1st-year playwright Reginald Edmund’s play The Redemption of Allah Black will be read at the Country Playhouse New Play Reading Series on April 8th and his play Juneteenth Street will have a staged reading at Ensemble Theater in Houston on April 11th.
Category: News
1st-year MFA Earns Staged Readings at Houston Theaters
MFA Alum Joins "Brooklyn Rail" as Theater Editor:
Justin Boyd (MFA 2003) has joined The Brooklyn Rail as co-editor of its Theater section. The March issue includes an article that quotes OU MFAs Qui Nguyen and Robert Ross Parker talking about Vampire Cowboys’ latest production Men of Steel. www.brooklynrail.org/2007-03/theater
3rd-year MFA to be Produced by Chicago Dramatists
Each year Chicago Dramatists chooses three of its member plays to be professionally produced. The new season has just been announced and 10 VIRGINS by C.D. Resident Playwright Laura Jacqmin (3rd-yr OU MFA) has been chosen as one of the three. Directed by Russ Tutterow, April 24 – June 1, 2008.
2nd-year MFA’s Upcoming Productions:
Joseph Gallo’s Warning: Adult Content has been selected for production at the Lark Theater in NYC in the Fall of 2007. His baseball play Ya Gotta Believe! has been selected for the 7th Inning Stretch 10-minute play festival produced by Miles Square Theatre in Hoboken, New Jersey, the birthplace of baseball.
3rd-year MFA a Finalist for Kendeda at Alliance (Atlanta):
Third-year MFA playwright Merri Biechler’s play Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver has been chosen as a finalist for the 2007 Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. The play will have a reading in NYC in November in connection with SPF/NYC and she will spend a week in residence in Atlanta in February ’08 to do a reading there. The Alliance is committed to getting the Kendeda Finalist plays produced at a variety of regional theatres. Other finalists this year include MFA playwrights from Yale, NYU, and UC-San Diego.
MFA Alum To Be Produced at Major Regional Theater:
2001 Alum Chantal Bilodeau’s play, Pleasure & Pain, soon debuts at Magic Theatre in California. From the Magic press release: “December 2006 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA: – Magic Theatre continues its 40th Anniversary Season with HOT HOUSE ’07 featuring the best of the new – three world premiere plays by playwrights from a new generation shaping the future of American Theatre. In its fourth year, HOT HOUSE presents full productions of new plays in rotating repertory by Chantal Bilodeau, Kirsten Greenidge and C. Michèle Kaplan and runs Saturday, February 3 through Sunday, April 1… Our 40th Anniversary Season has been about celebrating Magic’s amazing legacy. HOT HOUSE is where we look to Magic’s future. These bold, new plays by exciting new writers keep us on the leading edge,” says Artistic Director Chris Smith… HOT HOUSE ’07 opens with Pleasure & Pain by Chantal Bilodeau, directed by Associate Artistic Director Jessica Heidt. In this sexy, suspenseful thriller, a Midwestern woman finds herself drawn into impulsive and erotic daydreams. When her fantasies spill over onto the page and into the hands of her boss, Peggy realizes she can’t have pleasure without pain. Pleasure & Pain previews Saturday, February 3 through Friday, February 9; Opening Night is Saturday, February 10, with performances in the Sam Shepard Theatre.” Visit http://www.magictheatre.org for more details.
3rd-year MFA Wins Aurora Theatre Company Global Age Project:
3rd-year MFA Laura Jacqmin’s play HAPPYSLAP is a winner of Aurora Theatre Company’s Global Age Project, a “program to nurture and explore forward-looking visions of global import.” The play will be presented as a staged reading in April 2007; Jacqmin will be flown to Berkeley, California for the reading and awarded $1,000. To see more about the Global Age Project: click here
Ramsey Nominated for Vice Chair of the Kennedy Center ACTF III NPP:
Pending formal approval by the national executive committee, Erik Ramsey, playwriting professor in the OU MFA program, will assume duties as the Vice Chair of the New Play Programs for the Kennedy Center ACTF III. In addition, and separately from the nomination to Vice Chair, Ramsey was also awarded the Kennedy Center Faculty Fellowship.
2nd-year MFA takes 2nd Place in Kennedy Center ACTF III:
2nd-year MFA playwright Joseph Gallo’s short play “Star Song” took second place in the Kennedy Center ACTF III festival’s short play program this past weekend. Gallo, and playwriting professor Erik Ramsey were in Milwaukee to attend the ACTF III Festival.
2005 Alum Produced in New YorK
From Melissa Gawlowski, MFA 2005: “A short play of mine called The Cellar has been selected for performance as part of The Strawberry One-Act Festival in NY. It’s going to be performed on February 16th at 7:30 p.m. at the American Theatre of Actors, at 314 West 54th Street, between 8th and 9th Ave. (second floor). It’s a competition where the audience votes for their favorite play; the winning plays receive prizes and possible publication. Tickets are on sale now, for those in the area, at http://www.therianttheatre.com. You can also watch the show online, which is pretty fun. My show will be screened all day (I think) Feb. 17th. People’s online votes count, as well, towards advancing the play.”
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