ALLERGEN by Jess Honovich in Providence's Festival51

The second annual Festival51 celebration of plays by women in Providence, Rhode Island, will produce ALLERGEN by Jess Honovich (MFA '17). The four winning plays were selected from over 400 submissions to the festival from female writers worldwide.

Liza Birkenmeier and James McManus in City Theater's Momentum Festival

City Theatre in Pittsburgh will feature the work of two CMU playwrights in this year's Momentum: New Plays at Different Stages Festival.

RADIO ISLAND by Liza Birkenmeier (MFA '12) was also a finalist for the inaugural Philip Seymour Hoffman Relentless Award, and Ms. Birkenmeier was recently named a member of the Emerging Writers Group at the Joseph Papp Public Theater.

DRY BONES is a new play from James McManus (MFA '06), who is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and winner of the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award.

Dan O'Neil's BEAR SLAYER at Ars Nova

BEAR SLAYER will be produced in New York as part of Ars Nova's Project Residency. The play is a collaboration between playwright Dan O'Neil (MFA '11), director Joshua William Gelb (CMU Directing MFA), and choreographer Katie Rose McLaughlin, and has its distant origins in classwork at the School of Drama.

Amy Gijsbers van Wijk at Horizon Theatre and PearlArts Studios

Amy Gijsbers van Wijk (MFA '16) will serve as an MFA mentor for the New South Young Playwrights Festival at Horizon Theatre Company in Atlanta, Georgia, from May 30–June 4. She will spend the week mentoring the high school and college playwrights whose work will be presented at the festival.

In addition, Ms. Gijsbers van Wijk collaborated on a multidisciplinary piece using virtual reality at PearlArts Studios in Pittsburgh. The piece, LOVUSCHKE, is the subject of this article in The Brooklyn Rail.

WHERE ALL GOOD RABBITS GO produced at Alfred University

WHERE ALL GOOD RABBITS GO by Karina Cochran (MFA '16) was produced at Alfred University in New York in April 2016, in a production directed by Nazim Kourgli.