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Tag: awards

VIETGONE Among Finalists for 2017 Edward M. Kennedy Prize

  • January 14, 2017
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Awards · News

Qui Nguyen’s hit play Vietgone is among one of 5 finalists for the prestigious Edward Kennedy prize. It is one of the most financially generous awards given to new plays and previous winners include Hamilton and Detroit 67.’

Broadway world writes,”The Edward M. Kennedy Prize is given annually through Columbia University to a new play or musical that, in the words of the Prize’s mission statement, “…enlists theater’s power to explore the past of the United States, to participate meaningfully in the great issues of our day through the public conversation, grounded in historical understanding, that is essential to the functioning of a democracy.”

Congrats Qui!! We hope you win it!

 

Click here to watch a little video about Vietgone

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 lauded as “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 (2016 Steinberg Award, 2016 LADCC Ted Schmidt New Play Award, 2016 Kennedy Prize Finalist); She Kills Monsters (2013 AATE Distinguished Play Award, 2012 GLAAD Media Award nom); War is F**king Awesome (Frederick Loewe Award); Soul Samurai (2009 GLAAD Media Award nom); Begets: Fall of a High School Ronin; Krunk Fu Battle Battle; Bike Wreck; Aliens vs Cheerleaders; and the critically acclaimed Vampire Cowboys productions of The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G, Six Rounds of Vengeance, Alice in Slasherland, Fight Girl Battle World, Men of Steel, and Living Dead in Denmark.

 

 

 

 

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Laura Jacqmin nominated for Jeff Award in Chicago!

  • August 23, 2015
  • by catherineforever666
  • · alumni · Chicago · News

Playwriting alum Laura Jacqmin’s play ” Look, we are breathing ” which was done at Rivendell Theater Ensemble the spring of 2015, has just been nominated for a Jeff award!! The Joseph Jefferson Awards (The Jeff Awards) are given annually by a volunteer non-profit committee to acknowledge excellence in theatre in the Chicago area. Founded in 1968, the awards are given in tribute to actor Joseph Jefferson.

From press release: “The list comprises 187 nominations in 36 categories, representing 34 theaters that opened productions between between August 1, 2014 and July 31, 2015. The 47th annual Equity Jeff Awards will be presented Monday, October 5 at Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace.”

Here’s a brief synopsis of Laura’s play: “Those who die young are mourned for their lost potential. But what if Mike, a high school hockey player killed while driving drunk, never really showed much potential? In this searing world premiere, Chicago playwright Laura Jacqmin turns her unblinking eye on the grieving process, as three women in Mike’s life realize that in order to move on, they first have to confront some hard truths about themselves.

Congrats Laura and we hope you win!!  You on fire, gurl!

More about Laura

Laura Jacqmin is a Chicago-based playwright and television writer, originally from Cleveland. She’s the winner of the Wasserstein Prize, two NEA Art Works Grants, the Kennedy Center David Mark Cohen Award, two MacDowell Fellowships, an Illinois Arts Council Individual Artist Grant, and has been a finalist for the Heideman Award, the Laurents/Hatcher Prize, the BBC International Playwriting Competition, and the Princess Grace Award. Her play Dental Society Midwinter Meeting was named one of New City Stage’s Top Five Plays of 2010, as well as TimeOut Chicago’s Honorable Mentions: Best Theater of 2010. Her television work includes the forthcoming series “Grace and Frankie” (Netflix) and “Lucky 7” (ABC). She received her BA from Yale University, and earned an MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University.

Plays include Ghost Bike (Buzz22 Chicago), Do-Gooder (16th Street Theater), January Joiner (Long Wharf Theatre), Ski Dubai (Steppenwolf Theatre), Look, We Are Breathing (Sundance Theater Lab), Two Lakes, Two Rivers (O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Royal Court Theatre’s International Residency), and Dental Society Midwinter Meeting (Chicago Dramatists/At Play, remounted 16th Street Theater and Theater on the Lake). Her short play Hero Dad premiered in the 2012 Humana Festival of New Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Her work has been produced and developed by Atlantic Theater Company, Old Vic New Voices, Roundabout Underground, Vineyard Theatre, LCT3, Ars Nova, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Second Stage Theatre, Contemporary American Theater Festival, The 24 Hour Plays Off-Broadway, and the inaugural NNPN University Playwrights Workshop at Stanford University, among others.

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OU Theater Alum Nathan Ramos wins East West Players prestigious award and is interviewed by us!

  • July 27, 2015
  • by catherineforever666
  • · News

Ohio Theater Alum Nathan Ramos recently just won the East West Players Prestigious See Change Award.  East West Players (EWP), the nation’s longest running professional theatre of color and the largest creator of Asian Pacific artistic work chose Nathan and his play “Base Degrees” as the first place winner.

The press release for the award describes his play: “Base Degrees” explores the pursuit of success and its costs as Benji, a first generation Asian American struggles in New York City to find his voice as his writing career stalls. As the professional paths of his best friend Sheila and his half sister Laura begin to blossom, he begins to unravel. “Base Degrees” explores what lengths we are willing to go to realize our dreams, and whether morality is tied to upward mobility.

Here is another press release quote about the purpose of the award: “The theme of seeking plays that delve into the shifting demographics of the US seems to have caught onto something, based on the sheer volume and breadth of submissions,” says Snehal Desai, EWP Literary Manager and Artistic Associate. “It was an exceptional field of plays and the three winners stand out as sterling examples of reflecting our theme of 2042: See Change. The eight plays highlighted today are engaging, smart, and compelling works that incisively explore the changing American landscape with humor and humility. They really dove into the theme of cultural intersectionality and they are works that all of us involved with this competition look forward to seeing on the stage.”  Read more by clicking on this link,

Keep reading to check out our exclusive interview with Nathan about this awesome honor he was given!

  1. What was your inspiration for your play “Base Degrees”?

Two years ago, I began to get disillusioned by the industry, and I didn’t have a thick enough skin when I would hear comments like, ‘you’re too Asian, you’re not Asian enough,’ or even things meant to be positive but felt more like inadvertent racial idealization, ‘it’s so good you’re a tall Asian!’ Some words even completely altered my self perception and self worth, ‘You’ll never work in TV/film because of your cleft lip and palate.’ As I was trying to work through my feelings, I recalled words from a fellow writer that told me ‘we can’t wait for anyone to write the roles we want to play.’  It made me begin to think about how I viewed myself in the theater world, the fact that there has never been an Asian sex scene on primetime television, there has never been a romanticized/sexualized asian male lead, that I have never seen myself as a protagonist, because I don’t exist in the mainstream story as a main character.

The actual inspiration for some of the content of Base Degrees came from an article about how Lena Dunham and the cast of Girls was just a result of nepotism in the industry. I wanted to explore the dialogue about the wealth gap, racial representation (which girls has received much flack about), and upward mobility within the industry, and not simply vilify those that happened to be born into privilege.  The See Change 2042 Playwriting Competition is based on the estimation that in 2042, people of color will be the majority in America.  I wanted my play to reflect that world, and to also portray women, minorities, and the lgbt community in a multi-faceted light.

  1. How did you feel when you found out you won this awesome award?I was helping a friend write a Medieval French Newspaper for one of her classes at NYU.  We were writing while getting drunk at Horchata, a Mexican Restaurant during Happy Hour near Washington Square Park.  I started sobbing when I got the call, and whenever I cry, because of my cleft palate, I always start dry heaving because my nose doesn’t drain very well.  So I was crying and dry heaving when I heard the news. I am sure Snehal, the literary manager at East West Players was so confused.  It’s my first play I’ve ever submitted to anything, and my first full length play I’ve written so it was definitely a big shock.

3.What do you think theater companies can do to support playwrights/theater artists of color?

I think it has a lot to do with visibility, and not just ‘Asian in the ensemble holding a spear’ or ‘Asian as a servant/monster’ character.  I know a lot of actors that just don’t go in for roles that feel like a marginalization, which then in turn lets the casting directors say that there just isn’t any minority talent.  Asians can and want to be the romantic leads, Asians can and should be vital to the story and not just adjacent and silent.  It’s fucking 2015, come on.

The problem is theaters are inevitably businesses, and because the Asian community is so fractured and the arts aren’t emphasized as a a viable occupation as a part of the community a lot of the time, the demand is somewhat scattered.

Asian representation is really beginning to move toward positive change, but a step toward positive perception could be if producers did Dinner with Friends on Broadway starring Sandra Oh, John Cho, Daniel Dae Kim, and Lucy Liu.  Asian kids would see hot talented intelligent people that look like them doing what they love without being villified, silenced, or exoticized. Asians need a unifying brand, and I know I would definitely hang that poster up in my room for the rest of my life. Let Asians just sit at a table and drink a glass of wine on stage. Making the Asian experience a universal experience through specific truthful storytelling would also help non-minority casting directors and other creatives see that Asians can be humanized instead of exoticized.

  1. What was your favorite thing about going to OU? Big Mamas, Goodfellas, Casa Nueva, Della Zona, Donkey, DP Dough, 3.75 Chinese (which i’m sure is much more expensive now). I didn’t realize how grounding it was to be in the middle of nature until I came to new york and was surrounded by concrete. I grew into the person I am today at OU.  I learned a lot of really difficult lessons, one of which Shelley Delaney told me.  I had been upset about feeling like I wasn’t ever the first choice for anything, and she told me that I don’t need to be the most talented, I just need to be the most reliable, and that’s why they could depend on me in a pinch.  That advice has gotten me more jobs than anything else in my acting career.  Everyone is talented, but you can only depend on a choice few when it comes to collaboration and making art.

5. What’s your favorite kind of dessert?

Favorite homemade dessert: Mom’s pineapple upside down cake.  Favorite NYC dessert: A tie between Harb’s Green Tea Mousse chiffon cake with red bean and Amanda Freitag’s cocoa carrot cake with cheesecake ice cream, carrot caramel sauce, and candied walnuts.

6.Tell us more about the background for your play

Base degrees’ title comes from a monologue by Brutus in Julius Caesar. He says about Caesar in the early hours on the ides of March, ‘but when he once attains the utmost round, he then unto the ladder turns his back, looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees by which he did ascend’, meaning once Caesar gains power, he will forget where he came from, what got him there, and why he ascended in the first place.  In an age where our scope always seems to be ever narrowing, how do we direct our sights upward without disregarding the world around us?

When Base Degrees begins, it is the third year of living In the Heights for Benji, his half sister Laura, and their best friend Sheila.  When Laura’s chance encounter with writing star Orson begins to lead to opportunity, and Sheila’s lucrative online business leads her to moving out and moving up, Benji feels stalled.  After a one-night stand, and a life changing tragedy, the characters must react to the changes, new pressures, and shifting relationships that arise when fame and upward mobility come to fruition.

Base Degrees explores the different ways we pursue our ideas of success, and what success actually means. Benji has done everything in a conventional sense, but seems to be thwarted at every turn within the traditional channels. Laura falls into good fortune by ambiguously scrupulous ways, but is genuinely talented and wouldn’t get there by any other means, however, does this lead to a moral quandary? Orson was born with a silver spoon in his mouth so he struggles with knowing if he’s actually talented, if he would be where he is without his mother, and must deal with wondering if the people around him are his friends, or just want to use him. Sheila has achieved wealth doing perceived immoral acts, but she uses the money for only good deeds, so does it matter how she has accrued this wealth?  Joel doesn’t wake up in the morning wanting to see his face on the side of a bus, he just wants to eat good food, do his job well, love those around him, and leave the world a little better than he found it. Within these pursuits of success, is there a correct or morally superior way of living?

 

  1. Do you have any advice for aspiring playwrights?

Playwrights are the most honest part of the artistic process.  The best plays are the most truthful, they say the things that we are afraid to say in real life, they give the audience courage, or catharsis, or they let you connect with someone that you would never come in contact with in your every day life.

Really learn and know the rules of writing.  Comedic rules work for a reason, structure is there for a reason, and once you understand how those things work is when you can then deconstruct them.  I kind of live by the Pixar Rules for Writing. I have found that playwriting is equally mathematical and creative. Don’t forget your characters’ objectives.  If they are just fucking around for a page and nothing is deepening then go back to what they’re actually supposed to be doing. Don’t write what you think people want to read, or what you think people want to hear.  Be specific, and get used to other people reading your work.  Find actors who have the sensibilities that you are inclined to as a writer and let them interpret your work.  Also work with actors that you don’t really like or don’t think are compatible to your work because they may open your words up in strange and wonderful ways. Read bad plays and see bad theater, because it is easier to see what you should improve upon than what to aspire to.  Drink one coffee if you know what you want to write and need to bang it out.  Drink a beer if you’re creatively stuck and need to ruminate.

More about Nathan

Nathan Ramos currently resides in New York City where he balances writing plays, acting, and teaching. Nathan is originally from Cleveland, OH and born to a Filipino Texan and a Korean immigrant. He holds a BFA in Acting from Ohio University. Ramos will receive a $5,000 prize.

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Tyler Whidden’16 wins the prestigious Trisolini Award!

  • May 5, 2015
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Current Students · News

Tyler Whidden’16 has won the prestigious Trisolini Award which is given to grad students at Ohio University!  There were 5 recipients of a graduate fellowship award and each was awarded $15,000, plus a full tuition scholarship for fall and spring semesters.  Last year Neal Adelman won the award with his proposal for his thesis play about taxidermied animals and masculinity, “Only Good Things Happen at the Fair.”  Congrats Tyler on this big honor and we are so excited to see how this new play idea will take shape!

More about the project:
Project Title: Occupation: Dad

Statement:
In my thesis play, I intend to explore what it means to be a father today in a world where more women are working and more men are staying home with their children. Occupation: Dad follows a day in the life of new father, Jason, as he and his newborn son navigate through the rocky terrain of stay-at-home parenting. Like James Joyce’s Ulysses (but with slightly less drinking), Jason and his son are on a journey encountering people and situations that question and challenge Jason’s ability to be a parent. During his search, Jason faces his relationship with his own father and soon realizes the answers to being a good father can be found in being a better son. The Named Fellowship will allow me the freedom to continue to explore topics and situations that come with being a stay-at-home father and how those situations can shape the new family dynamic.

Click here to read the full OU Press Release

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. His play Dancing With N.E.D. has seen productions in New Jersey, Ohio, and Washington. His family-friendly farce, The Unofficial Almost True Campfire Tales of Put-in-Bay was commissioned by the Put-in-Bay Arts Council as part of their Bicentennial Celebration of the Battle of Lake Erie in the Summer of 2013 and his one-act play, Detour, was part of the “Truck Stop Plays” production in Chicago. He is currently an Instructor at Ohio University and at Southern New Hampshire University and lives in Athens, Ohio, with his beautiful wife, Angie — who is way out of his league — and their beautiful boy, Booker — who is Tyler’s  intellectual equal.

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Ryan Patrick Dolan’16 gets NAPAT nomination for his short play “DADDY’s LITTLE GIRLS”

  • March 18, 2015
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Awards · Current Students · News

Ryan Patrick Dolan’16’s play, “Daddy’s Little Girls,” garnered him one of the eight, nationwide nominations for the National Partners of American Theatre Playwriting Award which recognizes “best-written, best-crafted script with the strongest writer’s “voice.””

The play was also named a National Semifinalist for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival’s 10-minute play competition, THE GARY GARRISON AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING TEN-MINUTE PLAY. In conjunction with KCACTF, “Daddy’s Little Girls.”

Ryan excels at writing plays with strong and intricate character relationships with lots of heart and a bit of edge, which “DADDY’s LITTLE GIRLS” has to the tee.  We are very proud of him and his NAPAT nomination!

More about Ryan

Ryan Patrick Dolan is a second year MFA Candidate in the Ohio University Playwriting Program under Charles Smith and Erik Ramsey. He has a B.A. in playwriting from Columbia College Chicago where he studied under playwright, Lisa Schlesinger. He writes dark, comedic plays that explore love and loss, passion and destruction. Stylistically influenced by his years of improvisation, acting, and the Chicago Storefront aesthetic, he challenges the American stereotypes of gender, race, and sexuality.

His full-length play,“Moraine,” had a reading at the 2014 Seabury Quinn Jr. Playwrights Festival at Ohio University, and at the Trellis Reading Series at the Greenhouse Theater Center. Moraine is being produced at CIC Theater this March and April in Chicago, and is being directed by Mary Rose O’Connor.

http://ryanpatrickdolan.com/

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Morgan Patton’15 short play “Strangers in the Park” wins first prize from the Kentucky Theatre Association!

  • November 18, 2014
  • by catherineforever666
  • · Awards · Current Students · Events · News

Morgan Patton will be heading up to the Kentucky Theater Association’s Conference this week to see her short play!

Morgan’s talent for creating rich and honest dialogue and fascinating relationships is paying off with this awesome honor from her home state!  In her artistic statement she describes her writing, “I come from a middle America culture that minimizes and sanitizes the uncomfortable because it feels safe. But with my plays, I attempt to take that world and ultimately turn it on its head. Characters concerned with first world problems can lull us into a false sense of security until the darker core of that world is found beneath its sanitized facade. When feelings like grief or isolation are buried deep beneath the surface, it can be much scarier than if they were confronted in the open. But when it finally bubbles over, we see that white bread America can be just as dark and disturbing as anywhere else. But like anyone else in this particular culture, I use levity and humor to diffuse the tension until the more serious truth is found.

Patton’s play, along with cuttings from the winning full-length scripts, will be read at the KTA Conference on Friday at Eastern Kentucky University’s Pearl Theatre.  KTA’s Roots of the Bluegrass New Play Contest is open to any past or present resident of Kentucky who writes plays. In previous years—the contest is in its fifth year—the contest gave awards only for full-length plays.
Patton’s Strangers in the Park is about a chance meeting between Nathan and Abigail. Even though they just met, they have undeniable chemistry, and more in common than they realize, but they’re hampered by their respective insecurities—and their inability to read each other’s minds.

For Full Article Click here

More about Morgan:

Morgan Patton was born and raised in Newport, Kentucky, just across the river from Cincinnati. In 2011, she graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northern Kentucky University as an Honors Scholar with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Playwriting and a Bachelor of Arts in English. Her plays work with themes of love, loss, and family in order to explore the elusive concept of identity and what it means to belong. Recently her ten-minute play YARD SALE, about a mug and a teapot, was a regional finalist for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre festival, and was one of six ten-minute plays staged and developed there. For more information, visit her website at www.playsbymorgan.com.

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OU Alum Finalist for Prestigious Keneda Graduate Playwriting Award

  • December 12, 2013
  • by rpdolan
  • · Awards · News · Press

OU alum, Jacob Juntunen‘s play “In the Shadow of His Language, was chosen as a a Finalist for the 2014 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award.

jacob juntunen

In 2005, the Tony Award-winning Alliance Theatre in Atlanta established the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition, which is the only national competition that transitions graduate student playwrights to the world of professional theatre. Each year, the theatre solicits the work of third-year MFA playwriting students from 36 of what it considers to be “the country’s leading graduate playwriting programs.”

An in-house panel of readers evaluates approximately one hundred submitted scripts each year and selects a slate of semi-finalists. The semi-finalist scripts are then sent to a national panel of theatre professionals for judging, resulting in the selection of four finalists and one award-winning play. Since 2005, the playwriting program at Ohio University has had finalists in 2007, 2009, 2013, and in 2010, third-
year Ohio University MFA playwriting student, David Robinson’s play was named winner.

Of the 36 programs that the Tony Award-winning Alliance Theatre considers to be “the country’s leading graduate playwriting programs,” only 21 of these programs have had students who either won or placed as finalist since the inception of the program in 2005. Of these 21 programs, only UT-Austin and Julliard surpasses Ohio University’s record of achievement of four placements in nine years. Yale University, NYU-Tisch, and University of California at San Diego all have matched Ohio University’s record of achievement. The record of achievement of the playwriting
program at Ohio University has surpassed the playwriting programs at University of Iowa, Columbia University School of the Arts, Boston University, University of Southern California, Hunter College, California Institute of the Arts, Northwestern University, NYU Musical Theatre Writing Program, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Hollins University, The New School for Drama, Catholic University of America, Florida State, and Carnegie Mellon, well as the other 15 playwritingprogram in the nation that have not placed in this one-of-a kind competition.

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Three MFA students’ plays invited to Regional 2 – KCATCF

  • December 12, 2013
  • by rpdolan
  • · Awards · News

MFA Playwrights Neal Adelman, Bianca Sams, and Morgan Patton all had plays invited to the region 2 Kennedy Center American College Festival – Region 2, January 2014.

Neal was invited for his one-act play, and Morgan and Bianca were invited for 10-minute plays.

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