rpdolan

Recent Alum at Victory Gardens and Collaboraction:

Recent alum Christopher De Paola is currently understudying the role of Manny in the Victory Gardens’ world premiere production of “Cynical Weathers” by Douglas Post. He will be performing the role on May 8th. Chris has also been recently cast in the play “Autobiography” as part of Sketchbook, the 7th annual festival of short plays produced by Collaboraction and performed at the Steppenwolf Garage. Sketchbook 7 will run May 31 to July 1st. (To see Chris’s recent writing accolades, scroll down a little to his latest commission and his TV show.)

3rd-year MFA Published:

Two monologues from 3rd-year Laura Jacqmin’s short story West of the Moon are being published in the forthcoming Smith & Kraus anthology titled 221 ONE-MINUTE MONOLOGUES FROM LITERATURE (pub. date Autumn 2007). The titles of
the monologues are “Down There” and “Pack Job.”

Recent Alum Commissioned:

Pearson Scott Foresman, the world’s leading elementary educational publisher, has commissioned 2006 MFA Christopher De Paola to write a play for 6th graders to be published in their new reading anthology. (See his recent work with children’s television programming below.)

Recent Alum Creates TV Show in Chicago (part 2):

Recent MFA alum Chris DePaola’s “Green Screen Adventures”, a children’s TV show, will air in Chicago on Saturday March 31 at 7 a.m. on WCIU. The concept of the show is that actors and writers take stories written by elementary school students and adapt those stories for TV. Children can see their work come to life on TV and get excited about writing and drawing. The target audience is 1st-4th grade. Chris serves as a writer and performer. To see a clip, visit:
http://www.wciu.com/video/featured_video.aspx?VideoName=greenscreen.flv

3rd-year MFA to be Produced by Side Project in Chicago:

3rd-year MFA Laura Jacqmin’s BUTT NEKKID will be produced by The Side Project in Chicago in the 2007-2008 season. Dates have yet to be announced.

1st-year MFA Earns Staged Readings at Houston Theaters

1st-year playwright Reginald Edmund’s play The Redemption of Allah Black will be read at the Country Playhouse New Play Reading Series on April 8th and his play Juneteenth Street will have a staged reading at Ensemble Theater in Houston on April 11th.

MFA Alum Joins "Brooklyn Rail" as Theater Editor:

Justin Boyd (MFA 2003) has joined The Brooklyn Rail as co-editor of its Theater section. The March issue includes an article that quotes OU MFAs Qui Nguyen and Robert Ross Parker talking about Vampire Cowboys’ latest production Men of Steel. www.brooklynrail.org/2007-03/theater

3rd-year MFA to be Produced by Chicago Dramatists

Each year Chicago Dramatists chooses three of its member plays to be professionally produced. The new season has just been announced and 10 VIRGINS by C.D. Resident Playwright Laura Jacqmin (3rd-yr OU MFA) has been chosen as one of the three. Directed by Russ Tutterow, April 24 – June 1, 2008.

2nd-year MFA’s Upcoming Productions:

Joseph Gallo’s Warning: Adult Content has been selected for production at the Lark Theater in NYC in the Fall of 2007. His baseball play Ya Gotta Believe! has been selected for the 7th Inning Stretch 10-minute play festival produced by Miles Square Theatre in Hoboken, New Jersey, the birthplace of baseball.

3rd-year MFA a Finalist for Kendeda at Alliance (Atlanta):

Third-year MFA playwright Merri Biechler’s play Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver has been chosen as a finalist for the 2007 Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. The play will have a reading in NYC in November in connection with SPF/NYC and she will spend a week in residence in Atlanta in February ’08 to do a reading there. The Alliance is committed to getting the Kendeda Finalist plays produced at a variety of regional theatres. Other finalists this year include MFA playwrights from Yale, NYU, and UC-San Diego.