Category: News

“Daddy Issues” Madness coming back this Friday!

October 31, 2016
by catherineforever666
· Madness · News

Third-year MFA playwright, Catherine Weingarten, shall be producing “Daddy Issues” Madness this week in honor of Dad’s weekend!!!! 😉 She is bringing back a prompt that got cancelled last year because of a snow storm. In her prompt she ask many questions like “why this term is so catchy” and “Can your parents really screw you up for life or just a little, like in a sexually appealing way?”

The Madness show is November 4th, 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. Also if you have a reservation, make sure to show up at 10:45 to get your seat. She also says bring a date cause it’s probably gunna be a sexy night of theaterrr

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

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.

Qui Nguyen’s play at MTC gets great reviews!

October 26, 2016
by catherineforever666
· New York · News · Productions · Qui Nguyen

Alumni Qui Nguyen’s play “Vietgone” is getting awesome reviews! Read an excerpt from its review in the Hollywood Reporter:

“The playwright — whose aesthetic is evident from the titles of such previous works as She Kills Monsters, Alice in Slasherland and Living Dead in Denmark — and director May Adrales have collaborated to deliver a wildly fun, imaginative production. Not all of it works, and the play itself could benefit from some trimming. But individual elements are terrific, such as the Vietnamese characters speaking in flawless English while the Americans talk with an exaggerated, ungrammatical drawl. There’s also a wonderfully staged montage, accompanied by Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” that hilariously satirizes such ’80s-era romantic movies as Ghost, Say Anything and Dirty Dancing.”

Read full review here and go see the production at Manhattan Theater Club now!

Get tickets here

More about Qui

Qui Nguyen is a playwright, TV/Film writer, and Co-Founder of the OBIE Award-winning Vampire Cowboys of NYC. His work, known for its innovative use of pop-culture, stage violence, puppetry, and multimedia, has been called “Culturally Savvy Comedy” by The New York Times, “Tour de Force Theatre” by Time Out New York, and “Infectious Fun” by Variety.

Scripts include Vietgone (South Coast Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Seattle Rep), She Kills Monsters (The Flea, Buzz22 Chicago/Steppenwolf, Company One); Begets: Fall of a High School Ronin (Waterwell); War is F**king Awesome (Sundance); Krunk Fu Battle Battle (East West Players); Bike Wreck (EST); Trial By Water (Ma-Yi Theater); Aliens vs Cheerleaders (Keen Teens); Soul Samurai; The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G (Ma-Yi Theater & Vampire Cowboys); and the critically acclaimed Vampire Cowboys productions of Six Rounds of Vengeance, Alice in Slasherland; Fight Girl Battle World; Men of Steel; and Living Dead in Denmark.

Go see Tyler Whidden in Cleveland Comedy Festival next month!

October 20, 2016
by catherineforever666
· alumni · Events · Madness · News

Who said madness can’t help ya after graduation!? Next month recent alum Tyler Whidden will be featured at the Cleveland comedy festival with his Madnesses from the MFA playwriting program. He will be performing November 19th in Cleveland at the Kennedy’s Theatre.

Press Blurb:”Cleveland-born playwright and comedian Tyler Whidden brings a collection of his short plays written during his three years as a writer and performer for MidnightMadness. With topics touching on religion, politics, family, and rock & roll, this show starring Cleveland actors promises to be a hilarious romp through the twisted mind of one of Cleveland’s own. (In association with Cleveland’s Ensemble Theatre.)”

Go see it!! Congrats tyler!

Get more info and your tickets here

More about Tyler

Tyler JC Whidden is the youngest, least-talented son of a hockey-first family. After earning his BFA in Playwriting from Ohio University, Tyler embarked on a 37-state, 10-year odyssey as a stand-up comedian where he was labeled by critics as, “brilliant,” “tragic,” and “probably stoned.” His recent plays include,Dancing With N.E.D, Run Kingsbury Run (about Cleveland’s Torso Killer), ChocolateSexPuppyTacos (A Non-Denominational Comedy) and the upcoming Occupation: Dad. You can learn more at TylerJCWhidden.com

“Frights” Madness coming this Friday!

October 17, 2016
by catherineforever666
· Current Students · Madness · News

“Frights” Madness will be coming this Friday to the Hahne! It is inspired by Halloween coming up and will be produced by first year playwright, Katherine Varga! She has given the seven playwrights in the program different frights for them to translate! This is gunna be a fun and scary night! Pre-game Halloween right and come to Madness this Friday!

The show is Friday, October 21st, 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 the fall semester, check out our Madness page.

M0re 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.

Check out Reginald Edmund’s Event in Chicago!

October 13, 2016
by catherineforever666
· alumni · News · TV

OU Alum Reginald Edmund is managing director of Black Lives, Black Words and there will be an event at Chicago Dramatists for them this October 16th at 7pm. They also are publishing an anthology with artists involved in this group! GO attend it if you’re in Chicago!! Congrats Reginald!

Press Release Below:

The event at Chicago Dramatists’ Tutterow Theatre celebrates a new anthology of audition speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern actors.

The Chicago Dramatists Theatre, Black Lives, Black Words International Project and Artistic Directors of the Future (ADF) are uniting to present Beyond the Canon, a showcase of monologues on October 16th, 2016 at 7pm with speeches taken from Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors.

Published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, this new anthology is edited by Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway, founder and managing director of ADF. The publication aims to provide inspiring contemporary audition and showcase material for actors of black, African American, South Asian and Middle Eastern heritage. The anthology is split into two books for men and women, and includes work from contemporary international writers such as Sudha Bhuchar, Dalia Taha, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Marcus Gardley, Mona Mansour, Naomi Wallace, Reginald Edmund, Kristoffer Diaz, Caridad Svich, and Philip Ridley.

The directors taking part are Lavina Jadhwani, Toma Langston, Ana Velasquez, Rinska Carrasco, and Ashley Honore Robinson.

The showcase will take place in Chicago Dramatists’s Tutterow Theatre and will feature local diverse talent in performances directed by all People of Color. Celebrating these authors through the work of young talent and emerging directors, Beyond the Canon seeks to demonstrate how the texts can be embedded into the fabric of the industry, providing a range of powerful and diverse roles for new generations of actors to draw upon throughout their career.

DETAILS ON EVENT

Sun, October 16, 2016

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM CDT

Location:

Chicago Dramatists

1105 West Chicago Avenue

Chicago, IL 60642

RSVP here

More about Reginald

Reginald Edmund, is a Chicago Dramatists Resident Playwright and an Artistic Associate at Pegasus Theatre-Chicago and Merrimack Repertory Theatre, he was a 2010-2011 Many Voice Fellow with the Playwrights’ Center. His play Southbridge was runner up for the Kennedy Center’s Lorraine Hansberry and Rosa Parks National Playwriting Awards, and most recently named winner of the 2010 Southern Playwrights’ Competition and the Black Theatre Alliance Award for Best New Play. His nine play series titled ‘The City of the Bayou Collection’, include The Ordained Smile of Sadie May Jenkins, The Last Cadillac, Daughters of the Moon, Southbridge, Juneteenth Street, The Redemption of Allah Black and others were developed at esteemed theaters including Ensemble Theatre of Houston, Playwright Center-Minneapolis, Pangea World Theatre, Bedlam Theatre, Wordsmyth Theatre, Yaddo, Actors Theatre of Charlotte, and the MacDowell Colony. Reginald Edmund received his BFA in Theatre-Performance from Texas Southern University and his MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University in ‘09. He is currently the Managing Curating Producer for Black Lives Black Words International Project.

Mark Snyder’s Plays published through Sam French!

October 12, 2016
by catherineforever666
· alumni · News

Alum Mark Snyder has two new plays Lila Cante and Wipe Away published through Sam French publications! Congrats! Buy the plays here

Wipe Away is a short play about: “As he plots his escape from the rural Midwest, Travis is discovered by the one person who might convince him to stay. Two lost souls must confront the brutal truth about themselves and each other in a coming-of-age drama where a pair of headlights along one highway road illuminates a path toward a dangerous future.”(Sam French blurb)

Wipe Away received its world premiere production in July 2010 by |the claque| at the 35th Annual Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival at the Lion Theatre in New York City under the direction of Nick Leavens.

Lila Cante was Mark’s thesis play at OU and a full length play about:” A reclusive singer-songwriter makes an album that rocks the world. Now, as the music industry implodes, two siblings must come together to battle over their legendary mother’s legacy and her twenty years of silence. A play about music and art, connection and isolation, power and commerce, and the ever-changing landscape of what it means to be a family today. “(Sam French blurb)

More about Mark

MARK SNYDER‘s plays include Wait for Me (2016), Trigger Guru (2014), As Wide As I Can See (2012), Corsets (2010), Wipe Away (2010), Lila Cante (2009) and The Beanbag Game (1999 – Edward Albee/Last Frontier Theatre Conference Play Lab). His plays have been produced and developed in New York and Chicago. A solo show Since You Asked Me To premiered in 2013 at Judson Memorial Church, where he is a resident artist of their Magic Time series. A core collaborator with The Claque, he co-wrote The IRRegulars stage serial. His reviews, essays, and interviews have appeared in Paste, The Rumpus, The Collagist, The Brooklyn Rail, The New Gay, Queerty, ThePeeq, and at Maud Newton.com, and he has performed at Pete’s Candy Store and throughout downtown NYC. BA, Otterbein College. MFA, Ohio University. Mark was born in Warren, Ohio and lives in Brooklyn.

“Particle Collider”Madness coming this Friday!

October 10, 2016
by catherineforever666
· Current Students · Madness · News

The next madness of the school year will be produced by first playwright, Trip Venturella! His prompt is “Particle Collider” Madness! He has asked the playwrights to translate the idea of what happens when two forces collide.

The show is Friday, October 14th, 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 the fall semester, check out our Madness page.

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.

Qui Nguyen featured in the NY Times!

October 10, 2016
by catherineforever666
· alumni · New York · Press · Productions

Qui’s play “Vietgone” is currently playing in NYC at Manhattan Theater Club and he was just featured in the NY Times! Congrats Qui! Go see the play in NYC!

Here’s an excerpt:

“Vietgone” may seem to be a drastic departure. The playwright calls it a “romantic comedy” about how his parents met at a refugee camp in Arkansas in 1975, having immigrated right after the Vietnam War. It’s a story that Mr. Nguyen grew up hearing and knows well, but it has also been filtered through his pop-culture-filled and irreverent sensibility.

“When my parents told me stories about Vietnam, they told me the real stories, what actually happened,” he explained. “But what I imagined was kung fu movies. Because the only things I ever saw [growing up] that had a lot of Asian people in it, were kung fu movies.”

So there is kung fu in “Vietgone,” and ninjas. As in Mr. Nguyen’s other works, everyone speaks in a modern voice and raps — and no one speaks with “an Asian accent,” part of his fight against minority stereotypes.

Read the full article here

More about Qui

“Passport” Madness coming this Friday!

October 3, 2016
by catherineforever666
· Madness · News

The next madness of the school year will be produced by first playwright, Inna Tsyrlin! Her prompt is “Passport” Madness!

Here is an excerpt from her prompt:

“What is a passport? Is it simply an access pass to other countries? Technically, it is the only document that is internationally recognized as identifying who you are and your citizenship status. That may not seem important if you never travel abroad, but when you do, a passport is crucial … more important than bringing an extra pair of socks and underwear in your carry-on. A passport is also a living document, with an expiration date, of where you have been, where you are, and where you’re going.

I chose this prompt because I enjoy theatre than can focus on global ideas/concerns, plays about different cultures and backgrounds, and use language (English or other) as a way to bridge communication gaps. I think a passport on a conceptual level represents access to diversity, to adventure, and insight into other cultures.”

The show is Friday, October 7th, 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 the fall semester, check out our Madness page.

More about Inna:

Inna Tsyrlin is currently pursuing her MFA in Playwriting at Ohio University after taking classes at HB Studio (New York City) and at Primary Stage (ESPA, New York City). Inna’s one act plays performed in New York City, include: I (heart) Subway (2014) and Happy Anniversary (2014) (Emerging Artists Theater: New Works Series); My Wife (HB Playwrights Foundation shorts series); Principal’s Office (semi-finalist of Manhattan Repertory Spring 2014 One Act Competition); Fat (Mount Carmel Theater Winter 2014 New Works program). Her one acts, Coffee and Murakami (2014) and Bentley (2013) have had staged readings as part of the Jack & Julie Project at HB Studio; while she has also had readings (2015) for Lama Theatre Company, and a reading of her full-length Animals (2015) in New York City. Apart from plays, Inna has written and produced shot films, reviewed Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway play sfor stagebuddy.com, and contributed to Australian lifestyle publications. Her work tends to focus on exploring darker and unusual aspects of relationships and how these reflect in our current social and political environment, with particular attention to freedom and identity.

“Strangers” Madness coming Friday!

September 12, 2016
by catherineforever666
· Madness · News

The next madness of the school year will be produced by second year playwright, Cristina Luzarraga! Her prompt is “Strangers” Madness! For her madness, she has asked the playwrights to explore characters who are strangers onstage.

Here is an excerpt from the prompt:

“Can any two strangers forge a bond? Or do some people, like oil and water, just not mix? What prejudices might facilitate or hinder these would be friendships. The dictionary defines a strangers as someone who you have not met before or do not know. However, I will allow you to interpret the definition a little more broadly. That is, you may write about people who mistake each other for strangers; or alternately, people who think they know eachother but turn out to be strangers.

The show is Friday, September 16th, 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 the fall semester, check out our Madness page.

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.