Category: Current Students

First Year Playwright Inna Tsyrlin interviewed by us!

August 5, 2016
by catherineforever666
· Current Students · News

Curious about who the incoming MFA playwrights are?? Well in this interview series we will get to learn a little bit about these awesome writers and their interests. Next up we have Inna Tsyrlin , who is from Australia! Read on to learn more about her and look out for one other interviews !! Check out Inna’s writing in Midnight Madness, coming to you in late August!

Read on below to learn more about her!:

What got you excited about OU? What specifically are you looking forward to about our playwriting program?

What was exciting to me about OU was the structure of the playwriting program. It is so heavily focused on production and working with other departments of the theatre faculty. I love collaborating with other writers, directors, actors. I think that is where the magic happens; when we are all working towards creating great pieces of theatre. I’m really looking forward to exploring and playing with unconventional ideas, concepts, and themes. I think the program will allow me to try writing plays that I may have not even known I had in me to write but given the space and influence, anything can happen.

What are some of your artistic influences?

I’m interested in absurdist theatre; really dispelling belief but reflecting a certain truth of our world, our existence. Thus, I’m interested in the works of Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Edward Albee, and Anton Chekhov, who isn’t technically an absurdist playwright but his work certainly calls for it. But I’m also influenced by all art, music, film, literature, and despite sounding like a cliche, I’m influenced by life. There is so much wonderful creation out there, it would be naive to limit oneself to one style or medium. I believe in looking at art and ideas very broadly and selecting from a variety of influences to help shape my work. I try to search for specific elements for my writing, but I cast the net out as widely as I can.

If you could get locked in the closet with one celeb, who would it be and why?

I’m a huge Quentin Tarantino fan, so I wouldn’t mind getting locked in a closet with him. I’ve got a lot of questions to ask the man; he creates great characters in his films and gives them authentic and entertaining dialogue. I hear his work being quoted and referred to a lot around me because his style is distinct and his influences are broad. I’d pick his brain about that and brainstorm some ideas I have.

At this point in your playwriting work, what kind of stories and questions are you drawn to?

I’m drawn to stories where characters’ discover their truth and their individuality. I feel that we get distracted from the things we want and from what we are capable of. The world is a noisy place and we can find it difficult to find our place in it, so I’d like to explore those journeys that lead characters to a path of awareness and contentment. Additionally, I want to explore social and political questions that we are facing at the moment. Like many, I am concerned about the current racial, ideological and environmental tensions that have created pretty extreme divisions that I feel my work should respond to.

Tell us a fun fact about you!

I’m Aussie and when I first arrived to America and I kept telling people I have a pet kangaroo. No one batted an eyelid. I found it fun to play that up; it is fun to fall into your nation’s stereotypes, sometimes.

Read a Writing Sample of Inna’s Work!!

Two weeks notice

(Woman, late 20s/early 30s, sitting at a desk, typing on her computer, in a small apartment in East Village, New York City.)

WOMAN

Dear New York City. It is with sad regret that I formally provide my two weeks notice.

Sad regret…that’s bullshit, I don’t regret at all. In fact, I’m happy. I’m joyous. I’m sensationally ecstatic.

(clears throat) I’m grateful to the people who have provided valuable lessons that I’m going recall for some time to come. Thank you for letting me be a part of this…

Thank you? Thank you? No, fuck you! Fuck you New York City for running me into the gutter time and time again. Fuck you for the broken heart, broken knee, three broken iphones that smashed on the ground, slipping through my fingers only because you force me to run for the G train because it never comes. It just never comes.

And you know what New York City, New York City… overall, generally, for all intents and purposes, FUCK YOU!

But. But. (Pause) I did say, with sad regret. And regret it is. I regret that there’s an end. Even if it’s temporary and I’ll be back in ten years, or maybe in two… okay even if I’m back in six months. It is, after all, six months without you, New York.

More about Inna

Inna Tsyrlin has been writing and producing shorts and one acts in New York City including: “My Wife” for the HB Playwrights Foundation shorts series; “Happy Anniversary” and “I (heart Subway)” for Emerging Artists Theatre; and “Principal’s Office” for the Manhattan Repertory Theater. She has co-written/co-produced “Eggs”, short film, and reviews theater for StageBuddy.com

First year playwright Katherine Varga interviewed by us!

August 3, 2016
by catherineforever666
· Current Students · News

Curious about who the incoming MFA playwrights are?? Well in this interview series we will get to learn a little bit about these awesome writers and their interests. Next up we have Katherine Varga , a journalist as well as playwright! Read on to learn more about her and look out for one other interviews !! Check out Katherine’s writing in Midnight Madness, coming to you in late August!

1. What got you excited about OU? What specifically are you looking forward to about our playwriting program?

I’m super excited about Madness! Limitations help me be creative, so the idea of having a new prompt and deadline every week sounds incredibly fun. I’m also a nerd for structure, and love that the program balances its hands-on performance opportunities with a focus on theory.

2. What are some of your artistic influences?

I had to change the ending of my first full length play because it was too reminiscent of Arcadia, so I guess Tom Stoppard is an influence. I’m also pretty obsessed with Lauren Gunderson and Sarah Ruhl.

3. If you could get locked in the closet with one celeb, who would it be and why?

Lin-Manuel Miranda for many reasons, but mostly because he’s Lin-Manuel Miranda.

4. At this point in your playwriting work, what kind of stories and questions are you drawn to?

I tend to be drawn to larger-than-life situations that examine how people are influenced by everyday forces such as identity, community, and belief systems. Much of my writing so far has looked at the interplay between science and the humanities. I also have a lot of feelings about puppets.

5. Tell us a fun fact about you!

One summer I interned at the Scherer Library of Musical Theater, where I got to scrape mold off the original Broadway scripts of Man of La Mancha.

WRITING SAMPLE

Here’s a short monologue from her recent play World Without N:

PATRICIA

To make a painting you have to buy paint.

You have to buy paintbrushes.

You have to buy a canvas.

You have to buy a black tea and a butter croissant every time you’re there to paint, or else the barista will passive aggressively accuse you of loitering.

In then end you have a painting you didn’t have before.

Something only you could have created.

The baristas like you, so they put your artwork on display. And I have learned— you buy all these commodities, and the ultimate thing you get out of it isn’t a thing you can own or consume.

It’s a moment, the look on someone’s face when they see your art on the wall and are clearly thinking, ‘Who the fuck took time out of their precious life to burden the rest of us with this piece of shit?’”

Read more about Katherine!

Katherine Varga is a freelance writer and playwright originally from New Britain, CT. She recently received her B.A. English from the University of Rochester, where she was awarded a Take Five scholarship to study urbanization and the arts. Her plays have been developed at Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York and Curious Theatre in Denver, Colorado, and read at the 2015 First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival.

First year playwright Trip interviewed by us!

August 1, 2016
by catherineforever666
· Current Students · News

Curious about who the incoming MFA playwrights are?? Well in this interview series we will get to learn a little bit about these awesome writers and their interests. First up we have Trip Venturella, a Boston friendly playwright who just put up a musical this summer called “Killer Maples.” Sounds fun to me!! Read on to learn more about him and look out for our two other interviews with the other writers!! Check out Tripp’s writing in Midnight Madness, coming to you in late August!

1. What got you excited about OU? What specifically are you looking forward to about our playwriting program?

I was excited to spend three years working on my craft. Taking time to write was why I wanted to do an MFA program in the first place. OU appealed to me because of the focus on play production: a play is a living document, a blueprint for a thing that speaks, moves, acts, and breathes in space. Without an awareness of how the form and structure of a play is related to its final “playing,” you will write a boring play! I am also interested in the flexibility of the curriculum, since a play requires not only a deep knowledge of drama, but also a deep knowledge of the play’s subject matter. So I am most excited about/looking forward to staging lots and lots of ideas, crafting exciting plays, living in an environment that encourages the open exchange of ideas, and collaborating with and learning from smart, talented people.

2. Who/what are some of your artistic influences?

There are many! I’m kind of like a food processor, but for art: I try to take ideas from a lot of sources. When it comes to live theatre, I really admire the work of Boston’s Matthew Woods, whose devised scripts with his company, imaginary beasts, consistently blow my mind. Boston-based Johnny Kuntz writes killer plays; the kind I wish I wrote (or aspire to write). Spaulding Grey and Mike Daisy are two of my favorite raconteurs and storytellers, and I am fascinated with dramatic storytelling as a tool for theatre. Bedlam, a company based out of New York, is also one of my favorites when it comes to imaginative interpretations of classic plays. I’ve spent nearly 3 years working at Apollinaire Theatre Company, whose director, Danielle Jacques, has great taste in plays, and who has introduced me to some of my favorite contemporary playwrights, including Young Jean Lee, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Aaron Posner. I also love Neil Simon, Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter, David Ives, and the amazing plays of Paula Vogel. Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter, and Lin Manuel Miranda are all incredible storytellers when it comes to musicals. I also love poets, with Anne Caron, Ann Sexton, W.S. Merwin, and Robert Lowell being some of my favorite “greats,” and Mark Bibbins, Natalie Diaz, and Naomi Shaib Nye as some of my favorite modern poets.

3. If you could get locked in the closet with one celeb, who would it be and why?

Neil DeGrasse Tyson. If I’m to spend 7 Minutes In Heaven, I want to spend it with someone who knows his way around. Aaaayoooo!

4. At this point in your playwriting work, what kind of stories and questions are you drawn to?

I’m interested in taking low theatrical forms and using them to tell high stories. I’m also interested in using absurdist storytelling elements in otherwise-believable situations. I also like writing about events in the past that reflect or comment on our present moment. Fortunately, we’re living in absurd times. I have been thinking about that a lot in my writing. I am particularly interested, in this moment, in writing a biographical play. One question I’ve been mulling over: how does a democracy become a dictatorship? I also have a bunch of other ideas puttering around, but I feel like my next big play is going to be biographical, and address this question.

5. Tell us a fun fact about you!

For one summer, due to poor planning on my part, I lived at home and worked as a traveling olive oil salesman. Because my parents live in a fairly rural area of Connecticut, I went to a lot of farmers markets frequented by the New York weekender crowd. At one of these markets, I was approached an exceptionally pretty lady and her mother. Definitely weekenders, I thought. They picked out the cheapest bottle of olive oil I had. I tried to upsell them and and they demurred, but I still made the sale. Once they had left, the lady working next to me informed me that I had just sold a bottle of olive oil to Natalie Portman. She could have afforded a more expensive bottle.

Now that you are obsessed with Trip, read some of his work!!

WRITING SAMPLE:

[The door swings open to reveal the inside of the sugar shack. A spigot drips slowly into a tank of sap. In the center of the shack, connected to a mound of knotted roots, is MIKE, still in a tux but now with a flannel shirt thrown over this shoulders, with a drink.]

SUE
Mike!

MIKE
Sue
My dear sister

SUE
What’s happened?

MIKE
I am become a name, Sue!
The trees spoke, and I was the only one to hear their call
I have drunk the glory and the wisdom of the woods

SUE
Mike, you, you’ve—

MIKE
Transforméd?
Yes, but entirely by my own will
Gone mad?
Yes, Sue, I have gone mad, quite mad, suuuuuper-villain mad
It began weeks ago, when I discovered the anger latent in the forests
I discovered ways to make the trees move, to make them kill, to follow the bugs and find prey
I listened to their whispers, but the more I spoke to them, the more I realized it was only a matter of time until I joined them, and now behold the grove and I transforméd, evolvéd, creating a new nature
my end is not to annihilate humans,
it is to transform them from the greedy, destructive killers that they are;
to convert greedy hands to nuuuuuuutrient-seeking roots!
I have shaped, in this grove, a new ecology, where the needs of man and the needs of nature to flourish are no longer at odds
I am the first to take the step, and so the rest of humanity shall follow

REG
He’s not speaking
Sue, your brother is dead
Those are the trees speaking, he’s their puppet

MIKE
He may be right, he may be wrong
Regardless, this fool will be killed!

[REG is entangled in roots]

REG
Ack! I am entangléd in roots!

SUE
Mike, let Reg go
This is between you and me
This is the home we built, and it’s for us alone to decide who will take it with them

MIKE
Hardly, this is between humans, and the rest of the world
I will remove your man
And Sue, you will join me!

REG
Don’t listen to him!
He’s nuts!
He just confessed his madness

MIKE
I may be mad, but madness is reasonable in the face of a our enmeshed history, and fantastic future

More about Trip

Trip Venturella is a graduate of Colby College with a degree in Religious Studies. He has worked with Colby College’s Theater and Dance Department, the human rights group ANHAD: Kashmir, Delhi University in New Delhi, Floating Space Theatre Company in Sri Lanka, and many, many groups in the Boston area. He has done field work on Chams Dance in Sikkim and studied Chhau Dance in Delhi. He currently serves as the Development and Outreach Director of Apollinaire Theatre Company in Chelsea, Massachusetts, where he has overseen the conception of, fundraising for, and buildout of the Riseman Family Theatre and the Chelsea Blackbox Theatre, as well as the production of three years of Apollinaire in the Park: a free, outdoor, bilingual summer theatre production. His original musical “Killer Maples: The Musical!,” a collaboration with the composer Andres Ramos, was produced by Yelling Man Theatre in June of 2016.

Philana chosen for Bay Area Playwrights Festival!

April 19, 2016
by catherineforever666
· Current Students · Festival · News

Current first year playwright Philana Omorotionmwan is one of six playwrights chosen for the Bay Area Playwrights festival in San Francisco to develop her new play this summer! The new play festival runs July 15th through the 24th and Philana’s play Before Evening Comes will be featured.

Here is a little bit about the play: It’s the year 2083. A draconian government mandate renders nearly all males of color homebound and disabled as they reach manhood, but for a few beacons of virtue. But Mary, mother to four boys, is determined to find any way necessary to subvert her boys’ fate. A dystopian parable of our times.

Here is a quote from Philana about her process on this play:“I typically start from a place of questions when I write. For this play I asked myself: What does it mean to choose motherhood as a black woman in 21st century America? Can artistic expression offer the possibility of freedom from a life of bondage? I continue to explore these questions as I dive into my rewrites for the festival.”

Congrats Philana on this awesome and prestigious development opportunity!

Catherine Weingarten interviewed by us about Seabury Quinn

April 18, 2016
by catherineforever666
· Current Students · Festival · News

Hi everyone! Welcome to our interview series with the current rockin MFA playwrights, leading up to Seabury Quinn! Catherine Weingarten is a 2nd year MFA playwright and wrote the new play “Shut Up, I’m on a Diet!” She is known in the playwriting program for her girly plays, her intense imagery and her fun personality ! Check out the interview below and then see her playthis Saturday the 21st at 4pm!! Also watch out for all 7 of the other interviews with our other writers!

1.This year your play deals with issues of eating disorders. What made you pursue this subject?

I have been interested in how people develop eating disorders and dieting pressure ever since I was a helpline intern at the National Eating Disorder Association in NYC. I am interested in my writing in exploring society’s expectations for women to look a certain way and that effect on us. Body image is a subject that many people have tons of awkward, intense, torturous feelings about but are scared to articulate them. Before I got to Ohio University, I had written a few short plays about body image including a weird, girly one act called “Whipped Dream”, about three girls binging, making out with each other and dealing with their bodies. But “Shut Up, I’m on a Diet!” is my first full length play looking at the pressure young people are faced with to be beautiful and to have the ideal body.

2.Everyone in the program knows you have colorful and expressive language in your plays. How did you implement it in this play and can you give us an example?

Well as I writer, I always have been obsessed with language and writing it how I really hear it. I like to twist words, makes them up and explode them until they feel real to me. Each play is another chance to explore and experiment. I think specifically in this play, the treatment center is wild, over the top but has creepy roots to reality and how we conduct therapy. I love creating sexy feminine dream worlds that kinda make sense and are also kinda too girly for the average person to fully understand.

Here’s a little excerpt from my play,where Tess has finally got at the treatment center, “Little Mermaids in Distress”:

DIGBY
But just so you guys know,
I’m not some fancy intern robot,
I’m a person also!
When I’m not an intern at “Little Mermaids in Distress”,
I am pursuing my PHD at Pennsylvania Dreams University,
It’s a school created from a large endowment by Burger King
Just 20 mins from here,
And I also have a passion for lady bugs
And have a big collection in my dorm
Room here!
You ladies care to share anything about yourselves??
Break da ice!!!

PIXIE
I’ll go!
So about mee…
I love friendship as a concept,
Taking notes,
And Watching as many Disney movies
In one day as I possibly can handleee
And pleasing everyone
And making every possible person
Happy at all times oh yaaa!

TESS
Taking notes????
That’s a hobby?

DIGBY
We are not here to judge Tess,
But to transform our bodies
From ugly cocoons to
Sexy…, powerful, teen butterflies,
Start anew.

3.At the heart of your play lies a close father/daughter relationship. Why did you want to explore this father/daughter dynamic and what’s important about it in your play?

I have a habit of writing about older man and younger women;but this relationship is super interesting and complicated within a family. How does a girl get influenced by her father? Does it affect the kind of people she wants to date? What kind of ideas of womanhood does a man pass on to his daughter? This relationship can be super fun, great, confusing or really depressing:or all those things at once. In “Shut Up, I’m on a Diet!” Tess is getting sent to an eating disorder treatment center by her father who recently got out of prison. When writing this relationship, I wanted to explore parents being too needy to exists and needing their kids more than their kids needed them. I wanted to explore the idea of blame, overdependence and hidden connection. I think at the heart of this play is this frayed connection between Tess and her dad. Can their relationship be smooth after so much turmoil has entered their life? See the play and find out!! Bam!!

Since your play deals with eating disorders, obviously food is talked about a lot. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

What a great question!! Well I really have the most insane sweet tooth, so it would be twizzlers, candy is a food right??

Now that you love Catherine, come see her reading!

Details:

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!

More about Catherine

Catherine Weingarten hails from Ardmore, PA also known as the area that inspired the preppy sexy TV show “Pretty Little Liars.” Catherine’s comedic plays delve into the societal pressure placed on young women to be both impossibly good looking as well as ridiculously intellectual, humble, kind as can be but sexy. Her plays usually include some hot fantasy sequences which helps attract the common man into the theater! She recently graduated from Bennington College in Vermont where she studied playwriting(with Sherry Kramer) as well as gender, mediation and environmental studies. Her short plays have been done at such theaters as Ugly Rhino Productions, Fresh Ground Pepper, Wishbone Theater Collective and Nylon Fusion Collective. She is currently the playwright in residence for “Realize Your Beauty Inc” which promotes positive body image for kids by way of theater arts. Catherine is thrilled to pursue her MFA at OU and thankful for the awesome opportunity for baller mentorship. catherine-weingarten.squarespace.com

Rachel Bykowski interviewed by us about Seabury Quinn!

April 17, 2016
by catherineforever666
· Current Students · Festival · News

Hi everyone! Welcome to our interview series with the current rockin MFA playwrights, leading up to Seabury Quinn! Rachel Bykowski is a 2nd year MFA playwright and wrote “Making Charlie” She is known in the playwriting department for passionate activist spirit, her goodlooking shoes and her hard working attitude! Check out the interview below and then see her play, Thursday April 19th!! Also watch out for all 7 of the other interviews with our other writers!

1.Tell me about your process for creating “Making Charlie”? Was it a fun and sexy process or a harder one?

I was inspired by this non-fiction book I read that interviewed a village of people in rural Albania. Within this culture, it is important to give birth to sons for various reasons: men are allowed to fight and protect the family from “blood feuds” and men make the business/economic/political decisions for their home and village. Women in this culture are relegated to domestic work and cannot engage in social activities like drinking and eating with men. If a family happens to have all daughters, that family can decide to raise one daughter as a son and she is called a “sworn virgin.” She is then raised and treated as a man. She even adopts the male gender clothing and hairstyles. This daughter can now take charge of her family and engage in political and social discussions with men. However, the sworn virgin does have to sacrifice intimacy/her sexuality. She cannot marry or engage in sexual activities with men or women.

What intrigued me the most about this belief is when the interviewers asked the sworn virgins if they missed publicly being women and the intimacy/sexuality that comes with that, unanimously the sworn virgins replied they absolutely didn’t. Being a man with those privileges is far better.

2. In your play you do not shy away from big issues: why do you think sexual violence is an issue people need to understand better and how can making art about it help people to get a better understanding?

I want people to understand that sexual violence just doesn’t come from out of nowhere. It is something that is developed and conditioned over time in a person’s life. With this play, I am looking at how male privilege is a factor that creates sexual violence, especially when it goes unchecked. But the power is intoxicating.

3. If your play was a shoe, what kinda shoe would it be and why?

I guess for this one, a baseball cleat.

4. what’s a fun fact about you?

Last summer and this summer I will be working at a feminist bookstore in Chicago called “Women and Children First.”….If you are a fan of of the series Portlandia, the answer is, yes, its kind of similar and all amazing!

Now that you love Rachel, come see Rachel’s reading!

Details

MAKING CHARLIE or CUTTER

Directed by Allison Epperson
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.

More about Rachel

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 and Pay 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.

Philana interviewed by us about Seabury Quinn!

April 14, 2016
by catherineforever666
· Current Students · Festival · News

Hi everyone! Welcome to our interview series with the current rockin MFA playwrights, leading up to Seabury Quinn! Philana Omorotionmwan is a 1st year MFA playwright and wrote a new, provocative play about race and casting called “Strong Face.” She is known in the playwriting world here for her love of language, her soulful style and her shy and edgy demeanor! Check out the interview below and then see the reading very month,Saturday April 23rd at 1pm!! Also watch out for all 7 of the other interviews with our other writers!

1. Your first year play delves into issues of actors of color and casting. What made you interested in exploring this issue?

I was and remain more interested in portrayals and perceptions of black women in general than I am in actors and casting specifically. The idea that black women are stronger (both physically and emotionally) and less “feminine” than women of other races is deeply embedded in the foundation of this country; it had to be in order to justify sending women to work in the fields side by side with men. Because I think the media has a lot to do with continuing to perpetuate those representations, actors and casting became the vehicles I used to develop a story exploring my interests. Of course, #OscarsSoWhite took off right around the time I completed a first draft of the play so that conversation has definitely influenced the play as I’ve developed it.

2. You’re a playwright who seems to have a lot of interest in language and why we say things the was we say them. What about exploring language does it for you?

There are a lot of reasons I think about language in the way that I do, probably including that English is neither my mother nor my father’s first. I suspect I became convinced that if they could have just picked the right word at the right moment when talking to each other, things might have gone differently. I also believe another reason is that deep down I really just want to be a musician. The first thing I remember answering when asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” was a singer. But I couldn’t sing. I tried my hand at the piano and the clarinet but didn’t have the discipline needed to become good at either. However, there’s still this part of me that longs to make music. Arranging words on the page is the closest I’ll probably ever get to doing that.

3. If your play wanted to propose to me, how would she do it and why?

My play probably wouldn’t propose to you because she doesn’t want to share her life with anybody. Because that would require being vulnerable. Which is not her thing. So she’d probably just tell you really bad jokes that you’d find offensive until you decide to leave her.

4. What’s a fun fact about you?

In the year following my college graduation, I had a total of six jobs: pizza buffet restaurant waitress, grocery store cashier, public school substitute teacher, dental and vision insurance claims data entry temp, ACT/SAT test prep tutor (which I continued to do for seven years), and youth mentor in an after-school abstinence-only program. And my parents said no one would hire me with an English degree.

Now that you love herrr, come see her play reading!

Details below

STRONG FACE
by Philana Omorotionmwan

Free admission
1:00 pm, Saturday April 23rd, Elizabeth Baker Theater, Kantner Hall

About: 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.

Also check out our page on Seabury QUinn

More about Philana

Philana Omorotionmwan was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She uses writing to create images that explore 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.

Cristina Luzarraga interviewed by us about Seabury Quinn!

April 12, 2016
by catherineforever666
· Current Students · Festival · News

Hi everyone! Welcome to our interview series with the current rockin MFA playwrights, leading up to Seabury Quinn! Cristina Luzarraga is a 1st year MFA playwright and the writer of “The Critical Distance of a Nose” which kicks off the reading series on the 21st. She is known in the Playwriting program for her dark dark sense of humor, her insane intellect and her devilish vibe! Check out the interview below and then see her reading this very month!! Also watch out for all 7 of the other interviews with our other writers

1.In your play “Critical Distance of the Nose” you explore ideas of outsider art and art criticism. Have you always been a big art person?

I’ve always been a big wannabe art person–does that count? Those who can’t make art, write plays about art.

2.Some people have called your work pretty dark since in madness you’ve covered such topics as faking pregnancies, virgin sacrifice and Adam and Eve and a rando dude hooking up. What draws you to darker material? Why not just write plays about bunnies flying and sunshine?

See, I thought those Madness pieces were funny, particularly the Adam and Eve one. I think I’m drawn more towards humor than darkness. It just so happens that my sense of humor is pretty dark and twisted. I’d write about flying bunnies and sunshine if said bunnies were to fly too close to the sun à la Icarus and meet some horrible flying-bunny-demise.

3.If your play took me to an art museum as a date ;), what would the date be like and why?

The date would entail a lot of standing around and trying to seem smart. And then finally, we’d be like: hey, let’s cut the crap and go to the museum café because I want an overpriced scone and Diet Coke.

what’s a fun fact about you?

I’m a quadruplet. (Please don’t fact check that.)

Now that you are obsessed with Cristina, come see her reading in the Seabury Quinn Fest!

Details:

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.

More about Cristina

Cristina Luzarraga was born and raised in Short Hills, New Jersey, save for a few teenage years spent in London, England. She graduated in 2011 from Princeton University with B.A. in Comparative Literature. Subsequently, she moved to Chicago where she studied sketch writing and improvisation at iO Theatre and The Second City Conservatory and performed stand-up comedy at Zanies and elsewhere. Her full-length play Due Unto Others was produced by Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts. Her short plays Hippo Woman and Baker’s Three were produced at Greenhouse Theater in Chicago.

Aaron James Johnson interviewed by us about Seabury Quinn!

April 11, 2016
by catherineforever666
· Current Students · Festival · News

Hi everyone! Welcome to our interview series with the current rockin MFA playwrights, leading up to Seabury Quinn! Aaron James Johnson is a 3rd year MFA playwright and is the Seabury Quinn producer and the writer of the excellent play, “The Birthday Kiss”. He is known for his rebellious work, his love of family dramas and his Midwest sensibility! Check out the interview below and then see his production this very month!! Also watch out for all 7 of the other interviews with our other writers!

If your play beat me up, how would he do it?

Well, first of all, it wouldn’t be a “he”, it would be a “she”. In my play, The Birthday Kiss, Brook holds a lot of the power. An early draft of my play even had Brook threatening the other characters with a gun. That’s since been cut but the way she still looms over the situation is present. So, I’d say, if my play is gonna beat you up, it would be with verbal abuse, manipulation, and light blackmail. And not all at once, just a little bit at a time. Wearing you down until all you can do is eat chocolate ice cream on the couch and binge watch Netflix.

2.What artists do you look up to?

Oh, lots of artists. As far as theater goes, I’m pretty boring. The biggies like Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams were hugely influential on me as I went through middle and high school. Their ability to create these complex worlds full of detail on a single stage was amazing to me. I could vividly paint the world of the play in my mind. Sam Shepard, and his ability to create these weird, complex relationship between family, is something I’ve also admired and want to emulate. Also Charles Schulz. Without Peanuts I wouldn’t be the artist I am today.

3.Where do you get the inspiration for your full length plays?

My inspiration for my full lengths usually come from specific stage images I have in mind and can’t get out of my head. In my first year play, it was a man carrying a sawed off deer’s head and in my second year play it was a woman pouring gasoline all over herself. Morbid I know, but these situations get me thinking, “How did this come to happen? What does it mean?” Those questions keep spinning around in my head and I need to write about them and figure it out.

4. What’s a fun fact about you!

I think last year I said I could clap with one hand and I told people to ask me about it so I could show them. And no one did. So this year, same answer. I can clap with one hand. Come ask me about it. I’ll show you.

Now that you are obsessed with Aaron, come see his staged reading in the Seabury Quinn Fest!

Details:

Thursday April, 21st

The Birthday Kiss
by Aaron Johnson (thesis presentation)
8:00 pm (Free admission), Baker Theater, Kantner Hall

BLURB: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.

More about Aaron

Aaron Johnson hails from the land of cheese in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He received his Bachelor of the Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he majored in English with an Emphasis in Creative Writing and in Theatre and Drama. While not officially specializing in playwriting in his undergrad, Aaron took the only playwriting course offered twice and completed his creative writing thesis as a play instead of fiction or poetry writing which the school usually requires. During his time at UW-Madison, Aaron completed three full length plays, multiple One-Acts, and numerous short plays which were all workshopped and some eventually produced at the university in staged readings. In his Theatre and Drama major he specialized in props and was props master for a number of university shows including Ti-Jean and his Brothers and Eurydice. Working his summers during college as a technical writer, Aaron decided to take a year off from school and work full time but the call of academia was too much for him to resist though as he is currently pursuing his MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University. Aaron’s writing tends to take the complex and unnoticed topics of today’s culture and bring them to light by using them to create dramatic conflict and then ultimate understanding. Using these undiscovered topics and coupling them with a realistic style will grow people’s curiosity and actively induce them to gain knowledge about today’s world. Aaron feels immensely privileged and grateful to be working towards his MFA in Playwriting at OU with such great and inspiring mentors, colleagues, and friends.

Tyler Whidden interviewed by us about Seabury Quinn

April 10, 2016
by catherineforever666
· Current Students · Festival · News

Hi everyone! Welcome to our interview series with the current rockin MFA playwrights, leading up to Seabury Quinn! Tyler Whidden is a 3rd year MFA playwright and his production “Occupation:Dad” is one of the two productions. He is known for his wisecracking sense of humor, his funny funny work and being friendly to all! Check out the interview below and then see his production this very month!! Also watch out for all 7 of the other interviews wirh our other writers!

1.So word on the street is this play is based on your own real life and experience being a father. What gave you the idea to write a play about this?

I’m always mining from my own life and being a father is definitely a major part of who I am, so I guess it comes from that. I’ve done a few Madness plays on the subject that seemed to work really well, so I just ran with it. And, it seems relevant when you consider the growing trend of stay-at-home fathers and the ever-present marketing to stay-at-home mothers – as if mothers don’t work or dads don’t know how to do the laundry.

2.What has it been like getting a production at OU? Have you enjoyed the rehearsal process?

The rehearsal process has been grand. The actors and Brian Evans (director) have been incredible and their voices really click with the play. From the very first reading we did in September to now, the talented actors in our Theater Division have been instrumental in helping me shape the play. And, Brian has been an incredible resource as well. His own experiences with being a stay-at-home father have really informed a lot of what is great in this production.

3.If your play and I got married and he took me on a honeymoon, what would the honeymoon be like? Would I like it?

What makes you think my play is a “he”?

So sexist.

4.what’s a fun fact about you?

The only fun thing about me is my wife.

More about Tyler’s play:

Occupation: Dad directed by Brian Evans

Blurb: 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 …

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

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.

More about Tyler

Tyler Whidden was born and raised in Cleveland, OH where he grew up the least-talented son of a hockey-first family. After earning his BFA in Playwriting at Ohio University, he began a tragic career as a stand-up comic based out of Seattle, WA. After years of toiling on the road, he moved to Chicago where he returned to theater, studying and working with Victory Gardens and the Neo-Futurists theaters among many others. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and worked as Director of Education with the great Ensemble Theater of Cleveland. His play Dancing With N.E.D. was produced in 2012 in Cleveland and his family-friendly farce, The Unofficial Almost True Campfire Tales of Put-in-Bay was commissioned by the Put-in-Bay Arts Council as part of their Bicentennial Celebration of the Battle of Lake Erie in the Summer of 2013. He’s excited to be back where it all started and he lives with his beautiful wife, Angie — way out of his league — and their beautiful boy, Booker — his intellectual equal. http://tylerjcwhidden.com/