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Qui’s play “Vietgone” written up about on NBC News.com

  • February 13, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · alumni · News

Qui Nguyen’s play “Vietgone” is on fire!! It is especially timely because its a refugees story.

Here’s an excerpt from the article on NBC news about this play and the momentum its gathering:

“For Nguyen, writing a story about Vietnamese refugees was his way of humanizing Asian Americans and refugees of all races. He notes that, unintentionally, the play reflects today’s Syrian refugee crisis, the stigma that comes with immigration, and experience of starting over in a new country.

“That’s what’s so great about art: it allows us to humanize people and create bridges between people,” Nguyen said. “Lots of different people are part of the American fabric. That’s what our country was founded on.”

So far, the show has run in California, Oregon, Washington, and New York, playing its last show at the Manhattan Theatre Club this past December. Its success there opened doors for a regional production in Minnesota at Mixed Blood Theatre from April 10 to 30 this year — timed to coincide with the Fall of Saigon’s 42nd anniversary.

Orange County’s South Coast Repertory and the Manhattan Theatre Club have also commissioned sequels: two new plays covering Nguyen’s family history and the Vietnamese refugee experience. These shows are scheduled to go on stage every two years: play two in 2018 and play three in 2020. They will first play in California, Nguyen said.”

Read the article here

Congrats Qui!!

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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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Bianca featured in “We for She” list!

  • February 7, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · alumni · News

Alum Bianca Sams is being recognized for her TV writing work! Her TV pilot “BLACKTHORN” is one of the featured pilots on WeforShe, Here’s a little bit about her show:

BLACKTHORN

By Bianca Sams

BLACKTHORN follows Davion Littlefield, an investigative journalist and tv host, after the suspicious death of someone she loves. Hell bent on finding the truth at any cost, Davion thrusts herself into a dangerous rabbit hole of military secrets and conspiracies.

Here is a little bit about this list:

“Despite awareness of gender disparity being at an all time high, the stats for women remain stagnant. The 2015-2016 Boxed In Report revealed, “women comprise 26% of creators, directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and directors of photography working on broadcast network, cable, and streaming programs – no change from 2012-2013.”

WeForShe’s goal is to improve the numbers of female storytellers employed in the industry.  By sourcing industry executives for their favorite scripts, we provide the town with a curated list of the best available female-driven scripts. In just a couple years, the WriteHer List has become a go-to resource for industry-vetted, quality female-driven scripts available for television.  We’ve seen writers showcased on our list get staffed, have pilots optioned, find new representation and set up deals at networks. “

Congrats Bianca!

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Bianca’s new TV show “Training Day” premieres tomorrow!

  • February 1, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · News

Bianca Sams is a writer on the new TV show “Training Day” which will premiere on CBS at 10pm, tomorrow night, February 2nd!

Here’s a little more about the show:

Training Day is a crime thriller that begins 15 years after the events of the feature film, about a young, idealistic police officer who is tapped to go undercover in an elite squad of the LAPD where he partners with a morally ambiguous veteran detective. Detective Frank Rourke is the maverick head of the Special Investigation Section (S.I.S.) that hunts the city’s most dangerous criminals, and one of the finest investigators the department has ever produced. However, when the LAPD brass notices Rourke’s penchant for operating in a gray area to fight the war on crime, they assign Kyle Craig, a heroic, untarnished cop, to pose as Frank’s trainee to spy on him and report on his off-book methods. The members of Frank’s loyal team include Rebecca Lee, a formidable officer with killer aim and a dark past, and Tommy Campbell, a former pro surfer who follows Frank’s orders without hesitation. The team’s cases find Frank and Kyle often crossing paths with Detective Valeria Chavez, one of the LAPD’s top investigators. Providing Frank with intel is his girlfriend, Holly Butler, a well-connected, unapologetic Hollywood madam. While LAPD Deputy Chief Joy Lockhart coolly puts Kyle in danger in her mission to take down Frank, Kyle’s schoolteacher wife, Alyse, worries her husband’s resolve to avenge the murder of his father, a cop, may be his undoing. As Frank starts teaching his principled trainee the way of the streets where the ends often justify the means, they form an uneasy alliance that will change the course of both their lives irrevocably.

Watch a preview here

Congrats Bianca!! Check the show out on CBS!

 

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First year MFA Playwrights are finalists for Scripps contest!

  • February 1, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Current Students · News

Our current first year class: Trip Venturella, Katherine Varga and Inna Tyrlin are finalists for the Scripps Innovation Challenge. the OU website describes it as:

The 5th Annual Scripps Innovation Challenge is a university-wide student competition to create innovative solutions to real-world media and communication problems. It is open to all Ohio University students, regardless of major. The goal is to harness the creativity of Ohio University students to develop new and innovative products, tools, or strategies that could be the basis for a startup business or a new entrepreneurial venture by an established company.

The Post recently interviewed them about their project!!

Here is a little sample of that:

The second finalist team, The Players, includes Trip Venturella, Kathrine Varge and Inna Tsyrlin, three first-year graduate playwriting students. They chose to create a team to think outside the box and focus on how their skills as writers can also make a difference.

“We were like ‘wouldn’t it be cool not only to engage a different part of our brains than the artistic playwriting part, but also develop something that might someday be employed to having social good or social benefit,’ ” said Venturella.

Their challenge came from the National Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit organization that promotes wildlife protection. The challenge required looking at today’s media and coming up with an innovative way to educate people about the organization’s mission while also raising money.

“It was a matter of looking at the media itself, like the internet, and saying ‘OK, when people go to the internet, what are most people interested in? What will grab their attention?’ ” Varge said.

Read full article about them here Congrats Katherine, Inna and Trip!!! We hope you win!

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“Paper Moon” Madness coming this Friday!

  • January 30, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Madness · News

Second year MFA playwright, Natasha Smith, shall be producing “Paper Moon” Madness this week!!!!  She has assigned each playwright to write a short farce.

Here’s an except from her prompt:

“Can love and belief transform a paper moon, or is it always a deception? Why do we believe in comforting things, and what do we find comforting in hard times?

Listen to the song here

The Madness show is February 3rd,  11pm, in the Hahne Black Box theater. Admission is free. We recommend you get there 45 to 60 minutes ahead of time to assure yourself a seat.

For more information about Madness this spring semester, check out our Madness page.

 

More about Natasha

Natasha Smith’s play Catapult was a semi-finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival and received a staged reading with Arizona Theatre Company in 2014, where she served as the Artistic Intern for two years. She has also worked with Horizon Theatre and the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. Natasha’s play In Her Place was produced at Amherst College, where she studied Theater/Dance and English, and won the Denis Johnston Playwriting Award from Smith College. She has taught creative writing in the US and in Kenya, and is a three-time recipient of the Roland Wood Fellowship from Amherst College.  www.natashawrites.com

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Katherine Varga has 10 minute play in Denver!

  • January 30, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Current Students · News

Katherine Varga has a new short play “Post Truth” going up at Curious Theater in Denver on February 6th! She previously attended their summer program for young playwrights. Congrats Katherine!!

Here is more info on the program:

After our Summer Playwriting Intensive ends, we want to continue our relationships to these emerging playwrights and their work. Each year, we ask alums from the Summer Intensive as well as current playwrights from in-school residencies at Colorado Academy to write 10-minute companion plays inspired by a Curious Theatre Company mainstage production. The pieces are then performed on the set of the play that inspired their play during a staged festival.

This continuation of their journey in writing allows young playwrights the opportunity to hone their craft year-round and receive mentorship and support from Curious.

 

Info if you want to see it:

ACTS OF REVOLUTION
inspired by The Happiest Song Plays Last by Quiara Alegría Hudes

January 22 & 23 at 7 pm
February 6 at 7 pm
Each evening features different works by our fearless playwrights.

Theater Location: Curious Theater: 1080 Acoma St., Denver, CO 80204

Reservations not required. Donations accepted at the door.

 

More about Katherine

Katherine Varga is a freelance writer and playwright originally from New Britain, CT. She recently received her B.A. English from the University of Rochester, where she was awarded a Take Five scholarship to study urbanization and the arts. Her plays have been developed at Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York and Curious Theatre in Denver, Colorado, and read at the 2015 First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival.

 

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F That Noise

  • January 25, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · News

Apply to OU by February 15th

rpdolan's avatarOHIO

7-pepperoni-pizza-slice-xlHey, I know what you’re doing. Coming home from that 9-6 job with the 45 minute commute either way. Eleven total hours dedicated to that job you don’t care about. You’re tired, but F that noise. You’re not gonna get stuck in that hell hole. You’re gonna write tonight, right? I mean work out, and then write. Or maybe you’ll write tonight, and get up early tomorrow and work out. Yeah, that’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna get home, and cook that chicken that’s been sitting in your fridge. It’s not spoiled yet. You’re take that cucumber out of the crisper tray, and open up that bag of lettuce and make a nice salad. Fill up a mason jar with some refreshing, clean tap water.  You’re gonna sit down at your laptop. And you’re gonna bang out five pages. Hell, no. You’re gonna bang out ten pages. Ok, at…

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“Post Truth” Madness coming this Friday!

  • January 23, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · News

“Post Truth” Madness will be coming this Friday to the Hahne!  It will be produced by first year playwright, Katherine Varga!

Here is an excerpt from her prompt:

This week, I want you to explore these questions by translating out of the idea of “fake news.” Part of why 2016 was the “post-truth” year was due to its prevalence of false news articles and conspiracy theories that started online and had very real-world effects (ie Pizzagate). Using these current events as a starting off point, I’m encouraging you to think more broadly about what it means to live in a post-truth world. How does fake news (which can encompass news that is fake: gossip, lies) manifest itself in our communities, within our families, within ourselves?

The show is Friday, January 27th, 11pm, in the Hahne Black Box theater. Admission is free. We recommend you get there 45 to 60 minutes ahead of time to assure yourself a seat.

For more information about Madness the fall semester, check out our Madness page.

 

M0re about Katherine

Katherine Varga is a freelance writer and playwright originally from New Britain, CT. She recently received her B.A. English from the University of Rochester, where she was awarded a Take Five scholarship to study urbanization and the arts. Her plays have been developed at Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York and Curious Theatre in Denver, Colorado, and read at the 2015 First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival.

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Ryan Patrick Dolan has new podcast!

  • January 18, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · alumni · News

Recent alum Ryan Patrick Dolan has a new podcast called the GOATCAST where he interviews artists and other random intriguing people!  Some of his recent guests have included TV writer Kate Powers and Annie J. Howell and Lisa Robinson who worked on the local film “Claire in Motion.” Here’s a little bit about it in his words:

“I’ve always been drawn to interviews and longform bios of artists and their process. My guests include writers, actors, artists, musicians, sportswriters, and people I meet or know that I find interesting and are passionate about their work.

The GOATcast with Ryan Patrick Dolan is inspired by interview shows/podcasts like Fresh Air, WTF, and Nerdist’s TV Writer’s Panel, with a little Colbert Report and The-Idiot-Orange-Dumbsh*t who shall remain nameless. Also, a special shout-out to Sammy Tamimi’s unheralded Popfury Podcast.”

Congrats Ryan!! Check out episodes here and follow it on Facebook and Twitter

More about Ryan

Ryan Patrick Dolan just completed his MFA in Playwriting at 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 are stylistically influenced by his years of improvisation, acting, and the Chicago Storefront aesthetic.

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 was self-produced at CIC Theater in Chicago in the spring of 2015, and was directed by Mary Rose O’Connor.

 

 

 

 

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