Category: Productions

OU Playwriting Alum, Qui Nguyen, has a play in Oregon Shakespeare Festival next March!

March 25, 2015
by catherineforever666
· alumni · News · Productions · Qui Nguyen

OU MFA Playwriting Alum, Qui Nguyen has a new play in Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s upcoming season! Qui has made a name for himself with his adventurous, fun “geek” theater and we are very excited about his newest production opportunity!

From the Oregon Shakes Website: Opening in March is Vietgone by Qui Nguyen (March 30–Oct. 29, 2016). The play is based on the real-life story of Nguyen’s parent’s exodus from Vietnam in 1975 and their subsequent meeting and romance in a refugee camp in Arkansas. Vietgone will be directed by May Adrales, who will also direct the world premiere production of Vietgone at South Coast Repertory this fall.

Check here for the Season Announcement and here for Oregon Shakes Website

More about Qui

Qui Nguyen is a playwright, screenwriter, and Co-Founder of the OBIE Award-winning Vampire Cowboys of NYC. His work, known for its innovative use of pop-culture, stage violence, puppetry, and multimedia, has been lauded as “Culturally Savvy Comedy” by The New York Times, “Infectious Fun” by Variety, and “Tour De Force Theatre” by Time Out New York. This past season, The Chicago Tribune praised him as a “refreshing, break-the-rules writer” as Time Out Chicago named his play She Kills Monsters one of the 10 Best Plays of 2013.

Scripts include War is F**king Awesome (currently being developed by Sundance); She Kills Monsters (The Flea); Krunk Fu Battle Battle (East West Players); Bike Wreck (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Trial By Water (Ma-Yi Theater); Aliens Versus Cheerleaders (Keen Teens); Soul Samurai; The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G (Ma-Yi Theater & Vampire Cowboys); Lush Valley (HERE); and the critically acclaimed Vampire Cowboys productions of Alice in Slasherland; Fight Girl Battle World; Men of Steel; and Living Dead in Denmark.

His scripts are published by Samuel French, Playscripts, and Broadway Play Publishing.

Recent honors include being a 2014 Sundance Institute/Time Warner Fellow; a 2014 McCarter/Sallie B. Goodman Fellow; a 2013 Sundance Theatre Lab Fellow; a recipient of a 2013 AATE Distinguished Play Award (She Kills Monsters); a 2012 TCG Young Leader of Color; and receiving 2012 & 2009 GLAAD Media Award nominations for his plays She Kills Monsters and Soul Samurai.

He is a proud resident artist at New Dramatists, a core member of The Playwrights’ Center, an alumnus of Youngblood, and a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Ma-Yi Writers Lab, and the Keen Company New Play Lab.

Currently, Qui’s at work on new plays at South Coast Rep (Vietgone), Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis (Samantha Rai & The Shogun of Fear), HERE (Trade Practices), NYU (Five Days Till Saturday), The Playwrights Center (Dust), The Professional Performing Arts School (Begets); and Vampire Cowboys (Six Rounds of Vengeance). For television, he’s writes for the children’s cartoon, Peg+Cat, currently airing on PBS KIDS.

His company, Vampire Cowboys, often credited for being the pioneers of “geek theatre”, holds the unique distinction of being the first and currently only professional theatre organization to be officially sponsored by NY Comic Con. They’ve been praised by the Village Voice as “New York’s Best Army of Geeks” and currently in-residence at The New Ohio Theater and IRT.

OU playwriting alum Jacob Juntunen and Catherine Weingarten’ 17 selected for Last Frontier Theater Conference!

March 3, 2015
by catherineforever666
· alumni · Current Students · News · Reading

The Last Frontier Theater Conference in Valdez, Alaska just announced the 64 plays selected for inclusion in the 2015 PlayLab and among them are two playwrights with connections to the Professional Playwriting program at OU, Jacob Juntuen and current MFA Candidate, Catherine Weingarten ’17. Jacob got selected for his full-length play, Hath Taken Away and Catherine for her full-length play Are you Ready to get PAMPERED!? A graduate of the MFA in acting program, Eric Coble, will be a featured artist at the conference.

We are excited that there will be some OU reps at this prestigious conference!

There has been a history of OU playwriting alums at the conference including Ira Gammerman, Greg Aldrich and Jeremy Sony.

Here’s an excerpt from the website: The week-long Last Frontier Theatre Conference is held every Summer in Valdez, Alaska. It draws a majority of its participants from Alaska, but each year there are also attendees from the rest of the country and beyond. The 23^rd Annual Conference is scheduled for June 14-20, 2015.

The Play Lab, started in 1995, features developmental readings of scripts from 20 minutes to 2 hours in length. Actors are sent scripts a month prior to the Conference. The readings receive one rehearsal the day before their performance, with the playwright acting as the director. The readings are then responded to by a three-person panel, and the audience gives their feedback as well. Additionally, authors have a private meeting with one of their panelists to further discuss the script.

Currently the Lab presents readings of 50-60 plays per year. Panelists include nationally acknowledged playwrights, director, designers, and dramaturgs, as well as some of the leading figures in Alaska’s theatre.

To read full press release Click Here

More about Jacob:

Jacob Juntunen is a playwright and theatre scholar whose work focuses on people who struggle against society’s boundaries.

His playwriting stems from a mix of scholarship and social responsibility. Therefore, his playwriting and academic writing are a constant symbiosis. Both focus on understanding the political function of theatre, and this focus is demonstrated in his plays, which, overall, are meant for those “who want to leave the theatre changed and moved,” as one Chicago critic described. He recently wrote See Him? to participate in the Belarusian Dream Theater, a consortium of 18 theaters in 13 countries simultaneously producing plays to raise awareness about human rights violations in Belarus. His latest play, In the Shadow of his Language lays bare the hidden dowry of academic success and was a semi-finalist for the O’Neill Center National Playwrights’ Conference; a semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship; and a finalist for the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award. It was also awarded an “In the Works” residency by the city of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. In the Shadow of his Language has enjoyed two staged readings in Chicago, another at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, and a workshop off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons. His play Saddam’s Lions—published in Plays for Two (Vintage)—examines the disquieting memories of an African-American female Iraq War veteran and her struggles to come to terms with war-time trauma. Jacob based this play on interviews with a veteran. This process combined his desire for politically relevant work, his dedication to diverse casting opportunities, and his scholarship about the politics of performance. He hopes to inspire in students a similar yearning for intellectual curiosity, social activism, collaboration, and playwriting.

More about Catherine:

Catherine Weingarten hails from Ardmore, PA also known as the area that inspired the preppy sexy TV show “Pretty Little Liars.” Catherine’s comedic plays delve into the societal pressure placed on young women to be both impossibly good looking as well as ridiculously intellectual, humble, kind as can be but sexy. Her plays usually include some hot fantasy sequences which helps attract the common man into the theater! She recently graduated from Bennington College in Vermont where she studied playwriting(with Sherry Kramer) as well as gender, mediation and environmental studies. Her short plays have been done at such theaters as Ugly Rhino Productions, Fresh Ground Pepper, Wishbone Theater Collective and Nylon Fusion Collective. She is currently the playwright in residence for “Realize Your Beauty Inc” which promotes positive body image for kids by way of theater arts. Catherine is thrilled to pursue her MFA at OU and thankful for the awesome opportunity for baller mentorship. catherine-weingarten.squarespace.com

Ryan Patrick Dolan’s 10-minute play “DADDY’S LITTLE GIRLS” is a National Semi-Finalist at KCACTF!

January 7, 2015
by catherineforever666
· 10-minute plays · Awards · Current Students · Festival · News

Ryan Patrick Dolan’s 10-minute play DADDY’S LITTLE GIRLS was one of six ten-minutes plays selected for Region 2 of the prestigious Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in Cleveland Jan 2-6. Two of those six went on to be named a National Semifinalist; including Dolan’s (MFA 2016).

Each of the plays was given a reading after being assigned and a director and cast their plays from the acting students from the region participating in the festival. His director was David A. Miller from Bloomsburg University. Two of the six plays got picked as National Semi-Finalists for the KCACTF 10-minute play festival. DADDY’S LITTLE GIRLS was one of two selected as a National Semi-Finalist. There will be 16 semi-finalists from 8 regions. Four of those will be chosen to go to Washington, DC in April.

DADDY’S LITTLE GIRLS originally appeared in a Madness produced by Tyler Whidden (’16) earlier in the year as part of “Coffin Block” Madness; where each playwright had to use a coffin block in an unexpected way. In his second year in the program, Ryan has experimented widely with his madnesses including movement pieces inspired by large scale paintings to raunchy-real comedies about men looking for connection. “Daddy’s Little Girls” is a hilarious, sexy, painful dark comedy about young girls coping and we are excited to see it be recognized! Congrats Ryan!

To learn more about madness click here.

*Note: The photo is Ryan Patrick Dolan (left) with his cast from the festival.

More about Ryan Patrick Dolan

Ryan Patrick Dolan is a second year MFA Candidate in the Ohio University Playwriting Program under Charles Smith and Erik Ramsey. He has a B.A. in playwriting from Columbia College Chicago where he studied under playwright, Lisa Schlesinger. He writes dark, comedic plays that explore love and loss, passion and destruction. Stylistically influenced by his years of improvisation, acting, and the Chicago Storefront aesthetic, he challenges the American stereotypes of gender, race, and sexuality.

Dolan produced four one-act plays written by three other Ohio University playwrights and himself called “10-4: The Truck Stop Plays.” Dolan’s one-act “Burger King,” was directed by Ashley Neal. His full-length play,“Moraine,” had a reading at the 2014 Seabury Quinn Jr. Playwrights Festival at Ohio University, and at the Trellis Reading Series at the Greenhouse Theater Center. Ryan’s play “The Peace of Westphalia” was awarded the first-ever workshop production in the playwriting program at Columbia College. His ten-minute plays have been produced by American Theater Company, and Brown Couch Theater. Ryan was the dramaturg at RedTwist theater for Kimberly Senior’s production of “The Pillowman,” and Keira Fromm’s production of “The Lobby Hero.” Both were nominated for Jeff Awards for “Best Play” and “Best Director.” Ryan is also a 12-year veteran of the Chicago improv scene. He has primarily improvised at iO and Annoyance Theaters, but also has performed and taught workshops at numerous festivals and universities around the country with his groups Revolver and Pudding-Thank-You. He also teaches workshops to Ohio University’s improv group, “Black Sheep.” His acting credits include productions at Steppenwolf Theater’s “Next Up” series, TimeLine Theater, Collaboraction, Strawdog, and Wildclaw Theater. http://ryanpatrickdolan.com/

Chicago Reading Tuesday for Neal Adelman’s PONTIACS

November 10, 2014
by rpdolan
· Chicago · Current Students · News · Reading

Third year MFA playwright, Neal Adelman ’14, will have a reading of his play, PONTIACS, in Chicago, Tuesday, November 11th at the Greenhouse Theater. It is directed by Andrew Peters, and the cast includes: Mélisa Breiner-Sanders, Clinton Campbell, Elise Randall, Michael Stock, Greg Wenz.

Adelman is in his 3rd year in the MFA program, and PONTIACS last had a reading last April at the 2014 Seabury Quinn Jr. Playwrights Festival on campus. He had a one-act play, 1100 CHILI DOGS, OR 1985: THE YEAR BELINDA CARLISLE CAME TO OKLAHOMA, that was produced in Chicago last summer as part of the night of one-act plays, 10-4: The Truck Stop Plays.

The reading starts at 7pm, and is being read with another play ZERO TO CRAZY by Francesca Robyn Peppiatt. Trellis at the Greenhouse Theater Center is at 2257 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, Illinois 60614.

Cecilia Copeland’s play “R Culture” currently in NYC!

November 9, 2014
by catherineforever666
· Events · New York · News · Productions

OU Playwriting Alum Cecilia Copelands play about rape culture is currently in NYC! The play runs November 4th-24th at IRT. R Culture is a world premiere of a new edgy dark comedy by Cecilia Copeland and was commissioned by Producing Director Emily Lerer(also an OU alum) to raise awareness and open a platform for discussion of Rape Culture in Our Culture.

Click here for more info on the production; and read more about the play here.

Also check out Cecilia’s recent interview done by acclaimed playwright Adam Szymkowicz as part of his popular blog “I Interview Playwrights.”

DETAILS

PERFORMANCES: November 7, 8, 9 , 14, 15, 16 17, 20, 21, 22, 23
TIMES: 8pm
LENGTH OF SHOW: 1 HR 15 min.
PRICE:$18
At IRT: 154 Christopher st. NYC #3B (third floor)

About Cecilia:

Cecilia Copeland: Playwright, Screenwriter, and Founding Artistic Director New York Madness. Named Indie Theater Now’s “Person of the Year”, her plays have been presented at the Culture Project, Cherry Lane Theatre, Ensemble Studios Theatre, HERE Arts Center, The Anarchist Theatre Festival of Montreal, Venus Theatre, The Chain Theatre, New Perspectives, and IATI Theatre among others. She has developed work with the Lark Play Development Center and terraNOVA. She was awarded a Special Effects Grant from Metro Screen Australia for her screenplay, Amusement Bomber. Copeland is the winner of a Fine Arts Grant at Ohio University and the Lennis J. Holm Playwriting Scholarship from University of Iowa Writers Workshop, a semifinalist for The O’Neill Playwrights Conference and the David Callichio Emerging Playwrights Prize. Copeland is a Kilroy’s List Nominee, finalist for Mabou Mines Residency, and a member of The League of Professional Theatre Women

Jeremy Sony’s play “THE LEGEND OF ROBIN HOOD” is coming to Nashville this November!

October 28, 2014
by catherineforever666
· alumni · Events · News · Productions

OU Playwriting Alum, Jeremy Sony has two exciting upcoming projects!

Street Theatre Company’s ClassAct Dramatics will premiere his play, “THE LEGEND OF ROBIN HOOD:, November 14, 2014, in Nashville. This is his second time working with STC, who commissioned this new full-length following the success of last year’s ICHABOD: MISSING IN SLEEPY HOLLOW.Click here for more info.

The second project is that he will be writing for Available Light Theatre’s upcoming 24 HOUR THEATRE here in Columbus. 6 writers, 6 directors, and 22 actors are gathering for 24 hours to create a night of new plays to be staged November 8, 2014 at 8pm.24 Hour Theatre is the drag racing of the theatre world. It’s short, furiously intense, and something might explode.

Thirty artists, spanning the breadth of the Columbus theatre community, will create six brand-new short plays in just 24 hours. Starting at 8pm on Friday night, names are drawn, teams created, plays written over night, and rehearsals completed in 8 hours, all in time for opening night at 8pm on Saturday.

More about Jeremy Sony:

Jeremy Sony is a Midwest-based writer and co-founder of Theatre Daedalus. His plays include: ICHABOD: MISSING IN SLEEPY HOLLOW (World Premiere, Street Theatre Company ClassAct Dramatics), PARALLAXIS and CUCKOLD WALKS INTO A BAR (MadLab Theatre Roulette 2014), ADVICE TO THE HAPPY COUPLE (MadLab, Theatre Roulette 2013), THE COSMONAUT IN HUMAN RESOURCES (Luna Theatre), SPIN CYCLE (2010 Heideman Award Finalist, Actors Theatre of Louisville), AGAINST THE PANE (Penobscot Theater), MEETING GOD ON A TUESDAY MORNING and DO THEY EXPEDITE THERE (Curtain Players Theater). UPCOMING PLAYS: THE LEGEND OF ROBIN HOOD (World Premiere, Street Theatre Company ClassAct Dramatics, November 2014); THE GROVE CITY PLAY (Preview, September 2014 / World Premiere, Summer 2015, Commissioned by the Grove City Historic Commission). Other plays in active development include: PATHOGENESIS (Reading, Nashville Repertory Theatre) and FRACKTURE (Workshop, TAGS New Play Project). Sony’s plays have also been seen and developed at Playhouse Nashville’s Ten Minute Playhouse, Western Michigan University, The Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Ohio University MFA Playwrights Workshop, and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region 2 Festival 45. AWARDS & RESIDENCIES: Scott McPherson Playwriting Award (2012); 2012-2013 Anthony Trisolini Graduate Fellowship; 2013-2014 Ingram New Works Lab Residency (Nashville Repertory Theatre). FILM: SEPARATION ANXIETY (Best Drama, 2012 Riverbend Film Festival) was produced by Glass City Films, starring Emmy-winner John Wesley Shipp and Drama Desk nominee Polly Adams. OTHER WRITING: “Hard Stop” (published by Outskirts Press under the pseudonym Jamie Rotham). Sony holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Ohio University and a B.A. in Film & Television from the University of Notre Dame. He has studied under playwrights Charles Smith, Erik Ramsey, and Kara Lee Corthron. Sony lives in central Ohio with his wife, where they are currently outnumbered 2-1 by their cats. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, and many social media sites under the handle @JeremyWrites.

Tonight: Reading for Chantal Bilodeau’s FORWARD with Chicago’s Akavit Theatre at BOHO Theater

October 27, 2014
by rpdolan
· alumni · Chicago · News · Reading

Chantal Bilodeau’s play, FORWARD, has a staged reading with Chicago’s Akavit Theater tonight at BOHO Theater.

The OU alum’s play, FORWARD, is a part of Bilodeau’s “Arctic Cycle.”

Synopsis of Forward from Bilodeau’s website:

Forward began in October 2011 with Chantal’s participation in the Arctic Circle (thearcticcircle.org) program, a two-week sailing expedition around the Svalbard Archipelago, located halfway between Norway and the North Pole.

Moving backwards from present-day Norway to 1895, when Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen established a record for sailing closest to the North Pole, Forwardpresents a poetic history of climate change and looks at how a spirit of innovation propelled Norwegians through three major events of the 20th century: the conquest of the North, the discovery of oil, and the onset of climate change. The play looks at a series of seemingly unrelated characters confronting small, day-to-day challenges, and making choices that seemed innocent at the time but turned out to be important markers in History.

Akavit Theater produces plays about the “five Nordic countries—harnessing the force of the glacier, in its powerful seeming stillness, the volcano, in its sudden white-hot eruption, and the arctic silence in between—we strive to find the universal through the voices of the Nordic world.”

The reading is at BOHO Theater at 7016 N. Glenwood Ave by the Heartland Cafe.

Catherine Weingarten ’17 has short play in Halloween Play Festival in Binghamton!

October 8, 2014
by catherineforever666
· Current Students · New York · News · Productions

Catherine Weingarten, a first year MFA playwright, has a short play called “Halloween Marsha” debuting at Darkhorse Dramatists “Tales from The script” short play Halloween fest in Binghamton, NY during the weekend of October 17th. This is Catherine’s third collaboration with Dark Horse Dramatists and they remain one of her favorite companies.

More Info about the Upcoming Production:

We’re proud to debut a sweet new treat by Catherine Weingarten: “HALLOWEEN MARSHA”. Be careful whom you invite to your birthday party, especially if it should land on Halloween. Poor Marsha’s party is ruined by fit of teenage-angst! Don’t miss this cute & comical monologue! Directed by Pete Bowers and starring Adara Alston. Just 1 of 8 shorts featured in TALES FROM THE SCRIPT!

Darkhorse Dramatists, the little playwrights’ collective based in Binghamton, is bringing their collection of Halloween themed plays to the Roberson Museum this October: the 3rd annual “Tales from the Script”! Two playwrights in the local area will be debuting new work in the festival, both Mickey Ray, who is the author of the monologue, “The Next Time” and Shirley Goodman, who wrote a new drama entitled, “Ghost in My Eyes”. But this festival spans far away from Binghamton, with national playwrights from coast-to-coast. A grand total of eight short plays will be performed in a minimalist black box theatre setting. And while some venture into horror with occasional grizzly subject matter and adult language, you can still expect loads of laughter. The plays are being performed Friday and Saturday evening only October 17th and 18th at 8pm at Roberson Museum’s Ballroom. Tickets are $15 general admission or $10 for students or seniors; available online at www.roberson.org

More Info about Catherine:

Catherine Weingarten hails from Ardmore, PA also known as the area that inspired the preppy sexy TV show “Pretty Little Liars.” She recently graduated from Bennington College in Vermont where she studied playwriting(with the magical Sherry Kramer) as well as gender, mediation and environmental studies. Her short plays have been done at such theaters as Ugly Rhino Productions, Fresh Ground Pepper, Wishbone Theater Collective and Nylon Fusion Collective. Her short play, “You Looked Hot When You Stole that Dress From Walmart” was voted favorably in the NYC LGBTQ “Fresh Fruit Festival” 10 minute play contest and received a revival at The Wild Project this past July as part of the official festival. Catherine previously was a member of Abingdon Theater’s playwrights group as well as New Perspective Theater’s “Women’s Work” 2014 short play lab. She is currently the playwright in residence for “Realize Your Beauty Inc” which promotes positive body image for kids by way of theater arts. She wrote an educational play for them called “Bloom” about a chick getting kicked out of a yoga class for being not hot enough, which is geared for high school age kids. Catherine is thrilled to pursue her MFA at OU and thankful for the awesome opportunity for baller mentorship. catherine-weingarten.squarespace.com

Qui Nguyen’s “She Kills Monsters” is coming to Available Light Theater in Columbus, Ohio!

September 29, 2014
by catherineforever666
· alumni · News · Productions · Qui Nguyen

Ohio MFA Playwriting Alum, Qui Nguyen’s play “She Kills Monsters” has an upcoming production at Available Light Theater this December in Columbus, Ohio!

Qui Nguyen, a co-founder of the NYC based theater company “Vampire Cowboys Theater”, has had his work produced at such venues as The Flea, South Coast Rep and the Playwrights Center in Minnesota.

Available Light Theater says in their missions statement that they: “Engage our community by staging provocative works that examine our culture, expose its shortcomings, and reveal the beauty of humankind.” The production runs December 4th through the 20th and there are a limited number of pay what you can seats. Go see it!

More Info on Production:

She Kills Monsters is an ingenious trip into the world of fantasy role-playing games, as played by Tilly Evans, a lonely, geeky, and gay Ohio teenager who takes refuge in her action-packed imaginary world.

It’s a tribute to the power of stories, packed with homicidal fairies, raunchy ogres, bloodthirsty cheerleaders, and more 1990s pop culture references than you can shake a thigh-master at.

Recommended if You Like: Skyscrapers of the Midwest, God’s Ear, Dungeons & Dragons

Robin & Peter Hersha present…
SHE KILLS MONSTERS
by Qui Nguyen
Directed by Ian ShortDecember 4 — 20, 2014
Riffe Center Studio Two
77 South High St.

Click here for even more info.

Rachel Bykowski has short play in Chicago!

September 17, 2014
by catherineforever666
· Chicago · Current Students · Events · News · Productions

First year playwright and Native Chicagoan, Rachel Bykowski, has an exciting new play The Invisible Ones which will be featured at Fury Theater’s “Short Attention Span Theater Fest.” With her talent for tackling provocative subject matter and creating rich and addictive poetic language; we know this play will be awesome! Congrats Rachel!

More info on EVENT:

Six Chicago playwrights were invited to write about their experience of being a local Chicagoan.

Dates: September 18,19,20, 25, 26, 26 at 7PM at Chase Park

Rachel is premiering her newest one act The Invisible Ones inspired by Amiri Baraka’s incredibly play Dutchman which dealt with racial tensions during the 1960’s. Bykowski’s play takes place on the Chicago Red Line and discusses the assumptions people make of others based solely on another person’s appearance and what part of the city they call home. In addition, it explores how Chicago does or does not deal with the now daily violence that plagues the city’s neighborhoods and the repercussions that violence has on its residents.

Click here for even more info on Fury Theater’s Short play Fest