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Category: Reading

What I did last summer (2019): Skye Robinson Hillis

  • September 20, 2019
  • by Erik Ramsey
  • · Current Students · News · Productions · Reading

For Skye, the summer of 2019 was spent working as the Box Office Manager at the Weston Playhouse in Vermont, which produces six shows over three months’ time in two venues. The highlight of her summer, however, was workshopping her full-length play Into Place as a part of the Headwaters New Festival at Creede Repertory Theatre in Colorado. Additionally, her play The Ordinariness of Everything was named a semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Award.

Read any of her short plays and full-lengths here: https://newplayexchange.org/users/1125/skye-robinson-hillis

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2018 Alums Cristina Luzárraga and Philana Imade Omorotionmwan Are Jerome Fellows

  • July 5, 2019
  • by Erik Ramsey
  • · alumni · Athena Project · Awards · Br!nk New Works Festival · Jerome Fellowship · La MaMa · Many Voices Fellowship · News · P73 Fellowship · Playwrights' Center · Reading · ScreenCraft Stage Play Award Winner · TV

Cristina Luzárraga (Jerome Fellow, 2019-20) and Philana Imade Omorotionmwan (Jerome Fellow, 2018-19), are two recent OHIO MFA Playwriting alums representing back-to-back years of the Jerome Fellowship at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. The fellowship is often considered career-changing for early-career playwrights; as the PWC press release notes:

Jerome and Many Voices Fellows spend a year in residency in the Twin Cities, working in an individualized and hands-on way with the Playwrights’ Center artistic staff—some of the most experienced and connected theater professionals in the country. In addition to an $18,000 stipend, fellows receive $2,000 in play development funds to workshop new plays with professional directors, dramaturgs, and actors. The Center also builds connections between the playwrights and producers of new work.

Luzárraga (just beginning the Jerome), and Omorotionmwan (just finishing), were in the same graduating class (2018) and often politely competed for awards, fellowships and grants. As far as the Jerome Fellowship is concerned — the two continue to finish in a dead heat, always with very different voices and approaches to their work.

Cristina LuzCristina Luzárraga grew up in New Jersey and still resides there, believe it or not. She’s an alum The Second City Conservatory in Chicago, the town where she once (foolishly?) dabbled in comedy performance of all kinds. Her work has been developed at Towne Street Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, The New Colony, and Tantrum Theater. Her full length plays include Critical Distance, Millennialville, and La Mujer Barbuda (Inaugural ScreenCraft Stage Play Award Winner; 2018 Princess Grace Award finalist). Her short plays have been published in anthologies by Smith and Kraus. She co-wrote and adaptation of Aphra Behn’s The Rover that was produced by Ohio University where she recently earned an MFA in playwriting… Then there’s this, of course, when you need a good laugh…

philana-better-picPhilana Imade Omorotionmwan (o-more-o-tune-wha) is currently based in Minneapolis, MN as a 2018-19 Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center. Her plays include Before Evening Comes, The Defiance of Dandelions, Fireflies, and Strong Face, or Misogynoir. Her work has been developed and/or presented at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Br!nk New Works Festival, La MaMa Experiments Series, and Athena Project Festival. She has been a semifinalist for the Relentless Award, P73 Fellowship, and Many Voices Fellowship, as well as a two-time Heideman finalist, and a finalist for the Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship, the Theatre503 Award, and the Playwrights Realm’s Scratchpad Series. Her short plays have been produced by Ensemble Studio Theatre, Pillsbury House + Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Source, Stay Awake! Theatre, Little Black Dress Ink, 20% Theatre Company Chicago, and Ohlone College. Her poems have appeared in New Delta Review and African American Review. Philana earned a BA in English at Stanford University, where she began writing plays under the mentorship of Cherríe Moraga and also dabbled in spoken word. Philana completed an MFA in Playwriting in May 2018. She is at work on a television pilot about her experiences as a teacher in public charter schools. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild. philanaplays.weebly.com

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Aaron James Johnson has short play going up in Michigan July 14th!

  • July 5, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · 10-minute plays · alumni · Events · News · Productions · Reading

Recent alum and overall friendly dude Aaron James Johnson is part of the Inaugural Detroit Playwrights Lab and they have a  showing of short plays Friday, July 14th! The facebook event says:  Seven 10-minute plays and excerpts from plays written by some of Metro Detroit’s finest up-and-coming playwrights. Join us for an unforgettable evening of original theater. Doors open at 6:30 pm. Free admission! And free, enclosed parking is adjacent to the theater.

I facebook messaged him and he gave me more dets!! Aaron said-“My play Step-nasty is being directed by Harold Hogan and I’m directing An Old Neighbor by Sean Paraventi.”

Now if I were you, I would get your butt down to the theater cause who can resist a play called Step Nasty written by an OU alum?? I think no one!

 

Details

Facebook event

Friday, July 14th, 7pm

Location: Detroit Repertory Theatre

13103 Woodrow Wilson St, Detroit, Michigan 48238
 

More about Aaron

Aaron Johnson hails from the land of cheese in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  He received his Bachelor of the Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he majored in English with an Emphasis in Creative Writing and in Theatre and Drama.  While not officially specializing in playwriting in his undergrad, Aaron took the only playwriting course offered twice and completed his creative writing thesis as a play instead of fiction or poetry writing which the school usually requires.  During his time at UW-Madison, Aaron completed three full length plays, multiple One-Acts, and numerous short plays which were all workshopped and some eventually produced at the university in staged readings.  In his Theatre and Drama major he specialized in props and was props master for a number of university shows including Ti-Jean and his Brothers and Eurydice.  Working his summers during college as a technical writer, Aaron decided to take a year off from school and work full time but the call of academia was too much for him to resist though as he is currently pursuing his MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University.  Aaron’s writing tends to take the complex and unnoticed topics of today’s culture and bring them to light by using them to create dramatic conflict and then ultimate understanding.  Using these undiscovered topics and coupling them with a realistic style will grow people’s curiosity and actively induce them to gain knowledge about today’s world.

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Check out a reading of Catherine Weingarten’s play “Are you Ready to Get PAMPERED!?” in NYC July 15th!

  • July 3, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Events · New York · News · Reading

Recent alum Catherine Weingarten has a reading of her trashy summer camp play “Are You Ready to Get PAMPERED!?” Saturday, July 15th at 6pm in Brooklyn. The reading is produced by Off With Her Head Productions and it’s apart of their Uncorseted Reading Series which promotes new plays about women and female empowerment. The reading also features OU BFA acting alum Leah Kistler!

Check it out if your in NYC!

 

More about the play:

For a long time Hester has lain awake at night, excited about the summer she can follow her mother’s footsteps and become a Pampered Camp counselor! The only problem is that Lake Pampered is a popular-fun-sexy exclusive all girl’s summer camp and Hester is a loser! The play was inspired by Catherine Weingarten’s experience as a summer camp counselor. The play asks messy questions about girl culture and expectations we put on young women to get hotter as Hester struggles to find her own in a pampered, prideful, popular and sexy world.

Details:

SAT JULY 15TH AT 6PM. CAFE FORTE. CROWN HEIGHTS.

Facebook event

 

More about Catherine

Catherine Weingarten is currently pursuing her MFA in Playwriting at Ohio University, studying under Charles Smith and Erik Ramsey.  She graduated from Bennington College in 2013 studying under Sherry Kramer.  She has taken workshops in playwriting with Samuel D. Hunter, Kara Lee Corthon and Branden Jacob-Jenkins. Catherine’s summer camp play “Are You Ready to Get PAMPERED!?” had a reading at 59E59 with Less than Rent and also was part of Dixon Place’s Bingo Lounge.  Some of her other plays include: Pineapple Upside Down Cake (KCACTF:national semi-finalist), Janis and the Big BAD World (Semi-finalist at Wide Eyed Productions), A Roller Rink Temptation (NOLA Fringe), This Car Trip Suckss ( Piper Theater Productions Emerging Artist Reading Series), Karate Hottie (OU Seabury Quinn Play Fest) Love Potion Number Slut (Tiny Rhino) and You Looked Hot When You Stole that Dress from Walmart (Fresh Fruit Festival.)  She has been involved with Abingdon Playwrights Group as well as New Perspective’s Women’s Work Short Play Lab.  She is the recipient of the Scott McPherson award given to a graduate playwright at Ohio University that is a kind and supportive collaborator in the program. catherine-weingarten.squarespace.com

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Philana has reading at La Mama this month!

  • February 13, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Current Students · Events · News · Reading

Philana Omortionmwan’s timely and moving play “Before Evening Comes” will be read at the prestigious La Mama Theater in NYC on Monday, February 27th at 7pm. It will be directed by Nephrii Amenii and will be part of La Mamas Experiment Reading Series.

Here is a little bit about the play:

“With his 13th birthday around the corner, Totome is excited to meet “the butcher” and finally become a man. His mother, however, hopes to keep him whole for just a little while longer. Before Evening Comes is a poetic exploration of what becomes of black boys and men in a dystopian future rooted in the belief that the black male body is a threat to public safety.”

Congrats Philana! Check it out if you’re in NYC!!

 

More Info On event

February 27th, at 7pm, La Mama Gallerua/ 47 Great Jones Street

Click here to get a reservation

More about Philana

Philana Omorotionmwan is originally from Baton Rouge, LA where she was born to a Louisiana Creole mother and a Nigerian father.  Production of Philana’s short plays includes THE SETTLEMENT (Ensemble Studio Theatre) and BLACK BOYS DON’T DANCE (Manhattan Theatre Source). BEFORE EVENING COMES was recently developed as part of the 2016 Bay Area Playwrights Festival (Playwrights Foundation) and the Br!nk New Play Festival (Renaissance Theaterworks). Her ten-minute play DIS DA HOOD is currently a finalist for the 2016 Heideman Award. Philana earned her BA from Stanford University where she began writing plays under the mentorship of Cherríe Moraga. Philana is currently pursuing an MFA in Playwriting at Ohio University. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.

 

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Go check out Jacob Juntunen’s reading of HATH TAKEN AWAY at Chicago Dramatists!

  • May 18, 2015
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Chicago · News · Reading

Jacob Juntunen’s full length play HATH TAKEN AWAY will receive a staged reading at Chicago Dramatists on Saturday, May 30th at 2pm as part of their Saturday Series!  This is the same play that he will have a reading of at the Last Frontier Theater Conference this June!  If you are in the Chicago area, go check it out!  Congrats Jacob!

Here is a summary of the play:

Dorothea, an Evangelical Midwestern woman, learns that she is pregnant, that she has a brain tumor, and that, to best treat her cancer, she needs an abortion. In a mix of confessional direct address and remembered interactions, Dorothea, her husband, and her best friend wrestle with this decision, their pasts, and their blessings and curses.

For more info on the event, click here

Event Location:

Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Avenue
Chicago, IL  60642

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.

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Ryan Patrick Dolan interviewed by us about his play in the Seabury Quin Playfest!

  • April 16, 2015
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Chicago · Current Students · Festival · News · Reading

Hey y’all!  Who is getting excited for the Seabury Quinn Playfest this April!!  Our last interview in our series is one of everyone’s favorite OU Second-Year Playwrights, Ryan Patrick Dolan!  Ryan has become well known in the playwriting program for his honest and realll humor, his improv background and of course his love of Chicago!  Read my full interview with him below and learn more about him and his awesome new play at Seabury Quinn, BAIT SHOP.

What was your inspiration for “Bait Shop”?  Did you start off with an image, a person you know etc…

I used to spend my summers in Northern Michigan at a cabin with my family. There was a hardware story in a small, little town called Cedar. We used to buy worms from there to go fishing when I was young boy. I spent every summer there from the age of 3 to 18. My parents got divorced and I didn’t go back for twenty years. Then two summers ago, my dad rented a house, and my big sister and her family, and my little sis, my step-mom, and even my mom all went back to spend a week there. Some stuff had changed, but I was blown away by how much was the same. Some of the same locals still worked the same jobs. Some of our favorite restaurants looked exactly the same. We went on a charter boat once a year fishing on Lake Michigan. The guy who take us, Bob, was this real character. He’s kind of the inspiration for John, although Bobs life is nothing like his. Bob is married and had kids. I remember though as a kid when Bob would talk about partying with the other charter captains and their assistants and sometimes sleep on their boats since they had to go out at 6am the next day. They would drink at a bar called the Bluebird my big sister used to waitress at in college. My sis said she made a ton of money there. The Bluebird hasn’t changed at all. It looks exactly the same. The fishing town is the same. Bob is the same except he’s grayer, but so am I.

Also, the play kicks off with a friend of John’s dying. It’s a real shock to John cause he’s 40. I’ve lost two friends from the improv community in the last couple of years. Both in their 40s. Improv comedians tend to drink and party more than a normal adult. That suspended sense of adolescence smashing into the reality of getting older, and starting to lose friends and realizing life wasn’t going to last forever was something I wanted to explore. I thought the setting in Michigan would be a good place to do it.  Nobody ever thinks they’re old. Everyone thinks they are the same person they were at 22 or 25. Younger people expect older adults to know more things or have things figure out or to have a sense of wisdom. There is wisdom in getting older, but nobody has anything figured out.

 

You  started off in the Chicago Improv scene!  What is a quality/skill you learned from improvisation that has helped your playwriting?

There are so many ways that improvisation has made me a better writer. Writing is really about editing, and doing and watching a ton of improv has made me a good editor when it comes to pacing, and knowing when stuff is too wordy, or the audience is not engaged. When I’m hearing my words in front of an audience, it’s become second nature to me to know when the audience is with the piece and when stuff isn’t clicking. That is a huge advantage when I’m rewriting my work.

It’s made me better with dialogue. I’ve improvised thousands of scenes that started with nothing. It taught me how to build a scene by two characters having to react to the last thing said. Or if someone makes a tangent or changes the course of the conversation in a scene, there’s usually a reason why that change has made, a tactic for the character and the actor playing that character. Also, people bounce around topics sometimes when talking. So you can go on a tangent, and then bounce it back to what someone was originally talking about. Being superfamiliar on how people talk and listen to each other in a way that the audience finds engaging is vitally important to me.

Obviously, I’ve made people laugh a ton, and failed at making people laugh a ton, and watched others do the same. You get to have an innate sense of what is funny on the page, and how it might translate to the stage. If something doesn’t work on stage, however, sometimes it might just be the wait it’s set up in the writing or how it’s delivered. So, having all that background in humor helps me figure out how to fix things much more efficiently, or to know when something isn’t working and know it’s better to cut it and move on.

Some writers are really married to their words and push against changes or suggestions by directors or actors or dramaturgs. I’ve improvised for over ten years. Every show that is successful was because I had to constantly collaborate with everyone else on stage with you. Afterward, we’d always try to figure why things worked and didn’t work. I learned pretty quickly that someone else is always going to have a really good instinct or idea that’s just as good as mine. You have to constantly figure out when to push your thing in improv or know when to give over or learn how to do both. I use that when I collaborate on my script. There are no bad ideas in the rehearsal room. If I know what I’m doing and trust my talent and voice, I always know that the words are going to be mine and I can always come up with something else that’s funny if a scene or a joke needs to go.

Finally, (this much longer than you thought, isn’t it?) the type of improvisation I do in Chicago is called “long form.” Usually, a show will start with three or more different “threads” or scenes that are completely distinct from each other, where the characters do not know each other or share the same world. Then as the show goes along, you start mixing these worlds, and their ideas, characters and themes together. Some of my plays, like “Moraine,” my first year play, jumped back and forth in time in what seemed to be unconnected ways. As the play pushed towards the climax, the audience could figure out how they all connected to tell one cohesive story. This is a real pain in the ass way to create a play, and I don’t always want to create something that way, but it’s cool when I’m able to pull it off.

 

Word on the street is you are a major Katy Perry fan!  If your play was a Katy Perry Song, which would it be and why?

She hasn’t written it yet. She’s waiting to collaborate with me on it.

What is a fun fact most people don’t know about you?

I have a real stupid tattoo that I got when I was 19. It doesn’t bother me, but it’s dumb. Don’t get a tattoo. At some point, you realize they’re not worth it. It doesn’t make you any more original than when you don’t have one.

You’ve read about and now are supa into RYANNNN!  Now Come check out the reading of his play “BAIT SHOP” at the 21st Annual Seabury Quinn PlayFest at 8pm SATURDAY, APRIL 25th at 4pm in Baker Theater!

Here is the blurb for it:

John, 40, has been working at his bait shop in Northern Michigan all his life. He’s got his fishin’, drinkin’, buddies and is livin’ the good life. He’s also been known to enjoy the company of the college-aged waitresses, who come up during the summer to make money. As he befriends a new waitress, Lauren, he receives startling news about a friend. At the same time, Janet, the first of his life, reappears out of nowhere. As John and Lauren’s friendship grows, John has to come face-to-face with his life choices, and the question: is it too late to change his path?

More about Ryan

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’s play, “Daddy’s Little Girls,” was named a National Semifinalist for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival’s 10-minute play competition, the THE GARY GARRISON AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING TEN-MINUTE PLAY. In conjunction with KCACTF, “Daddy’s Little Girls” also garnered him one of the eight, nationwide nominations for the National Partners of American Theatre Playwriting Award which recognizes “best-written, best-crafted script with the strongest writer’s “voice.””  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. Moraine is being produced at CIC Theater this March and April in Chicago, and is being directed by Mary Rose O’Connor.

Dolan produced four one-act plays written by three other Ohio University playwrights and himself called “10-4: The Truck Stop Plays” at CIC Theater in Chicago in the Summer of 2014. Dolan’s one-act “Burger King,” was directed by Ashley Neal.  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.

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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 23rd 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

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Chicago Reading Tuesday for Neal Adelman’s PONTIACS

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

Neal AdelmanThird 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.

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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 BilodeauChantal 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.

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