefall by Noah Haidle, Robert Falls and Seth Bockley’s adaptation of Roberto Bolaño’s novel 2666, Another Word for Beauty by José Rivera with music by Hector Buitrago, The Happiest Song Plays Last by Quiara Hudes, The Long Red Road by Brett C. Leonard and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Ruined by Lynn Nottage. Prior to her arrival in Chicago, she served as the director of new play development at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she led the reading and selection process for the Humana Festival of New American Plays. She is the co-editor, with Amy Wegener and Adrien-Alice Hansel, of four collections of Humana Festival plays, published by Smith & Kraus, as well as two collections of 10-minute plays published by Samuel French. Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, she holds an MFA in playwriting from York University in Toronto. She lives in Evanston, IL with her husband and two children.

Kara Lee Corthron’s plays include Julius by Design (Fulcrum Theater), Etched in Skin on a Sunlit Night (InterAct Theatre, Philadelphia), AliceGraceAnon (New Georges), Holly Down in Heaven (Forum Theatre, DC area), Spookwater, Listen for the Light, and Welcome to Fear City. Kara is also the author of the young-adult novel, The Truth of Right Now, forthcoming from Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse, January 2017—the first of a two-book deal. Awards/Honors: member of New Dramatists (class of 2022), 2014-2015 Naked Angels/New School Issues Project Resident Playwright, Boomerang Fund for Artists Grant, Berkeley Rep 2014 Ground Floor Lab Residency, 2012-2014 Women’s Project Lab Time Warner Foundation Fellowship, The Vineyard Theatre’s 3rd Annual Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, the Princess Grace Award, two NEA grants, the Helen Merrill Award, Lincoln Center’s Lecomte du Nouy Prize (three-time recipient), the Theodore Ward Prize, the New Professional Theatre Writers Award, and four MacDowell fellowships.

Merri Biechler is a playwright, actor, educator, and the Managing Director of Brick MonkeyTheater Ensemble, Southeast Ohio’s professional theater company. She is the recipient of a Boomerang Fund for Artists award. Her plays include “Tammy Faye’s Final Audition” (Tantrum Theater, summer 2016; Cincinnati and DC Fringes – Best of Fringe); “Occupation” (Hollywood Fringe, summer 2016; P73 Playwriting Fellowship semifinalist); “Real Girls Can’t Win” (Centenary Stage Company Women Playwrights Series winner; Stavis Award nominee; David Mark Cohen Award finalist; and six college productions around the country); “Bombs,Babes and Bingo” (Mortar Theatre Company world premiere; P73 Playwriting Fellowship semifinalist; Clubbed Thumb biennial commission finalist); “Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver” (Princess Grace Award finalist; Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition finalist; WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory participant, and the recipient of grants totaling $40,000to use the play as a teaching tool for medical students). Merri received her MFA in playwritingfrom Ohio University.

FEATURED PRODUCTIONS*

Presented in the Forum Theater, RTV Building

Bait Shop
by Ryan Patrick Dolan
Directed by Rani Crowe
April 13th, 16th, 21st
& 22nd at 8:00pm
April 16th at 2:00pm

Occupation Dad
by Tyler Whidden
Directed by Brian Evans
April 14th, 15th, 20th & 23rd
at 8:00pm
April 23rd at 2:00pm

*Tickets for the Featured Productions are $5 general admission or FREE for OU Students (with valid student ID) through Arts for Ohio; available at the Templeton–Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium box office.

STAGED READINGS

Presented in the Elizabeth Baker Theater, Kantner Hall

Thursday, April 21st

The Critical Distance of a Nose
by Cristina Luzarraga
1:00 pm (Free admission)

Making Charlie
Directed by Allison Epperson
by Rachel Bykowski
4:00 pm (Free admission)

The Birthday Kiss
Directed by Tyler Whidden
by Aaron Johnson (thesis production)
8:00 pm (Free admission)

Friday, April 22^nd

Remind Me Why We’re Doing This
by Natasha Smith
2:00 pm (Free admission)

Saturday, April 25^th

Strong Face
by Philana Omorotionmwan
1:00pm (Free admission)

Shut Up, I’m on a Diet!
Directed by Ben Stockman
by Catherine Weingarten
4:00pm (Free admission)

Bait Shop

by Ryan Patrick Dolan
Directed by Rani Crowe

8:00 pm – April 13th, 16th, 21st & 22nd;
2:00 pm – April 16th, Forum Theater, RTV Building

Glenn, 42, makes a connection with Sarah, a recent college grad with a similar passion for baseball, who’s spending the summer in Leeward, Michigan to wait tables. Glenn is desperate to leave the snowy climes of Northern Michigan and follow his dreams of scouting and coaching baseball but scared to act. Sarah is headed to L.A. in the fall for law school and, as things get serious between them, Glenn sees an opportunity to start a new life. Is his plan a foolish lark that’s bound to fail or a risk worth taking?

Tickets for the Featured Productions are $5 general admission or FREE for OU Students (with valid student ID) through Arts for Ohio; available at the Templeton–Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium box office.

Occupation Dad

by Tyler Whidden
Directed by Brian Evans

8:00 pm – April 14th, 15th 20th & 23rd;
2:00 pm – April 23rd, Forum Theater, RTV Building

Jason has a job, okay? He just works from home now. Things are tough nowadays what with the economy and all. So, stop looking at him like that. Lots of dads stay home with their babies. Right? It’s no big deal and it’s really not that tough. Except his kid won’t walk. And his mother won’t help. And his older brother’s a jerk-off. And his sister’s kids are already perfect and the playground moms are psychotic and everybody on Facebook hates him. But, other than all that, everything is just hunky-dory. Except his dad – you know what, forget his dad. It’s fine. Seriously. Everything is …

CRITICAL DISTANCE OF A NOSE
Written by Cristina Luzarraga
1:00 pm, Thursday April 21st, Elizabeth Baker Theater, Kantner Hall
Inez is an art history graduate student at Columbia attempting to navigate the highfalutin waters of academia and write her dissertation on outsider art. But her scholarship is turned on its head when she encounters Felicia, a security guard at the Guggenheim who calls it like she sees it.

MAKING CHARLIE
Written by Rachel Bykowski
4:00 pm, Thursday April 21st, Elizabeth Baker Theater, Kantner Hall
Charlie is finally the starting pitcher for the St. Joseph’s Wolves high school baseball team. Pitching is all Charlie wants to do. Pitching a no-hitter means control and all Charlie wants is control of that mound. But Charlie has a secret that makes him different from the rest of the boys on the field. Charlie is actually a girl who has been pretending to be a boy since childhood. When St. Joe’s welcomes Amy, an ace softball pitcher with the fastest pitch in their division as the first and only girl on the team, Charlie must now defend her place on the mound.

THE BIRTHDAY KISS
Written by Aaron Johnson
8:00 pm, Thursday April 21st, Elizabeth Baker Theater, Kantner Hall
Brook just wants to celebrate her son Billy’s birthday. There’s a problem though. Billy’s dead. But that’s not gonna stop her. She “enlists” the help of Finn, her young lover, and Billy’s long-time friend and neighbor Lucy, who is actually dating Finn and is going to have his baby. As Brook forces the two to participate in the birthday activities, it becomes clearer and clearer that Brook isn’t only trying to recreate Billy’s birthday, she’s trying to recreate Billy himself.

REMIND ME WHY WE’RE DOING THIS
Written by Natasha Smith
2:00 pm, Friday April 22nd, Elizabeth Baker Theater, Kantner Hall
Commitment means marriage…right? When Zahira and Asher decide to tie the knot, they aren’t sure how following such a traditional route will change their polyamorous relationship. Will marriage bring them closer together or force them to compromise their ideals? It doesn’t help that they’ve fallen for their wedding planner, Zahira’s sister is in town, and they don’t know what will happen if certain people find out they’re actually non-monogamous. Navigating the personal and the public, this play interrogates what it means to be a vulnerable individual in a society that demands strength and certainty.

STRONG FACE
by Philana Omorotionmwan
1:00 pm, Saturday April 23rd, Elizabeth Baker Theater, Kantner Hall
Maybe it’s her “energy.” Maybe it’s her hair. Or maybe it’s just her skin. Whatever it is, no one in Follywood seems to be able to see that actress Bentley Jones is a woman. But when she learns that major studio 19th Century Cocks has green lit a pick-a-flick guaranteed to earn its female star an impOSTOR nomination, Bentley has to decide if she’s ready for her real close up.

SHUT UP, I’M ON A DIET!
Written by Catherine Weingarten
4:00 pm, Saturday April 23rd, Elizabeth Baker Theater, Kantner Hall
When 16-year-old Tess gets sent to a sketchy mermaid-themed eating disorder treatment center, her whole life is turned around. With intense pressure from her overbearingly needy father, Tess’s goal of actually take control of her life and being a real live adult seems like it’s never gunna happen. But when Tess meets Digby, a random kinda douchey guy who works at the center, it seems like things might finally get sexier!