MFA One Act Play Festival

All should attend this production of new plays written in Mark Medoff's workshop...all plays written by students currently in the MFA or recently graduated. Looks like a great show!

NO STRINGS THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS ONE ACT PLAY FESTIVAL MARCH 4 - 13.

No Strings Theatre Company presents a One Act Play Festival running March 4 -
March 13 at the Black Box Theatre, 430 N Downtown Mall in Las Cruces. The plays
were written by students of Mark Medoff's Playwriting class. The 4 plays will be
performed each evening.

"Tarrant County Jail" by Neal Adelman is directed by Amy Lanasa. Three men in a
holding cell discuss the Boy Scouts, High School, Women, and Fatherhood. The
cast includes Shiloh Holloway as Earl, Eric Young as Dunbar, Zac Perez-Wright as
Henry and Patrick McKinney the Guard

"Sandpiper" by Peggy Chapman is directed by Mark Medoff. Nicole, an Ohio
transplant with a lot of real and figurative baggage, moves into a San Diego
condominium complex. Her exceptionally helpful, multi-talented neighbor, Travis,
sets out with bruising enthusiasm to help her unload that baggage. A unique
relationship embarks toward a titanic clash of wills. The cast includes Katy
Taylor as Nicole, Brandon Brown as Travis, Marcella Salmon as Tanya.

"The Interview" by Mike Meginnis is directed by David Edwards. A top-level
Hollywood executive seeks a personal assistant for an even bigger movie mogul.
Has he found the right person for the job? The cast includes Bob Diven as Doyle,
Ted Aspen Sanchez as Orson and Gail Wheeler as Edie

"Invisible Box" by Tracy Bowling is directed by Deborah LaPorte. Two parents
recovering from their teenage daughter's attempt at suicide quarrel over the
meaning of her sudden descent into silence and pantomine. It's when they learn
to talk to each other that they discover she has ambitions beyond any of the
possibilities they had imagined for her. The cast includes Tiffany Tyson as
Mallory, Eric Young as Dan and Cindy Murrell as Ruth.

Performances are:
Friday, March 4 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 5 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 6 at 2:30 p.m.
Friday, March 11 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 12 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 13 at 2:30 p.m.

Creative Writing Faculty Rus Bradburd Wins Southwest Book Award

We are pleased to annouce that Rus Bradburd has won a Southwest Book Award for Forty Minutes of Hell: The Extraordinary Life of Nolan Richardson. Since 1971, the awards have been presented in recognition of outstanding books about the Southwest published each year. Congratulations, Rus.

3rd Year Student Profile: Carrie Murphy

Note: This is the last in a series profiling students in their last year of the MFA program at New Mexico State. To see the other students profiled, click on the 3rd year students label at the bottom of this post.  

Carrie Murphy is finishing her last year as an MFA student in Poetry at New Mexico State University, where she works as the La Sociedad Para Las Artes Reading Coordinator and and as a graduate assistant. During her first year in Las Cruces, she worked as an adjunct instructor at Dona Ana Community College.

Carrie grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she majored in English and minored in Jewish Studies. Her other academic interests include feminism, Latin American literature, and girlhood studies. Her non-academic interests include cooking, live music, vintage clothing, becoming fluent in Spanish, photography, and hiking in the desert. She blogs with fellow NMSU poet Robert Alan Wendeborn at Master of Fine Eats, a blog about eating well in graduate school.

She's currently at work on her thesis, which explores gender performance within the landscape of girlhood. Carrie's poems have appeared in PANK, WTF PWM, Prick of the Spindle, Corium, and Keyhole 9. 

After graduation, Carrie would like to continue teaching writing, and is considering becoming a birth and postpartum doula. She will have her public reading on April 1st, 2011, with Jacqueline Osherow.