Tag: alumni

Qui Nguyen’s play at MTC gets great reviews!

October 26, 2016
by catherineforever666
· New York · News · Productions · Qui Nguyen

Alumni Qui Nguyen’s play “Vietgone” is getting awesome reviews! Read an excerpt from its review in the Hollywood Reporter:

“The playwright — whose aesthetic is evident from the titles of such previous works as She Kills Monsters, Alice in Slasherland and Living Dead in Denmark — and director May Adrales have collaborated to deliver a wildly fun, imaginative production. Not all of it works, and the play itself could benefit from some trimming. But individual elements are terrific, such as the Vietnamese characters speaking in flawless English while the Americans talk with an exaggerated, ungrammatical drawl. There’s also a wonderfully staged montage, accompanied by Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” that hilariously satirizes such ’80s-era romantic movies as Ghost, Say Anything and Dirty Dancing.”

Read full review here and go see the production at Manhattan Theater Club now!

Get tickets here

More about Qui

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 called “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 (South Coast Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Seattle Rep), She Kills Monsters (The Flea, Buzz22 Chicago/Steppenwolf, Company One); Begets: Fall of a High School Ronin (Waterwell); War is F**king Awesome (Sundance); Krunk Fu Battle Battle (East West Players); Bike Wreck (EST); Trial By Water (Ma-Yi Theater); Aliens vs Cheerleaders (Keen Teens); Soul Samurai; The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G (Ma-Yi Theater & Vampire Cowboys); and the critically acclaimed Vampire Cowboys productions of Six Rounds of Vengeance, Alice in Slasherland; Fight Girl Battle World; Men of Steel; and Living Dead in Denmark.

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Go see Tyler Whidden in Cleveland Comedy Festival next month!

October 20, 2016
by catherineforever666
· alumni · Events · Madness · News

Who said madness can’t help ya after graduation!? Next month recent alum Tyler Whidden will be featured at the Cleveland comedy festival with his Madnesses from the MFA playwriting program. He will be performing November 19th in Cleveland at the Kennedy’s Theatre.

Press Blurb:”Cleveland-born playwright and comedian Tyler Whidden brings a collection of his short plays written during his three years as a writer and performer for MidnightMadness. With topics touching on religion, politics, family, and rock & roll, this show starring Cleveland actors promises to be a hilarious romp through the twisted mind of one of Cleveland’s own. (In association with Cleveland’s Ensemble Theatre.)”

Go see it!! Congrats tyler!

Get more info and your tickets here

More about Tyler

Tyler JC Whidden is the youngest, least-talented son of a hockey-first family. After earning his BFA in Playwriting from Ohio University, Tyler embarked on a 37-state, 10-year odyssey as a stand-up comedian where he was labeled by critics as, “brilliant,” “tragic,” and “probably stoned.” His recent plays include,Dancing With N.E.D, Run Kingsbury Run (about Cleveland’s Torso Killer), ChocolateSexPuppyTacos (A Non-Denominational Comedy) and the upcoming Occupation: Dad. You can learn more at TylerJCWhidden.com

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Check out Reginald Edmund’s Event in Chicago!

October 13, 2016
by catherineforever666
· alumni · News · TV

OU Alum Reginald Edmund is managing director of Black Lives, Black Words and there will be an event at Chicago Dramatists for them this October 16th at 7pm. They also are publishing an anthology with artists involved in this group! GO attend it if you’re in Chicago!! Congrats Reginald!

Press Release Below:

The event at Chicago Dramatists’ Tutterow Theatre celebrates a new anthology of audition speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern actors.

The Chicago Dramatists Theatre, Black Lives, Black Words International Project and Artistic Directors of the Future (ADF) are uniting to present Beyond the Canon, a showcase of monologues on October 16th, 2016 at 7pm with speeches taken from Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors.

Published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, this new anthology is edited by Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway, founder and managing director of ADF. The publication aims to provide inspiring contemporary audition and showcase material for actors of black, African American, South Asian and Middle Eastern heritage. The anthology is split into two books for men and women, and includes work from contemporary international writers such as Sudha Bhuchar, Dalia Taha, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Marcus Gardley, Mona Mansour, Naomi Wallace, Reginald Edmund, Kristoffer Diaz, Caridad Svich, and Philip Ridley.

The directors taking part are Lavina Jadhwani, Toma Langston, Ana Velasquez, Rinska Carrasco, and Ashley Honore Robinson.

The showcase will take place in Chicago Dramatists’s Tutterow Theatre and will feature local diverse talent in performances directed by all People of Color. Celebrating these authors through the work of young talent and emerging directors, Beyond the Canon seeks to demonstrate how the texts can be embedded into the fabric of the industry, providing a range of powerful and diverse roles for new generations of actors to draw upon throughout their career.

DETAILS ON EVENT

Sun, October 16, 2016

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM CDT

Location:

Chicago Dramatists

1105 West Chicago Avenue

Chicago, IL 60642

RSVP here

More about Reginald

Reginald Edmund, is a Chicago Dramatists Resident Playwright and an Artistic Associate at Pegasus Theatre-Chicago and Merrimack Repertory Theatre, he was a 2010-2011 Many Voice Fellow with the Playwrights’ Center. His play Southbridge was runner up for the Kennedy Center’s Lorraine Hansberry and Rosa Parks National Playwriting Awards, and most recently named winner of the 2010 Southern Playwrights’ Competition and the Black Theatre Alliance Award for Best New Play. His nine play series titled ‘The City of the Bayou Collection’, include The Ordained Smile of Sadie May Jenkins, The Last Cadillac, Daughters of the Moon, Southbridge, Juneteenth Street, The Redemption of Allah Black and others were developed at esteemed theaters including Ensemble Theatre of Houston, Playwright Center-Minneapolis, Pangea World Theatre, Bedlam Theatre, Wordsmyth Theatre, Yaddo, Actors Theatre of Charlotte, and the MacDowell Colony. Reginald Edmund received his BFA in Theatre-Performance from Texas Southern University and his MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University in ‘09. He is currently the Managing Curating Producer for Black Lives Black Words International Project.

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Mark Snyder’s Plays published through Sam French!

October 12, 2016
by catherineforever666
· alumni · News

Alum Mark Snyder has two new plays Lila Cante and Wipe Away published through Sam French publications! Congrats! Buy the plays here

Wipe Away is a short play about: “As he plots his escape from the rural Midwest, Travis is discovered by the one person who might convince him to stay. Two lost souls must confront the brutal truth about themselves and each other in a coming-of-age drama where a pair of headlights along one highway road illuminates a path toward a dangerous future.”(Sam French blurb)

Wipe Away received its world premiere production in July 2010 by |the claque| at the 35th Annual Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival at the Lion Theatre in New York City under the direction of Nick Leavens.

Lila Cante was Mark’s thesis play at OU and a full length play about:” A reclusive singer-songwriter makes an album that rocks the world. Now, as the music industry implodes, two siblings must come together to battle over their legendary mother’s legacy and her twenty years of silence. A play about music and art, connection and isolation, power and commerce, and the ever-changing landscape of what it means to be a family today. “(Sam French blurb)

More about Mark

MARK SNYDER‘s plays include Wait for Me (2016), Trigger Guru (2014), As Wide As I Can See (2012), Corsets (2010), Wipe Away (2010), Lila Cante (2009) and The Beanbag Game (1999 – Edward Albee/Last Frontier Theatre Conference Play Lab). His plays have been produced and developed in New York and Chicago. A solo show Since You Asked Me To premiered in 2013 at Judson Memorial Church, where he is a resident artist of their Magic Time series. A core collaborator with The Claque, he co-wrote The IRRegulars stage serial. His reviews, essays, and interviews have appeared in Paste, The Rumpus, The Collagist, The Brooklyn Rail, The New Gay, Queerty, ThePeeq, and at Maud Newton.com, and he has performed at Pete’s Candy Store and throughout downtown NYC. BA, Otterbein College. MFA, Ohio University. Mark was born in Warren, Ohio and lives in Brooklyn.

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Qui Nguyen has some exciting news!

September 7, 2016
by catherineforever666
· alumni · News · Productions · Qui Nguyen

OU Alum Qui’s career has been blowing up like a rocketship! First of all his hit play “Vietgone” will be coming to Manhattan Theater Club in NYC for its NYC world premiere. Read an article about his new play here

He also now Just finished writing/shooting upcoming Syfy TV show “Incorporated“(which goes on air November 30th) and also just got a job as a writer for Marvel Studios!

Congrats Qui!

Go see Vietgone!

NY premiere play by Qui Nguyen
Directed by May Adrales
With: Jon Hoche, Jennifer Ikeda, Raymond Lee, Samantha Quan, Paco Tolson

Previews Begin: Oct 4, 2016

A modern twist on the all-American love story, Vietgone by Qui Nguyen (She Kills Monsters) is the classic story of boy meets girl—except this boy and girl are refugees from the Vietnam War, newly settled in a relocation camp inside Middle America. Borrowing elements from the world of up-to-the-minute popular culture to recreate the playwright’s own parents’ meeting, Vietgone skips through time and around the globe to present a fresh theatrical take on a moving account of one real family’s history.

Vietgone is produced in association with South Coast Repertory.

Location: MTC Stage I at City Center
Oct 4 – Dec 4, 2016
Buy tickets here

More about Qui

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Two exciting summer projects by alums!

August 1, 2016
by catherineforever666
· alumni · News · podcast

Both Chanel Glover and Jacquelyn Reingold are up to awesome things this summer! Jacqueline has a new TV show on CBS called “BrainDead” and Chanel has a new podcast “Overqualified and Drunk” that’s now available on ITunes! Enjoy the rest of your summer with some OU flavor, download and record these things today!!

To download Chanel’s podcast click here

Description

Two Overqualified & Drunk black lesbians living in New York City talk spirituality, lesbian love (or nah), and the two things that bind them together, music and booze. Thirty-something year-old Chanel and twenty-something year-old Chloe (going on 50) discuss what ultimately makes them ‘overqualified’ and drunk. Disclaimer – this is raw, extremely jaded and uncut. If you want to tell us why you’re overqualified and drunk or just want to hit us up, you can reach us at: Twitter: @ODChanelChloe Instagram: @ODChanelChloe

More about “BrainDead”

BrainDead” is a comic-thriller set in the world of Washington, D.C. politics that follows Laurel, a young, fresh-faced Hill staffer who discovers two things: the government has stopped working, and bugs are eating the brains of Congress members and Hill staffers. The daughter of a Democratic political dynasty who left Washington, D.C. to become a documentary filmmaker, Laurel is pulled back into THE FAMILY business when her brother, Luke, the Democratic whip Senator from Maryland, needs her help running his Senate office. On the Hill, Laurel becomes unlikely friends with Gareth, the smart, hardworking Legislative Director to a top Republican, Senator Red Wheatus.

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Jeff Chastang’s play in the Alabama Shakespeare Fest!

July 25, 2016
by catherineforever666
· alumni · Awards · News · Productions

Recent alumni Jeff Chastang has been racking up some exciting accomplishments with his play Dauphin Island, which had a production at OU. At OU people were super impressed by the plays fascinating and troubled characters and the smooth storytelling. The play was previously developed through the Southern Writers’ Project and will be presented at Alabama Shakespeare Festival this April ! Look at those OU plays out in the world!

The play has also won the prestigious Edgerton Foundation New Play award for 2016-17. Broadway World writes about this award,” the Edgerton Foundation has distributed New Play Awards every year since 2006, inviting hand-picked theaters “with a strong and consistent track record of producing new work” to apply. Awards provide new plays by American playwrights with an extended rehearsal period, allowing for a more thorough development process than many new plays are afforded.”

Congrats Jeff!

Go see the play!

March 23rd, 2017-April 9th, 2017

A world-premiere production by Jeffry Chastang, developed by the Southern Writers’ Project in which suspicion and fascination dovetail when (en route from Detroit to a new job on Dauphin Island) Selwyn Tate interrupts the self-imposed isolation of Kendra in the Alabama woods — dramatizing the risks involved when two displaced souls intertwine.

Location: 1 Festival Drive
Montgomery, AL 36117

Buy tickets here

More about Jeff

Michigan-born Jeffry Chastang was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Roger L. Stevens Award for his first play FULL CIRCLE, which was produced by Detroit’s Plowshares Theater Company. Plowshares also produced his second play …CONTINUED WARM, which was named Best New Play by the Oakland Press. He was commissioned by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival (ASF) to write BLOOD DIVIDED, a play marking the sesquicentennial of the Civil War in Montgomery, Alabama. BLOOD DIVIDED also received an Edgerton Foundation New Plays Award. Jeffry’s play PREPARATIONS was developed in ASF’s Southern Writers Project. As an actor his professional credits include FENCES, THE OLD SETTLER and A SOLDIER’S PLAY.

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Ira Gamerman has new short play at Serials in NYC this month!

July 14, 2016
by catherineforever666
· alumni · New York · News

Alum Ira Gamerman has gotten a new short play “Jeffs Jewish Dating Service” in the highly competitive “serials” live theater competition series produced by the in-house acting troupe, the Bats, at the Flea Theater in NYC.

Here is how they describe this fun play competition on their website:

#serials@theflea is a raucous late night play competition featuring The Bats and some of NYC’s hottest young playwrights and directors. This event, which runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 11:00pm includes 1 FREE beer with the purchase of a ticket. All tickets are only $12.

In #serials@theflea, five teams of Bats perform original ten-minute episodic plays. The audience votes for its three favorite plays, which return the next week with a new installment. The teams with the two least popular stories must likewise come back the following week, but with entirely different serialized plays.”

Ira’s play runs this Thursday through Saturday (14th-16th) and next Thursday-Saturday(21st-23rd). Buy tickets here!! Congrats Ira!

More about Ira:

IRA LAWRENCE GAMERMAN is a Baltimore-bred AustraliAmerican Playwright, Podcaster, Script Consultant, Screenwriter, Musician, and Educator based in NYC.

Ira’s theatrical work has been performed at The Kennedy Center, Samuel French OOB, Ensemble Studio Theater, Short & Sweet Sydney, Collaboraction (at the Steppenwolf Garage), F*It Club, Source Festival, Single Carrot, The Australian Broadcast Corporation, and The Chicago New Media Summit (among many other places around the globe). In 2006, City Paper voted Ira “Best Playwright Of Baltimore”. In 2009, Dated: A Cautionary Tale For Facebook Users was a New York Innovative Theater Award nominee for best short play. Ira has received playwriting grants from the Maryland State Arts Council and Chicago Union League. BILLY BITCHASS will be published in THE BEST 10 MINUTE PLAYS OF 2016 by Smith & Kraus.

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. He is a script consultant for Serbian Filmmaker Milica Zec (Sundance New Frontiers 2015). Ira has been published by Consequence Of Sound, High Times, Eleven Magazine, and Howlround. His work on The Wire remains his favorite acting gig to date.

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Two Alums are up to exciting things this summer!

July 13, 2016
by catherineforever666
· alumni · News

Both Jacquelyn Reingold and Leean Kim Torske have exciting summer news! Reingold has a new TV show which she is writing/producing called “BrainDead” currently on CBS. It premiered Monday, June 13th at 10PM on CBS and is currently running. It was created by the “Good Wife” creators and ,” it centers on the Capitol in Washington, D.C., where alien bugs infect members of Congress.”(Wikipedia)

Leean Kim Torske just started a new theater company in Chicago with Mary Rose O’Connor called The Blue Ring.” The company is working with a lot of exciting new writers, including OU alum Mark Chrisler. Their Fractured Atlas page reads, “The Blue Ring produces plays about characters who are lacking in resources, experience, or information and are working through issues reflective of current events. Our name is inspired by our spirit animal, the blue ringed octopus, which is beautiful, malleable, slightly unexpected, and through evolution has become deadlier over time.” The Blue Ring has a fundraiser this Sunday night, July 17th in Chicago, go check it out!

More about Leean

Leean Kim Torske is a Chicago-based Korean/Norwegian-American playwright and dramaturg from the great state of Wyoming. She earned her MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University and her MA in Literary Studies from the University of Wyoming. Her play Pity Party is featured in Smith & Kraus’s anthology 105 Five-Minute Plays for Study and Performance, publication fall 2016. She is the co-founder and co-Artistic Director of The Blue Ring in Chicago, IL. Leean has been an Artistic Engagement Associate with Steppenwolf Theatre Company since June 2012.

More about Jacquelyn

Jacquelyn Reingold writes for theatre and television. She is currently a writer/producer for BRAINDEAD, created by Robert and Michele King, airing on CBS starting June 2016. She wrote for Netflix’s GRACE AND FRANKIE, created by Marta Kauffman and Howard J. Morris, starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston. Other TV writing includes: NBC’s SMASH (Executive Producer, Theresa Rebeck), HBO’s Peabody Award winning IN TREATMENT (Executive Producer, Warren Leight), writing the “Mia” episodes for Emmy nominated Hope Davis and Gabriel Byrne. Recent plays include: I KNOW in Ensemble Studio Theatre’s One-act Marathon and UP AND DOWN for Christine Jones’ Theatre for One. Other plays include STRING FEVER at Ensemble Studio Theatre, starring Cynthia Nixon and Evan Handler, also produced at Playhouse West in California, and in Washington DC at Theatre J. She wrote an episode of the serialized play, CEDAR CITY FALLS, created and produced by Liz Tuccillo. Her one-acts THEY FLOAT UP, and A VERY VERY SHORT PLAY were produced in ’10 and ’08 at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Another one-act 2B (OR NOT 2B) was produced at The Actors Theatre of Louisville in 2009. Her full length play, A STORY ABOUT A GIRL was part of the JAW Playwrights Festival at Portland Center Stage, Oregon, and was workshopped at The Williamstown Theatre in ’13. Her other plays: GIRL GONE, 2B (OR NOT 2B), ACAPULCO, FOR-EVERETT, DEAR KENNETH BLAKE, DOTTIE AND RICHIE, TUNNEL OF LOVE, JILEY & LEDNERG, JOE AND STEW’S THEATRE, LOST AND FOUND, A.M.L., and FREEZE TAG have been produced or workshopped in New York at the MCC Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Naked Angels, HB Playwrights Theatre, the Drama League at HERE, All Seasons Theatre, Atlantic Theatre, and the Working Theatre; in Los Angeles; at theatres across the country; in London, Berlin, Belgrade, New Zealand, Australia, and Hong Kong.

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Joseph Gallo has new play in New Jersey this month!

July 7, 2016
by catherineforever666
· Books · Events · News · world premiere

OU Playwriting alum Joseph Gallo has a new one man play “Long Gone Daddy” at Mile Square Theater that will be running July 21st through August 7th in Hoboken, New Jersey!

He also has a recently published play collection Two Plays: My Italy Story and Long Gone Daddy out! The book signing will be at Little City Books in Hoboken (100 Bloomfield Street) on Thursday, July 7 at 7:30 pm. There will be a Q & A afterwards conducted by Chris O’Connor, Artistic Director of Mile Square Theatre.

Congrats Joseph! Go see the play if you’re in the area!

Details on play

JULY 21 – AUGUST 7
Thurs-Sat @ 8pm • Sun @ 3pm
Tickets: $20 • $12 students/seniors

JULY 20 Preview
Wednesday, July 20 @ 8pm
Tickets: $18

Purchase tickets here

Long Gone Daddy chronicles the comic misadventures of becoming a stay-at-home father. From Bruce Springsteen concerts to OBGYN appointments to the Hoboken playgrounds and back again, Gallo’s semi-autobiographical play also wrestles with the memory of his own Dad, a former fireman, and the existential question, “When does a father earn the right to be called Dad?”

Recommended for audiences 16 and up.

More about Joe

Joseph Gallo’s play My Italy Story, which had its New York debut Off-Broadway at the 47th Street Theatre, and was nominated for the Gay Talese Literary Prize, was recently revived at Mile Square Theatre. His full-length plays include Warning: Adult Content (Theatre 54) and Staten Island (Circle Rep Lab), while his solo shows include Whizzy and The Jealousy Piece, both of which premiered in the American Living Room festival at HERE. He co-created, and wrote the text for two dance/theater pieces Tannhauser: A Dance Play and 80% of Love, both of which debuted in New York at the Obie award-winning Ice Factory Festival at the Ohio Theatre; the latter done in collaboration with company Rindfleisch, and subsequently transferred to the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. His work has additionally been seen on the stages of the Barrow Street Theatre, the Lark, Pearl Theater, Samuel Beckett Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Penguin Rep, TheaterWorks, 12 Miles West, 78th Street Theatre, Waterfront Ensemble, Atlantic Theatre Company, Cincinnati Playhouse, Delaware Stage Company, Seven Angels Theatre, Orlando Fringe Festival, Manhattan Class Company, the Kennedy Center, Bridge Theatre Company, and at both the Hudson Guild Theatre and Hayworth Theatre in Los Angeles. He holds an MFA in playwriting from Ohio University, and is a current member of the Actors Studio Playwrights and Directors Workshop. He has also worked extensively in the development of both film and television projects, including a film chronicling the life of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and on the screenplay adaptation of the memoir Woody, Cisco & Me. His original screenplays include My Italy Story, and the pilot episode for the television series Gotham House. He most recently wrote the story Robert Zarinsky for truTV, and the pilot episode for the television series How Did You Meet? Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love My Significant Other! He wrote and directed two short films, M*O*N*E*Y and No Parking, and also did the screenplay adaptation of the Raymond Carver short story Careful. He studied film at New York University, and currently teaches screenwriting at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.

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