ohio playwriting

Second-year MFA playwright, Rachel Bykowski, starts off Madness in 2016 by producing “Resolution” Madness this week.

The Madness show is January 15th, 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.

For more information about Madness this spring semester, check out our Madness page.

Rachel Bykowski was born and raised in Chicago. She writes plays that examine the masks people wear to conceal their true identities to blend into society and explores the repercussions when the masks are ripped off. Her work often includes proactive female characters that raise awareness to issues surrounding women. Rachel received her BFA in Playwriting from The Theatre School of DePaul University. Her playwriting credits include her full length plays: Original Recipe produced by DePaul University; staged reading of Got to Kill Bitch presented by Cock and Bull Theatre in Chicago; and staged reading of Glory vs. The Wolves presented by 20% Theatre Company Chicago and hosted by Women and Children First Bookstore as part of an event to raise awareness about rape culture. Her one act plays include: The Best Three Minutes of My Life produced by Bradley University; Break-Up Court andPay Phone produced by 20% Theatre Company Chicago; The Invisible Onesproduced by Fury Theatre in Chicago; and She Sings For You produced and published by Commedia Beauregard in Chicago. Rachel is also a proud company member of 20% Theatre Company Chicago. She is very excited to continue her writing career and pursuing her MFA in Playwriting under the tutelage of Ohio University. For more information about Rachel, please visit her website at www.rachelbykowski.com.

Opp-Log Updated Through Sept 1st!

Dive into our updated Opp-Log submission dates!

https://ohioplaywriting.org/opp-log/

Big ones added are:
Marin Theater – July 31
American Blues Theater – September 1st
New Dramatists – July 29

Bianca Sams’ “Rust On Bone” 1 of 4 Plays Chosen for a New Works Festival.

Bianca Sams’ play “Rust on Bone” was one of four plays chosen for the Gulfshore Playhouse’s 2nd Annual New Works Festival in Naples, Florida. Sams, OU MFA ’14, will work with actors and director for a week before a staged reading of her play the weekend of the festival, Sept 4-7, 2014.

Two Ohio Alumni Named to Playwrights’ Center Core Playwriting Program

The Playwrights’ Center (PWC) announced this year’s core writer’s and Jerome Fellowship recipients last week. Qui Nguyen was named a Core Writer, and Bianca Sams was named a Core Apprentice.

Nguyen was one of eight new writers to join the group of 25 Core Writers. “The Core Writer program brings a diverse range of playwrights to the Center for play development workshops in collaboration with prom is the Co-Artistic Director of the Nguyen is an OBIE Award-winning Vampire Cowboys of NYC. His plays include “She Kills Monsters,” “Soul Samurai,” “Alice in Slasherland,” “The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G,” and the musicals “Krunk Fu Battle Battle,” “War is F**king Awesome” and “Samantha Rai and the Shogun of Fear.” He is a proud member of The Playwrights’ Center, New Dramatists, Ensemble Studio Theatre and The Ma-Yi Writers Lab. His company, Vampire Cowboys, often considered the pioneers of “Geek Theater,” holds the unique distinction of being the first and only professional theater organization to be sponsored by NY Comic Con.inent directors, actors, dramaturgs and designers. Over the three-year term with the Playwrights’ Center as an artistic home, selected work by Core Writers is showcased in the community through the PlayLabs festival and the Ruth Easton New Play Series.”

Sams, a MFA graduate this year, was one of five playwrights named a Core Apprentice. That program”pairs student playwrights with a mentor and offers play development support.”

Sams is an Actor/Writer/Producer based in New York City. She is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School, where she earned the distinction of being Tisch’s first ever Triple Major (Acting, Dramatic Writing, Africana Studies). At NYU she studied acting through the Strasberg Film Institute and Royal Academy Dramatic Arts (RADA) London, England. Her writing mentors at NYU included Richard Wesley, Beth Turner, George Malko, John Guerre (Honors), Kenneth Lonergan (Honors) and Daniel Goldfarb. Since graduating her work has been seen at Karamu House, Cleveland Public Theater, Old Vic Theater London and Public Theater in New York. She has performed as an actor at Cleveland Public Theater, Florida Studio Theater, Old Vic London, Public Theater NY, and can be seen on film in Rent directed by Chris Columbus. She is a full member of the Old Vic New Voices Network New York under Artistic Director Kevin Spacey. She has produced several ten minute play festivals in New York and Los Angeles, and is moving into full length off broadway theater. She is recent graudate from the MFA in Playwrighting at Ohio University with Charles Smith. For more information go to www.biancasams.com.

The Playwrights’ Center is “one of the nation’s most generous and well-respected theater organizations, the Playwrights’ Center focuses on both supporting playwrights and promoting new plays to production at theaters across the country. The Center has helped launch the careers of numerous nationally recognized artists, notably August Wilson, Lee Blessing, Suzan-Lori Parks, Jordan Harrison, Carlyle Brown, Craig Lucas, Jeffrey Hatcher, Melanie Marnich, and Kira Obolensky. Work developed through Center programs has been seen nationwide on such stages as the Yale Rep, Woolly Mammoth, Guthrie, Goodman, and many others.”

Jeremy Sony’s “Pathogenesis” streamed live Sunday on HowlRoundTVs Livestream Channel.

This Sunday night, May 11, a reading of OU Alum Jeremy Sony’s new play ‘Pathogenesis’ will be streamed live on the internet thanks to HowlRoundTV’s Livestream channel, http://www.livestream.com/newplay/ (visit the link and look for Upcoming Events).

Sunday, May 11
5pm PDT / 7pm CDT / 8pm EDT

Pathogenesis by Jeremy Sony.
Synopsis: A global pandemic, a dangerous cure, and a father / daughter relationship set to explode at the end of the world.

This reading is part of the Ingram New Works Lab at Tennessee Repertory Theatre in Nashville, where Sony has been developing his new play during the 2013-2014 season.

Participate in a talkback with Sony immediately following the performance on Twitter. Direct your questions to @tnrep and use #newplay

See more at: http://howlround.com/livestreaming-the-ingram-new-works-festival-at-tennessee-repertory-theatre-sun-may-11-wed-may-14

You can also read more about ‘Pathogenesis’ on Sony’s website at http://www.jeremysony.com/plays.html

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

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.

Opp Log Update – Djerassi Playwriting Fellowship – U. of Wisconsin

Updated on our OppLog: The University of Wisconsin extended the date of their Djerassi Playwriting Fellowship to April 20th. Go to the OppLog calendar for April 20th and find details.

The fellowship consists of a “$27,000 stipend, generous health benefits, and a one-course-per-semester teaching assignment.”

Here’s a description of the fellowship from their website:

The Carl Djerassi Fellowship in Playwriting was established by scientist and author Carl Djerassi to encourage beginning-to-mid-career playwrights whose work is not only performed, but also has intrinsic literary value. To realize Dr. Djerassi’s vision, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Program in Creative Writing annually awards a fellowship to a playwright whose whose plays can be read and discussed as works on the page as well as performed on the stage. Playwrights whose works have been published as well as performed are especially of interest. Applications must be postmarked by April 20.

Here’s a picture of one of the past Wisconsin Djerassi Fellows in the official Djerassi uniform.

Opp-Log: Two New Additions from Chicago.

We added two new playwright ops (short for opportunities or extremely hot appetizers).

Check out our Opp-Log Calendar for submissions all over the country (& UK.)

ALTA Chicago’s Latino New Works Writers’ Circle

Wildclaw Theater’s: Deathscribe

Madness is back this week. “This Is Why We Rock.”

MADNESS is back for the second to last time this semester. Third-year MFA playwright, Bianca Sams, is producing. Her prompt is “This Is Why We Rock” Madness.

Hahne Black Box Theater.
Kanter Theater Building
Friday, April 4th.
11pm

The line to get the free tickets usually starts around 10pm in the lobby.

Until then, enjoy the song that inspired Bianca’s theme:
“This Is Why We Rock” by Mims Ft. Purple Popcorn.