Rigney
Mark Rigney
113 S. Spring Street(812) 449-8002
Evansville, IN 47714
WRITING PROJECTS (selected)
Books:Deaf Side Story: Deaf Sharks, Hearing Jets and a Classic American Musical
(Gallaudet University Press, 2003). Non-fiction work chronicles a collaborative deaf and hearing production of West Side Story.
In the Wink of a Stone God’s Eye (re-titled as A Most Unruly Gnome) won the 2009 First Coast Novel Contest. (Final judges: novelists David Poyer and Lenore Hart.)
Represented by Bob Mecoy Literary (New York, NY).
Plays (full-length):Acts of God(Playscripts, Inc.), has now enjoyed forty productions in the U.S. and Canada. First produced in conjunction with the Evansville Civic Theatre (Evansville, IN), the play follows twelve high schoolers coping with the devastation of a lethal tornado strike. Two monologues from the play are included in the Playscripts anthology, Actor’s Choice: Monologues for Teens Volume 2.
Bears, winner of the 2012 Panowski Playwriting Award through the Forest Roberts Theatre (Marquette, MI) and Northern Michigan University. Inaugural production November 2012. Bears earned a spot in the Earth Matters On Stage New Play Festival, and received a June 2012 workshop (in conjunction with the University of Oregon and Carnegie Mellon University). The Road Theatre Company and Absolute Theatre co-produced a rehearsed reading in Los Angeles (Nov. 2012). Bears first received a workshop in 2011, produced by the Reverb Collective, now Sans A Productions, (NY, NY), and received an off Broadway production at 59e59 by Sans A in March, 2013.
Cavers, full production at the D.C. Capital Fringe Festival (Nu Sass Productions, Washington, D.C.), July, 2010. Revived for Best of Fringe Fest, November 2010.
Gaining Ground, full production at The Ark Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, Oct. 2006. Gaining Ground also received a staged reading at the 2004 Plays in Progress series, Utah Shakespearean Festival (Cedar City, Utah).
Nightjars, large-cast play, selected for the 2009 Y.E.S. Festival. Full premiere production in April ‘09, at Northern Kentucky University (Highland Heights, KY). Also received rehearsed concert reading in fall 2005 with the University of Evansville Theatre Department (Evansville, IN).
Burning Mona Lisa in the Reptile House, winner of the 2004 Panowski Playwriting Award. Play received summer workshop followed by full production at Northern Michigan University (Marquette, MI), Nov. 2004.
The Experts, staged reading at the 2004 New Voices of the Wild West Festival (Foothill Theatre Company, Nevada City, CA). A second staged reading was scheduled for September, 2010, but Mind the Gap Productions (Chicago, IL) folded before it could occur.
Ten Red Kings to be published by Playscripts, Inc., mid-2013. Inaugural production at Andrew Hill High School (San Jose, CA) in March, 2012. Script also received a concert reading at Ball State University (Muncie, IN), Jan. 2011.
Lines in the Sand, winner of the 2002 Maxim Mazumdar New Play Competition.
Lines received a full production at the Alleyway Theatre (Buffalo, NY) in Nov. 2003.
The play first received a staged reading at the 2002 New Voices of the Wild West Festival (Foothill Theatre, Nevada City, CA) under the title of Asylum. Also received a concert reading at Studio 400 (Pensacola, FL), Aug. 2004.
Digging in the Margins, staged reading at the 2003 Plays in Progress series, Utah Shakespearean Festival (Cedar City, Utah), as a staged reading. Digging first received a staged reading at the ‘01 New Voices of the Wild West Festival (Foothill Theatre, Nevada City, CA).
Roots In a Grey Gardenreceived a 2006-2007 Ludwig Vogelstein grant. The grant supported travel and housing costs to interview activists and political radicals throughout Europe in the spring and summer of 2007. Roots then received a workshop at the Tofte Lake Center (Ely, MN) in June 2009, and a concert reading via the Santa Barbara City College Theatre Department in June 2011. An additional concert reading, self-produced,took place in New York City (July, 2011).
My American Bullet, staged reading through Artemisia Theatre Company
(Chicago, IL), as part of their 2012 Fall Festival.
The Mombasa Pirate Kings, selected for the “First Fifteen” program at the Next Play Summit, Capital Repertory Theatre, Albany, NY. Nov. 2012.
Meriwether, work-shopped by the Group Lab (New York, NY), March 2013.
Plays (short):“Migratory Birds of Iraq,” selected for The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2012 (Smith & Kraus). First produced by The Attic Theatre (Los Angeles, CA), the One-Act Festival (September 2011). “Migratory Birds” was also a finalist for the Heideman Award (Actors Theatre of Louisville, 2011).
“End of the Rainy Season,” winner of the Jury Prize for “The Seven,” the ten-minute play festival curated by the Fusion Theatre Co. (Albuquerque, NM), June, 2013.
“The Arabian Nights,”adapted for Tales & Scales, a company of conservatory-trained musicians performing theater for young audiences (touring nationally, based in Evansville, IN). Performs for 20,000 children per year. Also scripted parts of T&S’s “Holiday Musictale” in 2005, which included an adaptation of O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.”
“Porch Revival”selected for the 4th Annual Universal Theatre Festival (Provincetown, MA), January 2011. Additional productions: Lakeshore Players (White Bear Lake, MN) at the 7th Annual Lakeshore 10-Minute Festival, July 2011; Actors’ Theatre of Grand Rapids Ten-Minute Festival, July 2011. Published in Great Short Comedies Vol. 6 (Playscripts, Inc.). The sequel, “Griddle Cakes,” selected for the 6th Annual Universal Theatre Festival (Provincetown, MA), January 2013.
“Twenty-Three Hundred,” selected for the Driftwood Players 3rd Annual Festival of Shorts (Edmonds, WA), July 2012. First New York production courtesy of Love Creek and Good-Walk Productions, Veteran’s Day 2012. Will appear in Best Ten Minute Plays 2013 (Smith & Kraus), December 2013.
“Advice for 56,” selected for the 0 to 60 Festival (Longwood University, CO), April 2011, and is published by One Act Play Depot. Previously included in The Short Attention Span Festival, Studio 400 (Pensacola, FL), Feb. 2007.
“In Which Gillian Amber Copes With Miracles,” selected for the Eye In the Sky Project, curated by the Audacity Theater Lab (Austin, TX), spring 2012.
Reviews:Book & journal reviews published in Tangent (Summer ’09) and Black Gate Magazine (both on-line & print editions, further reviews upcoming).
Magazines/Essays:“The Little Corners of the World,” and “In the Land of the Nationalists” in Outside In (March, 2013 & June, 2013). “Book of Badges,” in J Journal (Fall 2013). Frequent contributor toBlack Gate online (2008-present) and Evansville Parent (’06-’07), with additional work appearing in Dec. ’07 issue of Columbus Parent. Multiple photographs published in Skive (2009).
Short Fiction:Forty-eight short stories published. Venues include Unlikely Story, Betwixt, Ascent, Witness, The Long Story, Nightfall, The Journal of Unlikely Architecture, Black Gate, Electric Spec, Not One Of Us, Fiction on the Web, Niteblade, Ancient New, Black Static, Realms Of Fantasy(Honorable Mention, Best Horror of the Year), Altered States, Sleet, Birkensnake, Day Terrors (anthology), Escape Clause (anthology), Shelter of Daylight (anthology), Strange, Weird & Wonderful (w/featured interview), The Best of the Bellevue Literary Review, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet,Traps (anthology), World of Wonders, Skive, Forgotten Worlds, Shadow Regions (anthology), Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine, Talebones (Honorable Mention,Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror’08), Aoife’s Kiss, Andromeda Spaceways, All Hallows, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Surplus, THEMA, Red Rock Review, Big Muddy, Conversely, The Bellevue Literary Review (Pushcart nomination in ’04, second story in ‘06),The Rambunctious Review (First Prize ’01) The Café Irreal, Rain Crow, Sou’wester, the Kit-Cat Review, and Bibliophilos.
eBooks:The Skates (novella), to be released by Samhain Publishing, July 2013. A second novella, Sleeping Bear, the sequel to The Skates, will be released by Samhain in Winter, 2014.
Podcasts:“Carly Lynn Redtop…,” produced by YouHeardItHereFirst, March 2013.
“Called On Account,” produced by Tales To Terrify #33. Sept. 2012.
Other Ventures:Reckless Amateurs, a novel, received an Indiana Arts Council grant (2003-2004).
Irregular blogger for Playscripts, Inc., at Contributed written work to The Fourth Wall hybrid arts ensemble, at Founding member of In the Mix, a devised theatre troupe devoted to exploring a fusion of original staging, motion and music. Inaugural performance (entitled Crying Shame): Evansville Museum of Art and Science, June 5, 2011. Next show: May 2013. Website: at