Winning things: in which sexually ambivalent siblings explore the limits of their postapocalyptic reality

A playwright is made out of muscle and blood.

It's a privilege to helm a dramatic writing program where the MFA candidates are working professionally in the field — and working now, during their time at Carnegie Mellon. The latest news:

Plight of the Apothecary by Liza Birkenmeier (MFA '12) opens this week at the Red Room in New York City (located above KGB Bar, where Brooklyn writers show their authenticity by drinking PBR). More from New York TheatreNet.

Liza's play Jib and the Big Still, which was written last semester as an assignment for CMU's collaborative class Theatre Lab, will be produced in the Chaos New Works Festival at Lincoln Square Theatre in Chicago this spring.

A full evening of one-acts by Peter J. Roth (MFA '12) will be produced in Los Angeles by Fresh Baked Theatre Company — including Quick and in My Arms, which was developed last month at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region II Conference.

Hole in the Head by Murphi Cook (MFA '12), The Wind Farmer by Dan O'Neil (MFA '11), and The Copper Anniversary by Peter J. Roth were selected from over 400 entries for readings at the Great Plains Theatre Conference. Two scripts from CMU were in the conference last year as well. Also in residence will be CMU dramatic writing alumnus Brian Silberman, as well as the fabulous Lee Blessing, Constance Congdon, and Caridad Svich.

And in observance of Valentine's Day, Dan's play The Seahorse is Monogamous – another project from the Theatre Lab class – will be at the Viaduct Theatre in Chicago as part of their DRAMEROTICA festival.

Winning things: plays on stages and in boxes

Campus is quiet and covered with snow, but the playwrights of Carnegie Mellon are busy winning things.

Some graduate writing programs require students to refrain from script submission while they're in school. My philosophy is the opposite. The expectation is that you are daily beating your work into shape and sending it out to find collaborators beyond the walls of the School of Drama.

Some of these opportunities come from invitations extended specifically to this program, while others come via our participation in the Playwrights' Center's "New Plays on Campus" membership program.

• Liz Ellison (MFA '11) will be traveling to Aspen in January with her play Ten Minutes to Boston as part of Theatre Masters, a program dedicated to advancing emerging playwrights at select schools. Theatre Masters will subsequently remount the play in New York. 

• CMU will be represented by no less than three plays at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival regional festival at Towson University: Quick and in My Arms by Peter J. Roth (MFA '12), The Insect Fear by Liza Birkenmeier (MFA '12), and Shrouds by Julie Tosh (MFA '09).

• In March, Time Bomb Play by R.N. Healey (MFA '12) will be included in the 32nd Annual Mid-America Theatre Conference in Minneapolis. It was picked from a field of 70 submissions.

• Dan O'Neil (MFA '11) has been commissioned by the fascinating Articulture program. Inspired by the Community Supported Agriculture movement, where consumers buy a share in the output of a local farm, interested collectors/consumers will receive three "share boxes" of locally-produced artwork at three winter pick-up events.