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Rachel Bykowski has short play in Chicago!

September 17, 2014
by catherineforever666
· Chicago · Current Students · Events · News · Productions

First year playwright and Native Chicagoan, Rachel Bykowski, has an exciting new play The Invisible Ones which will be featured at Fury Theater’s “Short Attention Span Theater Fest.” With her talent for tackling provocative subject matter and creating rich and addictive poetic language; we know this play will be awesome! Congrats Rachel!

More info on EVENT:

Six Chicago playwrights were invited to write about their experience of being a local Chicagoan.

Dates: September 18,19,20, 25, 26, 26 at 7PM at Chase Park

Rachel is premiering her newest one act The Invisible Ones inspired by Amiri Baraka’s incredibly play Dutchman which dealt with racial tensions during the 1960’s. Bykowski’s play takes place on the Chicago Red Line and discusses the assumptions people make of others based solely on another person’s appearance and what part of the city they call home. In addition, it explores how Chicago does or does not deal with the now daily violence that plagues the city’s neighborhoods and the repercussions that violence has on its residents.

Click here for even more info on Fury Theater’s Short play Fest

“Hungover Madness” Coming this Friday!

Madness this week will be produced by second year playwright, Aaron Johnson! The theme is “Hungover Madness” and the night will explore various takes on how one deals/works through a hangover.

It will be 11pm, in the Hahne Black Box theater. Admission is free. We recommend you get there 45 to 60 minutes ahead of time to assure yourself a seat. Hope to see ya there!

Alum Jason Half’s New Play Addresses Appalachian Issues

Half_Halbleib_Photo A public staged reading of SUNDIAL, a new play by MFA alum Jason Half about coal mining and the communities affected by it, will be presented on Friday, June 6, 8:00 p.m and Saturday, June 7 at 8:00 p.m. at Mid-Ohio Valley Players in Marietta, Ohio.

In SUNDIAL, a West Virginia elementary schoolteacher pushes to change the policies of the coal company that are affecting her town. But her position is complicated, as neighbors, friends, and even her family work for – and benefit from – the coal business. Inspired by the events of Marsh Fork Elementary and the mountaintop removal process occurring beside it, the new play explores the relationship and responsibilities between corporation and community.

While an MFA candidate at Ohio University, writer Jason Half received the coveted Trisolini Fellowship to begin research for a play that would explore the subject of coal mining and its effects on Appalachian communities. The MOVP reading will be the play’s first public presentation. “I don’t want this play to take sides,” said Half. “Instead, I hope Sundial makes the audience ask questions about the best way a town can work with a business that has both benefits and risks.” The honesty and quiet passion of the West Virginia characters came alive for Half as they confronted challenges to family, work, and land in the play, he said.

Jason Half is a Marietta-based writer who has taught scriptwriting at Marietta College and through the Colony Theater and the Ohio Arts Council. Recently, his work has received public presentations in Chicago and Pittsburgh. He is the recipient of the 2010 Scott McPherson playwriting award. This is Half’s first full-length script set in the Mid-Ohio Valley. The reading will be performed by veteran actors from the Marietta community. Amanda Anderson, Andy Felt, Mollie Jarrell, Beth Lane, Dyrk Lang, Andrew Pomerleau, and Dawn Weidner perform a variety of roles as parents, miners, teachers, officials, protestors, and supporters in the play.

“I’m excited to bring this story to an audience affected by these issues,” Half said. “It’s a story that will speak to everyone in this area who sees it.”

Public staged reading of SUNDIAL by Jason Hall
Mid-Ohio Valley Players, 229 Putnam St., Marietta, Ohio
8:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday, June 6th and 7th

Is thing on? Opp-Log Updates

Playwrights. We were busy. We meant to call, but we had festivals, and finals, and graduation.

We’re back and we have more submission opps for you for May and beyond.

Check it out.

Tyler Whidden ’16 Reading of “Run, Kingsbury, Run” This Weekend in Cleveland.

Classes are over. Commencement has taken place. Ohio MFA playwrights are getting busy this summer.

Tyler Whidden MFA '16 — Tyler Whidden MFA ’16

Tyler Whidden, MFA Class of 2016, is having a reading of his play, RUN KINGSBURY RUN, at the Ensemble Theatre in Cleveland this weekend.

Inspired by the 1938 events surrounding the catch and release of Cleveland’s Torso Killer, RUN KINGSBURY RUN, tells the story of the men out to save the city form a butcher, and the secrets that refuse to remain buried within the city’s forgotten capillaries.

Saturday, May 10
2pm
2843 Washington Blvd., Cleveland Hts., OH 44118
216.321.2930
info@ensemble-theatre.org

MFA ’14 Bianca Sams’ Research Informs Her 3rd Year Play: “Rust on Bone”

Ohio University’s office of Research Communication has a nice profile on Bianca Sams’ and her third year play, RUST ON BONE.

In researching her play, Sams interviewed a lot of military veterans on the effects of PTSD and sexual assault.

Check out the article: Playwright Bianca Sams tackles the issues of military sexual assault and post-traumatic stress disorder in new works

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.

NYC: Chantal Bilodeau’s Translation of Mohamed Kacimi’s “Holy Land” Opens 4/18

April 17, 2014
by rpdolan
· New York · News · Productions · world premiere

Ohio MFA Playwriting Alum, Chantal Bilodeau, has a new translation of Mohamed Kacimi’s HOLY LAND by 3rd Kulture Kids Theater Company at HERE Arts Center in New York City opening April 18th.

Bilodeau, who came back to visit the MFA Playwrights this spring, translates French plays in addition to currently working on her English written Arctic Cycle plays.

This is the American Premiere of HOLY LAND, which has been produced worldwide in Paris, Vienna, Prague, London, Milan, Jerusalem, Rio de Janeiro, Stockholm, Hamburg and Avignon Festival.

A city under siege. The landscape is white, dusty and devastated. Carmen has disappeared at a checkpoint. Her daughter Imen must face the soldier’s house searches alone, a soldier who listens to Stravinsky. In the house next door, Alia, the midwife, prepares her coffee as if nothing else matters while Yad, her husband, gets away from it all by smoking tobacco and drinking arak. The only hope seems to reside in Jesus: the cat. A dark and humorous story of 5 characters hanging on to the banality of day-to-day life, at times to the point of insanity, as a way to transcend the atrocities of war.

You can purchase tickets and find more information about the show here.

Cecilia Copeland Interview Featured on TCG’s New Blog.

Alum Cecilia Copeland is interviewed on Jacqueline E. Lawton’s “Diversity and Inclusion Blog” on Theatre Communication Group‘s blog site tcgcircle.org.

The post is titled “Gathering a Community” which is easier to spell but harder to do than “Gathering a few chrysanthemums.”

OU Alum David Mitchell Robinson Picked for 2014 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference

OU MFA Alumnus - David Mitchell Robinson — 2010 OU MFA Alumnus – David Mitchell Robinson

The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center selected 2010 Ohio MFA Alumnus, David Mitchell Robinson’s play, THE IMAGINARY CRITIC WHO DOESN’T EXIST, for it its 2014 National Playwrights Conference.

Since it was established in 1965, the O’Neill “Playwrights Conference has developed more than 600 plays. During the Conference, playwrights live on the grounds of the O’Neill for a full month and each engages in a week-long process of rehearsals culminating in two script-in-hand public readings. Up to eight playwrights are selected for this intensive laboratory each summer. Conference playwrights represent a wide range of experience from those working on a first play to Broadway veterans; directors and actors have also worked on and off Broadway, in film, and in regional theaters, and represent emerging artists and seasoned professionals. Virtually every major American playwright has been part of the Conference, including Julia Cho, Rebecca Gilman, Regina Taylor, John Guare, Israel Horovitz, David Henry Hwang, David Lindsay-Abaire, Adam Rapp, Lanford Wilson, Wendy Wasserstein and August Wilson.”

THE IMAGINARY CRITIC WHO DOESN’T EXIST synopsis: Lacey runs what’s, like, probably the most influential music site on the internet – a site that can determine whether an act pops off or becomes an endnote in pop history. But when she uses the site’s clout to hype a gifted but controversial MC, it threatens to unravel everything she’s built. The Imaginary Music Critic Who Doesn’t Exist, a play with endnotes, is about aging out, authenticity, and what we’re willing to do to stay relevant.

Also see our earlier post about Robinson’s other spring projects.