May 26, 2015

MDC announces 2015 class of resident playwrights

Congratulations are in order for Darren Canady, Ry Kincaid, and Nick Sawin--the newest members of the Midwest Dramatists Center! After a region-wide selection process, these three talented writers were chosen for residency at MDC.

You'll have the chance to meet them at a special Open House at MDC on Monday, June 8, and there will be plenty of opportunities to become familiar with their impressive work--especially the work they are yet to create--through the staged readings and other events that are part of their MDC residency. But for now, here's a little more on each member of the new class:

Darren Canady’s work has been seen at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, the Alliance Theatre, Horizon Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Fremont Centre Theatre, Congo Square Theatre, the BE Company, American Blues Theater and Kansas City’s own Barn Theater. Darren is an alum of Carnegie Mellon University, New York University, and the Juilliard School. He is a former member of Primary Stages’ Dorothy Strelsin New Writers Group, the T.S. Eliot US/UK Exchange, and the America-In-Play theatre collective. He currently teaches playwriting at the University of Kansas.
Ry Kincaid’s recent plays include Not Just for the Birds, an aviation history play that was performed at 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and Pilgrimage, a rock musical based on The Canterbury Tales, performed at 2012 KC Fringe. Presidential Briefs, his 44-original-song performance piece, will debut at this year’s KC Fringe. Kincaid is a graduate of Rockhurst University (B.A., English) and UMKC (M.A., Theatre). 
Nick Sawin writes to give voice to queer stories told in queered ways, exploring experimental theatre and finding intersections with poetry and creative nonfiction. Nick earned his MFA in Creative Writing and Media Arts from UMKC in 2013 and is currently at work on Queer Thoughts: The Monologues and Whitman & Wilde. His play Unnamed Lands was named a National Finalist at the 2012 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, 10-Minute Play Competition, and was given a concert reading at the Kennedy Center Family Theater in Washington, D.C. He works as the marketing director of Unicorn Theatre and is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

View the full press release on the announcement here.