Current MFA Produced at Otterbein:

3rd year MFA playwright Christopher De Paola's festival play from last year, Watchdog, has been selected for production at Otterbein College this coming spring.

Revival of Current MFA's Off-Broadway Play:

A revival of first year MFA Joseph Gallo's Off-Broadway play - MY ITALY STORY - will be produced at 12 Miles West in Bloomfield, New Jersey, on their 200-seat equity stage in May 2006.

Charles Smith Commissioned by Joyce Foundation:

From an Ohio University press release: "The Joyce Foundation has awarded a $50,000 Joyce Award grant to the Indiana Repertory Theatre (IRT) to support the commission of a new play by Ohio University Professor of Playwriting Charles Smith... Smith's play will tell the story of the infamous 1930 lynching in Marion, Indiana. It will focus on the personal stories of James Cameron, the only survivor of the lynching and the two African-American teenagers who were lynched, Abraham Smith and Thomas Shipp. The three teenagers had been accused of shooting a young white man and shooting and raping his fiancée. The two men that were killed were dragged out of their jail cells by an angry mob, beaten and hanged."

Current MFA Playwrights Sweep ACTF:

MFA program members Laura Jacqmin, Merri Biechler, and Mark Witteveen swept 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival's Region III 10-minute play competition. Their plays were given staged readings at the festival held on the campus of Illinois State University in Bloomington, Illinois. A clean sweep of the top three spots over submissions from five states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

2nd Year Playwright

Laura Jacqmin's short play Dawg will be produced at the Around the Coyote Winter Arts Festival in Chicago this February.