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3rd-year MFA Invited to "The 24 Hour Plays: Old Vic New Voices":

3rd-year Laura Jacqmin has been selected to participate in The 24 Hour Plays: Old Vic New Voices at the Atlantic Theater in New York this year. Here is a description of the program from their submission materials: “The 24 Hour Plays: Old Vic New Voices involves workshops with seasoned theater practitioners, an additional workshop with Kevin Spacey, and a chance to produce The 24 Hour Plays with their peers. Due to Kevin’s involvement in Moon for the Misbegotten in New York, we have rapidly moved up our schedule for the inaugural New York version to this Spring and Summer, with a July 2 performance at the Atlantic Theater, one of Off Broadway’s most celebrated stages.”

2nd-year MFA Earns SEA Grant Money:

2nd-year playwright Joseph Gallo as been awarded the SEA grant for 2007-08 in the amount of $5,500. This brings the total grant money earned by OU MFA playwrights, in support of writing and developing their new plays, to over $52,000 since 2005.

1st-year MFA at Karamu House Theatre’s ArenaFest

1st-year MFA Reggie Edmund’s play Redemption of Allah Black will be given two staged readings at Karamu Theater in Cleveland. The first reading is on Wednesday, May 16th at 6pm and the second on Tuesday, May 22nd at 6pm at the Karamu House Theatre’s ArenaFest.

3rd-year MFA to Attend WordBRIDGE Playwright’s Lab:

Merri Biechler’s play, Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver, has been invited as one of only four MFA plays nationally to be workshopped at WordBRIDGE play lab this summer, June 9th-24th. Originally conceived by founders Rich Rice of Eckerd College, and David Kranes, founder of the Sundance Playwriting Lab, WordBRIDGE is now hosted by Clemson University in conjunction with Generous Theater Company. (Erik Ramsey, Asst Professor in the OU MFA Playwriting Program, is a three-time alum of WordBRIDGE and returns this year to work as a “dramatic engineer” on two invited plays.) For more about WordBRIDGE visit their web site: wordbridge.org

3rd-year MFA Produced in the Mainstage Season at OU School of Theater:

Laura Jacqmin’s thesis play Happyslap opened on the Baker Mainstage on friday night. It runs through Saturday, May 5th. For tickets or information call 740.593.4800. For an article discussing the timely issues the play addresses, visit the Athens News web site: Click Here.

Recent Alum at Victory Gardens and Collaboraction:

Recent alum Christopher De Paola is currently understudying the role of Manny in the Victory Gardens’ world premiere production of “Cynical Weathers” by Douglas Post. He will be performing the role on May 8th. Chris has also been recently cast in the play “Autobiography” as part of Sketchbook, the 7th annual festival of short plays produced by Collaboraction and performed at the Steppenwolf Garage. Sketchbook 7 will run May 31 to July 1st. (To see Chris’s recent writing accolades, scroll down a little to his latest commission and his TV show.)

3rd-year MFA Published:

Two monologues from 3rd-year Laura Jacqmin’s short story West of the Moon are being published in the forthcoming Smith & Kraus anthology titled 221 ONE-MINUTE MONOLOGUES FROM LITERATURE (pub. date Autumn 2007). The titles of
the monologues are “Down There” and “Pack Job.”

Recent Alum Commissioned:

Pearson Scott Foresman, the world’s leading elementary educational publisher, has commissioned 2006 MFA Christopher De Paola to write a play for 6th graders to be published in their new reading anthology. (See his recent work with children’s television programming below.)

Recent Alum Creates TV Show in Chicago (part 2):

Recent MFA alum Chris DePaola’s “Green Screen Adventures”, a children’s TV show, will air in Chicago on Saturday March 31 at 7 a.m. on WCIU. The concept of the show is that actors and writers take stories written by elementary school students and adapt those stories for TV. Children can see their work come to life on TV and get excited about writing and drawing. The target audience is 1st-4th grade. Chris serves as a writer and performer. To see a clip, visit:
http://www.wciu.com/video/featured_video.aspx?VideoName=greenscreen.flv

3rd-year MFA to be Produced by Side Project in Chicago:

3rd-year MFA Laura Jacqmin’s BUTT NEKKID will be produced by The Side Project in Chicago in the 2007-2008 season. Dates have yet to be announced.