Write to the Top!

Recently, we told you about some of the achievements of our current and former Adult Conservatory acting students. This time we decided to track down some of our playwriting students to find out where their scribbles have led them.

It turns out that playwriting instructor Cecilia Fanon’s students are enjoying success all over the country, winning awards and earning staged readings and full productions of their work. In fact, it’s hard to find a successful playwright in Orange County who hasn’t taken a class with Cecilia at some point. Her students’ work has been seen in cities as nearby as Orange and Fullerton and as far away as Oregon, Ohio and New York.

Tom Swimm (2010) — Full length play production of The Hanging Of Mary Surratt at the Mysterium Theater in Orange. Also produced at The Chance Theater. Nominated for Best New Play by OC Weekly. Recently won the Morton Sarrett National Playwriting award for Bed, a full-length comedy that was produced at the Nevada Conservatory Theater in Las Vegas. Winner of The Fritz Blitz for Humphrey, Nevada, a one-act comedy produced at San Diego Repertory (2008).

Dale Andersen (2005, 2006, 2008) — One-act A Dog's Tale got honorable mention in the 2009 Lourdes College One-Act Competition and a staged reading in August 2010 at the Mountain Stage Company's Evening of Short Plays. One-act Missing was runner-up in Theatre In the Raw's 2009 Biennial Playwrighting Contest. One-Act Dead Angel was produced in Write-Act Repertory's 2009 Freeway Series Original One-Acts. Monologue Starman produced in ASOC Theatre’s 2010 New Works Festival. Full-Length Mohammed's Moon staged reading in Theatre O's 2010 Festival of New Plays. (You can read more about it in a June 2010 newspaper article here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32760444@N08/4801048460/. In October, The Three Roses Players in Glendale will do staged readings of his award-winning one-act, A Team Player.

CJ Ver Burg (2003-2010) — is one of the Conservatory program’s few writers of musicals. His Shoe was produced by Cypress Civic Theatre and is currently in rewrites (again!) at the Academy for New Musical Theatre in North Hollywood, where CJ has been a member since 2005.

Sue Parman (SCR 2000-2008) — Sue's short play The Red Tide was performed at STAGEStheatre, Fullerton, (2002). A full-length play, North of 63 Degrees, was given a staged reading at Newport Theatre Arts Center as part of its Discoveries program (2008). Her full-length play The House of Ravens had a staged reading at Gallimaufry Performing Arts New Play Festival in Laguna Beach (2008). Her monologue The Rose by Another Name was read at Theatre In The Grove in Forest Grove, Oregon (2010). Her ten-minute play Queen Victoria's Secret will be staged as part of Portland's Fertile Ground playwriting festival (2011). 

Johnna Adams (2002) — is currently pursing an MFA in Playwriting at Hunter College in Manhattan, studying with Tina Howe. Her play Hripsime is a finalist for the 2010 William Saroyan Prize, presented by the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance. Her play Lickspittles, Buttonholers, and Damned Pernicious Go-Betweens was given a reading by Flux Theatre Ensemble (New York, NY) this spring. Flux also produced Johnna’s trilogy of full-length plays, The Angel Eaters Trilogy, in November of 2008.

Bianca Bagatourian (1998, 2001) — is president and co-founder of the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance (ADAA). She completed the MFA playwriting program with lifetime Obie award-winning playwright Mac Wellman at Brooklyn College. Remnants of a Liquid World had a reading at Soho Think Tank's 6th Floor Reading Series at the Ohio Theatre, NYC, in 2008. The Scent of Jasmine had a staged reading at the Fountain Theatre, L.A., in 2006.

Paula Fell (2007 – 2010) — Her full-length play Acceptable Risk was a winner in the 2008 Long Beach Playhouse New Works Festival and the 2007 Ashland New Plays Festival, and was a semi-finalist in the 2009 Dayton Playhouse FutureFest and the 2007 Trustus Playwrights’ Festival. Her full-length play The Hive was a winner in the 2008 Panndora's Box Festival of New Works.

Lorin Howard (2008 - 2010)—Her short play was a winner in the "Eat My Shorts Festival" in Seattle, 2010, and will be staged at Bumbershoot Theater.

Andrea Sloan Pink began her full-length play, Origami, in Fannon's Advanced Practicum in 2007.  Origami won the Panndora's Box New Play Festival in 2008 and received a staged reading at the Royal Theater aboard the Queen Mary.  In 2009, Sloan Pink's one-act Ode To Provence was part of the Discoveries series at STAGESTheater, and in December of 2009, her one-act Light received a full production as part of a three-weekend run of the “Holiday Stimulus Package” at STAGESTheater.  She is currently writing a new full-length, Cooking with Sartre.