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“Blitz” Madness coming this Friday!

November 16, 2015
by catherineforever666
· Madness · News

The next madness of the fall semester will be produced by third year playwright, Aaron James Johnson! His prompt is Blitz Madness! Here is how he describes it in his prompt:”This week we’ll be putting 24 plays in 48 minutes. Hopefully. We might not make it. But that’s part of the fun. That means each playwright must write, cast, and direct three 1-2 minute plays. “

Show is November 20th, 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.

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. Aaron feels immensely privileged and grateful to be working towards his MFA in Playwriting at OU with such great and inspiring mentors, colleagues, and friends.

Reginald Edmund has play reading at Stuart’s Opera House November 20th!

November 12, 2015
by catherineforever666
· alumni · News

Stuart’s Opera House presents a FREE play reading of The Daughters of The Moon by Chicago playwright and Ohio University MFA alumni Reginald Edmund! This play is part one of the City of the Bayou Collection. Throughout the week, Reginald will be conducting playwright workshops in local high schools and working with local students as part of Stuart’s Opera House’s arts education programming in the Ohio region!

Congrats Reginald! Check this awesome reading out!!

For more info on event click here

The reading will be free and will take place Friday, November 20, 2015 at 7:00pm

52 Public Square
P.O. Box 217
Nelsonville, Ohio 45764
(740) 753-1924
More about Reginald

Reginald Edmund is a resident playwright of Chicago Dramatists. He was a 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 Playwrights’ Center Many Voices Fellowship recipient. Originally from Houston, Texas, he was the Artistic Director for the Silver House Theatre in Houston as well as the founder and producer for the Silver House Playwrights Festival and the Houston Urban Theatre Series. Reginald was the inaugural recipient of the Kennedy Center Fellowship at Soul Mountain Retreat in 2007 and the 2009 National Runner-up for the Lorraine Hansberry and Rosa Parks Playwriting Awards. In 2010, he was named Winner of The Southern Writers Competition and was recognized by TCG as a 2011 Young Leader of Color. His plays, The Ordained Smile of Sadie May Jenkins, Southbridge, Juneteenth Street, and The Redemption of Allah Black, all part of his nine-play series The City of the Bayou Collection, were developed at esteemed theaters including Ensemble Theatre of Houston, Silver House Theatre, Penumbra Theatre, the Playwrights’ Center, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Moving Arts, Karamu House, Pangea World Theater, the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Texas State University Black and Latino Theatre Conference, the Last Frontier Theater Conference, and the Kennedy Center. In 2012, he traveled to Colombia to serve as the guest speaker at the Intercolegiado de Teatro de Buenaventura and most recently he was named a winner of the 2013 Edgerton Foundation Award for his play Southbridge.

New article by Ira Gammerman on Howlround about podcasts!

November 11, 2015
by catherineforever666
· News

Edgy OU Alum Ira Gammerman has written an awesome new article about the benefits of playwrights doing podcasts. He discusses his own podcast “Dangerously Unqualified” about his unfortunate love life with fellow OU alumni Ryan Dowler as well as the history of playwrights engaging in this medium.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

My first name is Ira, so I guess a career in podcasting was inevitable? When I moved to New York a few years back, I wanted to expand my skill set beyond writing plays. Podcasting seemed like a pretty intuitive transition: the format offers a great deal of creative freedom, production costs are relatively low, and—thanks to that other Ira—the medium is picking up major steam in popular culture.I started a serialized dating podcast called Dangerously Unqualified with EST/Youngblood alumni playwright Ryan Dowler and our friends at BSD Media.The premise was simple: Ryan agreed to fix my romantic troubles, if I gave him full control of my online dating profiles and wardrobe choices, followed all of his sage dating advice, and completed his whacky challenges. (Hilarity ensued; we even wound up in jail.)Not only did Dangerously Unqualified massively improve my dating life, but it also gave Ryan and me a chance to experiment with long-form serialized storytelling and collaborative content generation in a low-stakes environment that was protected from industry pressures. We dictated our own process, wrote all of the material ourselves, had final cut on the episodes, worked at our own pace, and learned a whole lot.

Click here for the full article. Congrats Ira on this article about playwrights expanding opportunities beyond the stage!

More about Ira

Ira Gamerman is an Award-Winning AustraliAmerican PodcastPlaywright. He creates sound and songs using affected electric mandolin and guitar with Anonymous In The Clouds, Battler, and Pronouns. His Dramatic work has been produced by The Kennedy Center, Collaboraction, Short & Sweet Sydney, Source Festival, and The Chicago New Media Summit. In 2006, City Paper voted Ira “Best Playwright Of Baltimore” and in 2009, he was nominated for a New York Innovative Theater Award for best short play. As a Podcaster, Ira writes for Radiotopia’s THE TRUTH (featured on This American Life) where his Collaborative Audio-Play “Biological Clock” won a 2013 Mark Time Award from the Fire Sign Theater for Best Science Fiction Audio Production of the Year. He also co-created and co-hosts DANGEROUSLY UNQUALIFIED: A PODCAST ABOUT LOVE with EST/Youngblood Alumni Playwright Ryan Dowler through BSD MEDIA. Internationally, Ira is Co-Creative Artistic Director of AUSTRALIAMERICAN THEATER CONGLOMORATE: EVERYTHING IS EVERYWHERE (2 Americans 2 Aussies 2 Gals 2 Dudes 2 Goys 2 Jews 2 Legit 2 Quit) with Jessica Bellamy, David Finnigan, and Siobhan O’loughlin. Ira holds a BA in Theater from Towson University, an MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University, and studied Devised theater at the (now defunct) Dartington College Of Art in the UK. As an educator, Ira has taught undergraduate theater at Ohio University and Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn in addition to playwright-mentoring Young Playwrights Festivals at Atlanta’s Horizon Theater and Baltimore’s Center Stage. As a journalist, Ira has been published by Consequence Of Sound, Eleven Magazine in St. Louis (even though he has never actually visited St. Louis), and HowlRound. He was also an extra in Season 3 of The Wire and has the screenshot to prove it if you don’t believe him.

“History” Madness coming this Friday!!

November 2, 2015
by catherineforever666
· Madness · News

The next madness of the fall semester will be produced by first year playwright, Cristina Luzarraga! Her prompt is History Madness! She has asked the playwrights to write about specific events in history she has chosen based on each of their voices. The picture for the article is Herodotus, the first historian.

Show is November 6th, 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.

More about Cristina

Cristina Luzarraga is a playwright, comedian and New Jersey native. After graduating from Princeton University, she moved to Chicago to pursue improv, stand-up and theater. She has studied at The Second City, iO and the Chicago Dramatists. Her play Due Unto Others was produced by Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts.

Charles Smith has play at the Goodman’s development series in Chicago!

November 2, 2015
by catherineforever666
· Chicago · News

Head of Ohio MFA Playwriting’s program, Charles Smith, has his new play “Objects in the Mirror” going up at Goodman Theater’s New Stages Development series. The piece runs October 30th through November 15th. For an exclusive video and more info about this exciting production click here

Here is a brief synopsis of he piece: In 2009, playwright Charles Smith traveled to Adelaide, Australia to see a production of his play Free Man of Color. The production featured a young Liberian actor named Shedrick Yarkpai in the title role. Smith got to know the young actor and learned about his tumultuous journey from war-torn Liberia, through a number of refugee camps in Western Africa, before his final relocation to Australia. Objects in the Mirror was inspired by Shedrick’s remarkable odyssey. It tells the story of a young immigrant’s journey and his search for a new family, identity and a safe place to call home.

Congrats Charles! Check it out if you’re in the Chicago area!

More about Charles

CHARLES SMITH (Playwright, Objects in the Mirror) Mr. Smith’s Black Star Line was commissioned and produced by Goodman Theatre. As a former member of the Victory Gardens Theater Playwrights Ensemble, Mr. Smith’s world premiere works include Knock Me a Kiss (directed by Chuck Smith); Freefall, Jelly Belly, Denmark, The Sutherland and Cane (all directed by Dennis Začek); Takunda and the Jeff Award-winning Free Man of Color (directed by Andrea J. Diamond). His plays Gospel According to James (also directed by Chuck Smith), Sister Carrie and Les Tois Dumas were all commissioned and produced by Indiana Repertory Theatre. His play Pudd’nhead Wilson was commissioned and produced off-Broadway by The Acting Company after a national tour. His work has also been produced at various theaters nationally and in Australia, and may be obtained through Samuel French, Dramatic Publishing, Northwestern Press, Swallow Press and other publishers. Mr. Smith currently teaches playwriting at Ohio University.

Qui Nguyen’s play “Vietgone” at South Coast Rep gets rave reviews!

October 24, 2015
by catherineforever666
· alumni · News

Qui Nguyen’s new play “Vietgone” just got a rave review from the Latimes! Check out the play if you are in the Costa Meza area! Here is a brief synopsis about the show:

” An all-American love story about two very new Americans. It’s 1975, and Saigon has fallen. He lost his wife. She lost her fiancé. But now in a new land, they just might find each other. Using his uniquely infectious style The New York Times calls “culturally savvy comedy”—and skipping back and forth from the dramatic evacuation of Saigon to the here and now—playwright Qui Nguyen gets up close and personal to tell the story that led to the creation of…Qui Nguyen.”

Congrats Qui on this awesome new play!

Here’s an excerpt from the review:

The language is more revealing of the playwright’s generational influences than his characters’. A good deal of the play’s slang wasn’t yet in circulation in the mid-1970s. Quang raps as though he had been listening to Ice Cube all through high school in Saigon.

But to accuse Nguyen of anachronism is to miss the point. The playwright is engaged in a multifaceted act of freehand translation. He wants to recapture the youthful vitality of his characters in a way that will speak to his own contemporaries.

Details on the show

VIETGONE by Qui Nguyen directed by May Adrales October 4-25, 2015

Theater Address: South Coast Repertory
655 Town Center Drive
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

More about Qui

Qui Nguyen is a playwright, TV writer, and Co-Founder of the OBIE Award-winning Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company of NYC. He and his work, known for its innovative use of pop-culture, stage violence, puppetry, and multimedia, has been called “Culturally Savvy Comedy” by The New York Times, “Tour de Force Theatre” by Time Out New York, and “a refreshing, break-the-rules writer” by the Chicago Tribune.

Scripts include Vietgone (South Coast Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Company), She Kills Monsters (The Flea, Buzz22 Chicago/Steppenwolf, Company One); War is F**king Awesome (developed in the Sundance Theatre Lab); 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); and the critically acclaimed Vampire Cowboys productions of Alice in Slasherland; Fight Girl Battle World; Men of Steel; and Living Dead in Denmark.

Go see Jeremy Sony’s play “The Last Queen of Wonderland” in Tennessee!

October 22, 2015
by catherineforever666
· alumni · News

OU Playwriting Alum Jeremy Sony has a new play called “The Last Queen of Wonderland” at Street Theater In Nashville, playing through this weekend! It was written for their youth program called ClassAct Dramatics and is his third collaboration with them!

Here’s a synopsis of the piece: A young woman discovers an impossible family secret…She travels to Wonderland, books in tow as her guide, in search of her sister who disappeared years ago. There, she meets a teenage boy named Charlie who’s been imprisoned by the Queen of Hearts. Now, Lacie must rescue Charlie and her sister, and find a way for all of them to escape through the looking glass back to where they belong. Otherwise, Charlie may never grow up to write the books, and without the clues they hold, Lacie and her sister may get trapped in Wonderland forever.

Check out some awesome production photos of the show and check the show out if you’re in the Nashville area!

Details

October 16-24, shows on Fridays at 7pm and Saturdays at 2pm & 7pm.

Performances at BAILEY MIDDLE SCHOOL

2000 Greenwood Ave

Nashville, TN 37206

All tickets are Pay-What-You-Can but seating is still reserved, so purchase tickets in advance at www.streettheatrecompany.org or call 615-554-7414.

Read more about Jeremy

Jeremy Sony is a Midwest-based writer and co-founder of Theatre Daedalus. His plays include: The Century Box (World Premiere, Little Theatre Off Broadway), Robin Hood and the Secret of Sherwood (Street Theatre Co., Class Act Dramatics); Sleepy Hollow: The Lost Chapter (STC., ClassAct Dramatics); The View at the End (Available Light 24 Hour Theatre); Parallaxis and Cuckold Walks Into A Bar (MadLab Theatre Roulette 2014); Advice to the Happy Couple (MadLab, Theatre Roulette 2013); and The Cosmonaut in Human Resources (Luna Theatre). Upcoming plays: The Last Queen of Wonderland (STC ClassAct Dramatics, October 2015). 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 Penobscot Theater, Curtain Players Theatre, 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. AWARDS & RESIDENCIES: 2013-2014 Ingram New Works Lab Residency (Nashville Repertory Theatre); Scott McPherson Playwriting Award (2012); 2012-2013 Anthony Trisolini Graduate Fellowship; 2010 Heideman Award Finalist (Spin Cycle). FILM: The Last Con (Two Pop Productions); Separation Anxiety (Best Drama, 2012 Riverbend Film Festival; produced by Glass City Films, featuring 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, Merri Biechler, Mark Pilkinton, Doug Wright, and Kara Lee Corthron. Sony lives in central Ohio with his wife and son, where they are slightly outnumbered by their cats. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, and many social media sites under the handle @JeremyWrites.

“Colorblind” Madness This Friday at 11pm!

October 19, 2015
by rpdolan
· Current Students · Madness · News

First-year MFA playwright, Philana Omorotionmwan, is producing “Colorblind” Madness this week.

She uses a famous August Wilson quote about “colorblind” casting as a jumping off point:

Colorblind casting is an aberrant idea that has never had any validity other than as a tool of the Cultural Imperialist who views their American Culture, rooted in the icons of European Culture, as beyond reproach in its perfection. It is inconceivable to them that life could be lived and even enriched without knowing Shakespeare or Mozart. Their gods, their manners, their being is the only true and correct representation of humankind.

Philana argues that often “colorblind'” casting often ignores an actor’s color rather than bring additional meaning to the character and story. “(It) comes to mean that the actor, cast, and audience are essentially pretending the actor is white,” she says. Philana asks her fellow playwrights to expand and explore what “colorblind” means. “What happens when someone is denied part of his or her identity? What are the consequences? What are the benefits?” Playwrights are free to incorporate these questions, but not necessarily apply them to color/racial identity.

Show is October 23rd, 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 fall semester, check out our Madness page.

Philana Omorotionmwan was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She uses writing to create images that explore the the intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality. Her short plays have been produced at Ensemble Studio Theater, Manhattan Theatre Source, and Berkeley Rep. Her poems have been published in New Delta Review and African American Review. Philana earned her BA from Stanford University and is excited to be pursing an MFA here at OU. You can find out more about her work at philanaplays.weebly.com.

Short plays by OU playwrights being performed by Actors Theater of Lousiville Apprentice Company!

October 10, 2015
by catherineforever666
· Current Students · News

A few alumni from the Ohio MFA Acting program who are now Acting Apprentices at the Actors Theater of Louisville helped set up a night of short plays by Ohio MFA Playwrights. The whole evening is called “Spooky Old Lou” and is happening this Monday, October 19th in Louisville, Kentucky at 6pm. In this incredible 1 year acting intensive program through the prestigious Actors Theater of Louisville, actors are allowed to do their own independent projects.

The playwrights featured are a mix of alumni and current students: Rachel Bykowski(current second year), Jeffry Chastang(alum),Tyler Whidden(current third year), Catherine Weingarten(current second year), Bianca Sams(alum), and Sarah Bowden(alum)..

Come check out this awesome fun Halloween friendly OU friendly event if you are in the area!

Here is more info on the current Apprentice actors including Ohio Alums Lisa Bol and Mbali Guliwe

More Info on Event

Facebook Event

Monday October 19th at 6pm,

Location: 1023 S. 3rd St., Louisville, KY

HOW TO ATTEND:
To attend this event, YOU MUST FILL OUT THE FOLLOWING FORM: http://doodle.com/poll/47twm955sz4xfmdf
Sign up for ONE slot only. Please be prepared to enter the venue at the EXACT time you have requested.

IMPORTANT:
The show requires walking, standing, and three flights of stairs. If you have any difficulty with stairs or standing for approximately one hour, please use your best judgement regarding your attendance.

ADMISSION:
Admission is free. However, we will be accepting donations on behalf of the Acting Apprentice Company to help raise money for our Showcase at the end of the year.

PARKING:
Free street parking will be readily available.

“Memory” Madness coming this Friday!

October 5, 2015
by catherineforever666
· Madness · News

The next madness of the fall semester will be produced by first year playwright, Natasha Smith! Her prompt is Memory Madness! She has asked the playwrights to write madnesses about how memories affect our perceptions of reality.

Show is October 9th, 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.

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