Formby Working with Local 75

Local 75, a playwriting workshop based in Chicago, has selected 3rd year MFA Dana Lynn Formby to participate in a year-long project developing her new play "Inherit the Whole". From their web site: "Local 75 is about developing working class writers. It is about developing working class stories for the theater. It is about developing a working class audience. Inspired by union’s support of workers, LOCAL 75 is a playwriting workshop for artistic tradesmen and tradeswomen to develop their craft." See Dana's interview and more about Local 75:http://local75.wordpress.com/dana-lynn-formbys-deal/

Jacqmin Named P73 Finalist

Recent alum Laura Jacqmin, winner of the 2008 Wasserstein Award, has been named a finalist for the P73 playwriting program in New York. (See post from 10/22 below for more info on P73.)

Schneider to Present at MATC

2nd year MFA playwright Garret Scneider has been invited to present his paper exploring "Midnight Madness", the weekly OU MFA playwriting production, at the Mid American Theater Conference this coming March in Chicago.

Ramsey play at Stuart's Opera House:

Playwriting professor Erik Ramsey's play Smith Unearthed will be featured as a staged reading produced by Brick Monkey Theater Ensemble at Stuart's Opera House, 8 p.m. Friday, December 5th. Admission is free. For more information, visit: http://www.stuartsoperahouse.org/index.php?item=314 or http://www.athensohio.com/events/index.php?page=14&item=2916.

3rd year MFA Play at Victory Gardens:

Dana Formby's play "Inherit the Whole" received a staged reading at the Tony Award-Winning Victory Gardens Theater today. The play was featured as a lab production last May as part of the Seabury Quinn MFA Playwright's Festival here at OU.

Seabury Quinn, Jr. Has Passed:

We sadly note the passing of Seabury Quinn, Jr., the original playwriting professor who taught in the OU MFA playwriting program for decades until his retirement in the early 1990's. Seabury died on Saturday. He will be fondly remembered for his acerbic wit in responding to new plays, especially in recent years -- no matter how ill he had become, he always found a way to visit the new play festival named in his honor and generously give his opinion on the work at hand. Many will fondly remember his laugh, which was often just a single, expolsive "Hah!"

Ramsey play at Frostic Reading Series:

Playwriting professor Erik Ramsey's play Smith Unearthed will be featured as part of the Frostic Reading Series at Western Michigan University, 8 p.m. Thursday, November 13th. For more information and a feature article on the play, visit:http://www.mlive.com/kalamazoo/stories/index.ssf?/base/features-4/12262080609711.xml&coll=7&thispage=1#continue.

MFA Alum's Play at Side Project:

2007 MFA graduate Laura Jacqmin's play "Space" will be featured as part of The Side Project's "Cut to the Quick -- A Festival of Short Works" in Chicago starting November 16. For more information, visit: http://www.theatreinchicago.com/news.php?articleID=429.

Current MFA's Play to Be Produced:

Current MFA Playwriting student Cecilia Copeland's full length play Courting has won a spot in the Stage Left Productions season. Courting will have its professional debut at the Cedar Rapids, Iowa theater where last summer's floods all but destroyed SLP's production space. The play was originally developed in the Writers Workshop at University of Iowa under the direction of guest artist Lisa D'Amour. Cecilia plans to be in Cedar Rapids in July for the opening of the show and possibly the early part of the summer to take part in the rehearsal process.

Two MFA Alums Semi-Finalists, Page 73:

2007 MFA alumni Merri Biechler and Laura Jacqmin have been named as two of eighteen semi-finalists for the Page 73 playwriting fellowships. They were selected out of more than 200 submissions. From the p73 web site: "Page 73 provides artistic and financial resources to one emerging playwright as he or she develops a new play that has not received substantial prior development support. For his/her fellowship year, the P73 Playwriting Fellow receives a cash stipend in the amount of $5,000 and development support in the amount of $10,000."http://www.p73.org/programs/p73-playwriting-fellowship/

1st year MFA Production:

Current MFA Playwriting student Reina Hardy's full-length play, "Erratica," will have its professional premiere at Capital Stage Theatre in Sacramento on July 17th, 2009. Capital Stage, which has been called the city's "Best Professional Theatre," selected "Erratica" for a full production when it appeared as part of the inaugural Playwrights Revolution Festival in June 2008. The production and the festival are sponsored by a grant from the James Irvine foundation. Hardy will spend the rehearsal period in Sacramento working on the play, which will run through August 16th, 2009. Capital stage website: http://capitalstagecompany.com.

MFA Alum News Digest: Biechler

Recently, 2007 MFA playwriting alum Merri Biechler taught at the New South Young Playwrights Festival in Atlanta. She participated in the 2008 WordBRIDGE Playwrights' Lab at Clemson University this past June. Her play for Young Audiences "Dolley Madison and the Secret History Club", which was commissioned by the White House Historical Association, received a workshop at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Her play "Occupation" was a finalist in Perishable Theatre's 14th Annual International Women's Playwriting Festival. Her play "Bombs, Babes and Bingo" is currently a semi-finalist in the 2009 P73 Playwriting Fellowship. Biechler's "Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver", which was originally written while she was an MFA student, continues to gain momentum: in addition to the more than $35,000 the play has received in grant funding over the past two years, it continues to be performed and developed as a teaching tool for medical students and professionals. On October 17 it will be performed for the American Cancer Society Board of Trustees and for the Consortium of Geriatric Academic Programs. In part due to her efforts with this play and additional professional consulting for playwrights on similar projects, Biechler has become a leading expert on theater as a pedagogical tool for medical and social welfare issues.

MFA Alum News Digest: Jacqmin

2007 MFA Alum Laura Jaqmin's AND WHEN WE AWOKE THERE WAS LIGHT AND LIGHT (a commission from Victory Gardens Theater and the script that earned her the 2008 Wasserstein Prize) will be the first play featured in Northlight Theatre’s 2008-2009 Interplay Reading Series. The play will also be read at Second Stage Theatre in New York this November. SKI DUBAI was produced at Center Stage NY this summer by her company, At Play Productions. With the other three writers in the company, Laura helped write WORK (four intercut monologues about bizarre jobs, including a lobster killer and a citrus dyer) that will be produced in Ars Nova’s A.N.T. Fest this November. ALBERTA/EINSTEIN was read in Steppenwolf’s First Look Repertory in August. PLUTO WAS A PLANET was produced this summer at Around the Coyote in Chicago. SPACE will be produced in the side project’s CUT TO THE QUICK festival of one-acts later this fall, and is set to be published by Playscripts, Inc., in 2009. 10 VIRGINS will be published by Playscripts, Inc. in 2009. Two other ten-minutes, PARKERSBURG (which was produced in Sketchbook 8 at the Steppenwolf Garage this summer, and which will be produced in Estrogenius at manhattan theatre source this fall) and MENUS (which was produced by At Play Productions at the Atlantic Theater this spring) will be published in a forthcoming volume by Smith & Kraus. Jacqmin is now an adjunct faculty member at Carthage College in Kenosha, WI, where she teaches playwriting.

MFA Alum News Digest: Reingold at EST & HBO

Jackie Reingold's one-act A VERY VERY SHORT PLAY was produced in the Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon 2008, and will be published by Smith & Kraus. Another one-act, 2B (OR NOT 2B), will be in MATCH GAMES, short plays about romance, produced at Actors Theatre of Louisville in 2009. Jackie is now on the writing staff for HBO's IN TREATMENT, starring Gabriel Byrne.

Summer News & Notes:

Soon to be a 3rd year MFA playwright at Ohio University's MFA Playwriting Program, Reginald Edmund was invited to participate in the Kennedy Center's Summer Playwriting Intensive where he worked closely with nationally known playwrights such as Marsha Norman. Reggie was also selected for the inaugural Kennedy Center fellowship for the Soul Mountain Retreat for Writers of Color. Dana Formby was on a professional literary internship at the Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago, and Bill Zorn was also on a professional literary internship in Chicago at Bailiwick Theater.

The 2008 MFA Festival Schedule

The 2008 MFA Playwriting Festival Schedule has been announced: for full details go to click here. To see the bios of the nationally known guest artists in residence as respondents to the festival this year, click here.

Madness Productions Featured

Playwrights' Production Class, affectionately known as "Midnight Madness", has been featured again on the web, this time in the ezine Speakeasy. To read their article and coverage, click here.

Recent Graduate Awarded Wasserstein Prize:

Laura Jacqmin, a 2007 graduate of the OU MFA Playwriting Program, has been awarded the second annual Wasserstein Prize for her play And When We Awoke There Was Light and Light. The prize includes a $25,000 honorarium. For more information, see the Playbill article: click here.

Recent Grad's Play in San Francisco:

Mark Witteveen's The American Bar is at Stage Werx in San Francisco from April 3rd to the 26th. For more info: visit sfgate.com here, or the Stage Werx web site here.

Recent Graduate's Play at Atlantic Theater:

Laura Jacqmin's ten-minute play, Space, premiered at the Atlantic Theater in New York on March 17th in a co-production between The 24 Hour Play Company and At Play Productions (as a benefit for Working Playground), starring Zoe Perry, Sarah Bisman, and Jessica Walter (a.k.a. Lucille Bluth, from "Arrested Development". See photo at right).

OU Alums' Vampire Cowboys in the New York Times:

Vampire Cowboys, a product of OU MFA alums Qui Nguyen and Robert Ross Parker, have produced a new show reviewed in the NYT: click here.

Recent Grad Teaches Workshop with Former Poet Laureate:

Merri Biechler taught her "Character Voice" workshop at the 10th Annual Douglas Anderson Writers' Festival in Jacksonville, FL on March 15, 2008. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins spoke about his writing process, and "People Magazine" journalist Anne Driscoll discussed the interview process.

Recent Graduate's Play a National Finalist for KC/ACTF:

Laura Jacqmin's 10-minute play Parkersburg has been selected as one of the top five 10-minute plays in the nation and will be featured on the Kennedy Center stage in Washington D.C. on April 18th.

1st Year's National Kennedy Center Award Winning Play On Tour:

Ryan Dowler's play Mammals, which won the Kennedy Center's National 10-minute Play Contest and was featured at the Kennedy Center last year, has been on tour around the country (co-sponsored by the Northwest Playwrights Alliance and Western Washington University). The slate of productions began in early January and will culminate in March with a production in Chacombe, England (about an hour and half northeast of London). Northwest Playwrights Alliance also featured Mammals as an informal reading on December 8, 2007, in Tacoma, WA, as part of NPA's monthly reading series, and plans to publish the play in the third edition of their anthology of ten-minute plays, "NorthNorthwest," co-produced by NPA and Western Washington University.

2nd Year MFA Play at ATHE:

Kara Dunn's short play, The Risque Root has been selected to receive a staged reading at the Association for Theater in Higher Education conference in Denver, Colorado this coming July.

2nd Year MFA Plays at MATC in Kansas City:

Kara Dunn's ten-minute, The Risque Root, and Reginald Edmund's Goldielocks received staged readings at the Mid-America Theater Conference in Kansas City.

2nd Year MFA Play in Evanston:

Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in Evanston, IL will perform a staged reading of Reginald Edmund's Juneteenth Street on Saturday, March 8th. From the press release: "Starting March 8, FJT invites you to join us for our series of theatrical readings by professional Evanston and Chicago playwrights every second Saturday of the month.All performances will take place at the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Avenue, at 3:00 p.m."

Recent Alum's Award Winning Play In Production:

Laura Jacqmin's "Parkersburg", winner of the Kennedy Center Region III 10-minute play competition, will be produced in Collaboraction's Sketchbook 8 this May 15-June 15 in the Steppenwolf Garage; and her play "Released" will be produced in Culture Project's Women Center Stage Festival in NYC this April.

Recent Alum's Third Year Play at Alliance Theater in Atlanta:

Recent alum Merri Biechler's "Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver" received a workshop reading at the Alliance Theater as part of its award for the Kendeda Playwriting Competition. The play, about a woman dealing with the death of both her parents from cancer, has earned more than $30,000 in grants from the Ohio University School of Osteopathic Medicine as well as from the American Cancer Society and other charitable foundations.

3rd Year's MFA Play in NYC:

Third year MFA playwright Joseph Gallo's play "Warning: Adult Content" will be produced by Shetler Studios TDG in association with the Bridge Theatre Company at THEATRE 54, 244 W. 54th Street (between B'way & 8th Ave.) from February 19th through March 9th. For more information visit the Theatermania web site: http://www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm/show/140878

Two OU MFAs Win at Kennedy Center ACTF III in Milwaukee:

Recent alum Laura Jacqmin and Bill Zorn, 2nd year MFA, finished in the top two slots taking first and second place at the ACTF Region III festival in Milwaukee. Both plays are now in consideration for the Kennedy Center ACTF National 10-Minute Play Award and could be invited for showcasing at the national festival in Washington DC this coming April.

2nd Year Play in NYC:

2nd year playwright Dana Lynn Formby's Armed with Peanut Butter was selected to be part of The Turnip Theatre Company's 14th annual short play festival in association with the American Globe Theatre of New York City. The Performance Date is April 19th.

Three OU MFAs Finalists at Kennedy Center ACTF III in Milwaukee:

Bill Zorn and Reggie Edmund, both 2nd year MFAs, and recent alum Laura Jacqmin have each finished in the top six 10-minute plays for the Kennedy Center's American College Theater Festival, to be held in Milwaukee next week. All three will be on hand in Milwaukee to workshop and present their plays. OU has a very strong track record with ACTF awards -- this is the second time in three years that three out of six finalists are OU students. (Note: though faculty member Erik Ramsey is affiliated with ACTF, the plays are judged by outside auditors.) The top six 10-minute plays are selected out of numerous submissions from Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana.