Here’s what’s up with a few recent graduates of the OHIO MFA Playwriting Program.
Laura Jacqmin
Laura Jacqmin is a Los Angeles-based playwright, TV writer and video game writer, originally from Cleveland.
Plays: Residence (40th Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville); January Joiner (Long Wharf Theatre); Ski Dubai (Steppenwolf Theatre); A Third (Finborough Theatre London); Look, we are breathing (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble; Sundance Theatre Lab); Dental Society Midwinter Meeting (Williamstown Theatre Festival; Chicago Dramatists/At Play, 16th Street Theater); Ghost Bike (Buzz22 Chicago). Awards: Wasserstein Prize, two NEA Art Works Grants, ATHE-Kennedy Center David Mark Cohen Playwriting Award, two MacDowell Fellowships, Illinois Arts Council Individual Artist Grant.
Television: “Get Shorty” (MGM/Epix, 2017); “Grace and Frankie” (Netflix); “Lucky 7” (ABC). Video Games: “The Walking Dead, Season 3” (Telltale Games); “Minecraft: Story Mode” (Telltale Games).
She received her BA from Yale University, and earned an MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University. Founding member, The Kilroys.
More at laurajacqmin.com.
Qui Nguyen
Qui Nguyen is a playwright, TV/Film writer, 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, “Tour de Force Theatre” by Time Out New York, and “Infectious Fun” by Variety.
Scripts include Vietgone (2016 Steinberg Award, 2016 LADCC Ted Schmidt New Play Award, 2016 Kennedy Prize Finalist); She Kills Monsters (2013 AATE Distinguished Play Award, 2012 GLAAD Media Award nom); War is F**king Awesome (Frederick Loewe Award); Soul Samurai (2009 GLAAD Media Award nom); Begets: Fall of a High School Ronin; Krunk Fu Battle Battle; Bike Wreck; Aliens vs Cheerleaders; and the critically acclaimed Vampire Cowboys productions of The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G, Six Rounds of Vengeance, Alice in Slasherland, Fight Girl Battle World, Men of Steel, and Living Dead in Denmark.
For tv/film, Qui’s written for AMC, Netflix, SYFY, PBS, and Marvel Studios, where he is an alumni of the Marvel Studios Writers Program.
Notable honors include a 2016 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Preschool Animated Program (Peg+Cat), a 2015 NY Community Trust Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, and a 2014 Sundance Institute/Time Warner Fellowship. He’s currently working on new plays for South Coast Rep/Manhattan Theatre Club (The Vietgone Saga), The Atlantic, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Kieu).
He is a proud member of the WGA, The Dramatists Guild, The Playwrights Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Ma-Yi Writers Lab and an alumnus of New Dramatists and Youngblood.
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.
More at quinguyen.com.
Bianca Sams
Bianca Sams is a Writer/Actor. In 2016 she was a staff writer on the WB/CBS TV show “Training Day” starring Bill Paxton, and she currently writes for “The Originals”, a TV show on the CW.
Bianca graduated from New York University’s Tisch School with a BFA in Acting & Dramatic Writing (TV/Film/Playwriting). She also studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA – London England). She has an MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University.
Her acting roles include the feature film RENT (feature), Serenity (film), Ruined (play), and In the Continuum (play). Her plays include: Rust on Bone, Summer Nights & Fireflies, Black. Irish., Simply Bess, Battle Cry, and At the Rivers End.
Her Television/Film scripts include: Black Wall Street (WBTV), Blackthorn (original pilot), Bridge Over Troubled Waters (feature film) and Serenity (film).
Awards and honors include Ingram New Works Fellow (Nashville Rep), Warner Brothers TV Writing Workshop, Playwrights’ Center Core Apprentice (2014), KCATF Lorraine Hansberry (2nd place), KCACTF Rosa Parks Award (2nd place), Kennedy Center/Eugene O’Neill New Play Conference fellow, Jane Chambers Student Playwriting Award/Athe (2nd Place 2013 & 2014), Eugene O’Neill NPC (semifinalist), TRI Research Fellowship at Ohio State University, T.S. Eliot Acting Fellowship, Tracking Board 2016 Young & Hungry List, and WriteHerList 2017.
More at biancasams.com.
Aaron Carter
Aaron Carter is currently an artistic producer at Steppenwolf Theatre Company where he has served as dramaturg on such projects as The Way West by Mona Mansour and Airline Highway by Lisa D’Amour.
Previously, he served as the Literary Manager at Victory Gardens Theater where he played a key role in the IGNITION Festival and was involved in the production of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Year Zero, Love Person and Living Green, among others.
As a new play developer and dramaturg, Aaron has worked with many theaters and labs including WordBRIDGE, the Kennedy Center, Timeline Theater, Route 66 and Chicago Dramatists.
Aaron has taught courses in playwriting, dramaturgy and dramatic literature at Northwestern University, DePaul University, Roosevelt University and Grinnell College. As a playwright, Aaron’s work focuses on race, faith and obscure performance skills.
Aaron’s play Gospel of Franklin was part of First Look 2013 at Steppenwolf, and he adapted Walter Dean Myers’ Monster for the 2016/17 Steppenwolf for Young Adults season.
More at www.steppenwolf.org/artists/aaron–carter/.
