ohio playwriting | OHIO

TimeOut Chicago gives Alum Laura Jacqmin’s GHOST BIKE 3 Stars.

You can check out TimeOut’s review of GHOST BIKE here.

GHOST BIKE is produced by hot, young theater company, Buzz22 Chicago.

Buzz 22 Chicago’s synopsis of GHOST BIKE: Ora and Eddie fell in love with Chicago on their bikes. But when Eddie is hit by a car and killed, Ora refuses to let him go. Instead, she rides beneath our city to bring him back, facing off against underworld gods and ghosts -some interested in helping her, some determined to get in her way. The more difficult her journey becomes, the more Ora must question what it is she’s journeying towards. In Ghost Bike, Chicago culture skitches off of Greek, African, and Chinese mythology, sparking a spirited mash-up of underworld and after-life as seen from the seats of fixies, BMX’s and ten-speeds.

Ghost bikes can be found in Chicago and in cities all over the country. Learn more about them at http://ghostbikes.org/chicago.

From their website: “Ghost Bikes are made from bikes and bike parts which are no longer rideable, painted all white, and installed where cyclists were killed by motorists. They are grim but necessary reminders of the hazards cyclists face on our roadways. They remember the victim and raise awareness of the need to combat reckless and aggressive driving and fix our streets to be safer for all users.”

Chrisler’s “Worse Than Tigers” Reading at Stella Adler Studio Tonight

Alum Mark Chrisler has a reading of his play “Worse Than Tigers” at the Stella Alder Studio tonight in NYC at 7pm. It’s at 31 W. 27th Street, New York, NY.

It’s part of “The First Breath Play Reading Festival” taking place all week at the studio.

(In Ohio, nothing is worse than Kamchatka. It’s better to be in NYC to see this reading. )

OU Alum Chantal Bilodeau Visits MFA Playwrights

On Wednesday, OU alumnus Chantal Bilodeau (red scarf) talked to current Ohio University playwrights in their Seminar class. Bilodeau is writing a series of eight plays called “The Arctic Cycle.” Each play takes place in a different Arctic country, United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia, and focuses “on the power of storytelling to investigate, and attempt to understand, the many challenges posed by climate change.”

Conversation topics covered a multitude of topics including developing voice, supporting oneself as a playwright, writing grants, the challenge of writing a series of plays on one particular theme and idea, and the similarities between Athens, Ohio and Manhattan (not really.)

The playwrights also read Chantal’s play, SILA, which is the first play of the Arctic Cycle and was commissioned by the Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company. It’s won a slew of awards:
Honorable Mention from the Women in the Arts & Media Coalition as part of their Collaboration Awards, 2011.
First Prize, Uprising National Playwriting Competition (Canada), 2011.
First Prize, Earth Matters on Stage Ecodrama Festival, 2012.
Woodward International Playwriting Prize, 2014

Sila has an upcoming production at the Underground Railway Theater in April 2014.

MFA ’15 Neal Adelman: KCATCF National Finalist for Outstanding Short Play

Neal Adelman, second year MFA playwright, has been named a National Finalist of the John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short Play for this year’s Kennedy Center American Theater College Festival. His play TARRANT COUNTY is one of three plays nominated.

The festival is April 14th through April 19th at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Started in 1969 by Roger L. Stevens, the Kennedy Center’s founding chairman, the Kennedy Center American College Theater (KCACTF) is a national theater program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide which has served as a catalyst in improving the quality of college theater in the United States. The KCACTF has grown into a network of more than 600 academic institutions throughout the country, where theater departments and student artists showcase their work and receive outside assessment by KCACTF respondents.

2014 SEABURY QUINN, JR. PLAYWRIGHTS’ FESTIVAL

The annual festival runs from April 23 – April 26, 2014. For the full information and schedule, please visit the Festival 2014 page.

MFA Alum Sarah Katherine Bowden’s Has a Piece on Howlround

OU MFA Playwright Alum Sarah Katherine Bowden has a new essay “A Place In The Conversation: Portraying Disability Onstage on the popular theater website Howlround.

You can also check her website out at: http://sarahbowden.weebly.com/

Jeremy Sony Interviewed on “Inexplicable Dumb Show” Podcast

Theatre podcast “The Inexplicable Dumb Show” interviewed alum Jeremy Sony this week about his play “Ichabod: Missing in Sleepy Hollow” playing at Street Theatre Company. Sony talks about his take on the classic Sleepy Hollow legend and his work with Tennessee Repertory Theatre and their Ingram New Works Lab.

Click here to listen to the podcast.