2009 Ohio University Seabury Quinn Jr. Playwrights’ Festival
Guest Mentors
Laurence Carr was awarded SUNY, New Paltz’s Adjunct Teacher of the Year for 2005-2006. He earned his BFA at Ohio University, 1972, and his MA at New York University 1995. He is now a full-time Instructor here where he teaches Dramatic and Creative Writing. In 1998, he created the SUNY Playwrights’ Project, which develops plays and theatre pieces created by SUNY students, alumni, faculty and community writers and are produced regionally and Off-Off Broadway in NYC.
Laurence has taught at The New School University, CUNY, and The Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City and at Empire State College. Abroad, he has been a guest faculty member at The University of Linkoping, Sweden, the University of Gdansk, Poland, and DAMU, the State Theatre School in Prague, The Czech Republic.
He is the recipient of playwriting grants from The National Endowment for the Humanities, The New York State Council on the Arts and has been awarded numerous regional commissions. He’s been a member of The Dramatists Guild since 1975. Locally, Mr. Carr is the playwright-in-residence at Mohonk Mountain Stage Company.
His Off-Broadway play, Kennedy at Colonus, was hailed by the New York Times as a ”fascinating, well-built, often witty play” while the Burns Mantle Best Plays Series cited it as a “distinctly worthy play” and a “standout in independent Off-Broadway production.”
Abroad, two of his plays have been produced by the Gregory Abels Theatre Ensemble: 36 Exposures premiered in Prague and Food for Bears premiered in Warsaw.Vaudeville, published by Rising Moon Publishing, has had numerous regionally productions across the U.S. His work has been seen in Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Seattle, and in Rochester, NY.
Laurence’s poetry and prose have been published throughout the U.S. and his book of microfiction, The Wytheport Tales, is published by Codhill Press.
LYDIA DIAMOND Broadway debut: Stick Fly (premiered at Congo Square Theatre Company, 2006 Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Best New Work, 2006 BTAA Award for Best Play). Her plays include Stage Black (premiered at Arts Consortium of Cincinnati, 3rd place Theodore Ward Prize); The Gift Horse (premiered at the Goodman Theatre, 2nd place Kesselring Prize, 1st place Theodore Ward Prize); The Inside, premiered at MPAACT Theatre Company and published in TriQuarterly, where she is a contributing editor; and Voyeurs de Venus, premiered at Chicago Dramatists, 2006 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work, 2006 BTAA Award for Best Writing, commissioned by Steppenwolf Theatre Co. Diamond’s adaptation of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre, won the Black Arts Alliance Image Award for Best New Play and was recently remounted at Steppenwolf and moved to a co-production with New Victory Theatre in New York. The Bluest Eye has also been produced by Theatre Alliance, Washington, D.C.; Playmakers Repertory Co., Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Plowshares Theatre Company, Detroit, Michigan. The Gift Horse is anthologized in 7 Black Plays, edited by Chuck Smith, Northwestern University Press. Diamond’s third Steppenwolf Theatre commission, Harriet, a play based on the life of Harriet Jacobs, was recently workshopped and presented at The Kennedy Center’s New Visions/New Voices Festival and at United Kingdom’s Old Vic Theatre (New Voices Program). She is currently working on new commissions with The McCarter Theatre Company and Chicago Children’s Theatre Company. Diamond holds a bachelor’s degree in theater and performance studies from Northwestern University. She taught playwriting at Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Loyola University and currently at Boston University. Diamond is a Huntington Playwriting Fellow and a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists. Diamond is a board member of StageSource, Boston’s resource for theatre artists.
JACQUELYN REINGOLD writes for theatre, television, and film. For television, she wrote for season one of NBC’s SMASH (Executive Producer, Theresa Rebeck). She worked on HBO’s Peabody Award winning IN TREATMENT season two, (Executive Producer, Warren Leight), writing the “Mia” episodes for Emmy nominated Hope Davis and Gabriel Byrne. Recent plays include: I KNOW in Ensemble Studio Theatre’s One-act Marathon and UP AND DOWN for Christine Jones’ Theatre for One. Other plays include STRING FEVER atEnsemble Studio Theatre, starring Cynthia Nixon and Evan Handler, also produced at Playhouse West in California, and in Washington DC at Theatre J. She wrote an episode of the serialized play, CEDAR CITY FALLS in 2010, created and produced by Liz Tuccillo. Her one-acts THEY FLOAT UP, and A VERY VERY SHORT PLAY were produced in ’10 and ’08 at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Another one-act 2B (OR NOT 2B) was produced at The Actors Theatre of Louisville in 2009. Her full length play, A STORY ABOUT A GIRL was part of the JAW Playwrights Festival at Portland Center Stage, Oregon. Her other plays: GIRL GONE, 2B (OR NOT 2B), ACAPULCO, FOR-EVERETT, DEAR KENNETH BLAKE, DOTTIE AND RICHIE, TUNNEL OF LOVE, JILEY & LEDNERG, JOE AND STEW’S THEATRE, LOST AND FOUND, A.M.L., and FREEZE TAG have been produced or workshopped in New York at the MCC Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Naked Angels, HB Playwrights Theatre, the Drama League at HERE, All Seasons Theatre, Atlantic Theatre, and the Working Theatre; in Los Angeles; at theatres across the country; in London, Berlin, Belgrade, New Zealand, Australia, and Hong Kong.
Other television includes: NBC’s “Law & Order Criminal Intent,” “Miss Match,” MTV’s “Daria,” and the Discovery Channel’s upcoming miniseries “Gold Fever.” Her screenplay adaptation of GIRL GONE was optioned by Beech Hill Films, and an original screenplay was commissioned by Palisades Pictures and director, Eric Bross. Her one-acts: A VERY VERY SHORT PLAY, I KNOW, and DEAR KENNETH BLAKE have been recorded for radio/podcast for Playing On Air.
Her awards include a New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) playwriting grant, commissions from Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Foundation, New Dramatists’ Joe Callaway Award and Whitfield Cook Award, the Kennedy Center’s Fund for New American Plays’ Roger Stevens Award, two Drama-Logue Awards, and the Greenwall Foundation’s Oscar Ruebhausen Commission. She has been a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Heideman Award, the Denver Center Theatre’s Francesca Primus Prize, and received an Honorable Mention for the Jane Chambers Award. She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Hermitage Arts Foundation, the Ucross Foundation, and the Edward Albee Foundation. She is an alum of New Dramatists, and a current member of Ensemble Studio Theatre.
Jacquelyn’s work has been published in two “Women Playwrights: The Best Plays,” several “Best American Short Plays,” various “Best Monologues,” “Shorter, Faster, Funnier,” “Laugh Lines: Short Comic Plays,” “The Quarterly,” “O, The Oprah Magazine,” and by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, and Smith and Kraus. A collection of her one-act plays THINGS BETWEEN US is published by Dramatists Play Service.
Jacquelyn has taught writing at New York University, Columbia University, Ohio University, Fordham University, Goddard College, the Stonybrook-Southampton Writers Conference, and Oberlin College. She has written and directed many plays with the Hell’s Kitchen kids of The 52nd Street Project. She has a BA in Theatre from Oberlin College and a MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University.
http://www.jacquelynreingold.com/
JOHN WALCH‘s plays include In The Book Of, Tea-Totaled, The Dinosaur Within, Circumference of a Squirrel, The Nature of Mutation, Jesting with Edged Tools, Craving Gravy or Love in the Time of Cannibalism, Alice Threw the Looking Glass (a parody of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style), Iraq: A Love Story, as well as numerous one acts, collaborations, and shorts. His plays have been produced at theaters such as Center Theatre Group (Mark Taper Forum), Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Barter Theatre, Theatre @ Boston Court, Kitchen Dog, Florida Studio Theatre, New Jersey Rep, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Off-Broadway at Urban Stages. His work has been developed or commissioned through The Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Bricolage Theatre, New Harmony Project, The Playwrights’ Center/PlayLabs, and the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London.
Awards: Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays; the American Theatre Critics Association’s Osborn Award; the Frederick Loewe Award in Musical Theatre for DoubleTime, the Charlotte Woolard Award from the Kennedy Center recognizing a promising new voice in the American Theatre; the Marc Klein Playwriting Award; and three Austin Critics Table Awards. John is a two time Sloan Fellow, and was a James Michener Fellow at the Michener Center for Writers at University of Texas @ Austin, where he earned his MFA in Playwriting. John served as artistic director of Austin Script Works, and has taught playwriting at UT @ Austin, University of Iowa, and Bennington College, among others. Current projects include a musical with composer Nile Rodgers, and a new untitled play. John lives in Brooklyn, and is a resident playwright of New Dramatists.
http://newdramatists.org/john-walch
2009 Festival Line Up:
MFA FEATURED PRODUCTIONS:
SOUTHBRIDGE
by Reginald Edmund
Directed by Vanessa Mercado Taylor
8pm
5/13, 5/16, 5/20, & 5/22, Forum Theater, RTV Building
A white widow is assaulted. An angry mom is at the jail house door, screaming “Lynch him!.” The only way to untangle the truth is for the accused, Christopher C. Davis, to look into the events that have lead him to a tree stump in Athens, Ohio in the year 1881.
*Inspired by the Athens, Ohio lynching of 1881.
THE SMALL OF HER BACK
by Dana Lynn Formby
Directed by Bryce Britton
8pm
5/14, 5/15, 5/21, 5/23, Forum Theater, RTV Building
Danielle Fitzman believes the glass ceiling has been shattered allowing her to climb her way up the corporate ladder of the NP Power company. When an opportunity opens on the board, Danielle must battle tit for tat–leaning tit works more than tat. She finds defining the difference between sexual harrassment and harmless flirting akin to drawing a line in sand during a windstorm. A hilarious and timely look at workplace sexual politics.
Readings:
Wednesday, May 20th
BAD PRESS – 1pm, Forum Theater, RTV Building
by Jason Hall
GLASSHEART – 4pm, Forum Theater, RTV Building
by Reina Hardy
A PIECE OF LIGHT – 8pm, Hahne Theater, Kantner Hall
by Kara S. Dunn
Thursday, May 21st
TIENE SUENDE (IT HAS SOUL) – 1pm, Forum Theater, RTV Building
by Cecila Copeland
SWAGGER LIKE THIS – 4pm, Forum Theater, RTV Building
by Garret Schneider
METROPOLIS HAS NO SUPERMAN – 8pm, Hahne Theater, Kantner Hall
BY G. William Zorn
Friday, May 22nd
Seabury Quinn, Jr. Tribute – 2pm, Baker Theater, Kantner Hall
CARAPICE – 4pm, Hahne Theater, Kantner Hall
by David Mitchell Robinson
Saturday, May 23rd
THE ATHEIST’S GUIDE TO SEX – 4pm, Hahne Theater, Kantner Hall
by Ryan Dowler