Click here to watch the full reading of the winner TO SAINTS AND STARS by Jordan Ramirez Puckett. Available for 24 hours only.
(Cincinnati, OH) Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati is excited to announce the three finalists of the second annual PLAY/write: The Jackie Demaline Regional Collegiate Playwriting Competition, held in memory of writer, critic, and arts advocate, Jackie Demaline. The three finalists include To Saints and Stars by Jordan Ramirez Puckett, The Black Boy in Pink by Isaiah Mikel-Reaves, and M’s Republic by Peyton Wright. A brief virtual excerpt of the finalists’ submissions will be showcased online June 16-18, 2020. The winner of the competition will be announced on June 22, 2020, followed by a full reading of their script to be showcased online for only 24 hours.
A reading of the winning submission was originally scheduled to be performed as a part of ETC’s Studio Series the first week of May to coincide with Jackie Demaline’s birthday. However, with COVID restrictions enacted shortly after the submission deadline, ETC was forced to delay these performances until arrangements could be made to adapt this presentation to a digital format and to include excerpts of the finalists’ pieces. ETC is honored to share these emerging young voices as they begin their professional and/or post-academic careers.
About the Plays
M’s Republic
By Peyton Wright
Through the lessons of Plato’s Republic, M’s Republic explores the life of high school student Mia, her boyfriend and classmates, and her teacher, and how the diversion of good intentions leads to their downfall.
Click here to watch the excerpt.
To Saints and Stars
By Jordan Ramirez Puckett
To Saints and Stars explores the intersection between science and faith. It follows lifelong best friends Sofía, a NASA astronaut, and Zoe, the wife of a Greek Orthodox priest. Their lives are changed forever when Zoe becomes pregnant with her first child and Sofía is chosen for the first manned mission to Mars.
Click here to watch the excerpt.
The Black Boy in Pink
By Isaiah Mikel-Reaves
The Black Boy in Pink tells the story of Wyatt, a Black, gay male sex-worker who hustles against the backdrop of 1959 Cincinnati, Ohio. As his life becomes entangled with the legacy of a wealthy, white family, will Wyatt be able to love himself in a world that doesn’t love him?
Click here to watch the excerpt.
About the Playwrights
Peyton Wright (Playwright) is a rising junior at Xavier University where she is a candidate for a BA in Theatre, as well as pursuing a minor in Deaf Studies. Her recent performance history on the Xavier Theatre stage consists of Urinetown: The Musical, Company, and Chicago. She has also fulfilled many roles backstage and is an employee of Xavier’s scene shop. At her alma mater, Presentation Academy in Louisville, Kentucky, she had opportunities to explore theatre through performance, writing, and directing.
Jordan Ramirez Puckett (Playwright) is a Chicana playwright and lighting designer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She often writes about being caught between two identities and our intrinsic desire for human connection, no matter how brief. She most recently participated in the 2018-2019 Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series. Her work has also been produced and/or developed by 2Cents Theatre, Abingdon Theatre Company, Custom Made Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Harold Clurman Laboratory Theatre Company, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, National Winter Playwrights Retreat, Playwrights Center of San Francisco, and San Francisco Playhouse, among others. Her plays include To Saints and Stars, A Driving Beat, Las Pajaritas, Restore, and Inevitable. She is a graduate of Northwestern University and the former Associate Artistic Director at San Francisco Playhouse. She recently graduated with her MFA in playwriting from Ohio University.
Isaiah Mikel-Reaves (Playwright) is an emerging young playwright whose work explores a spectrum of Black and Queer experiences. A native of Cincinnati, Isaiah graduated Cum Laude from Northern Kentucky University in 2020. His plays have been staged and read by The Classical Theatre of Harlem at Lincoln Center, Vintage Soul Productions of Connecticut, and many others. Isaiah has been awarded the Iowa Arts Fellowship and a Cincinnati CityBeat Critics Pick. He will continue his education in pursuit of an MFA at the esteemed University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop in the fall.
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2019-2020 Season Presenting Sponsor is the Otto M. Budig Family Foundation. Additional support provided PNC.
Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati is supported, in part, by the generosity of community contributions to the ArtsWave Campaign.
The Ohio Arts Council helps fund Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati also receives funding from the Shubert Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati is a professional theatre dedicated to producing world and regional premieres of works that often explore compelling social issues. We fulfill our mission through our stage productions and educational outreach programs that enlighten, enliven, enrich and inspire our audiences.
The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine is seeking actors to serve as Simulated Patients (SPs). SPs are actors who are trained to portray all the physical and emotional characteristics of a real patient for the teaching and testing of medical students in controlled environments. These will be PAID positions performed during the medical school hours (usually 7:30 am -5 pm).
From John Ray:
George Floyd is the latest African American man in a long history of deaths and injuries: Rodney King, Malice Wayne Green, Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, among them.
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