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Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Playwright Bio - Mary F. Unser (2006)
Mary F. Unser is a writer and an actor. Her play, The Only Gift was a semi-finalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, the Playwrights’ Center’s PlayLabs Festival and the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference (all 2006). It also helped make Unser a finalist for a 2006 Jerome Fellowship at The Playwrights’ Center and was chosen as part of the 2005 CMU Summer New Play Festival (Pittsburgh).
Most recently, her play, Samaritan, was given a workshop production at Carnegie Mellon University.
Short plays include: Belly (chosen for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region II;finalist for Snowdance 10-min. Comedy Festival, Racine, WI), Temporaria (winner and produced by Perishable Theatre’s Women’s Playwriting Festival; finalist,Actors Theatre of Louisville’s 10-minute play festival; semi-finalist, Ensemble Studio Theatre’s (EST) one-act play marathon; produced by EST’s Actor/Director Lab and at EST’s Octoberfest), Coffee Incident #2 and Between Siddhartha and the Angel (both produced by EST A/D Lab), The Pledge (produced by EST’s A/D Lab and NY Int’l Fringe Festival), Buttergator (semi-finalist, EST’s one-act play marathon; produced by EST’s A/D Lab) and Tight (semi-finalist, EST’s one act play marathon; produced by EST’s A/D Lab and OW! Co. at Theatre 22. Additionally, Tight was filmed as a short and is currently in post-production).
As a screenwriter, Unser won the CMU Alfred P. Sloan Science Teleplay Competition for Love Chance, which was taped in May 2005 and was aired on PBS in January 2006. Additionally, she was a finalist for the CMU Sloan Screenwriting Competition in 2005 and 2006.
She has taught Beginning and Advanced Playwriting at Carnegie Mellon University, Playwriting at the Pittsburgh Public Theater and dramaturged for City Theatre Company's (Pittsburgh) Young Playwrights Festival. She has read plays for City Theatre Company as well as the 2003 and 2004 New York Int’l Fringe Festival. This past summer she co-created the newest (and best) CMU roboceptionist (yes folks, a robot receptionist): Marion “Tank” LeFleur.
Unser, a two-time recipient of a Schubert Fellowship for Dramatic Writing (CMU), graduates with an MFA in Dramatic Writing in 2006. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild, the Ensemble Studio Theatre (NYC) and Actors' Equity Association. She holds a BA in Biology from St. Anselm College and was valedictorian of her bartending class.
As an actor, she has most recently worked at EST, The Women’s Project and the Neighborhood Playhouse.
Full resume available upon request.
Most recently, her play, Samaritan, was given a workshop production at Carnegie Mellon University.
Short plays include: Belly (chosen for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region II;finalist for Snowdance 10-min. Comedy Festival, Racine, WI), Temporaria (winner and produced by Perishable Theatre’s Women’s Playwriting Festival; finalist,Actors Theatre of Louisville’s 10-minute play festival; semi-finalist, Ensemble Studio Theatre’s (EST) one-act play marathon; produced by EST’s Actor/Director Lab and at EST’s Octoberfest), Coffee Incident #2 and Between Siddhartha and the Angel (both produced by EST A/D Lab), The Pledge (produced by EST’s A/D Lab and NY Int’l Fringe Festival), Buttergator (semi-finalist, EST’s one-act play marathon; produced by EST’s A/D Lab) and Tight (semi-finalist, EST’s one act play marathon; produced by EST’s A/D Lab and OW! Co. at Theatre 22. Additionally, Tight was filmed as a short and is currently in post-production).
As a screenwriter, Unser won the CMU Alfred P. Sloan Science Teleplay Competition for Love Chance, which was taped in May 2005 and was aired on PBS in January 2006. Additionally, she was a finalist for the CMU Sloan Screenwriting Competition in 2005 and 2006.
She has taught Beginning and Advanced Playwriting at Carnegie Mellon University, Playwriting at the Pittsburgh Public Theater and dramaturged for City Theatre Company's (Pittsburgh) Young Playwrights Festival. She has read plays for City Theatre Company as well as the 2003 and 2004 New York Int’l Fringe Festival. This past summer she co-created the newest (and best) CMU roboceptionist (yes folks, a robot receptionist): Marion “Tank” LeFleur.
Unser, a two-time recipient of a Schubert Fellowship for Dramatic Writing (CMU), graduates with an MFA in Dramatic Writing in 2006. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild, the Ensemble Studio Theatre (NYC) and Actors' Equity Association. She holds a BA in Biology from St. Anselm College and was valedictorian of her bartending class.
As an actor, she has most recently worked at EST, The Women’s Project and the Neighborhood Playhouse.
Full resume available upon request.
Labels: Bio, Class of 2006
Playwright Bio - James McManus (2006)
James McManus is the recipient of the 2006 Princess Grace Award in playwriting for his play, Cherry Smoke, which was recently published by Samuel French. Plays include Blood Potato, Cement City, Underground, Sheena, Cherry Smoke, Bulldog Whiskey, Dorothy 6 and The Night They Drugged the Orange. His plays have been performed and developed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Clockwork Theatre, Diverse City Theatre, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, New Dramatists, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, The Inkwell, Irish Repertory Theatre, Lark Play Development Center and the August Wilson Center for African American Culture. He was a 2007 & 2008 finalist for the PONY Fellowship and a two-time recipient of the Schubert Fellowship for Dramatic Writing at Carnegie Mellon University where he received his MFA in 2006. McManus’ short film, Loves and Bones, is currently in post-production.
Labels: Bio, Class of 2006
Playwright Bio - Frank Anthony Polito (2006)
A native of Detroit, MI, playwright Frank Anthony Polito will receive his M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in May 2006.
His first play, JOHN R, was produced in New York (Muse of Fire Productions, 2001) and starred Tony award-nominee John Tartaglia (Avenue Q.) Other full-lengths include: Another Day on Willow Street (CMU Winter New Play Festival, 2006), The Secret Anniversary (reading: CMU, 2005) and Band Fags! (staged reading: Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, Chicago, 2004). His one-act plays include: “Blue Tuesday” (staged readings: Playwrights/Actors Contemporary Theatre, NYC, 2005 and Mill Mountain Theatre, Roanoke, VA, 2005) and “Menage a Troy” (staged reading: CMU Playground, Fall 2005). Also an actor, Frank has written and performed the one-man show, “infected” (CMU Playground, Spring 2005). His teleplay, “Blind Faith,” was a finalist for the CMU/Alfred P. Sloan teleplay competition in 2004.
Frank is the two-time recipient of a Schubert Fellowship and a member of Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. He is currently adapting Band Fags! into both a screenplay and a novel.
As an actor, Frank has appeared Off-Broadway at Revelation Theater and Primary Stages. Other NYC credits include: The Fourth Unity (“Unity Fest,” “Trafficking in Broken Hearts”), TOSOS II (“A Perfect Relationship”), (“Damage & Desire,” and “A Place Like This”) and the award-winning NYC Fringe Festival production, “Woman in the Animal Kingdom.”
Regional: The Shakespeare Theatre, Hartford Stage, Meadow Brook Theatre and The Source Theatre (2002 GLAAD media award recipient and DC-area premiere of “corpus Christi.”)
Film and TV: “One True Thing,” w/ Meryl Streep and Renee Zellweger “Family Pictures,” “One Life to Live,” “Spin City” and “The Sopranos.”
His first play, JOHN R, was produced in New York (Muse of Fire Productions, 2001) and starred Tony award-nominee John Tartaglia (Avenue Q.) Other full-lengths include: Another Day on Willow Street (CMU Winter New Play Festival, 2006), The Secret Anniversary (reading: CMU, 2005) and Band Fags! (staged reading: Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, Chicago, 2004). His one-act plays include: “Blue Tuesday” (staged readings: Playwrights/Actors Contemporary Theatre, NYC, 2005 and Mill Mountain Theatre, Roanoke, VA, 2005) and “Menage a Troy” (staged reading: CMU Playground, Fall 2005). Also an actor, Frank has written and performed the one-man show, “infected” (CMU Playground, Spring 2005). His teleplay, “Blind Faith,” was a finalist for the CMU/Alfred P. Sloan teleplay competition in 2004.
Frank is the two-time recipient of a Schubert Fellowship and a member of Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. He is currently adapting Band Fags! into both a screenplay and a novel.
As an actor, Frank has appeared Off-Broadway at Revelation Theater and Primary Stages. Other NYC credits include: The Fourth Unity (“Unity Fest,” “Trafficking in Broken Hearts”), TOSOS II (“A Perfect Relationship”), (“Damage & Desire,” and “A Place Like This”) and the award-winning NYC Fringe Festival production, “Woman in the Animal Kingdom.”
Regional: The Shakespeare Theatre, Hartford Stage, Meadow Brook Theatre and The Source Theatre (2002 GLAAD media award recipient and DC-area premiere of “corpus Christi.”)
Film and TV: “One True Thing,” w/ Meryl Streep and Renee Zellweger “Family Pictures,” “One Life to Live,” “Spin City” and “The Sopranos.”
Labels: Bio, Class of 2006
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