Posts By rpdolan

January 11, 2016
by rpdolan
· Madness · News

Second-year MFA playwright, Rachel Bykowski, starts off Madness in 2016 by producing “Resolution” Madness this week.

The Madness show is January 15th, 11pm, in the Hahne Black Box theater. Admission is free. We recommend you get there 45 to 60 minutes ahead of time to assure yourself a seat.

For more information about Madness this spring semester, check out our Madness page.

Rachel Bykowski was born and raised in Chicago. She writes plays that examine the masks people wear to conceal their true identities to blend into society and explores the repercussions when the masks are ripped off. Her work often includes proactive female characters that raise awareness to issues surrounding women. Rachel received her BFA in Playwriting from The Theatre School of DePaul University. Her playwriting credits include her full length plays: Original Recipe produced by DePaul University; staged reading of Got to Kill Bitch presented by Cock and Bull Theatre in Chicago; and staged reading of Glory vs. The Wolves presented by 20% Theatre Company Chicago and hosted by Women and Children First Bookstore as part of an event to raise awareness about rape culture. Her one act plays include: The Best Three Minutes of My Life produced by Bradley University; Break-Up Court andPay Phone produced by 20% Theatre Company Chicago; The Invisible Onesproduced by Fury Theatre in Chicago; and She Sings For You produced and published by Commedia Beauregard in Chicago. Rachel is also a proud company member of 20% Theatre Company Chicago. She is very excited to continue her writing career and pursuing her MFA in Playwriting under the tutelage of Ohio University. For more information about Rachel, please visit her website at www.rachelbykowski.com.

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“Colorblind” Madness This Friday at 11pm!

October 19, 2015
by rpdolan
· Current Students · Madness · News

First-year MFA playwright, Philana Omorotionmwan, is producing “Colorblind” Madness this week.

She uses a famous August Wilson quote about “colorblind” casting as a jumping off point:

Colorblind casting is an aberrant idea that has never had any validity other than as a tool of the Cultural Imperialist who views their American Culture, rooted in the icons of European Culture, as beyond reproach in its perfection. It is inconceivable to them that life could be lived and even enriched without knowing Shakespeare or Mozart. Their gods, their manners, their being is the only true and correct representation of humankind.

Philana argues that often “colorblind'” casting often ignores an actor’s color rather than bring additional meaning to the character and story. “(It) comes to mean that the actor, cast, and audience are essentially pretending the actor is white,” she says. Philana asks her fellow playwrights to expand and explore what “colorblind” means. “What happens when someone is denied part of his or her identity? What are the consequences? What are the benefits?” Playwrights are free to incorporate these questions, but not necessarily apply them to color/racial identity.

Show is October 23rd, 11pm, in the Hahne Black Box theater. Admission is free. We recommend you get there 45 to 60 minutes ahead of time to assure yourself a seat.

For more information about Madness this fall semester, check out our Madness page.

Philana Omorotionmwan was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She uses writing to create images that explore the the intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality. Her short plays have been produced at Ensemble Studio Theater, Manhattan Theatre Source, and Berkeley Rep. Her poems have been published in New Delta Review and African American Review. Philana earned her BA from Stanford University and is excited to be pursing an MFA here at OU. You can find out more about her work at philanaplays.weebly.com.

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Silence Madness

September 19, 2015
by rpdolan
· Hero Slider

Dolan’s MORAINE is “Reader Recommended” in Chicago.

April 7, 2015
by rpdolan
· Chicago · Current Students · News

The weekly alt-newspaper, The Chicago Reader, gave Ryan Patrick Dolan‘s new play, MORAINE, its vaunted “Recommended” designation.

Dolan is a 2nd-year MFA playwright at OU, and MORAINE was the play he developed in his first year in the program. Produced by Dolan, and director, Mary Rose O’Connor, at CIC Theater in Chicago, MORAINE runs through Saturday, April 18th. It features former Ohio University Black Sheep Improv performer, Caleb Fullen.

Reviewer, Chloe Riley, had this to say about the production:

If you’re wondering, a moraine is a heap of earth and stones carried and deposited by a glacier. But there’s ample deeper meaning within Ryan Patrick Dolan’s new play, which follows four friends dealing with a fifth friend’s cancer treatment. As comics like Julia Sweeney and Tig Notaro have shown, the devastating disease can still be funny, and Dolan’s got the smarts to avoid wallowing in sadness. In turn, director Mary Rose O’Connor has the smarts to involve a brilliant cast, several of whom are improvisers trained in the ancient art of actually listening and responding onstage. As Mark, a bro trying to keep things as they’ve always been, Caleb Fullen pushes hard to find depth and humor in a character who could be all too unlikable. The result is the opposite of glacial.

Check out the play’s website here.
You can buy tickets through Brown Paper Tickets.

Moraine runs through April 18th
Thursday – Sat, 8pm
Sundays at 2pm
CIC Theater
1422 W. Irving Park Road
cictheater.com

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F That Noise

January 19, 2015
by rpdolan
· News · Uncategorized

Hey, I know what you’re doing. Coming home from that 9-6 job with the 45 minute commute either way. Eleven total hours dedicated to that job you don’t care about. You’re tired, but F that noise. You’re not gonna get stuck in that hell hole. You’re gonna write tonight, right? I mean work out, and then write. Or maybe you’ll write tonight, and get up early tomorrow and work out. Yeah, that’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna get home, and cook that chicken that’s been sitting in your fridge. It’s not spoiled yet. You’re take that cucumber out of the crisper tray, and open up that bag of lettuce and make a nice salad. Fill up a mason jar with some refreshing, clean tap water. You’re gonna sit down at your laptop. And you’re gonna bang out five pages. Hell, no. You’re gonna bang out ten pages. Ok, at least five pages. Five pages is doable. Heck, if you did five pages a day, for four weeks, you’d have that play done. In a month. You can sit down and do anything for four weeks. You’re not gonna check Facebook. You’re not gonna check the score. You’re not gonna check Etsy. You’re gonna go home and cook your chicken and make your salad and drink your water and write your five pages. You’re gonna go to bed by 10:30pm and wake up at 5:30am and workout. This is it. This is simple. You’re a Writer, capital W, and this is how it’s gonna be from now on.

You know you’ll save yourself some writing time if you just popped in and got a slice of pizza instead of cooking. You’re gonna work out tomorrow so it’s okay. The chicken will still be good. Maybe you’ll get your pages done and cook it tonight so you can have it for lunch and dinner tomorrow. Save some money. Yeah. So get a slice. Oh, man you ate that quick. Still hungry, right? Go ahead and get another. Just three bucks. Still saving money. And a coke. Dinner under ten bucks. Good stuff. Head up to your apartment. You’re just a little tired. Just rest your head and watch some Cheers on Netflix for a bit. Just rest the brain cells. Dang this show is so good. This is great writing. This is helping your writing. This is writing homework. Good on you.

Text message. David. You haven’t seen that guy in weeks. Beer? Sure. It’s only 7:30pm. One beer won’t kill you. It’s important to keep up with friends. How the heck can you be a writer if you don’t socialize? If you don’t hang out and see how other people live their life?

Four beers and a shot later. Dang $30 with tip…

You’ll get up early and write tomorrow before work….

Deadline for Ohio’s MFA Playwriting program is February 15th.

Email ohioplaywriting@gmail.com for more information.

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Kara Lee Corthron Interviews Catherine Weingarten ’17 “About Things Other Than Writing”

January 11, 2015
by rpdolan
· Current Students · New York · News

Playwright, Kara Lee Corthron, former visiting faculty member at Ohio University, interviewed Catherine Weingarten ’17 for her blog. Based out of NYC, Corthron has a series of interviews called “Q & A’s with Writers about things OTHER than Writing.” You can read the interview here.

Corthron’s full-length plays include JULIUS BY DESIGN (Fulcrum Theater), ETCHED IN SKIN ON A SUNLIT NIGHT (InterAct Theatre in Philadelphia), ALICEGRACEANON (New Georges), HOLLY DOWN IN HEAVEN (Forum Theatre in DC area), SPOOKWATER, LISTEN FOR THE LIGHT, and WELCOME TO FEAR CITY. Kara is the 2014-2015 Naked Angels/New School Issues Project Resident Playwright.

Here’s a taste of the interview:

Corthron: If you had the opportunity to patent a brand new product, what might that be?
CW: I’m super into body positivity and self empowerment for young women, so if I could make a new product I would love to target pre-teen girls and have some sort of girly jewelry box that you can smack and it’ll say something inspirational like “Yo mom be wrong, GURL, you looking fine!” or “No one should ever dump you because you have the biggest heart a chick could want!”.

Catherine Weingarten is a rad, awkward jew-friendly chick from an obscure area of Pennsylvania! She is a currently pursuing her MFA in Playwriting at Ohio University, studying under Charles Smith and Erik Ramsey. She graduated from Bennington College in 2013 studying under Sherry Kramer. She has taken workshops in playwriting with Samuel D.Hunter, Kara Lee Corthon and Branden Jacob-Jenkins.

Ms. Weingarten’s works have been produced at such venues as UglyRhino Productions, Last Frontier Theater Conference, Abingdon Theater, Less Than Rent, Poetic Theater Productions, New Orleans Fringe Festival, Nylon Fusion Collective and Fresh Ground Pepper. She was most recently a member of Abingdon Playwright’s Group as well as New Perspective Theater’s “This Women’s Work” 2014 short play lab. She is also a member of the inaugural “365 Women a Year” Playwriting Project.”

When not writing plays, Ms.Weingarten likes writing perky body positive blogs, heating up soup(which she is getting pretty good at!) and reading Bret Easton Ellis novels.

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Chantal Bilodeau’s Essay “A Playwright’s Journey to the Canadian Arctic” on WorldPolicy.org

November 20, 2014
by rpdolan
· alumni · News

Chantal Bilodeau has a new essay on worldpolicy.org, “A Playwright’s Journey Into the Canadian Arctic,” about her research and writing in the Arctic, specifically her interactions with the Inuit people.

From their site: The World Policy Institute, cited by Foreign Policy magazine and the University of Pennsylvania as among the world’s leading think tanks, identifies critical emerging global issues in an interdependent world and gives voice to compelling new global perspectives and innovative policy solutions.

Bilodeau is an alumnus of Ohio University. She is in the middle of a very ambitious project, The Arctic Cycle, whose goal is to write eight plays set in eight different countries whose borders extend into the Arctic Circle.

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Chicago Reading Tuesday for Neal Adelman’s PONTIACS

November 10, 2014
by rpdolan
· Chicago · Current Students · News · Reading

Third year MFA playwright, Neal Adelman ’14, will have a reading of his play, PONTIACS, in Chicago, Tuesday, November 11th at the Greenhouse Theater. It is directed by Andrew Peters, and the cast includes: Mélisa Breiner-Sanders, Clinton Campbell, Elise Randall, Michael Stock, Greg Wenz.

Adelman is in his 3rd year in the MFA program, and PONTIACS last had a reading last April at the 2014 Seabury Quinn Jr. Playwrights Festival on campus. He had a one-act play, 1100 CHILI DOGS, OR 1985: THE YEAR BELINDA CARLISLE CAME TO OKLAHOMA, that was produced in Chicago last summer as part of the night of one-act plays, 10-4: The Truck Stop Plays.

The reading starts at 7pm, and is being read with another play ZERO TO CRAZY by Francesca Robyn Peppiatt. Trellis at the Greenhouse Theater Center is at 2257 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, Illinois 60614.

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Tonight: Reading for Chantal Bilodeau’s FORWARD with Chicago’s Akavit Theatre at BOHO Theater

October 27, 2014
by rpdolan
· alumni · Chicago · News · Reading

Chantal Bilodeau’s play, FORWARD, has a staged reading with Chicago’s Akavit Theater tonight at BOHO Theater.

The OU alum’s play, FORWARD, is a part of Bilodeau’s “Arctic Cycle.”

Synopsis of Forward from Bilodeau’s website:

Forward began in October 2011 with Chantal’s participation in the Arctic Circle (thearcticcircle.org) program, a two-week sailing expedition around the Svalbard Archipelago, located halfway between Norway and the North Pole.

Moving backwards from present-day Norway to 1895, when Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen established a record for sailing closest to the North Pole, Forwardpresents a poetic history of climate change and looks at how a spirit of innovation propelled Norwegians through three major events of the 20th century: the conquest of the North, the discovery of oil, and the onset of climate change. The play looks at a series of seemingly unrelated characters confronting small, day-to-day challenges, and making choices that seemed innocent at the time but turned out to be important markers in History.

Akavit Theater produces plays about the “five Nordic countries—harnessing the force of the glacier, in its powerful seeming stillness, the volcano, in its sudden white-hot eruption, and the arctic silence in between—we strive to find the universal through the voices of the Nordic world.”

The reading is at BOHO Theater at 7016 N. Glenwood Ave by the Heartland Cafe.

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Right Hand Red #2

September 13, 2014
by rpdolan
· News

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