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Tag: alumni

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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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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See Tyler’s play in Ohio this month!

  • March 2, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · News · Productions

Recent alum Tyler Whidden’s thesis play “Occupation: Dad” is at Ensemble Theater in Cleveland later this month! It is the 2017 selection for the Columbi New Play Fest.

Here is what Tyler wrote about the play on Facebook!

“You guys, this is my play. I hope you can see it.

This play is not about my life.
This play is not about my fears.
This play is not about my shortcomings.
This play is not about my relationship with my son.
This play is not about staying home with my son.
This play is not about that time my son fell off the bed when I was home
with my son.
This play is not about my relationship with my family.
This play is not about how my family thought I sucked at hockey.
This play is not about how I sucked at hockey.
This play is not about my wife.
This play is not about my wife who works hard.
This play is not about how my son loves my wife more than me.

You guys, this is my play. I hope you can see it.”

 

Congrats Tyler!  Everyone should go check out this funny and moving new play! We love you Tyler!

 

More details on show

Click here to RSVP for FB event

click here to get tickets

OCCUPATION DAD by Tyler Whidden
Jason has a job, okay? He just works from home now. Things are tough nowadays what with the economy and all. So, stop looking at him like that. Lots of dads stay home with their babies. Right? It’s no big deal and it’s really not that tough. Except his kid won’t walk. And his mother won’t help. And his older brother’s a jerk-off. And his sister’s kids are already perfect and the playground moms are psychotic and everybody on Facebook hates him. But, other than all that, everything is just hunky-dory. Except his dad – you know what, forget his dad. It’s fine. Seriously. Everything is…
March 17th-April 2nd. (MS) Fridays & Saturdays @8pm.  Sundays @2pm.

 

More about Tyler

Tyler Whidden was born and raised in Cleveland, OH where he grew up the least-talented son of a hockey-first family. After earning his BFA in Playwriting at Ohio University, he began a tragic career as a stand-up comic based out of Seattle, WA. As a comedian, Tyler was labeled by critics and fans alike as, “hilarious,” “tragic,” and “probably stoned.”

After years of toiling on the road, he moved to Chicago where he returned to theater, studying and working with Victory Gardens and the Neo-Futurists theaters among many others. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and worked as Director of Education with the great Ensemble Theatre of Cleveland.

 

 

 

 

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Bianca Sams has reading in Chicago this month!

  • March 2, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Chicago · News

Bianca Sams has a reading of her play “Battle Cry” in Chicago with 20% theater. It will be at the Berry United Methodist Church at 8pm from March 8th-11th, Wednesday-Saturday. 20% theater has also done works by alums Sarah Bowden and current playwright Rachel Bykowski.

Here is what the play’s about: “In March of 1955, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin dreams of going to college to become a lawyer to fight for Civil Rights. One day, while taking the bus to school, the driver tells Claudette to give up her seat. When Claudette refuses, she is harassed by the police officers, and put on trial for violating the segregation laws. Her refusal to give up her seat sparked a protest against the bus company and sets in motion one of the greatest moments in the Civil Rights movement.”

Go see it if you’re in Chicago! Congrats Bianca!! Keep on rockin’ it!

 

Details

March 8th – 11th, 2017 

Berry United Methodist Church (4754 N Leavitt St)

Wednesday – Saturday at 8:00. 

Click here to RSVP on the Facebook event

click here to buy tickets and learn more about the show!

 

 

More about Bianca

Bianca Sams is an Actor/Writer hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her plays are lyrical investigations of found stories out of today’s headlines or the pages of history, that ask audiences to face their own complex love affair with misery. She recently finished her MFA in Playwriting at Ohio University. She received her BFA from New York University’s Tisch School, where she earned the distinction of being Tisch’s first ever Triple Major (Acting, Dramatic Writing, Africana Studies). Awards and honors include KCACTF Lorraine Hansberry (2nd place), Rosa Parks Award (2nd place), Kennedy Center/Eugene O’Neill New Play Conference fellow, Jane Chambers Student Playwright Award/Athe (2ndPlace), Scott McPherson Award, The Playwright Center Core Apprentice (2014), Playwright Foundation BAPF (finalist), Eugene O’Neill NPC (semi-finalist), TRI Research Fellowship at Ohio State University, Nashville Rep/Ingram New Play Lab Playwright- In-Residence, and T. S. Eliot Acting Fellowship. She is represented by Echo Lake Management.

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Read about Anthony’s Exciting Projects in Texas!

  • February 28, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · News

Alumni Anthony Ellison won his second “Best of” Frontera Fest Award for his play God’s Rabbit Hole. Here is the blurb for it, “Jean is married and in the middle of a sexual crisis; she is completely unfulfilled, so she turns to God for guidance to ultimate ecstasy.” Frontera Fest is a is “five weeks of alternative, offbeat, new, and just plain off-the-wall fringe theatre. Too bad there’s no actual way to expect the unexpected, because that is your only hope.” The fest is based in Austin, Texas.

Anthony also wrote the script for the 48 hour film festival winner in San Antonio!

Congrats Anthony!!

 

More about Anthony

Anthony Ellison is a playwright originally from Muncie, IN, graduating from Ball  State University with a B.S. in Creative writing, though his work was mostly comedy driven. He spent 10 years in Chicago, writing, acting, directing and improvising at Second City, Annoyance Productions and Chemically Imbalanced Theater. He received an MFA in playwriting from Ohio University, where he won the Scot McPherson award for his physique. The North Star which was produced at Chemically Imbalanced Theater in Chicago (2012) and The Drilling Company space in New York City, by Standing Panda (2013). Other full-length productions include Texas Sheen and Guillotine, at Chemically Imbalanced Theater. His one act play, The New Sue was produced in Liverpool, England at Grin Theatre. Shitbrick Merlot and We Killed The Care Bears were produced at Annoyance Theater. His ten minute play Tomorrow, was produced at American Theater Company’s Big Shoulders Festival, as well as a staged reading of his play Put the Action in Reaction, at Chicago Dramatists.

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Qui Nguyen featured in Rolling Stone!

  • December 1, 2016
  • by catherineforever666
  • · News · Qui Nguyen

Qui Nguyen was just featured in Rolling Stone Magazine talking about what it means to be an immigrant in the U.S today and the importance of representation of minorities on stage.

Here’s a little excerpt:

“When playwright Qui Nguyen working on his play Vietgone four years ago, no one seriously thought Donald Trump would one day be the President of the United States of America. It was long before he descended his gaudy Trump Tower escalator to announce his candidacy and malign Mexican immigrants as criminals, drug dealers and rapists. But now Nguyen’s sexy, genre-busting “All-American love story” musical – which has its final performances this week in New York City – about how his parents met at a refugee camp in Arkansas in 1975 feels all the more vital in the way it addresses issues of race, immigration and female empowerment. Even though it’s a wild, enjoyable ride – complete with comic book tropes, kung fu fights and ninjas – he did create it to correct Asian and immigrant stereotypes.

Growing up, every Vietnamese narrative on the planet – from Platoon to Rambo to Miss Saigon – the main protagonist is always a white guy going to Vietnam and Vietnamese are the bad guys being shot at or the are the people who need saving,” he says. “I remember watching those moves as a kid, and I remember how shitty it felt feeling like the alien. They have no agency for their own narrative; all of the yellow characters are there to serve the white characters’ narrative. In Vietgone, I specifically wanted the Asian characters to be their own heroes.”

Read full article here Congrats Qui!

 

 

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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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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