Ohio University MFA Playwriting Program
2007 MFA grad Merri Biechler’s play Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver continues to gather research money, has become a teaching tool for medical schools, and is moving toward even greater community outreach. The play has been developed with the support of the OU School of Osteopathic Medicine and ongoing grants funded by the American Cancer Society, among others. See the article for more information at: http://www.ohio.edu/outlook/06-07/August/800n-067.cfm
Merri Biechler (MFA ’07) has been commissioned by the Kennedy Center and the White House Historical Association to write a new play for young audiences. The play explores Dolley Madison’s rescue of the George Washington painting from the White House before British troops burned the building to the ground in 1814.
Laura Jacqmin’s (MFA ’07) play The Revisionists received a staged reading at Steppenwolf theater in Chicago as part of their First Look Rep series. The play was originally developed in the OU MFA playwrights’ workshop.
OU Playwrights Christopher De Paola (MFA ’06) and Aaron Carter (MFA ’05) were both selected as finalists for Chicago Dramatists’ 2007 Many Voices Project. The Many Voices Project is Chicago’s only playwriting contest and readings festival that embraces all playwrights of color. Carter’s “Evening News” and De Paola’s “Recovered” will be read on July 21st at Chicago Dramatists.
Justin Boyd (MFA 2003) has been named a 2007-2008 Affiliated Writer with American Theater magazine. He will receive a $3,000 fellowship to write 3-4 articles between July 2007 and July 2008.
Nick Sgouros’ 2007 festival play, School by the Sea, will have a staged reading on Sunday June 24th at the Knightsbridge Theatre in Los Angeles. http://www.knightsbridgetheatre.com
Laura Jacqmin’s one-minute play “Ohio” will be produced in Clubbed Thumb’s “A Pageant of the 50 States (and more)” this Wednesday, May 30, at the Ohio Theatre in NYC as a prelude to their Summerworks Festival. In addition, her new ten-minute play “Advisor”, will be also be produced in NYC this June by Guerilla Cabaret at Collective: Unconscious, dir. Pirrone Yousefzadeh. See guerillacabaret.com for more info and tickets.
In addition to being a Kendeda Finalist with readings in New York and Atlanta, and an participant in the upcoming WordBRIDGE Playwrights Lab, Merri Biechler’s play Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver has been named the winner of the 2007 Jane Chambers Student Playwriting Award. It will have a reading at the annual conference of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education this July in New Orleans.
Also, Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver Palliative Educational Program has just this week been named as the recipient of an Ohio University Research and Scholarly Affairs Committee grant in the amount of $6,500. This grant will be used to develop the play as part of an educational program to teach end-of-life and caregiving issues to medical students. (With this grant OU MFA Playwrights have now pulled in nearly $60,000 in funds to support and develop their new plays in the last two years alone.)
Jacquelyn Reingold’s final episode of the season will air will air Monday, May 21 and Tuesday, May 22, at 9PM on NBC. (Directed by Norberto Barba, the actors include: Eric Bogosian, Erik Jensen, Leslie Lyles, Julianne Nicholson, Chris Noth, Brooke Tansley, Alec Von Bargen, Kelli Williams, and a bunch more.)
The studio production of 3rd-year MFA Merri Biechler’s Real Girls Can’t Win opens this week. It runs from May 16-18 this week, as well as May 24-26 next week during the official festival. The show begins at 8:00 pm in the Hahne Theater at Kantner Hall. Tickets are $7.00.
OHIO 