Like recounting a first bike ride or first toy or even first website (probably the most fitting of the example), I am excitedly, albeit slowly, touching my internet toes into the waters of Storify. A colleague --- and by "colleague" I am referring to someone whom I follow on twitter who considers himself a writer too --- a colleague recently posted about Storify as a way to share lots of information on one topic at once instead of blast-posting individual missives. 

Recently, I created a Storify about the stories about my latest play, FRACKTURE. And since the Ohio Environmental Council recently (i.e. today) posted a member spotlight and short interview they did with me about FRACKTURE, I updated the Storify story and now share it with you. For all your reading and news-gathering pleasure. And because lots of other people have taken the time to talk with me about FRACKTURE as it continues development and I think they deserve to be recognized for that and have their stories shared. 

As a writer, I love talking about my work and sharing it with others... I'm grateful that there are people out there who wanted to listen and talk about it as well. 

So here it is: my first Storify. Enjoy.

Thrilled to be working with my colleagues at Ohio University on this new play development project.

THEATER ASSOCIATION OF GRADUATE STUDENTS PRESENTS:

THE NEW PLAY PROJECT
Saturday, April 6th at Union Arts - 15 W. Union St.
We will be presenting script-in-hand productions of two full-length plays in rep as part of the Nuit Blanche Athens arts festival. Each show will be performed twice. All shows are FREE; general admission at the door.

FRACKTURE
by Jeremy Sony
Dir. Thomas Daniels
Featuring: Patrick Wagstaff, Josh Leeson, Rachel Weekley, and Emily Auwaerter
5:00 pm and 10:00 pm

BEHEADING VAMPIRE PUPPIES: A LIVING ROOM ENCOUNTER
by Greg Aldrich
Dir. Rachel Mock
Featuring: Matthew Mikita, Kat Radujkovic, and Shambrion Treadwell
7:30 pm and 12:30 am

TAGS NPP Production Team
Production Manager: Aaron Contreras
Asst. Production Managers: Rain Bidleman and Joanna Koefoed
Lighting Designer: Carolyn Voss
Scenic Designer: Deanna Smith
Costume Designer: Delta Childers-Smith (Frackture)
Costume Designer: Katie Behrens (BVP)

For more information about the Nuit Blanche Athens festival, and to see what else is happening around Athens on April 6th, visit www.facebook.com/events/539472799425997

I'm trying out a new thing this year. Promoting a play before it's done. Maybe that comes with the territory when it's your thesis, or when it's a story set against the back-drop of a hot-button topic. In any case, as I continue to re-draft 'Frackture' and prep for the next step in this play's development, I have been talking about it more and more with journalists both here at OU and in other lovely places, like Washington, D.C.

Maybe this happens all the time to some playwrights, but discussing a play this much while it's being developed and workshopped is an entirely new experience for me. I'm stoked about this one, so I'm trying to keep expectations on the level. It's easy to ramble on about characters and hype a story you love telling, but hopefully the story will still be exciting and fresh when audiences finally see it. It's finding the balance between the buzz and the "pre-buzz" of the play that has become an unexpected, yet welcome, part of my writing process.

If you would like to read more about 'Frackture' and what I'm up to on that front, I invite you to visit the following links (the last one goes to a paid site fo.

• New play contemplates the impact of "fracking" on family
  by Taylor Evans, Ohio University Compass 10/10/12
  This story was republished by WOUB Public Media on 10/17/12
• Ohio playwright delves into 'Fracktured' family's struggle*
  by Pamela King, EnergyWire 11/14/12
  *Subscription-based news site

This is more of an announcement than a blog post. For any and all playwright friends in Ohio (or within driving distance of Columbus on a Saturday in November). The Dramatists Guild is holding an all day workshop on November 17th. Some of the panels that day include awesome folks like Gary Garrison, Mike Geither, and Matt Slaybaugh (all people I hope to work with one day) and my own mentor at OU, Charles Smith. The announcement, information, and contact information on how to make reservations is below. It's free for DG members and guests. Not sure of cost if you don't fall into those categories. But if you're not a Dramatists Guild member, consider becoming one. Anyway, here's all the details. Maybe I'll see you there.

SAVE THE DATE: DRAMATISTS GUILD IN OHIO - SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2012

Saturday, November 17 from 9 to 5 PM.
The Drake Union, The Ohio State University
1849 Cannon Drive, Columbus, OH

THE DRAMATISTS GUILD OHIO REGION and THE DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE AT THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY present a daylong workshop

THOSE WHO CAN, TEACH
Exploring techniques, exercises, and resources that will help us share our craft Convened by Faye Sholiton (DG Regional Rep) and Jennifer Schlueter (OSU).
FREE to DG members and guests. Reservations by November 14 to fsholiton@dramatistsguild.com. 

Maybe you’re in an MFA playwriting program and are aiming at a university career.  Maybe you’re already teaching at the high school or college level and want to find new ways to guide your students’ work as writers, lyricists, and composers. Maybe you’ve been asked to teach a workshop through a theatre that’s producing your work. Or maybe you’d like to sit in on a master class with some of the top professionals in the region.

You belong in Columbus on November 17 for a one-day conference packed with workshops, Q&As, and lectures from those who not onlycan teach, but who are passionate about doing it well.

Whether or not you can attend, we invite your participation in an idea exchange. We’re looking for exercises, techniques and resources that have worked for you as a teacher or mentor. Send these “Wright Ideas” to fsholiton@dramatistsguild.com. We will share them at the workshop and then on the DG website. For each Wright Idea you submit, you will have a chance to win one of four autographed copies of a Doug Wright script: Quills, I Am My Own Wife, The Stonewater Rapture, and Unwrap Your Candy.


PROGRAM OF EVENTS


8:30 AM        Doors open. Coffee and light refreshments available.  (Drake Lobby)


9:30 AM         Welcome. Faye Sholiton (Roy Bowen theatre)


9:40 AM         “Writing the Ten Minute Play,” Gary Garrison, author of A More Perfect Ten and DG’s Executive Director of Creative Affairs. (Roy Bowen theatre)

11:00 AM       DG Updates: Conversation with Jennifer Schlueter and Gary Garrison followed by Opportunities for Ohio Playwrights: Chiquita Mullins Lee, Arts Learning Programs Coordinator, Ohio Arts Council. 

11:45 AM     Lunch break. Boxed lunches are available for $9 PRE-PURCHASED ONLY. Please note: no restaurants are open in the building. Order forms will be forwarded with registration materials. (Drake Lobby)

1:00 PM         “The Gentle Art of Mentoring,” Michael Bigelow Dixon, former Literary Manager at Actors Theater of Louisville and the Guthrie Theatre, co-editor of Playwrights Workout, and Assistant Professor at Transylvania University. (Roy Bowen theatre)

1:30  PM        Working sessions. Select ONE.

Option one: Teaching at the MFA, or advanced level. (Drake 2068)
Option two: Teaching high school and undergraduate students. (Drake 2060)
Option three: Working in the community: youth, adults, and writers in 
non-academic settings. (Drake 2038)

Confirmed panelists include: Charles Smith (Ohio U); Mike Geither (Cleveland State U); Eric Schmiedl (Spaulding U.); Michael Bigelow Dixon (Transylvania U); Wendy MacLeod (Kenyon College); Bonnie Milne Gardner (Ohio Wesleyan); Mark Evans Bryan (Denison U); Herman Farrell (U. of Kentucky); Michael London (Ohio Playwrights Circle, Dayton); Matt Slaybaugh (Available Light, Columbus); Katherine Burkman (OSU, Women at Play); Chris Seibert (Cleveland Public Theatre)  

3:45  PM        Break. Light refreshments. (Drake Lobby)

4:15 PM         Concluding remarks, featuring Herman Farrell, DG Kentucky Regional Rep; and Alan Woods, retired professor O.S.U. and Dr. Beth Kattelman, Associate Curator of the Lawrence & Lee Theatre Research Institute at OSU. Drawing for the Wright autographed scripts. (Roy Bowen Theatre)

GENERAL INFORMATION
WHEN YOU EMAIL YOUR RESERVATION, YOU WILL RECEIVE DRIVING AND PARKING DIRECTIONS AND ORDER FORMS FOR LUNCH.

• PARKING WILL BE AVAILABLE across the street from the Drake Union at a cost of $6.00 per day.

• BOX LUNCHES (optional) are coming from Panera Bread Co. We are limiting the menu to preserve everyone’s sanity.

OTHER COLUMBUS EVENTS: For those who can spend extra time, consider:

• Wexner Center for the Arts (on the OSU campus): The Builders’ Associations’ SONTAG/REBORN; and an exhibition of ANNIE LIEBOVITZ photography. Visit www.wexarts.org

• THE STORY OF MY LIFE, the story of a friendship between two men; music and lyrics by Nell Bartram; book by Brian Hill, at CATCO. Visit www.catco.org
  

Faye Sholiton
Ohio Regional Rep

Nearly every week at Ohio University, I have the awesome privilege of writing a 3-5 minute play for something the MFA writers like to call MADNESS. Because it can be. "It" is actually our Playwrights Production class that all the grad writers at OU take every semester while in the program. You can read more about Madness at www.ohioplaywriting.org (our news blog and archive), but the short version is: Producer announces theme on Monday. Writers write to theme. Friday night, a show goes on. 11 new plays. And then it all begins again on Monday.

This week, I'm producing/hosting the night, so I have challenged my writers to tackle "NAKED" as their theme. What does it mean to be naked? How can you be naked while still wearing clothes? Just got all their scripts and I'm now tasked with ordering the night, crafting my own piece, and putting up a night of theater at 11pm tonight. With that said, I must log off and get back to producing. I'll let you know how it goes!

One of the great benefits of the Ohio University MFA Playwriting program is the weekly MADNESS production that happens almost every Friday night during the school year. What is Madness, you ask? Week after week, on Mondays, we're presented with new and exciting themes (which stem from the mind of whichever playwright is producing that week) and then on Fridays, we each present a five minute play.

Now in my third year of the program, I've penned more than 50 of these short pieces. I'm assembling them into my own madness for 2013 (a greatest hits of sorts). Until then, I'm posting some of my favorite plays here on my site. They are all about five-minutes in length and two-character pieces. Quick reads all. Take a gander. We don't record madness, but I am considering mounting video versions. Just need to figure out how best to do that. Until then, reading the old fashioned way will have to suffice. Enjoy!
Photo by Hannah VanBrunt