Dive into our updated Opp-Log submission dates!
https://ohioplaywriting.org/opp-log/
Big ones added are:
Marin Theater – July 31
American Blues Theater – September 1st
New Dramatists – July 29
Category: News
Opp-Log Updated Through Sept 1st!
Alum Bianca Sams Finalist for Playwright Foundation “Bay Area Playwrights Festival.”
Bianca Sams (MFA ’14) was named a finalist at the Playwright Foundation “Bay Area Playwrights Festival” for her play BATTLE CRY. There were 20 finalists out of 500 submissions.
From their site: “The Bay Area Playwrights Festival supports the development of six full-length plays annually: five selected from our annual open submission process to reflect the outstanding quality, diversity, and daring for which the Festival is known, and the sixth play a Producing Partnership that offers developmental resources to a play advancing toward production.”
SYNOPSIS: BATTLE CRY is inspired by the life and travails of an unsung hero in the Black Civil Rights Movement named Claudette Colvin. At 15, Claudette refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus 9 months prior to Rosa Parks’ arrest. BATTLE CRY tells the personal story of a naïve but passionate 15-year-old girl whose impact on the world has been left out of history books. The play looks at issues of class, ethnicity, and behind the scenes politics in the fight for Civil Rights in America while also highlighting Claudette’s personal courage in the face of injustice.
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY/AWARDS FOR BATTLE CRY:
Ohio University MFA Workshop (3x)
Seabury Quinn Festival of New Plays – Staged Reading
Tides Theater SF as part of DGA Footlights reading Series
Marrietta University Black History Month Event – Staged Reading
AWARD HISTORY
Kennedy Center ACTF – Lorraine Hansberry Award (2nd pl) and Rosa Parks Award (2nd pl)
ATHE – Jane Chambers Student Playwright Award (2nd pl)
The Playwright Foundation – Bay Area Playwright Festival (finalist)
Tyler Whidden (MFA ’16) Finalist in Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte Festival
Tyler Whidden’s play, DANCING WITH NED, was named a finalist for the 3rd Annual nuVoices Festival at the Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte Festival. Tyler’s play was one of 13 chosen.
From ATCharlotte’s website: “Each play selected for the festival will get two script in hand staged readings, with assigned directors, dramaturgs, and actors. Each playwright selected will be brought to Charlotte and provided housing for the duration of the rehearsal process. They will be included in the entire week of rehearsals and will also receive $500 honorarium. The winning play will then be invited to have a full production mounted during Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte’s 2015-2016 season.”
July Submissions Updated on Opp-Log
In honor of Independence Day, give us your poor, your tired, your huddled playwrights. We will take care of you with our updated play submissions deadlines for July on our Opp-Log.
A lot of opportunities on July 1st and 2nd so check it out soon.
MFA Directing Alum Seeks Short Play Submissions: QUICKLY!
OHIO MFA Directing alum, Lee Kinney is seeking short plays by July 4th:
“Piper Theater Productions, a not for profit theater company in Park Slope, is now accepting submissions for their new summer reading series. This series will take place weekly in July at the Old Stone House Park in Brooklyn.
We are looking for short plays (one acts or 10 minute plays) with a musical component that lend themselves to being performed outdoors. Priority will be given to scripts that present a unique relationship both to music and musical performance, as well as nature and the outdoors.
Publicity, performers and a beautiful outdoor performance space will be provided. Sorry, no stipend. Interested? Please submit your piece and a short statement detailing your background and reasons for applying to pipersummershorts@gmail.com by July 4th.”
Molly Hagan’s SWING OF THE SEA Published by Samuel French
OU BFA Alum, Molly Hagan, had her play, SWING OF THE SEA, published by Samuel French. It was Molly’s undergrad “thesis” play at Ohio. It was produced at Arcadia University in December 2011, and it won the KCACTF Harold and Mimi Steinberg National Student Playwriting Award in 2012. Before that it had readings in New York, Louisville and at Ohio University.
Samuel French’s Synopsis: Boots, a girl who wears yellow rain boots even when it’s not raining, and a boy called Eggs take a journey through memory and imagination following the sudden death of their friend, Peter. As Eggs dreams of asking Boots to the upcoming Favorites Dance, Boots loses herself in a world of fallen leaves, consumed by her quest to remember the last words Peter said to her before he died. The Swing of the Sea is a play about growing old without aging that examines the way fantasy and memory converge when we lose someone we love.
You can follow Molly on twitter at @mollyhagan_.
Alum Dana Lynn Formby Reading at Steppenwolf Theater’s “First Look”
Dana Lynn Formby‘s play, AMERICAN BEAUTY SHOP, will have a reading at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater’s 9th Annual First Look of New Work, Friday, August 8 at 2:30pm. It’s being directed by Marti Lyons.
Formby is a OU MFA Alumnus currently living in Chicago and a founding member of Mortar Theater.
The synopsis of AMERICAN BEAUTY SHOP from Steppenwolf’s site: It’s hard to pull yourself up by your bootstraps in this economy—Sue should know. It’s harder when you’ve got kids, even whip-smart, talented ones like Judy. Sue has big dreams for both her basement beauty shop and her daughter, who’s anxiously waiting for a letter from Berkeley that could change her life. Armed with tough love, combative humor and an uncompromising work ethic, Sue is struggling to balance her own livelihood and Judy’s future. A heartfelt play about the true cost of dreams.
Steppenwolf’s “mission of First Look Repertory of New Work is to develop plays for future production at Steppenwolf and other theaters across the country. First Look provides a home for three playwrights each season to develop new plays, and presents developmental productions in rotating repertory, accompanied by readings and special events.”
Bianca Sams’ “Rust On Bone” 1 of 4 Plays Chosen for a New Works Festival.
Bianca Sams’ play “Rust on Bone” was one of four plays chosen for the Gulfshore Playhouse’s 2nd Annual New Works Festival in Naples, Florida. Sams, OU MFA ’14, will work with actors and director for a week before a staged reading of her play the weekend of the festival, Sept 4-7, 2014.
Alum Jason Half’s New Play Addresses Appalachian Issues
A public staged reading of SUNDIAL, a new play by MFA alum Jason Half about coal mining and the communities affected by it, will be presented on Friday, June 6, 8:00 p.m and Saturday, June 7 at 8:00 p.m. at Mid-Ohio Valley Players in Marietta, Ohio.
In SUNDIAL, a West Virginia elementary schoolteacher pushes to change the policies of the coal company that are affecting her town. But her position is complicated, as neighbors, friends, and even her family work for – and benefit from – the coal business. Inspired by the events of Marsh Fork Elementary and the mountaintop removal process occurring beside it, the new play explores the relationship and responsibilities between corporation and community.
While an MFA candidate at Ohio University, writer Jason Half received the coveted Trisolini Fellowship to begin research for a play that would explore the subject of coal mining and its effects on Appalachian communities. The MOVP reading will be the play’s first public presentation. “I don’t want this play to take sides,” said Half. “Instead, I hope Sundial makes the audience ask questions about the best way a town can work with a business that has both benefits and risks.” The honesty and quiet passion of the West Virginia characters came alive for Half as they confronted challenges to family, work, and land in the play, he said.
Jason Half is a Marietta-based writer who has taught scriptwriting at Marietta College and through the Colony Theater and the Ohio Arts Council. Recently, his work has received public presentations in Chicago and Pittsburgh. He is the recipient of the 2010 Scott McPherson playwriting award. This is Half’s first full-length script set in the Mid-Ohio Valley. The reading will be performed by veteran actors from the Marietta community. Amanda Anderson, Andy Felt, Mollie Jarrell, Beth Lane, Dyrk Lang, Andrew Pomerleau, and Dawn Weidner perform a variety of roles as parents, miners, teachers, officials, protestors, and supporters in the play.
“I’m excited to bring this story to an audience affected by these issues,” Half said. “It’s a story that will speak to everyone in this area who sees it.”
Public staged reading of SUNDIAL by Jason Hall
Mid-Ohio Valley Players, 229 Putnam St., Marietta, Ohio
8:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday, June 6th and 7th
Late May & June Play-Opp Updates
No fear, suckahs. We have brand new play submission opportunities on our Opp-Log calendar.
OHIO 