Three OU Playwrights Are Semi-Finalists for WordBRDIGE Playwrights Lab

Third year MFA Dana Formby, 2nd year MFA David Robinson, and alumnus Merri Biechler have all been named as semi-finalists for the renowned WordBRIDGE Playwright's Lab held each year in June. (Biechler is a former lab participant in 2007 and a semi-finalist this year in the alumni slot.) For more on WordBRIDGE: http://wordbridge.org/.

3rd Year MFAs Invited to Prague Writing Program

Kara Dunn recently received the John Woods Scholarship to attend the 2009 Prague Summer Program held at Charles University and hosted by Western Michigan University. The program offers artists professional mentors in their field, the culture and history of the Czech Republic, and the ambience of Prague. This years theme is "The Nature of Mother Nature: Women, Power, and the Environment" http://www.praguesummer.com/. 3rd year MFA Reginal Edmund will also be attending the summer program in Prague.

3rd Year Is a Finalist for KC/ACTF National 10-Minute Play Award

Third year MFA playwright Dana Formby has been selected as a finalist for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival's National 10-Minute Playwriting Competition. Formby's play, "Armed With Peanut Butter" will receive a staged reading at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. during the national festival in mid-April. Only four plays are selected as finalists from the hundreds submitted from graduate and undergraduate playwrights nationwide. Formby's accomplishment marks the third time in five years that an OU playwright has been selected as a national finalist. (Ryan Dowler, currently a 2nd year MFA, won the award shortly before joing the program; including Dowler, OU playwrights have been at the top of this list four out of the last five years running.)

3rd Year MFA Writing Wins at National Tournament:

Third Year MFA G. William Zorn's reader's theatre scripts THE GREAT AMERICAN FREAK SHOW and MAKE VOYEURS OF US ALL took first and second place, respectively, for the Ohio University Forensics Team at the 2009 Pi Kappa Delta National Tournament. Fifty colleges and universities from around the U.S. contributed entries to the tournament, hosted by Louisiana State University. The works were commissioned by OU's Director of Forensics, Dan West. In addition to writing the works, Zorn also directed.

3rd Year MFA Is Twice Named National Runner Up

Third year MFA playwright Reginald Edmund has been named first runner up for both the 2009 Lorraine Hansberry Award and the 2009 Rosa Parks Playwriting Award for his play "Southbridge". Reggie will be honored at the National Kennedy Center ACTF Festival in April for his achievements.

3rd Will Be Doctoral Candidate at WMU:

Third year MFA G. William Zorn was accepted as a doctoral candidate at Western Michigan University, beginning in the fall of 2009. He will be studying Creative Writing with an emphasis in Playwriting.

MFA Plays to be Published in Lit Mag

"Touch The Pillow" by Kara Dunn, 3rd year MFA, and "Mammals" by 2nd year MFA Ryan Dowler will be published in the Third Coast Magazine in the fall of 2009. "Third Coast is one of the nation’s premier literary magazines—and one of only a handful of nationally distributed literary magazines by graduate students. Third Coast consistently publishes excellent, and often award-winning, fiction, poetry, non-fiction and drama."http://www.thirdcoastmagazine.com/.