Ohio University MFA Playwriting Program
Recent MFA grad, Bianca Sams is apart of the 2014-15 New Works Fellowship at Tennessee Rep! This prestigious opportunity is given to 4 playwrights per year and includes development help on a new play, a public reading and workshops with professional theater artists.
Fun fact!(tell all your friendsss) Jeremy Sony(another OU alum) received this fellowship last year!
For more info on this Fellowship
The first Madness of semester is upon us. 3rd year playwright, Neal Adleman, is producing. His prompt is “Use Your Damn Hands” Madness.
Show is September 5th, 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.
Mark Chrisler, Ohio MFA Alum, opened his play, THE ART OF PAINTING, in Chicago this past weekend with his theater company, Found Objects Theatre. It’s running with another one-act, Chris Bower’s Notes to Molly, and the evening is billed as “Painting Molly.”
The Chicago Reader gave THE ART OF PAINTING it’s “Recommended” stamp of approval. “Playing the instructor, Chrisler builds a sense of unreliability and mystery, and the twists that follow are a refreshing reminder of the vivid worlds a one-man show can create onstage.”
The play runs through August 31st; Friday and Saturday at 8pm, and Sundays at 7pm.
Ohio MFA Playwright alum, Dana-Lynn Formby, is having a reading of her play Friday as part of Steppenwolf’s First Look Series on Friday, August 8th.
The play, AMERICAN BEAUTY SHOP, is being directed Marti Lyons. The reading is at 2:30pm and takes place in the Downstairs Theater at Steppenwolf.
Three current MFA Playwrights and one recent alumnus are opening 10-4: THE TRUCK STOP PLAYS at CIC Theater in Chicago on Friday, August 8th. The plays run through August 30th.
Ryan Patrick Dolan ’16 enlisted three other playwrights Neal Adelman ’15, Tyler Whidden ’16, and recent grad, Anthony Ellison ’14, to write one-acts to take place at a truck stop. The result is four dark comedies with strong, funny female characters.
The directors are four women from the Chicago theater scene: Karisa Bruin, Jeri Frederickson, Ashley Neal, and Mary O’Connor. Each director cast the plays with Chicago actors.
Recent Ohio University student, Cat Abood (pictured above in red), appears in Anthony Ellison’s play. Ellison coached Abood in Ohio University’s improv group, Black Sheep.
More information appears on the play’s website: truckstopplays.wordpress.com or CIC’s website.
OU Professor Erik Ramsey found this video interview by Atlantic Monthly author Ta-Nehisi Coates. He offers some great advice on writing, and dealing with stress when writing, and finding breakthroughs. (It’s six minutes and worth watching.)
http://www.theatlantic.com/video/iframe/280025/
Thanks to Professor Ramsey for finding it. We call him Professor E-Ram aka E-Ramsey aka The Pharaoh of Playwriting.
(Professor E-Ram *fistbump*.)
Catherine Weingarten, MFA ’17, was interviewed as part of TCG’s Diversity and Inclusion Blog curated by Jacqueline E. Lawton.
Catherine joins the MFA Playwriting program in Athens in a couple of weeks.
OU Alumnus, Bianca Sams ’14, won 2nd place for Athe’s Jane Chambers student award.
“The Jane Chambers Student Playwriting Award recognizes plays and performance texts created by women that present a feminist perspective and contain significant opportunities for female performers. This competition is open to both graduate and undergraduate students. The Jane Chambers Award for emergent playwrights encourages diversity of style and content. All forms of drama are accepted, including solo performance work. Your play will be recognized at the Women and Theatre Program’s Pre-Conference in Scottsdale, AZ on July 24th and a synopsis and information about your work will be posted to the WTP website.”
Ryan Patrick Dolan ’16 is having a reading of MORAINE as part of the Trellis Reading Series at the Greenhouse Theater in Chicago on Tuesday, July 22nd at 7pm.
Dolan wrote “Moraine” during his first year in the Ohio MFA Playwriting program, and had a reading at the 2014 Seabury Festival at Ohio University in the spring.
MORAINE synopsis: Fighting time and the most brutal Chicago winter in recent memory, Mark attempts to keep his ad-hoc collection of friends from disintegrating in the face of illness, ambition, and betrayal. Moraine is a play about family, brand awareness, and ice cream that’s so goddamn good it’ll make you cry.
The reading features two recent Ohio BFA alumni, Becky Markert and Emily Page Auwaerter. Becky is reprising her role as “Mackenzie.” Emily played the “Nurse” in an earlier classroom reading, and is reading stage directions.
The play is being directed by Mary Rose O’Connor. The cast includes Rebecca Sohn, a longtime improv and acting veteran in Chicago, who taught Ryan improv at Annoyance Theater, and Natalie West, who recently performed to rave reviews in Marisa Wegryzn’s “Mud Blue Sky” at A Red Orchid Theater .
The cast is:
Jeff Duhigg
Delia Baseman
Josh Bywater
Terry Francois
Rebecca Sohn
Becky Markert
Emily Paige Auwaerter
Natalie West
Bianca Sams ’14 will have a reading of her thesis play, RUST ON BONE, JULY 15TH IN New York at the Manhattan Theatre Club. It will be directed by the Goodman Theater’s Chuck Smith, and feature OU alumnus Marissa Wolf, and current OU MFA actor, Thomas Daniels.
Synopsis: Trapped by a stranger in her office, psychologist Dr. Devra Mendoza must use her training to maneuver her way through a game of cat and mouse with life and death consequences. Rust on Bone looks at the personal cost of war, societal stigmas of therapy, and the ripple effects of trauma and mental illness.
You can RSVP by emailing BIANCASAMS (at) BIANCASAMS (dot)COM.
Details:
MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB
STUDIO SPACE #3
311 W. 43 R D STREET
JULY 15, 2014 @ 7:30PM
OHIO 