@dramatistsguild @schlueter_j

Charles Smith, Head of the MFA Playwriting Program at Ohio University (Athens), is fittingly proud of the program he has built. Out of the 36 MFA programs designated as the “leading graduate playwriting programs” in the nation by the Alliance Theatre’s Kendeda Award, only UT-Austin and Julliard surpass OU’s record of placements and winners. The work of OU graduates has been produced at prestigious venues including Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens, Actors Theatre of Louisville, New Dramatists, and the Mark Taper Forum, and published at all the major presses. The program is exceptionally vibrant, and, tucked away in the scenic Hocking Hills, it might be one of the best-kept secrets in graduate training for playwrights.

As in many other MFA programs, students at OU undertake regular workshops, in which they develop full length plays and screenplays, and seminar coursework, in which they investigate approaches to narrative and theatricality. OU also, like other programs, presents an industry-attended new play festival each year. But what sets OU’s program apart, and what marks their graduates, is its rigorous and demanding Playwrights Production component. Also known as “Madness,” Playwrights Production is a weekly, informal festival of new work. Early each week, a writer within the program is designated as Producing Artistic Director, and chooses a topic, style, or approach for the week’s work. Each playwright then creates a five-minute piece that speaks to the concerns at hand. The piece is rehearsed by the playwright across the week and then presented on Friday evenings at 11 PM for an invited audience. On Monday, it starts all over again with a different student at the helm.

What students gain from the Madness experience is multifaceted. First, Smith points out, each student becomes a Producing Artistic Director and learns how to coordinate and shape an evening of theatre. The PAD receives her colleague’s plays on Friday afternoon and is tasked with structuring the upcoming evening with an eye towards “a developing theme, idea, or rising action.” She creates a frame for the evening that will help it become a cohesive event, rather than a kaleidoscope of short works. And she coordinates a post-show feedback session on the following Monday.

Additionally, as Smith underscores, the crucible of quick production “places the playwright in the theatre, working with actors, on new material every week during the three years that they’re here. It helps the writer to develop the ability to rewrite in rehearsals.” But it also serves as a laboratory that allows writers to experiment with techniques and ideas, in front of an audience, “before committing to those theories on a larger scale, such as a full-length play.” And it “eliminates the idea of the muse…. you cannot afford to sit around and wait to be inspired.”

Perhaps most importantly, over the three years in the MFA program, each student will have developed 54 short plays, all presented before an audience. This, more than anything else, helps a writer’s “voice and vision…inevitably become apparent.”

The pressure of Madness is palpable each week. But “students who thrive” under that kind of pressure, Smith says, “are students who must and will write during the good times and the bad.” And those are, ultimately, the playwrights who work.

For more information on OU’s MFA Playwriting Program, visit http://ohioplaywriting.org/

jschlueter@dramatistsguild.com

Photo: (above) From Madness

Photo: (above) Max Monnig and Lisa Bol in the Ohio University Playwrights Festival production of Mark Chrisler’s play, Worse Than Tigers, directed by Shelley Delaney. Photo by Linsi McCal