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Mizzou on Broadway features a collection of short comedies
and dramas about loss. The student playwrights are, clockwise
from left: Erin McHugh, Kate Berneking Kogut, Brett Merrill,
Jamie Lindemann and David Eshelman. Photo by Dan Glover
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Experience
Broadway, Mizzou Style
Five student playwrights will gain an introduction
to the theater capital of the world and feel the warmth of alumni
support when their original plays are produced Sept. 25 at the
York Theatre.
Mizzou
on Broadway is the only collegiate literary-theatre showcase
in New York. The fourth annual showcase is set for 2 p.m. and
7:30 p.m. at the York Theatre. Alumni and friends from the New
York area typically fill the performances.
Theatre Professor
Jim Miller is directing the collection of six 10-minute plays
written by students and an excerpt from The Right to Remain
Silent, by alumni Mark Fauser, BGS ’84, and Brent Briscoe,
BA ’84. The Right to Remain Silent was the basis
for the award-winning Showtime production starring Carl
Reiner and Robert Loggia, BJ ’51.
The Plays
Home by doctoral theatre student
Kate Berneking Kogut of Columbia, Mo. For the
third consecutive year, one of Kogut’s award-winning plays
has been selected for Mizzou on Broadway. After a producer saw
her play Survival Dance at the York Theatre in 2003, Kogut signed
an option agreement with SRO Productions. She anticipates the
possible opening of that show in 2005. Survival Dance won three
national awards at the 2003 Kennedy Center-American College Theater
Festival.
The Priest and the Widow and Games
of Love by doctoral theatre student David Eshelman
of Buffalo, N.Y. Eshelman’s plays have been produced in
Austin, Texas, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Ohio, Columbia, Mo.,
and Wilmington, Del.
Wild West Paper Route by Jamie
Lindemann of Memphis, Tenn. Lindemann is a senior theatre
major whose play was a finalist in the 10-minute play competition
of Region V in the Kennedy Center-American College Theater Festival.
Film Exposure by Erin McHugh
of Florissant, Mo. McHugh is a senior business major who writes
for fun. Her play was a 2004 finalist in the 10-minute play competition
in Region V of the Kennedy Center-American College Theater Festival.
Guiltless by Brett Merrill
of Columbia, Mo. Merrill, a recipient of the Tom Berenger Acting
Scholarship, graduated in May and now lives in New York City,
where he is pursuing an acting career.
Theatre faculty members select the
scripts, and an advisory committee composed of actors, writers,
directors and a producer helps shape them for production. Among
the committee members are actors Chris Cooper, BGS ’76;
actor-director Campbell Scott, the son of George C. Scott, arts,
journ ’53; actor-playwright
Fauser; and Jim Morgan, artistic director of the York Theatre.
Student actors and technicians present all Mizzou on Broadway
plays.
“It’s an amazing process to take
a play from an idea for a script to full production on stage
in New York,” Kogut
says. “For a student playwright, this is an incredibly
exciting experience.”
The students’ scripts start
in the theatre department’s
advanced playwriting course, move through readings at the Missouri
Playwrights Workshop and go into full production at the
University before being considered for the off-Broadway stage.
MU, which is the academic home of Tennessee
Williams, attracts noted authors to campus to work with its writing
students. Recent visiting playwrights have included Edward Albee
and Tony Kushner.
To See the Plays
Tickets
for Mizzou on Broadway in New York are available for a minimum
donation of $15 and may be ordered at (800) 430-2966. The York
Theatre is located in the Citicorp Building at 54th St. and Lexington
Ave.
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Published by the Mizzou Alumni Association
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Last Update:
March 12, 2007
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