festival | OHIO

Mentors for Seabury Quinn announced!!

Tanya Palmer, Merri Biechler Kara Corthron will be the three mentors that will be giving feedback to the MFA playwrights at the Seabury Quinn Playfest this year! Tanya Palmer is the director of new play development at the Goodman . Laura Jacqmin is an OU alumni and award winning playwright whose work has been featured at the Humana Fest and Williamstown Theater festival! Kara Corthron is a NYC based playwright who is a current resident at New Dramatists and whose work has been featured at New Georges and the Women’s Project Theater. We are so excited about our mentors this year! Check out the Seabury Quinn playfest this April!

More about the mentors!!

Tanya Palmer is the director of new play development at Goodman Theatre, where she coordinates New Stages, the theater’s new play program, and has served as the production dramaturg on a number of plays including the world premieres of Smokefall by Noah Haidle, Robert Falls and Seth Bockley’s adaptation of Roberto Bolaño’s novel 2666, Another Word for Beauty by José Rivera with music by Hector Buitrago, The Happiest Song Plays Last by Quiara Hudes, The Long Red Road by Brett C. Leonard and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Ruined by Lynn Nottage. Prior to her arrival in Chicago, she served as the director of new play development at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she led the reading and selection process for the Humana Festival of New American Plays. She is the co-editor, with Amy Wegener and Adrien-Alice Hansel, of four collections of Humana Festival plays, published by Smith & Kraus, as well as two collections of 10-minute plays published by Samuel French. Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, she holds an MFA in playwriting from York University in Toronto. She lives in Evanston, IL with her husband and two children.

Kara Lee Corthron’s plays include Julius by Design (Fulcrum Theater), Etched in Skin on a Sunlit Night (InterAct Theatre, Philadelphia), AliceGraceAnon (New Georges), Holly Down in Heaven (Forum Theatre, DC area), Spookwater, Listen for the Light, and Welcome to Fear City. Kara is also the author of the young-adult novel, The Truth of Right Now, forthcoming from Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse, January 2017—the first of a two-book deal. Awards/Honors: member of New Dramatists (class of 2022), 2014-2015 Naked Angels/New School Issues Project Resident Playwright, Boomerang Fund for Artists Grant, Berkeley Rep 2014 Ground Floor Lab Residency, 2012-2014 Women’s Project Lab Time Warner Foundation Fellowship, The Vineyard Theatre’s 3rd Annual Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, the Princess Grace Award, two NEA grants, the Helen Merrill Award, Lincoln Center’s Lecomte du Nouy Prize (three-time recipient), the Theodore Ward Prize, the New Professional Theatre Writers Award, four MacDowell fellowships, residencies at Skriðuklaustur (Iceland), Djerassi, Hawthornden (Scotland), the Millay Colony, and Ledig House, and Fulcrum Theater (a company Kara helped launch with its inaugural production) received a 2013 Obie Grant. Her work has been sometimes produced and mostly developed at places like the African Continuum Theatre (DC), Ars Nova, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Berkeley Rep, CenterStage (Baltimore), Electric Pear, E.S.T., Haulbowline Theatre Group (Cork, Ireland), Horizon Theatre (Atlanta), the Kennedy Center, Midtown Direct Rep, Naked Angels, New Dramatists, New Georges, The Orchard Project, P73, Penumbra, PlayPenn Conference, The Shalimar, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference (Guest Artist, 2012), South Coast Rep, TheatreWorks (Palo Alto), the Vineyard Theatre, Voice & Vision, and the Women’s Project. TV: writer for NBC’s Kings (2008-2009). Kara’s also working on a graphic novel with cartoonist, Shawn Ferreyra. She has taught at various institutions including Primary Stages’ Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA), Ohio University, NYU-Tisch, Playwrights Horizons Theatre School, and Temple University. Juilliard alumna, New Georges Affiliated Artist, and member of Interstate 73 (2007-2008), the Ars Nova Play Group (2010-2011), ‘Wright On! Playwrights Group (co-founder), Blue Roses Productions, the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America. www.karaleecorthron.com

*Ohio University Alumnus, Laura Jacqmin, was scheduled to appear, but was unable due to illness. We hope to have her back for a future Seabury Playwrights’ Fest!

Mentors Announced for the Seabury Quinn Playwrights Fest!

We are proud to announce that The Visiting Mentors for the 2015 OHIO UNIVERSITY SEABURY QUINN, JR. PLAYWRIGHT’S FESTIVAL are: Steppenwolf’s Literary Manager and OU MFA Playwriting alum, Aaron Carter, Director of the Apprentice Company at Actors Theater of Louisville, Michael Legg and Executive Director of Indiana Repertory Theater, Janet Allen.

The festival will run April 23rd to the 25th.

Full Bios below:

Michael Legg is in his eighth season as Director of the Apprentice/Intern Company at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where he¹s directed world-premieres of plays by A. Rey Pamatmat, Laura Jacqmin, Dan Dietz, Kyle John Schmidt, Marco Ramirez, Carmen Herlihy, Alison Moore, and many others. Before coming to Actors, he spent three years as a theatrical agent in New York and his former clients can still be seen on Broadway, in television/film, and in regional theatres across the country. Prior to his time in New York, he spent seven years teaching and directing and has recently served as a guest artist at several universities, including the University of Central Florida, the University of Idaho, and Ohio University. He also serves as the Artistic Director of the Wildwind Performance Lab in Texas and has taught for and worked extensively with the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival. He holds an M.F.A. in acting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is a proud member of Actors Equity.

Janet Allen is currently the Executive Director of Indiana Repertory Theater. Creating world-class professional theatre for Central Indiana audiences of all ages has remained a career-long passion for Janet Allen. She began at the IRT in 1980 as the theatre’s first literary manager–dramaturg. After four years in New York City, she returned to serve ten years as associate artistic director under mentors Tom Haas and Libby Appel. She was named the IRT’s fourth artistic director in 1996. Janet studied theatre at Illinois State University, Indiana University, and Exeter College, Oxford. As a classical theatre specialist, she has published and taught theatre history and dramaturgy at IUPUI and Butler. Janet’s leadership skills and community service have been recognized by Indianapolis Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” Award, the Network of Women in Business–IBJ’s “Influential Women in Business” Award, Safeco’s Beacon of Light in Our Community Award, a Distinguished Hoosier Award conferred iby Governor Frank O’Bannon, Girls Inc.’s Touchstone Award for Arts Leadership, and the Indiana Commission on Women’s “Keeper of the Light” Torchbearer Award.

Aaron Carter is currently the director of new play development at Steppenwolf Theater Company where he has served as dramaturg on such projects as The Way West by Mona Mansour, and Airline Highway by Lisa D’Amour. Previously, he served as the Literary Manager at Victory Gardens Theater where he played a key role in the IGNITION Festival, and was involved in the production of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Year Zero, Love Person and Living Green, among others. As a new play developer and dramaturg, Aaron has worked with many theaters and labs including WordBRIDGE, the Kennedy Center, Timeline Theater, Route 66 and Chicago Dramatists. Aaron also teaches courses in playwriting, dramaturgy and dramatic literature at Northwestern University, De Paul University, Roosevelt University and Grinnell College. As a playwright, Aaron’s work focuses on race, faith and obscure performance skills. Aaron’s play Gospel of Franklin was part of First Look 2013 at Steppenwolf. His latest play is Start Fair.

For more Info on the 2015 Seabury Quinn Jr. Playwrights Festival, Click here

Festival!

Your last chance to catch a festival play is today at 1:00, 2:00, 4:00 or 8:00 pm. Check the festival page for details. It has been a rip-roarin’ good time.

pizza-hut-egypt-downs — Great pyramid as seen from inside nearby Pizza Hut. Photo by William Missouri Downs.

Jeremy Sony & Garret Schneider’s Work Goes Up at Nashville’s 10-Minute Festival

Alumni, Jeremy Sony and Garret Schneider, have 10-minute plays that will be part of Playhouse Nashville’s 10-Minute Playhouse February 9 & 10 in Nashville.

Sony’s play is NEXT STOP CENTRAL STATION, and Schenider’s is EX-GIRLFRIEND IS THE CENTERFOLD.

Check out their site for more information: http://www.tenminuteplayhouse.com/