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Sarah Bowden’s play “Tin Noses” featured at the Chicago Theater Marathon this month!

  • July 3, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Chicago · Events · News

OU Alum Sarah Bowden has been up to some exciting stuff in Chicago! Check out her play “Tin Noses” in the Chicago Theater Marathon on July 23rd at 11am! Congrats Sarah!! Woooot!

More about the play:

TIN NOSES is an exploration of representation, disability, Hollywood, and superhero action figures. When movie star Max is cast as a wounded World War I vet in an upcoming prestige pic, he must learn how to perform disability for the camera. Who better to help shape his physicality than ex-flame and hotshot choreographer Hannah? And her colleague Austin, who lost the role to Max, and who lives with spastic hemiplegia. Yup, this won’t get awkward at all.

Here is some info on the Marathon:

The Chicago Theatre Marathon is a weekend-long, marathon event celebrating the diversity of the Chicagoland theatre community. The Marathon aims to acknowledge the variety of characteristics and categories of identity that make individuals unique, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender or gender expression, socio-economic status, age, physical, mental and learning abilities, religious beliefs and political views. Additionally, this year’s rallying cry will be “I am Indomitable,” and will reflect on how artists in Chicago can fully embody that word. This curated series will provide a platform to recognize the uniqueness of individuals, populations, groups and their experiences while cultivating a sense of commonality and shared goals for our community.

 

Details:

Facebook Event  

Get Tickets here

11 am on Sunday,July 23rd-

The Chicago Theatre Marathon will take place at the new home of Strawdog Theatre Company, at 1802 W Berenice Ave, Chicago, IL 60613. There are two performance spaces: The black box theatre and the lobby.

 

More about Sarah

Sarah Bowden is a teaching artist, whose plays have been produced in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Stockholm. Her work has been developed and presented by the Painted Bride Art Center, the Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, the Nylon Fusion Theatre, Monkeyman Productions, the Greenhouse Theater Center, the Chicago Madness Collective, and Ohio University. Her full-length The Magnificent Masked Hearing Aid was listed as a semi-finalist in several theatre festivals, including the Capital Repertory Next Act! New Play Summit, the Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte’s nuVoices Festival, the Activate Midwest New Play Festival and the Elgin Cultural Commission Page to Stage Program. The script received Honorable Mention in the American Blues Theater Blue Ink Playwriting Award. Sarah has won the White-Howells English Prize for Drama and the Margaret W. Baker Prize for Fiction, was a finalist in the Route 66 Theatre Test Drive Workshop, and a semi-finalist for the Stage Left Theatre Playwright Residency. She has developed her work as a finalist in the International Thespian Festival’s Playworks program. She has completed internships with Chicago Dramatists, Northlight Theatre, Arden Theatre Company, the Wilma Theater, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and the Adirondack Theatre Festival. Sarah holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Ohio University and B.A. in directing and creative writing from Beloit College, and teaches theatre and composition at Benedictine University and Prairie State College.

-Read her work on New Play Exchange!!

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Charles Smith’s Play Discussed on NPR’s Weekend Edition

  • June 3, 2017
  • by Erik Ramsey
  • · Chicago · News · world premiere
objects_01_wide-af9f795118f04eaf31f2c07a9b3a66bce388f8e4-s800-c85
Daniel Kyri plays Shedrick Yarkpai in the Goodman Theatre production of Objects in the Mirror.
Liz Lauren/Goodman Theatre

Charles Smith’s Objects in the Mirror is featured in today’s Weekend Edition by NPR (June 3rd, 2017). Listen at the link below:

http://www.npr.org/2017/06/03/531207534/this-play-was-inspired-by-a-real-refugee-s-shakespearean-dilemma

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Jeff Chastang has new play at Southern Writers Project!

  • April 28, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Events

Recent alum Jeffry Chastang’s new play Under Ceege, will be featured in the “Southern Writer’s Project” this May 12th-14th! The Southern Writers Project through Alabama Shakespeare Festival has supported Jeffs work in the past, including the development of his thesis play at OU, Dauphin Island!

Congrats Jeff! Check it out if your in Alabama!

Get more info here

Read this exclusive blog by SWP about Jeff!

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2017 Festival Info!

  • April 17, 2017
  • by Erik Ramsey
  • · News

Production Schedule and Mentor Bios


Featured Thesis Productions

Tickets for the Featured Productions are $5 general admission or FREE for OU Students (with valid student ID) through Arts for Ohio; available at the Templeton–Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium box office. 

THE BIG FUCKIN’ GIANT

by Rachel Bykowski, directed by Allison Epperson
8:00 pm – April 12th, 15th, 20th & 21st (Forum Theater, RTV Building)
2:00 pm – April 15th (Forum Theater, RTV Building)

Alright, pussies! You ready? Do you have what it takes to be an Alpha? Think you can pin the Big Fuckin’ Giant? Push! Push yourself to the fucking brink. Until you feel the pain… The night before the NCAA wrestling conference, three fraternity brothers have to prove they are the alphas of the mat and Judy is just the girl to help them. Once you step onto the mat, you can never stop.

This is How You Got Me Naked

by Catherine Weingarten, directed by Ben Stockman
8:00 pm – April 13th, 14th, 19th & 22nd (Forum Theater, RTV Building)
2:00 pm – April 22nd (Forum Theater, RTV Building)

It’s the Dress to Get Laid Party: Jackie is dressed as a sexy trash-bag — aka Looking Good — and ready to hit on her sexy male dancer friend who is a junior so he will LOVE her so hard he can’t even feel his own body!! Is Jackie destined to be another tragic tale about the perils of hookup culture? Or will she be the lucky GF of a dancer who is hot? 😉

Note: There will be a talkback following the performance on Friday April 14th with Professor Thomas Vander Ven about hook-up culture and the sociology of alcohol on campus.  


STAGED READINGS

Staged readings are free and open to the public.

TATTOO ON YOUR ARM

by Inna Tsyrlin
1:00 pm, Thursday April 20th, Elizabeth Baker Theater, Kantner Hall

A mysterious occurrence in the Amazon has left its mark on Ben. Abandoning his work as a fashion photographer, Ben feels compelled to help an ancient tribe save their land; their physical and spiritual home. Can Ben preserve the forest and its purity? To do so, he’ll have to choose between honoring his Peruvian fiancée’s connection to the forest or becoming entangled with a powerful financier.

VESSEL

by Natasha Smith, directed by Anne McAlexander
4:00 pm, Thursday April 20th, Elizabeth Baker Theater, Kantner Hall

Tiana can’t wait to get away from home. When she lands at MIT, she’s got something to prove…but she’s not sure what, exactly. At least her professor thinks she’s got a bright future. And if he says so, then anything is possible, right?

FIREFLIES

by Philana Omorotionmwan, directed by Shelley Delaney
8:00 pm, Thursday April 20th, Elizabeth Baker Theater, Kantner Hall

It’s twilight time.
                                                   And the small, winged things—
                                             like spiders and roaches and fireflies—
                                         have begun to stir and search for light.
                                         Will Then-Self find it before she dies?
                                         Or will Now-Self find other ways to survive?
Fireflies is an exploration of one girl’s longing and search for intimacy through the lives of insects.

I<3 GIRLS

by Katherine Varga
2:00 pm, Friday April 21st, Elizabeth Baker Theater, Kantner Hall

Jessi never intended for her “coming out” audition video to go viral–she just wanted it to help her get the starring role in the school play. But her video has caused her Youtube channel subscriptions to go through the roof. There’s nothing wrong with giving her fans what they want, right? After all, everyone makes things up on the Internet.

SHAHID

by Trip Venturella
1:00 pm, Saturday April 22nd, Elizabeth Baker Theater, Kantner Hall

What are artists responsible for in the face of violence? Shahid imagines the life of Kashmiri-American poet Agha Shahid Ali as he struggles with two losses – that of his homeland, and that of his mother – among the myths and stories of a poietic Kashmir. How do you balance stories of your people, with the stories of your own?

MILLENIALVILLE

by Cristina Luzarraga, directed by Daniel Winters
4:00 pm, Saturday April 22nd, Elizabeth Baker Theater, Kantner Hall

It’s the year 2175, and life’s just dandy—or at least that’s the story’s at Millennialville, a historical museum dedicated to reenacting the life and times of the early 2000s. Thisbe and Oren work at Millennialvile. Thisbe and Oren are in love. Thisbe and Oren need to make a big decision: will one or both them go on Productolife? Also, did penguins have ears? For sake of their relationship, Thisbe really needs to know.


Guest Artists In Residence

Each April three nationally known guest artists are invited to be residence for the Seabury Quinn Jr Playwrights Festival to respond to MFA plays and work with the MFA playwrights.

celise-kalkeCelise Kalke joined the staff of the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in 2005 where, Director of New Projects, she manages New Play Development, the Alliance/Kendeda Graduate Playwright
Competition, the Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab and Alliance Theatre production dramaturgy. She has developed many different kinds of projects from straight plays to musicals to novel adaptations to shows for kids. Before moving to the Alliance she was the Director of the Literary Department at the Public Theater in New York. Celise currently serves as VP of Institutions for LMDA (Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas).

nambi Kelly Nambi Kelley has performed on regional stages across the country, internationally, including many shows at the Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, and has been seen on several television shows, including Elementary, Person of Interest, Madam Secretary, Chicago PD, and will be guest starring on NBC’s Chicago Justice airing this spring. Also an accomplished playwright, Nambi has penned plays for Steppenwolf and Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Lincoln Center in New York, and internationally. Kelley is currently playwright in residence at the National Black Theatre in New York and is working on an adaptation of Toni Morrison’s Jazz to be produced at Baltimore’s Center Stage in May 2017. Her Native Son and short play Dead of Night: The Execution Of (commissioned by The New Black Fest) were both recently published by Sam French and are both slated for several productions across the country next season. www.nambikelley.com

Michael-LeggMichael Legg is the Director of the Professional Training Company. Legg is in his tenth season at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where he’s directed world premieres of plays by A. Rey Pamatmat, Laura Jacqmin, Dan Dietz, Kyle John Schmidt, Marco Ramirez, Carmen Herlihy, Jennifer Haley, and Allison Moore, among others. Legg serves as a guest artist at several universities, including the the University of Idaho, Ohio University, and Texas Tech University. He also teaches for and works extensively with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and serves as the Artistic Director of the WildWind Performance Lab in Texas, where he’s developed new plays by Brian Quijada, Eva Suter, Brian Bauman, Martyna Majok, Basil Kreimendahl, and Joshua Conkel, among others. Legg holds an M.F.A. in acting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is a proud member of the Actors Equity Association.

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“Marvin’s Room” cast will feature Janeane Garofalo!

  • April 17, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Events · News

Scott Mcpherson’s beloved play “Marvin’s Room” will be playing at the Roundabout theater this June! Janeane Garofalo just joined the cast and the play will also feature Celia Weston and Lili Taylor!!

Here is more about the play from the Roundabout Website:

“Roundabout Theatre Company presents the Broadway premiere of Marvin’s Room, Scott McPherson’s award-winning, wildly funny play about the laughter that can shine through life’s darkest moments. Anne Kauffman (Marjorie Prime, Maple and Vine) directs.

Estranged sisters Lee and Bessie have never seen eye to eye. Lee is a single mother who’s been busy raising her troubled teenage son, Hank. Bessie’s got her hands full with their elderly father and his soap opera-obsessed sister. When Bessie is diagnosed with leukemia, the two women reunite for the first time in 18 years. Are Lee’s good intentions and wig-styling skills enough to make up for her long absence? Can Bessie help Hank finally feel at home somewhere… or at least keep him from burning her house down? Can these almost-strangers become a family in time to make plans, make amends, and maybe make a trip to Disney World?

Exploring an unsentimental reality with hope, compassion and a dose of wonderfully absurd humor, Marvin’s Room is a life-affirming reminder of the gift we give ourselves when we love unconditionally.

First preview: June 8, 2017
Opening Night: June 29, 2017

Click here for more info

More about Janeane Garofalo

Janeane Garofalo is an American actress, stand-up comedian, and writer.  Garofalo began her career as a stand-up comedian and became a cast member on the The Ben Stiller Show, The Larry Sanders Show, and Saturday Night Live, then appeared in more than 50 movies, with leading or major roles in The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Wet Hot American Summer, The Matchmaker, Reality Bites, Steal This Movie!, Clay Pigeons, Sweethearts, Mystery Men, and The Independent, among numerous others. She has also been a series regular on television programs such as Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, 24, and Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce.

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Introducing our 3 guest mentors!

  • April 12, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Festival · News

Each year, 3 guest mentors come to Seabury Quinn to critique each MFA playwrights plays and offer new insight.

Michael-LeggMichael Legg is the Director of the Professional Training Company. Legg is in his tenth season at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where he’s directed world premieres of plays by A. Rey Pamatmat, Laura Jacqmin, Dan Dietz, Kyle John Schmidt, Marco Ramirez, Carmen Herlihy, Jennifer Haley, and Allison Moore, among others. Legg serves as a guest artist at several universities, including the the University of Idaho, Ohio University, and Texas Tech University. He also teaches for and works extensively with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and serves as the Artistic Director of the WildWind Performance Lab in Texas, where he’s developed new plays by Brian Quijada, Eva Suter, Brian Bauman, Martyna Majok, Basil Kreimendahl, and Joshua Conkel, among others. Legg holds an M.F.A. in acting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is a proud member of the Actors Equity Association.

celise-kalkeCelise Kalke

Bio: Actor’s Express: Introduction to Dramaturgy instructor for many years. Alliance Theatre: Director of New Projects, dramaturg on many world premiere production, manager of the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwright Competition. Public Theater (NYC), Court Theatre (Chicago), Juilliard School (NYC).

nambi Kelly Nambi Kelley has performed on regional stages across the country, internationally, including many shows at the Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, and has been seen on several television shows, including Elementary, Person of Interest, Madam Secretary, Chicago PD, and will be guest starring on NBC’s Chicago Justice airing this spring. Also an accomplished playwright, Nambi has penned plays for Steppenwolf and Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Lincoln Center in New York, and internationally. Kelley is currently playwright in residence at the National Black Theatre in New York and is working on an adaptation of Toni Morrison’s Jazz to be produced at Baltimore’s Center Stage in May 2017. Her Native Son and short play Dead of Night: The Execution Of (commissioned by The New Black Fest) were both recently published by Sam French and are both slated for several productions across the country next season. www.nambikelley.com

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Rachel Bykowski interviewed about her Seabury mainstage play “The Big Fuckin’ Giant”

  • April 11, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Current Students · Events · News

Hi everyone!

Welcome to our interview series with the current rockin MFA playwrights, leading up to Seabury Quinn! This year the interview series will be a little different since different pairs of writers interviewed eachother! These pairs of writers were chosen by the head of the program to be “writing partners” and give each other feedback on each others plays throughout the spring semester.

This interview is questions for Rachel by second year playwright, Natasha Smith. Rachel Bykowski is a third year playwright and wrote the mainstage play “The Big Fuckin’ Giant! Also watch out for all of the other interviews with our other writers!

Natasha Smith: A lot of your work explores sports culture and performing masculinity. How did you get interested in writing about those topics?

Rachel Bykowski: Sports have always been a part of my life. While I might not be an “athlete,” I was raised in the sports culture thanks to my brother and father. ESPN is constantly playing in background of my family’s home. I grew-up going to Wrigley Field and watching the Cubs play and booing the Sox. In the summer, my family’s dinner time is catered around the Blackhawks playoff schedule and the same goes for the Bears in the winter. And finally, Michael Jordan will forever be the Greatest Of All Time (sorry, not sorry, Lebron). Talking sports, stats, rotations, scores, and drafts was a way to bond in my family. I am very attracted to the community that is created when people are united behind the same team.

Natasha: Tell me about your rehearsal process. What have you learned through rehearsing this play? Any surprising challenges or nuggets of wisdom?

Rachel: The rehearsal process is a reminder of the reason I love theatre: it’s a collaboration. As a playwright, I feel I spend a lot of time alone working on my play. After days, weeks, or months staring at my lap top, the rehearsal process begins, and I feel like I can breath again. For BIG FUCKIN’ GIANT’s rehearsal, I was very lucky to be surrounded by talented artists who believed in the script and trusted me as a writer. One of the things I learned during the rehearsal process is, as a playwright, I am surrounded by other artists who are giving their time and creative energies to bring my words to life. From the director and actors, to the designers, to the dramaturg, and the stage management team, my words mean absolutely NOTHING without them. For this reason, I owe them. I owe it to them to show up on time, meet my deadlines, be attentive, and turn in my best possible work. I also owe it to them to bring a professional, collaborative atmosphere to the room. I leave my ego and personal problems at the door and show up ready to listen to questions and take notes. I think one of the challenges of the rehearsal process is learning how to listen to these questions and take criticisms without losing YOUR voice and vision of the play. As a writer, I am not going to make everyone happy, but I need to write something that feels true to me.

Natasha: You’re graduating! Looking back on your three years here, what aspects of the program have changed you the most as a person? What will you miss the most?

Rachel: OMG! I AM graduating! (hahalolidon’twanttoleave). This has seriously been the fastest and longest three years of my life. Making the decision to attend graduate school was an enormous personal and professional choice. I advise anyone who is thinking about attending grad school to take a beat, breath, and really consider why you want to go. Grad school is not for everyone. Some people need the rigorous program of academia and others do just fine without it. Ohio University’s program offered me many professional opportunities that I do not believe I would have achieved without it. I am more confident in my voice as a writer and have an expansive portfolio of work. I think one of the things I will miss the most is the program supporting me and letting me know that my voice matters. As a playwright (and person) you really don’t hear that too much. This program gave me the confidence in my voice to say the things I kept quiet in my heart, taught me how to put it on paper, and bring my truths to life on stage.

Natasha: Rape culture is a huge subject to take on, and your play evolved quite a bit from its inception to now. What was it like proposing an idea for a play long before you actually wrote it, then drafting the actual script?

Rachel: Rape culture IS a huge subject, but I feel if you approach it with honest stories from your perspective, it becomes a lot easier to tackle. However, one of the hardest things I had to learn was just that: how to tell a story. Often when I write, I start with big subject matters, but people come to theatre to hear a story.

When I proposed THE BIG FUCKIN’ GIANT, it had a completely different title and NO STORY. I knew that I wanted to discuss white, male privilege and how it contributes to violence against women. I personally believe the “no means no” argument has been discussed to the point of exhaustion and waiting until AFTER the violence occurs is too late. I wanted to write a play that reveals the preconditioning groups of young men partake in together that leads to violence. This is often disguised as “locker room talk” or “boys just being boys.” However, it has severe repercussions for women.

When developing the story, I knew I wanted an all white, male cast on stage since they represent the most privileged group in America. In addition, I wanted them to be athletes. Just like a white, male senator (or our current President), athletes are almost untouchable by law. They get away with countless forms of violence against women and still get rewarded with big contracts and trophies…why?!?!?!  With these components in mind, I started to construct a story about three, white, male college athletes in the basement of their fraternity. What is important to them? What do they talk about? What are their dreams? How do they view the world? How do they view women?

I found there is a correlation between how they view the world and how they view women. It is because of this reason, despite all my rewrites and drafts one thing remained the same: Judy.  Judy is the ONLY female representation we see on stage. Judy also helps me create and keep aesthetic distance for the audience. I believe how the characters in the play treat Judy in their basement speaks volumes to their behavior in the outside world.

 

Now that Rachel is your new BFF in your head, go see her production!

DETS

The Big Fuckin’ Giant

by Rachel Bykowski
Directed by Allison Epperson

8:00 pm – April 12th, 15th, 20th & 21st;
2:00 pm – April 15th, Forum Theater, RTV Building

Alright, pussies! You ready? Do you have what it takes to be an Alpha? Think you can pin the Big Fuckin’ Giant? Push! Push yourself to the fucking brink. Until you feel the pain. See your opponent standing there across the mat. Want to take him down? The night before the NCAA wrestling conference, three fraternity brothers have to prove they are the alphas of the mat and Judy is just the girl to help them. Once you step onto the mat, you can never stop.

Tickets for the Featured Productions are $5 general admission or FREE for OU Students (with valid student ID) through Arts for Ohio; available at the Templeton–Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium box office.

 

More about Rachel

Rachel Bykowski, a Chicago native, writes plays to raise awareness about social issues.  Specifically, much of her writing features women and analyzes gender roles, rape culture, and male privilege.  Rachel’s full-length play TIGHT END was selected by the National New Play Network to be workshopped at the Kennedy Center for the MFA Playwrights’ Festival. TIGHT END will be receiving its world premiere production with 20% Theatre Company Chicago in May of 2017. Rachel was one of six graduate students at Ohio University to be awarded a Named Fellowship, The Trisolini.  The Trisolini will allow Rachel to work with Ohio University’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department to research violence against women perpetrated by male privilege for the 2016-2017 academic year.  This research will be showcased in her thesis play VOODOO DOLL during the 2017 Seabury Quinn Playwrights’ Festival at Ohio University.   Other playwriting credits include her full lengths: ORIGINAL RECIPE workshop production (DePaul University,) GOT TO KILL BITCH staged reading (Cock and Bull Theatre,) GLORY VS. THE WOLVES staged reading (20% Theatre Company and Women and Children First Bookstore,) and A GIRL NAMED CHARLIE staged reading (Ohio University).  Rachel’s ten minute plays have been produced with various companies around Chicago and the Midwest including 20% Theatre Company, Fury Theatre, Commedia Beauregard, and Actors’ Theatre of Louisville Apprentice Company.  Rachel received her BFA in playwriting from the Theatre School of DePaul University and is currently attending Ohio University for her MFA in Playwriting. Rachel is a proud company member and Literary Manager for 20% Theatre Chicago.  For more information, check out her website http://www.rachelbykowskiplays.com

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Seabury mentor Nambi Kelley has play at Yale Rep next season!

  • April 9, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Festival · News

Seabury Quinn mentor Nambi Kelley has her adapted play “Native Son” in Yale Rep’s new season. Playbill writes, “Also in the fall, Yale Rep. will stage Nambi E. Kelley’s Native Son, adapted from the novel by Richard Wright. Kelley’s acclaimed drama about freedom, oppression, and justice in Chicago’s South Side during the 1930s will play November 24–December 16.”

Nambi Kelley will be on OU’s campus from April 20th-22nd and will also be featured with the other mentors at the lunchbag that Friday.

Congrats Nambi! Can’t wait for you to get here!

Read about it on Playbill!

 

More about Nambi

Nambi Kelley has performed on regional stages across the country, internationally, including many shows at the Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, and has been seen on several television shows, including Elementary, Person of Interest, Madam Secretary, Chicago PD, and will be guest starring on NBC’s Chicago Justice airing this spring. Also an accomplished playwright, Nambi has penned plays for Steppenwolf and Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Lincoln Center in New York, and internationally. Kelley is currently playwright in residence at the National Black Theatre in New York and is working on an adaptation of Toni Morrison’s Jazz to be produced at Baltimore’s Center Stage in May 2017. Her Native Son and short play Dead of Night: The Execution Of (commissioned by The New Black Fest) were both recently published by Sam French and are both slated for several productions across the country next season. www.nambikelley.com

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Trip interviewed about his play “Shahid” at Seabury Quinn!

  • April 8, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Current Students · Festival · News

Hi everyone!

Welcome to our interview series with the current rockin MFA playwrights, leading up to Seabury Quinn! This year the interview series will be a little different since different pairs of writers interviewed eachother! These pairs of writers were chosen by the head of the program to be “writing partners” and give each other feedback on each others plays throughout the spring semester.

This interview is questions for Trip by second year playwright, Cristina Luzarraga. Trip Venturella is a first year playwright and wrote the play “Shahid” which will be presented Saturday, April 22nd at 1:00pm!!  Also watch out for all of the other interviews with our other writers!

Cristina Luzarraga: Your play for festival “Shahid” chronicles the life of Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali. What drew you to his work and inspired you to write this play?

Trip Venturella: I fell in love with his work while in Kashmir right after college. The occupation and militancy caused a huge amount of suffering among Kashmiris, and Agha Shahid Ali became a voice for them through his poetry. Working with a human rights organization there, and reading the way he responded to some of the history I was learning, re-framed the way I thought about art in conflict areas. Furthermore, he wrote some of his best work at a time of great personal suffering. I was intrigued by how he was able to write such powerful poetry in the face of all of that. He also went through a few transformations as an artist in his last two books, The Country Without a Post Office and Rooms are Never Finished. His poetry became more personal, more political, and more formal all at once. I was interested in his evolution as an artist, and the way that that evolution was driven by his experiences.

Cristina: “Shahid” is a drama about grief and war. But you also write broad comedies with intriguing titles like “Killer Maples: The Musical.” How do you navigate between these different modes of writing? Also, are maple trees the enemy?

Trip: I try to let the distinction between comedic and dramatic/tragic stay in service of the material, but I’m definitely drawn to comedy. With “Shahid” I wanted to challenge myself by writing something that didn’t involve any fart jokes, hilarious mishaps, or puns. Or killer maples. So some of the devices I usually use to keep the audience interested didn’t necessarily apply when writing it. I had to use other tools. I also wanted to write a language play, and I tend to lean heavily on language in drama, which pushes it into more lyric forms. When you’re working with lyricism the other challenge becomes maintaining clarity. You don’t want the actors to get bogged down by the things that they’re saying, and you don’t want the audience to feel like they’re watching an audiobook, or even worse, a poetry slam.

I think, for me, the distinction really comes down to how you deliver the “payoff,” in other words what you want the audience to realize after a certain scene, or turn of phrase, or whatever. Comedy, I think, tries to achieve it through incongruity and play, whereas drama uses more irony and foreshadowing. But the distinction is really between, I don’t know, a Bordeaux and a California Merlot: they’re both pressed from the same grape.

Are maple trees the enemy? It may seem that way at first, but after an hour of song and dance, we learn that perhaps those who seem like enemies at first are in fact our friends, and the greatest struggle of all is with ourselves.

Cristina: You often employ wordplay in your work, and “Shahid” is a play about a poet. Why is drama your chosen medium, and not say, poetry or cryptic crossword puzzles?

Trip: I think it’s a power trip for me to have people walking around onstage doing what my words tell them to do – I’m not going to lie, that’s a huge part of it. I’ve always loved language, but more specifically, I’ve always loved language spoken aloud. Getting my language out into the world is a huge motivator.

Plays are also lots of fun to write! When I stumble on something I want to write, I tend to think in dialogue and dramatic situations. When I do write poems, I’m usually making an effort to explore a part of myself or an emotion that I don’t entirely understand, something that isn’t familiar, the self that keeps himself hidden. The self that walks around every day, wears dirty socks because he’s lazy, swears when he can’t find parking: that part of myself generates dramatic situations more-or-less spontaneously. I’ll start chuckling like a maniac in the middle of the day, then go off to my room and start scribbling down dialogue. Finally, I like theatre people! Poets tend to be quiet, private people. I’m a loud, social person. I like working with actors, directors, and designers. So, if I want to keep working with them, I have to keep writing plays! I’ve never considered crossword puzzles! Sending my resume to the NYT right now: 1 across, 6 letters, first letter ‘H,’ “Jobseeker’s plea.”

Cristina: In your play “Shahid,” the poet journeys through the underworld to deliver an important letter. What’s the longest trek you’ve ever made? And, per Dante, who’s in the lowest ring of hell?

Trip: The longest trek is usually from my bed to my alarm clock every morning. Ha! That was a joke and I’m hilarious. I’ve done a lot of long through-hikes, one of the best was Mt. Rainier last summer. I also did a huge hike when I was a junior in college through Sikkim. I was studying a type of Buddhist monastic dance, so I visited a few monasteries along a pilgrimage route. I’m sorry to say I didn’t attain enlightenment. However, I think that restlessness is something I’ve taken into the play (and a lot of my work), as Shahid’s movement from grief to reconciliation is imagined as a journey a la Dante.

Who’s in the lowest ring of hell? Now, that can be interpreted two different ways: who’s the Devil, but also who are the betrayers. I don’t know the answer to either of those – I guess we’ll have to wait to see if Michael Flynn testifies.

Cristina: You’re a good ole boy from New England. I’m a mean ole girl from New Jersey with anti-Boston prejudices. This isn’t a divide on the scale of India and Pakistan, but still, how might we bridge this cultural chasm?

Trip: We can’t. Go Sox. Free Brady.

 

Now that Trip is your new early career playwright crushhh, go see his play!

DETS

SHAHID by Trip Venturella 1:00 pm, Saturday April 22nd, Elizabeth Baker Theater, Kantner Hall What are artists responsible for in the face of violence? Shahid imagines the life of Kashmiri-American poet Agha Shahid Ali as he struggles with two losses – that of his homeland, and that of his mother – among the myths and stories of a poetic Kashmir. How do you balance stories of your people, with the stories of your own?

 

More about Trip

Trip Venturella is a graduate of Colby College with a degree in Religious Studies. He has worked with Colby College’s Theater and Dance Department, the human rights group ANHAD: Kashmir, Delhi University in New Delhi, Floating Space Theatre Company in Sri Lanka, and many, many groups in the Boston area. He has done field work on Chams Dance in Sikkim and studied Chhau Dance in Delhi. He currently serves as the Development and Outreach Director of Apollinaire Theatre Company in Chelsea, Massachusetts, where he has overseen the conception of, fundraising for, and buildout of the Riseman Family Theatre and the Chelsea Blackbox Theatre, as well as the production of three years of Apollinaire in the Park: a free, outdoor, bilingual summer theatre production. His original musical “Killer Maples: The Musical!,” a collaboration with the composer Andres Ramos, was produced by Yelling Man Theatre in June of 2016.

 

 

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Special Talkback April 14th at “This is How You Got Me Naked” with Professor Vander Ven!

  • April 8, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Events · Faculty · News

Professor Vander Ven who works within the Sociology Department of OU will be featured at a special talkback on Friday April 14th for “This is How You Got Me Naked,” by Catherine Weingarten. He wrote a book called “Getting Wasted: Why College Students Drink Too Much and Party Too Hard,” which discusses the benefits and behavioral patterns of college drinking culture.  There will be a discussion of how this real world research fits in with some of the big ideas about hookup culture and college party culture in Catherine’s play. Come check it out and YOU can be part of the conversation too!

Listen to this awesome NPR interview with Professor Vander Ven about his book!

 

The Talkback will be:

Friday April 14th, after the 8pm performance of “This is How You Got Me Naked”, Forum Theater

This is How You Got Me Naked

by Catherine Weingarten
Directed by Ben Stockman

8:00 pm – April 13th, 14th, 19th & 22nd;
2:00 pm – April 22nd, Forum Theater, RTV Building

It’s the “Dress to Get Laid” Party: Jackie is dressed as a sexy trash bag, aka Looking Good, and ready to hit on her sexy male dancer friend who is a junior so he will LOVE her so hard he can’t even feel his own body!! Is Jackie destined to be another tragic tale about the perils of hookup culture? Or will she be the lucky GF of a dancer who is hot? 😉

Tickets for the Featured Productions are $5 general admission or FREE for OU Students (with valid student ID) through Arts for Ohio; available at the Templeton–Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium box office.

Click here for more info on Seabury QUinn

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