Notre Dame College is offering a masterclass in playwriting, as well as a world premiere, from a renowned local scriptwriter as part of the College’s New Play Festival in 2022.
Eric Coble, the Cleveland-area scriptwriter, will lead the session Saturday, November 19, from 1-2 p.m. in Regina Auditorium, 1857 S. Green Road, on the College campus in South Euclid, Ohio. The seminar is free and open to the public.
Coble has had his plays performed on and off Broadway, including productions at The Kennedy Center, Manhattan Class Company and Cleveland Play House, among many others.
His masterclass leads up to the College’s annual New Play Festival. The 2022 showcase features the world premiere of “Deep Dive” by Coble, as well as readings of the three short plays written by local playwrights selected as winners of the festival this year. Students of Notre Dame’s Fall 2022 Theatre Ensemble will perform workshop productions of the winning submissions on Friday, November 18, and Saturday, November 19, both at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, November 20, at 2 p.m., all in Regina Auditorium.
One of the plays selected for the festival is “Number One with a Side of Crime” by Notre Dame English major Casidy Thomas. The other two winning scripts representing this year’s theme of “We Are Citizens of the World” are “Better Luck Next Time” by Abraham Adams and “Outcast Forest” by Jacob Bremkamp.
Coble is known for the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-nominated “The Velocity of Autumn,” which premiered on Broadway at the Booth Theatre. His works “Fairfield,” “Southern Rapture,” “Bright Ideas,” “The Dead Guy,” “My Barking Dog,” “A Girl’s Guide to Coffee” and “The Giver” have been produced Off-Broadway.
His scripts also have been performed at Playwrights Horizons, Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival, Denver Center Theatre Company, Arena Stage, New York and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, Alliance Theatre, Great Lakes Theater Festival and The Contemporary American Theatre Festival, among others.
Coble has written scripts for Disney theme parks, too, such as “Jedi Training: Trials of the Temple.”
He has been honored with an Emmy nomination, the American Alliance for Theatre and Education Distinguished Play Award for Best Adaptation, the Chorpenning Playwriting Award for Body of Work, the AT&T Onstage Award, National Theatre Conference Playwriting Award, National Endowment for the Arts Playwright in Residence Grant, a Theater Communications Group Extended Collaboration Grant, the Cleveland Arts Prize, two Cuyahoga Arts and Culture Fellowships and four Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Grants.
The playwright, who now calls Northeast Ohio home, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and raised on the Navajo and Ute reservations in New Mexico and Colorado.
Coble has published in all 50 states of the U.S. and on several continents, a total of 32 scripts issued by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, Dramatic Publishing, Smith & Krause, among others.
The College’s New Play Festival is open to all Notre Dame faculty, staff and students as well as all Cuyahoga County residents. This is the third year for the event, which started in 2019. The College did not conduct the festival in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
October 2022
Updated November 2022
Kimberly Krozser ’17 contributed to this article
About Notre Dame College
Notre Dame College is a private, Catholic, liberal arts college in South Euclid, Ohio, committed to teaching students how to make a good living and live a good life. Founded by the Sisters of Notre Dame in 1922, the College offers bachelor’s degrees in 30 disciplines plus a variety of master’s degrees, certification programs and continuing and professional development programs for adult learners on campus and online. For more information, visit NotreDameCollege.edu.