MFA Alum Joins "Brooklyn Rail" as Theater Editor:

Justin Boyd (MFA 2003) has joined The Brooklyn Rail as co-editor of its Theater section. The March issue includes an article that quotes OU MFAs Qui Nguyen and Robert Ross Parker talking about Vampire Cowboys' latest production Men of Steel. www.brooklynrail.org/2007-03/theater

3rd-year MFA to be Produced by Chicago Dramatists

Each year Chicago Dramatists chooses three of its member plays to be professionally produced. The new season has just been announced and 10 VIRGINS by C.D. Resident Playwright Laura Jacqmin (3rd-yr OU MFA) has been chosen as one of the three. Directed by Russ Tutterow, April 24 - June 1, 2008.

2nd-year MFA's Upcoming Productions:

Joseph Gallo's Warning: Adult Content has been selected for production at the Lark Theater in NYC in the Fall of 2007. His baseball play Ya Gotta Believe! has been selected for the 7th Inning Stretch 10-minute play festival produced by Miles Square Theatre in Hoboken, New Jersey, the birthplace of baseball.

3rd-year MFA a Finalist for Kendeda at Alliance (Atlanta):

Third-year MFA playwright Merri Biechler's play Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver has been chosen as a finalist for the 2007 Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. The play will have a reading in NYC in November in connection with SPF/NYC and she will spend a week in residence in Atlanta in February '08 to do a reading there. The Alliance is committed to getting the Kendeda Finalist plays produced at a variety of regional theatres. Other finalists this year include MFA playwrights from Yale, NYU, and UC-San Diego.

MFA Alum To Be Produced at Major Regional Theater:

2001 Alum Chantal Bilodeau's play, Pleasure & Pain, soon debuts at Magic Theatre in California. From the Magic press release: "December 2006 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA: – Magic Theatre continues its 40th Anniversary Season with HOT HOUSE ’07 featuring the best of the new – three world premiere plays by playwrights from a new generation shaping the future of American Theatre. In its fourth year, HOT HOUSE presents full productions of new plays in rotating repertory by Chantal Bilodeau, Kirsten Greenidge and C. Michèle Kaplan and runs Saturday, February 3 through Sunday, April 1... Our 40th Anniversary Season has been about celebrating Magic’s amazing legacy. HOT HOUSE is where we look to Magic’s future. These bold, new plays by exciting new writers keep us on the leading edge,” says Artistic Director Chris Smith... HOT HOUSE ’07 opens with Pleasure & Pain by Chantal Bilodeau, directed by Associate Artistic Director Jessica Heidt. In this sexy, suspenseful thriller, a Midwestern woman finds herself drawn into impulsive and erotic daydreams. When her fantasies spill over onto the page and into the hands of her boss, Peggy realizes she can't have pleasure without pain. Pleasure & Pain previews Saturday, February 3 through Friday, February 9; Opening Night is Saturday, February 10, with performances in the Sam Shepard Theatre." Visit www.magictheatre.org for more details.

3rd-year MFA Wins Aurora Theatre Company Global Age Project:

3rd-year MFA Laura Jacqmin's play HAPPYSLAP is a winner of Aurora Theatre Company's Global Age Project, a "program to nurture and explore forward-looking visions of global import." The play will be presented as a staged reading in April 2007; Jacqmin will be flown to Berkeley, California for the reading and awarded $1,000. To see more about the Global Age Project: click here

Ramsey Nominated for Vice Chair of the Kennedy Center ACTF III NPP:

Pending formal approval by the national executive committee, Erik Ramsey, playwriting professor in the OU MFA program, will assume duties as the Vice Chair of the New Play Programs for the Kennedy Center ACTF III. In addition, and separately from the nomination to Vice Chair, Ramsey was also awarded the Kennedy Center Faculty Fellowship.