Ohio University Master of Fine Arts
Playwriting Faculty News & Info
 Charles Smith is Head of the Professional Playwriting Program at Ohio University, a member of the Playwrights Ensemble at the Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago, and is a recipient of the 2008 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award. His plays have been produced off-Broadway and around the country by theaters such as Victory Gardens, The Acting Company, Indiana Repertory Theatre, People’s Light & Theatre Company, The Goodman Theatre, Penumbra, Ujima Theatre Company, St. Louis Black Rep, New Federal Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and Berkeley Repertory Theater. His work has also been produced for the HBO New Writers Project, the International Children's Theater Festival in Seattle, and the North Carolina Black Arts Festival. His most recent play, Denmark, was the inaugural World Premiere production of the newly renovation Victory Gardens at the Biograph Theater. His play Pudd’nhead Wilson enjoyed a twenty-two city national tour and his plays Takunda and City of Gold enjoyed tours of the west coast. His other plays include Knock Me a Kiss, Freefall, Les Trois Dumas, The Sutherland, Sister Carrie, Black Star Line, Jelly Belly, Young Richard, Cane, and Free Man of Color which recently premiered in Australia after being awarded a Joseph Jefferson Award and John W. Schmid Award, both for Outstanding New Work. He is also author of two Emmy Award-winning teleplays, Fast Break to Glory and Pequito. A graduate of the Iowa Playwrights Workshop, Smith has received commissions from Victory Gardens, The Goodman, Seattle Rep, Indiana Rep, The Acting Company, and Ohio University. He is an alumni playwright of the Tony Award-winning New Dramatists in New York and taught playwriting at Northwestern University for seven years. His most recent work currently in development, The Cattail Memoirs, was a commissioned by Indiana Rep and is the result of a Joyce Award. His plays may be obtained through Samuel French, Dramatic Publishing, Northwestern University Press, Smith & Kraus, Meriwether Publishing Ltd. For more information about his plays, visit http://www.csplays.com. Erik Ramsey shares teaching duties with Charles Smith in the MFA Playwriting Program at Ohio University and is also head of BFA playwriting. His plays have been produced around the country, and Samuel French and Dramatic Publishing have published several of his short works. His recent play, LIONS LOST, has been developed at numerous regional theaters including Cleveland Public Theatre, American Stage, Victory Gardens, and Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre. Currently, he is writing a trilogy of historical dramas about the surprising turn of events that boosted Joseph Smith from life as a small time con-artist to Prophet of the Mormon Church; the first in the series, titled SMITH UNEARTHED, has recently been featured and developed at WordBridge Play Lab (Clemson: 2007), the International Society of Contemporary Literature and Theatre Conference (Estonia: 2007), the Gwen Frostic National Reading Series at Western Michigan University (Nov, 2008), and received an OU College Of Fine Arts Creative Research Award for an Equity workshop at Brick Monkey Theater Ensemble (Dec, 2008). As a professional new play dramaturg, Erik has consulted on the development of a number of award winning plays, including Julie Jensen's DUST EATERS, nominated by the American Theatre Critics Association for best new play produced outside New York in 2005, and one of four finalists for the PEN USA 2006 Literary Awards for Drama. His two textbooks, The Art of Theatre: Then and Now and Experiencing the Art of Theatre are now in their second edition from Wadsworth (2010), and are in use at over 100 colleges and universities nationwide. In 2007 Erik was named a Kennedy Center Faculty Fellow for his work in new play development. |