Third-year graduate playwright Tyler Whidden received the Anthony Trisolini Graduate Fellowship from the Ohio University Graduate College.
Ohio University graduate playwrights have now been named the Anthony Trisolini Fellow for two years in a row.
Tyler Whidden, a third-year Master of Fine Arts playwright, received the graduate fellowship for the 2015-16 academic year. Neal Adelman, a playwright who graduated in May, received the fellowship for the 2014-15 year.
The Anthony Trisolini Graduate Fellowship is one of the five “Named Graduate Fellowships” that are funded by the Graduate College. Each award comes with a $15,000 stipend and full tuition for the fall and spring semesters.
“I was actually really surprised,” Whidden, who is abroad in Amsterdam, said in an email. “Receiving a Named Fellowship is a terrific honor, so I rarely expect such things.”
Whidden was quick to thank his fellow graduate playwrights in the Master of Fine Arts Professional Playwriting Program for their help and support in writing his proposal.
“Personally, I don't consider it my award alone,” he said. “On top of the leadership of (professors) Charles Smith and Erik Ramsey and the support of the entire theater department, the other writers really drive me in my creative endeavors. We had an incredible year within the writers’ room, supporting and really pushing each other.”
OU departments and schools each only have one nomination for all five fellowships. Part of the submission includes a “project plan” for how the year will be spent as a fellow. For the playwriting program, this is essentially the playwright’s thesis play, said Charles Smith, distinguished professor of playwriting and head of the MFA program.
Whidden’s thesis play, titled Occupation: Dad, examines what it means to be a father today as men nowadays take on more responsibilities at home. The inspiration came from Whidden’s own experience as a father to his son Booker, 3.
“After my son was born, I stayed home with him while my wife, a doctor of counseling psychology, worked full-time,” Whidden said. “Being a father has definitely made me a better person, and it's also made me hyper-aware of the lack of acknowledgement or even support men get in parenting circles. The (past) three years have been a journey for all three of us in my family, so I would like to tell that story in some way.”
Whidden’s “dynamic” take on masculinity prompted the Division of Theater to nominate him for the fellowship, Smith said.
In the play, Whidden also wants to discuss the cyclical influences of fathers on sons. Whidden’s father, Bob Whidden, played for the Cleveland Crusaders in the World Hockey Association — a major league that competed with NHL from 1972 to 1979.
“I think most kids think they'll be nothing like their parents, yet the older we get — especially in becoming parents ourselves — most of us kids find ourselves becoming almost exactly like our parents,” he said. “This is something that I hope to explore with the play — how being a son informs how I am as a father and how that will affect my own son. The circle of life, I guess.”
Last year, Adelman was the only master’s student to receive a fellowship. The rest of the fellows were Ph.D. students.
“Every time I look on the website, (the fellowships) usually go to Ph.D. students,” Smith said. “I’m always delighted to see our MFAs ranking up with those guys.”
This year, Whidden is actually joined by another master’s student Melissa Riggs, a Master of Arts second-year candidate studying photojournalism. Riggs received the Graduate College Fellowship.
Maggie Messitt, a fourth-year Ph.D. student studying nonfiction creative writing, received the John Cady Fellowship. Justin J. Rudnick, a third-year Ph.D. student studying communication studies, received the Claude Kantner Graduate Fellowship. Ashley Howell, a doctoral candidate studying clinical psychology, received the Donald Clippinger Fellowship.
Occupation: Dad will be featured in the 22nd annual Seabury Quinn Jr. Playwrights’ Festival in spring 2016.
“The entire theater department — actors, directors, designers, tech — all do tremendous work, so any chance we can bring more attention to that, I’m happy about,” Whidden said. “Hopefully, this award can do that.”
@buzzlightmeryl
mg986611@ohio.ede
