Presented by CSU and convergence-continuum

Cleveland State University and convergence-continuum present four world-premiere plays by local graduate-student playwrights at the 2018 NEOMFA Playwrights Festival. The Festival features two full-length plays by MFA candidates Katie Wallace, and Rob M.K. Daniels, and two ten-minute plays by graduate students Jonathan Wlodarski and Adam Rounick. These plays are part of a three-year intensive program of study under playwright and CSU professor Mike Geither. The productions are co-produced by convergence-continuum and the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts (NEOMFA) in Creative Writing, a four-university consortium incorporating the faculty and resources of Cleveland State University, Kent State University, Youngstown State University, and the University of Akron. This will be the seventh year convergence-continuum has mounted the Festival.

Feb 8, 9, 10, Thurs-Sat at 8 pm:

SEXLESS IN SEATTLE, a ten-minute play by Jonathan Wlodarski, is a lonely, lovelorn romp in a Seattle apartment. Directed by Clyde Simon.

MURDER AT THE PALACE THEATER by Robert M.K. Daniels, a comic, vaudeville murder mystery, is a satiric look at what people will go through for their art, and the cost of being famous. There are two sides to every coin; good and bad, light and dark, art and fame. And sometimes the price of fame can be murder. Directed by Beau Reinker.

Feb 15, 16, 17, Thurs-Sat at 8 pm:

RENDEZVOUS POINT, by Adam Rounick, is a ten-minute play about three professional criminals carrying out an elaborate heist. The only hitch is that two of them don't know the plan. Through playful back-and-forth banter and tangential diatribes, the clueless crooks race against the clock to salvage the scheme. Directed by Scott Zolkowski.

CONTRADICTIONARY LIES, by Katie Wallace, follows failed rocker Jimbo and his estranged wife Kelly as they sort through the remnants of their failed marriage. As nostalgia kicks up old emotions, Jimbo is visited by his guardian angel in the form of his idol, Kurt Cobain. Part dark comedy, part docudrama, this play channels It's a Wonderful Life for the grunge generation (minus the holidays) with amps up to eleven. Directed by David Munnell.

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