Ohio University MFA Playwriting Program
OU Professor Erik Ramsey found this video interview by Atlantic Monthly author Ta-Nehisi Coates. He offers some great advice on writing, and dealing with stress when writing, and finding breakthroughs. (It’s six minutes and worth watching.)
http://www.theatlantic.com/video/iframe/280025/
Thanks to Professor Ramsey for finding it. We call him Professor E-Ram aka E-Ramsey aka The Pharaoh of Playwriting.
(Professor E-Ram *fistbump*.)
Catherine Weingarten, MFA ’17, was interviewed as part of TCG’s Diversity and Inclusion Blog curated by Jacqueline E. Lawton.
Catherine joins the MFA Playwriting program in Athens in a couple of weeks.
OU Alumnus, Bianca Sams ’14, won 2nd place for Athe’s Jane Chambers student award.
“The Jane Chambers Student Playwriting Award recognizes plays and performance texts created by women that present a feminist perspective and contain significant opportunities for female performers. This competition is open to both graduate and undergraduate students. The Jane Chambers Award for emergent playwrights encourages diversity of style and content. All forms of drama are accepted, including solo performance work. Your play will be recognized at the Women and Theatre Program’s Pre-Conference in Scottsdale, AZ on July 24th and a synopsis and information about your work will be posted to the WTP website.”
Ryan Patrick Dolan ’16 is having a reading of MORAINE as part of the Trellis Reading Series at the Greenhouse Theater in Chicago on Tuesday, July 22nd at 7pm.
Dolan wrote “Moraine” during his first year in the Ohio MFA Playwriting program, and had a reading at the 2014 Seabury Festival at Ohio University in the spring.
MORAINE synopsis: Fighting time and the most brutal Chicago winter in recent memory, Mark attempts to keep his ad-hoc collection of friends from disintegrating in the face of illness, ambition, and betrayal. Moraine is a play about family, brand awareness, and ice cream that’s so goddamn good it’ll make you cry.
The reading features two recent Ohio BFA alumni, Becky Markert and Emily Page Auwaerter. Becky is reprising her role as “Mackenzie.” Emily played the “Nurse” in an earlier classroom reading, and is reading stage directions.
The play is being directed by Mary Rose O’Connor. The cast includes Rebecca Sohn, a longtime improv and acting veteran in Chicago, who taught Ryan improv at Annoyance Theater, and Natalie West, who recently performed to rave reviews in Marisa Wegryzn’s “Mud Blue Sky” at A Red Orchid Theater .
The cast is:
Jeff Duhigg
Delia Baseman
Josh Bywater
Terry Francois
Rebecca Sohn
Becky Markert
Emily Paige Auwaerter
Natalie West
Bianca Sams ’14 will have a reading of her thesis play, RUST ON BONE, JULY 15TH IN New York at the Manhattan Theatre Club. It will be directed by the Goodman Theater’s Chuck Smith, and feature OU alumnus Marissa Wolf, and current OU MFA actor, Thomas Daniels.
Synopsis: Trapped by a stranger in her office, psychologist Dr. Devra Mendoza must use her training to maneuver her way through a game of cat and mouse with life and death consequences. Rust on Bone looks at the personal cost of war, societal stigmas of therapy, and the ripple effects of trauma and mental illness.
You can RSVP by emailing BIANCASAMS (at) BIANCASAMS (dot)COM.
Details:
MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB
STUDIO SPACE #3
311 W. 43 R D STREET
JULY 15, 2014 @ 7:30PM
Dive into our updated Opp-Log submission dates!
https://ohioplaywriting.org/opp-log/
Big ones added are:
Marin Theater – July 31
American Blues Theater – September 1st
New Dramatists – July 29
Bianca Sams (MFA ’14) was named a finalist at the Playwright Foundation “Bay Area Playwrights Festival” for her play BATTLE CRY. There were 20 finalists out of 500 submissions.
From their site: “The Bay Area Playwrights Festival supports the development of six full-length plays annually: five selected from our annual open submission process to reflect the outstanding quality, diversity, and daring for which the Festival is known, and the sixth play a Producing Partnership that offers developmental resources to a play advancing toward production.”
SYNOPSIS: BATTLE CRY is inspired by the life and travails of an unsung hero in the Black Civil Rights Movement named Claudette Colvin. At 15, Claudette refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus 9 months prior to Rosa Parks’ arrest. BATTLE CRY tells the personal story of a naïve but passionate 15-year-old girl whose impact on the world has been left out of history books. The play looks at issues of class, ethnicity, and behind the scenes politics in the fight for Civil Rights in America while also highlighting Claudette’s personal courage in the face of injustice.
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY/AWARDS FOR BATTLE CRY:
Ohio University MFA Workshop (3x)
Seabury Quinn Festival of New Plays – Staged Reading
Tides Theater SF as part of DGA Footlights reading Series
Marrietta University Black History Month Event – Staged Reading
AWARD HISTORY
Kennedy Center ACTF – Lorraine Hansberry Award (2nd pl) and Rosa Parks Award (2nd pl)
ATHE – Jane Chambers Student Playwright Award (2nd pl)
The Playwright Foundation – Bay Area Playwright Festival (finalist)
Tyler Whidden’s play, DANCING WITH NED, was named a finalist for the 3rd Annual nuVoices Festival at the Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte Festival. Tyler’s play was one of 13 chosen.
From ATCharlotte’s website: “Each play selected for the festival will get two script in hand staged readings, with assigned directors, dramaturgs, and actors. Each playwright selected will be brought to Charlotte and provided housing for the duration of the rehearsal process. They will be included in the entire week of rehearsals and will also receive $500 honorarium. The winning play will then be invited to have a full production mounted during Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte’s 2015-2016 season.”
In honor of Independence Day, give us your poor, your tired, your huddled playwrights. We will take care of you with our updated play submissions deadlines for July on our Opp-Log.
A lot of opportunities on July 1st and 2nd so check it out soon.
OHIO MFA Directing alum, Lee Kinney is seeking short plays by July 4th:
“Piper Theater Productions, a not for profit theater company in Park Slope, is now accepting submissions for their new summer reading series. This series will take place weekly in July at the Old Stone House Park in Brooklyn.
We are looking for short plays (one acts or 10 minute plays) with a musical component that lend themselves to being performed outdoors. Priority will be given to scripts that present a unique relationship both to music and musical performance, as well as nature and the outdoors.
Publicity, performers and a beautiful outdoor performance space will be provided. Sorry, no stipend. Interested? Please submit your piece and a short statement detailing your background and reasons for applying to pipersummershorts@gmail.com by July 4th.”
OHIO 