Lauren Wimmer '18 returns to Ars Nova on June 8

Last summer, Lauren Wimmer's (MFA '18) final CMU production THE DEATH OF HAYDEN WAVERLY, THE MOST POPULAR PERSON IN THE WORLD traveled to Ars Nova's ANT Fest. On June 8 she returns to ANT Fest with a new play created with The Bellwether Project, a new ensemble driven by CMU Drama graduates. In the not-so-distant future, after decades of natural decline, we can still count on one splashy spectacle of glamour: DR. REES ZITI’S PAGEANT FOR A BETTER FUTURE. Beauty contestants compete to determine who deserves to carry us forward in this zany variety-show-meets-harrowing-government-propaganda-machine. One night only!

SPACE GIRL by Mora V. Harris '16 now available

SPACE GIRL by Mora V. Harris (MFA '16), the story of a 16 year old girl named Arugula which is a normal name for a 16 year old girl, has been published by Playscripts Inc. Read it online, buy it, and check out this list of past productions.

Sankaram & Handel's THE INFINITE ENERGY OF ADA LOVELACE at Opera Ithaca

Five years in the making, THE INFINITE ENERGY OF ADA LOVELACE will be given its world premiere by Opera Ithaca this week. This collaboration between myself and composer Kamala Sankaram tells the surprising and mostly true story of mathematician Ada Lovelace, inventor Charles Babbage, and a visiting American named Harriet Beecher Stowe.

FEMININE OCTAGON by Amy Gijsbers van Wijk '16 in Long Island City

CMU Drama alums populate the cast and design team of FEMININE OCTAGON [OR. ARISTOTLE CAN EAT ME] by Amy Gijsbers van Wijk (MFA '16), a playwright often to be found making good trouble. The play examines what it means to be femme and feminine, and how that is commodified and curated, socially, economically, and online. See it this month at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center.

HORIZON THREE by Isabella D'Esposito '17

HORIZON THREE by Isabella D'Esposito (MFA '17) has landed in Boise in a new production from Homegrown Theatre. The play was developed in the New Works Series at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama (where it looked kind of fabulous, as you can see on director Ariel Zucker's site).

13P is famous in Athens, Georgia

13P, the playwright-run theater company I started in 2003 with Sheila Callaghan, Erin Courtney, Madeleine George, Ann Marie Healy, Julia Jarcho, Young Jean Lee, Winter Miller, Sarah Ruhl, Kate E. Ryan, Lucy Thurber, Anne Washburn, and Gary Winter, lives on.

Apply now.

The Dramatic Writing MFA at Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama is built around continuous collaboration with the celebrated student actors, directors and designers of the oldest conservatory in the country. Combining playwriting, screenwriting, and writing for television, this is a rigorous graduate program with a substantial workload. It is for the writer who is prepared to revise a hundred pages overnight and for the leader inventing the theater of a better nation.

Students are encouraged to pursue their professional careers while enrolled in the MFA program, supported by initiatives that provide access to new play development and production opportunities in the field. Full-length plays by graduate playwrights receive workshop productions in the New Works Series. The Sloan/CMU Script Competition awards $35,000 in prizes to current CMU students each year for original screenplays and TV pilots. Graduate students have the opportunity to teach undergraduate courses in playwriting or screenwriting. Alumni have access to an established framework of professional connections.

Guest faculty are a vital presence in the program. Recent guests have included Clare Barron, Sheila Callaghan, Kia Corthron, Erin Courtney, Kristoffer Diaz, Jessica Dickey, Madeleine George, Lucas Hnath, Onalee Hunter Hughes, Aurorae Khoo, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, Richard Nelson, Jean-Paul Nickel, Jiehae Park, J.T. Rogers, Cori Thomas, Andrea Thome, Francine Volpe, Anne Washburn, Mac Wellman, and A. Zell Williams.

Recent alumni include Gillian Beth Durkee (EST/Youngblood), Liza Birkenmeier (Public Theater Emerging Writers Group, Ars Nova Play Group, Playwrights Realm Fellow), Leviticus Jelks (Humanitas LA Play Festival, Playwrights Union), Lauren Wimmer (Ars Nova ANT Fest, Playwright's Center), Isabella D'Esposito (Playwrights Realm Fellow), Dan Giles (THE SECOND MAN at NYTW Next Door), Joshua Harmon (BAD JEWS, SIGNIFICANT OTHERS, SKINTIGHT), Mora V. Harris (City Theater Momentum Series, Pittsburgh), Daniel Hirsch (Tête à Tête opera festival, London), and Jordan Barsky (Law & Order SVU). Other alumni are writing for television and film in LA, touring plays for Seder tables and punk rock clubs, and making wild puppet extravaganzas in Texas.

We are committed to an inclusive theater that resists bigotry and oppression. Our community is one of bold artists and bold citizens.

Applications are due January 1. Information at http://drama.cmu.edu/

Rob Handel
Associate Professor of Dramatic Writing
Carnegie Mellon University