Alumni news, in brief:

Ronan Noone's new play, The Compass Rose (produced by Fat Violet Theatre), is part of NYC's annual 1st Irish Festival Sept. 12-29...

Molly Smith Metzler's Elemeno Pea plays at Carolina Actors Studio Theatre through Sept. 21...

SL1 12:32 a.m. by K. Alexa Mavromatis was voted Audience Favorite at The T Plays V: Last Call, presented by the Mill 6 Collaborative...

MJ Halberstadt's My Grandson the Power Bottom is the next Ink Spots Staged Reading (presented by Fresh Ink Theatre) on Sept. 4...

John Greiner-Ferris was one of The Glass Eye's August playwrights...

Monica Bauer's solo show The Year I Was Gifted will be presented as part of Stage Left Studio's Women at Work Festival Sept. 23-Oct.5...

Alumni news, in brief:

A preview of Monica Bauer's The Maternal Instinct, which bows at the Brighton Fringe tomorrow...

Molly Smith Metzler on the origins of Close Up Space, which plays at Houston's Main Street Theater through June 16...

Karen Zacarías was the opening keynote speaker at the One Theatre World conference earlier this month. In this Q&A, Karen talks a little about her early inspirations, upcoming projects, and why she'd like to have a glass of wine with Marlo Thomas (Can I come too?)...

Work by Zayd Dohrn (and wife Rachel DeWoskin) is included in the current issue of 236...

Chicago's Sideshow Theatre Company (for which Walt McGough is literary manager) is one of four theatres selected for the inaugural class of the Victory Gardens Theater's Resident Theater Program...

Alumni news, in brief:

Lots to look forward to in the way of alumni productions this spring and summer…and beyond. Here’s a round-up (by no means all-inclusive, of course):

John Greiner-Ferris’ Plank will get “Fresh Produce-d” by NYC’s The Glass Eye on April 18…

Can’t Wait Productions will present MJ Halberstdt’s The DaVinci Commission in May…

Molly Smith Metzler’s Close Up Space opens at Houston’s Main Street Theater on May 23…

Alumni news, in brief:

New plays by Lydia Diamond (Smart People) and Melinda Lopez (Becoming Cuba) will be part of the Huntington Theatre Company's 2013-14 season...

Heather Houston’s Supergravity and the Eleventh Dimension has been announced as Vagabond Theatre Group’s next full production, this July…

John Greiner-Ferris’ play Turtles will be read on March 13 at the Provincetown Theater, part of its Winter Reading Series…

Alumni news, in brief:

Lots of BPT love in the 2013 IRNE nominations last weekend: Jaclyn Villano’s The Company We Keep (Best New Play, Small Theatre); Molly Trainer (Best Costume Design, Small Theatre, for Deported/a dream play); Steven Barkhimer for his work onstage (Best Supporting Actor – Musical, Small/Mid-size Theatre) and off (Best Music Director, Small/Mid-size Theatre) in Stoneham Theatre’s Lumberjacks in Love; Melinda Lopez (Best Supporting Actress – Drama, Small/Mid-size Theatre) for The Motherf**ker With the Hat at Speakeasy Stage; and Rick Park (Best Supporting Actor – Drama, Small/Mid-size Theatre) for Company One’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo…

Alumni news, in brief:

Richard Snee opens in the Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s production of Macbeth tomorrow (note the badass poster art to the left), at the Chevalier Theatre in Medford…

Graffiti Productions will open Ronan Noone’s The Atheist across the pond next month, at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre, a fringe venue in Kentish Town, north London…

Farmer’s Almanac: Molly Smith Metzler on kale, and the other things she worked on during her time at SPACE on Ryder Farm…

Ginger Lazarus writes about her Playdate with The Embryos on the Fresh Ink blog…

Alumni news, in brief:

Jinxed (Photo: Taylor Reynolds)

Gregory Fletcher’s new play Uploaded was part of the Whitley-Moiser Foundation’s Summer Readings 2012 series of new American plays in NYC earlier this month, featuring Michael Learned, June Gable, and Phil Mills. He will also start a new job this fall as Director of Theatre at CUNY Kingsborough Community College…

Molly Smith Metzler’s Elemeno Pea is on the calendar for Mixed Blood Theatre’s 2012-13 season…

The creative team behind K. Alexa Mavromatis’ Jinxed took home seven awards at Looking Glass Theatre’s Spring Writer/Director Forum last month in NYC, including Audience Favorite for week one of the fest and the judges’ award for Best Production (a tie with Regina Robbins’ It’s Just the Radio, also a multiple award-winner)…

A rave review for Monica Bauer’s Made For Each Other…

Underground Railway’s production of Car Talk: The Musical!!! (by Wes Savick, music by Michael Wartofsky) has been extended through Sept. 2…

Alumni news, in brief:

Rick Park’s ten-minute play Mob Mentality received the Audience Favorite Award last weekend at The T Plays IV: Rush Hour, presented by the Mill 6 Collaborative…

Lydia Diamond was the featured speaker at the annual “Giving Voice” program to benefit the Royall House and Slave Quarters…

And she’s off-off-off: Here's a nice feature about Karmo Sanders (and husband/collaborator Jerry Sanders), who are in Alaska preparing for the world premiere of their musical Gold Rush Girls, which opens later this month…

Folks who can't make it to Alaska may be off to see "The Wizard of Cahs"...

Ronan Noone and Kate Snodgrass will respond to the playwrights on the bill of Salem Theatre Company’s Moments of Play next week…

Molly Smith Metzler will spend some time on the farm this summer (SPACE on Ryder Farm, that is)…

Alumni news, in brief:

Ginger Lazarus was on the writing team for Malarkey Films' short Ourmageddon, part of The Boston 48 Hour Film Project. You can also read what Ginger has to say about the origin of her play The Embryos on the Fresh Ink Theatre blog...

Hot off the press: Molly Smith Metzler's Elemeno Pea in Humana Festival 2011: The Complete Plays...

Coming soon: This year's MFA class (MJ Halberstadt, Rick Park, Michael S. Parsons, and Jaclyn Villano) present their Room to Live Plays...

Also just around the corner, New Rep's first annual Festival of New Voices featuring the work of this year's New Voices @ New Rep Fellows: Anna Renée Hansen, Colleen Hughes, Emily Kaye Lazzaro, and frequent BTM contributor James McLindon...

Dan Hunter in The Edmonton Journal: "Creativity is a practice, not a gift"...

Alumni news, in brief:

Demonio and Cha Cha celebrate Monica Bauer

The world premiere of Becoming Cuba, by Melinda Lopez, will be part of San Diego's North Coast Repertory Theatre's 2012-13 season...

John Kuntz's Miss Price (revisited) will be presented as part of Gloucester Stage Company's Play Reading Series in July...

Check out Molly Smith Metzler at yesterday's "The Scribes Speak" panel at the 36th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville...

Here's a wonderful review of Karmo Sander's short Face It, which played at the Vancouver Women in Film Festival earlier this month...

Now playing at Central Square Theatre: Underground Railway Theater's production of Deborah Lake Fortson's ABIYOYO (based on the story song by Pete Seeger), and next up will be Wesley Savick's Yesterday Happened: Remembering H.M. produced by Catalyst Collaborative@MIT, a science theater collaboration between Underground Railway Theater & MIT...

Gregory Fletcher is directing Shooting Crows, by Jack Rushen, for Davenport Theatrical's Developmental Reading Series on April 2... 

Sinan Ünel's A Mad Person's Chronicle of a Miserable Marriage is part of the lineup of Stage Left Studio's Left Out Festival April 14-25... 

When you see Joyce Van Dyke's Deported/a dream play, don't miss the photo display in the lobby...

Alumni news, in brief:

It was a sold-out weekend for Joyce Van Dyke's Deported/a dream play! Get your tickets...

M. Lynda Robinson's Wife of Bobbo and Monica Bauer's House Broken are on the bill at Image Theater Company's Femnoire Festival of Women Playwrights, March 30 and 31...

Check out Werner Trieschmann on Tales From the South...

Walt McGough says we playwrights need to make sure the stage directions we include in our scripts belong there in the first place...

Molly Smith Metzler is the recipient of this year's Outstanding Young Alumni Award at SUNY Geneseo...

MJ Halberstadt's one-act w4m will be featured in Boston Actors Theater's Summer Play Festival this July, and his ten-min Peggy's Properties (watch it here) won the "Drunken Judges" Award at StrangeDog Theatre's First Annual Beer Battered Play Festival...

Cliff Odle on Central Square Theater's blog, discussing his latest play Our Girl In Trenton...

K. Alexa Mavromatis' The Quiz will be part of the morning critique group at Our Voices 6 on March 24...

Alumni news, in brief:

A national tour is on the horizon for Lydia Diamond's Stick Fly!... 

M. Lynda Robinson's short play An Egg is an Egg will be on the bill to celebrate SWAN Day (Support Women Artists Now) at the 6th annual Our Voices Festival at Regis College on March 24... 

The Provincetown Theatre Company's 16th annual winter reading series will feature John Greiner-Ferris' Highland Center, Indiana on March 28...

Molly Smith Metzler's Carve is part of the Geva Theatre Center's Plays in Progress reading series tonight...

And here's a lovely feature from The Boston Globe about the story behind the story of Joyce Van Dyke's Deported/a dream play, which opens in previews this Thursday!

Alumni news, in brief:

Face It -- a one-woman ten-minute film written by Karmo Sanders will be presented as part of the Vancouver Women in Film Festival next month (and she acts in it, too!)...

Karen Zacarías' Legacy of Light opens this week at Ohio's Denison University... 

The cast has been announced for Monica Bauer's My Occasion of Sin, opening next month at Urban Stages...

A glowing review for Molly Smith Metzler's Elemeno Pea, which closes at South Coast Rep on Feb. 26...

Read The Boston Globe's feature about Blood Rose Rising, co-created by Steve Barkhimer...and hear Bark discuss the series' premise here...

Nice feature about Joyce Van Dyke's Deported/a dream play in The Armenian Mirror-Spectator...

Check out how Jonathon Myers puts his MFA to work...

What do theatres need to do to save themselves? Colleen Hughes weighs in, in response to Brendan Kiley's post in The Stranger...

Love-filled alumni news, in brief:

Monica Bauer's Off-Broadway bound My Occasion of Sin was awarded Best New Script at the Omaha Arts and Entertainment Awards, and her Made For Each Other was accepted to the Edinburgh Free Fringe...

Joyce Van Dyke's Deported/a dream play -- which opens on Mar. 8 -- is on the list of The Boston Globe's Critic's Picks...

Great review of Molly Smith Metzler's Elemeno Pea, now playing at South Coast Rep, right here...

Blood Rose Rising (co-written by Steve Barkhimer) opens Feb. 17 at the Davis Square Theatre, and Will Fancher's The River Was Whiskey opens at Middle Tennessee State University on Feb. 16...

Our Girl in Trenton, by Cliff Odle, will be part of Central Square Theatre's PlayPen Readings on Feb. 27...

Richard Snee will appear in the world premiere of Boston Children's Theatre's Reflections of a Rock Lobster Mar. 3-11...

The curtain will come down on the Broadway production of Lydia Diamond's Stick Fly on Feb. 26. Get tickets...

MJ Halberstadt reflects on the KCACTF Region 1 experience on his blog, and you can watch Colleen Hughes' KCACTF entry The Button here...

Alumni news, in brief:

Coming soon: Blood Rose Rising, co-written by Steve Barkhimer (with Ben Evett), opens Feb 17 at Somerville's Davis Square Theatre. Keep tabs on this intriguing project here and here, and contribute to the production through its Kickstarter campaign...

What did Kate Snodgrass have to do with Boston Children's Theatre's production of Calvin's Monster? Read this article from The Boston Globe and find out...

A nice review of Molly Smith Metzler's Elemeno Pea, at South Coast Rep through Feb. 26...

And Monica Bauer's hometown paper kicks off the press coverage for her Off-Broadway bound My Occasion of Sin...

Metzler's 'Close Up Space' named Blackburn Prize finalist

Molly Smith Metzler

Molly Smith Metzler’s Close Up Space – which closed last week at Manhattan Theatre Club – has been selected as a finalist for the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Congratulations, Molly! We can’t wait to see where this adventure takes you next! [Molly's Elemeno Pea opens at South Coast Rep Rep tomorrow night.]

Here’s the official announcement from the Blackburn Prize Web site:

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has announced 10 Finalists for its prestigious playwriting award, now celebrating its thirty-fourth year.

The ten Finalists for the 2011-2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, chosen from over 100 submitted plays, are:

Johnna Adams – Gidion’s Knot (U.S.); Alice Birch – Many Moons (U.K.); Madeleine George - Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England (U.S.); Jennifer Haley – The Nether (U.S.); Nancy Harris – No Romance (Ireland); Zinnie Harris – The Wheel (U.K.), Jaki McCarrick – Belfast Girls (U.K.), Molly Smith Metzler – Close Up Space (U.S.); Meg Miroshnik - The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls (U.S.); Alexis Zegerman – The Steingolds (U.K.).

The Winner of the 2011-2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize will be named at the Awards Presentation on February 28th in London.

Alumni news, in brief:

Mariela in the Desert (Mariela en el Desierto), by Karen Zacarías, opens in its world premiere on Feb. 6 at NYC's Repertorio Español’s Gramercy Arts Theater...

Emily Kaye Lazzaro's short Saving Deshawn is on the bill of Stone Soup Theatre's (Seattle) Double XX Fest this spring. And that's double X as in two X chromosomes, y'all, so get your minds out of the gutter...

Demonio at The Hunt's God of Carnage

Kate Snodgrass' Heideman Award-winning Haiku will be part of Goshen College's Winter One-Acts this weekend...

Molly Smith Metzler talked about South Coast Rep's production of Elemeno Pea with The Orange County Register...

Back by popular demand: More dates announced for Sinan Ünel's A Madperson's Chronicle of a Miserable Marriage at NYC's Stage Left Studio... 

Peggy's Properties by MJ Halberstadt will be part of StrangeDog's First Annual Beer Battered Play Festival this spring in NYC...

Here's the official announcement for Monica Bauer's My Occasion of Sin, which will bow Off-Broadway in March...

Read Donna Sorbello's article about director David Wheeler on the Actors' Equity Web site. Wheeler died earlier this month at the age of 86...

Alumni news, in brief:

Jackson Heights, 3 a.m., co-written by Les Hunter, is in its world premiere run at NYC’s Theatre 167 (produced in association with Queens Theatre) through Feb. 5. Tickets and more information here…

The Off-Broadway run of Zayd Dohrn’s Outside People – a co-production by NYC’s Naked Angels and the Vineyard Theatre – has been extended through Feb. 4…

Molly Smith Metzler – whose Elemeno Pea opens at South Coast Rep on Feb 3 – was featured in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times. And, take a look at the set model here…

Monica Bauer’s short House Broken will be included in the Abingdon Theatre’s fundraiser The Denial Plays on Feb. 14…

New Voices @ New Rep Playwriting Fellow Emily Kaye Lazzaro declared Old Habits Die Hard on the New Rep blog…

Stick Fly media round up: Lydia Diamond in The Huffington Post, on The American Theatre Wing’s Working in the Theatre, and in conversation with David Dower on HowlRound’s Friday Phone Call…

Alumni news, in brief:

Steve Barkhimer -- along with the rest of the cast of Superior Donuts at Lyric Stage -- got a shout-out in The Globe... 

A photo gallery from last week's opening of Zayd Dohrn's Outside People... 

Food Douche, a short play by Molly Smith Metzler, is included in The Urban Dictionary Plays, presented by NYC's Ars Nova Play Group at Ars Nova, Feb. 1-11...

Exactly the kind of thing that makes Google Alerts fun: Check out photographer Peter Sumner Walton Bellamy's blog, which includes creative portraits of Melinda Lopez and other playwrights...

Theresa Rebeck fan Demonio (at right, in front of the Seminar marquee) was thrilled when he learned he could download the pilot episode of one of his favorite BTM playwrights' new NBC series for free...and he thinks you should watch Smash too...

Alumni news, in brief:

Zayd Dohrn and his wife Rachel

Zayd Dohrn's Outside People opens tomorrow night at NYC's Vineyard Theatre, in a co-production with Naked Angels. Check out the trailer...

This article from The Washington Post has a great quote from Karen Zacarías...

Walt McGough got some love from The Boston Globe...

Molly Smith Metzler is in rehearsal for the South Coast Repertory production of her Humana hit Elemeno Pea...

Werner Trieschmann shared a year-end recap of playwriting-related activities on his great-looking blog, and Anna Renée Hansen compared playwriting with open-heart surgery on the New Rep blog...