5/9 ‘AIM’D SO NEAR’ TO BE PART OF CLEVELAND’S BORDERLIGHT FRINGE FESTIVAL JULY 25-27 2019

Best Intentions premiered at the Pittsburgh Fringe Festival before traveling to London, UK and finally ending up at the Edinburg fringe festival in the summer of 2016. “We always wanted this production to come home to Cleveland where it was conceived, but we knew when we did it that we wanted to make some changes” said O’Keefe, Playwright.

As Shakespeare would say, what’s in a name?  To start us off, O’Keefe changed the name from Best Intentions to Aim’d so near she felt this title better reflected the characters desires despite their imperfections. Since the last production, O’Keefe also relooked at the script to attempt to give the characters more of a resolution. She says, “You can only be in purgatory for so long before you finally decide – okay how do I move on from here”.

And so in 2019 Shark Eat Muffin Theatre Co. presents Aim’d so near as part of the inaugural Borderlight Fringe Festival in Cleveland OH in July 2019.

Two spirited women…a locked room…a tape recorder…and a kitten puzzle. Have these women met before? Why do their stories echo each other? With only a hazy recollection of the past while stuck in a mysterious location, secrets creep out and feelings of guilt and confusion bubble to the surface. As they mine their memories, well-to-do Army wife Emilia and live-in nanny Angelica discover the common flaws that landed them in this shared prison. Based upon significant and courageous — but often overlooked — characters from William Shakespeare’s classic dramas Othello and Romeo and Juliet, this play’s heroines uncover the misconceptions, guesses, and decisions that caused harm to the other ladies in their stories. Will accepting past sins free these women from confinement? Or are these assumptions and close calls how these women Aim’d so near?

Get tickets and showtimes HERE

2/28 O’KEEFE JOINS MIDWIVES

In late 2018 O’Keefe joined the Chicago based collective known as the Midwives. The Midwife Circle is a network of peer support, advocacy, and accountability. Each individual in the network commits to serving as both a midwife and an artist for a nine month term. The goal in these relationships is to create space for seeds of artistic projects to grow, change, and deepen. This process is guided by a philosophy of generosity, curiosity, and making the artist the authority in the room.

During her nine month residency as artist and Midwife, O’Keefe is exploring a subject that has always fascinated her and a story that has been at the tips of her fingers for a long time. Space travel is a subject that O’Keefe has explored in the past, yet Simulation Red attempts to explore the psychological effects of a space mission that never leaves the Earth.

Simulation Red: Monica and Phil have the chance of a lifetime; the opportunity to do something really noble for all of human-kind and they’re honored to do it – sort of. As respectable biologists and engineers, they find themselves part of a 520 day simulation to study many of the challenges and effects on humans that would arise on the long journey to Mars. Though they are isolated to a small mock-up of a space station they carry out their days doing research projects and attempting to keep their minds sharp. While on the outside (a.k.a down on Earth) Monica’s mother Birdie and Phil’s wife Heidi start meeting in secret outside of the allowed family visits in search of their own comforts. Based upon the Mars 500 mission experiments from 2007-2011, Monica and Phil find themselves not only in an experiment in food rationing, living in tight living quarters, or lack of proper exercise, but also dealing with the pressure of waiting and watching for the inevitable psychological side-effects to set in.

5/03 OHIO ARTS COUNCIL 2018 INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNER

In May 2018 O’Keefe was awarded an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council. Individual Excellence Awards are peer recognition of creative artists for the exceptional merit of a body of their work that advances or exemplifies the discipline and the larger artistic community. These awards support artists’ growth and development and recognize their work in Ohio and beyond. O’Keefe submitted the plays Best Intentions and Illuminated, both of which had been created in Ohio and Best Intentions went on to be performed in London and Edinburgh and Illuminated had a world Premiere at Convergence Continuum Theatre last summer.

O’Keefe was one of 8 playwrights throughout the state of Ohio to be awarded and is honored to be included in the 2018 award cycle.

*The award was posted under O’Keefe’s married, legal name, Caitlin Dargue.

4/21 READING OF “MAGS” AT DOBAMA THEATRE

As part of the Dobama Theatre’s Playwright’s Gym, O’Keefe will have a reading of a brand new play and first draft look at a work in progress, Mags.

In a slightly overstuffed and stale flat in Brixton (London), siblings Hendrick and Claire find themselves currently responsible for caring for their Aunt Maggie’s flat after she gets sectioned for making unbelievable claims that something supernatural has been happening to her. As Cousin Raziya comes to lend a hand, things turn strange and they learn what really happened to their aunt – even though they cannot possibly explain it.

The reading of Mags will be at Dobama Theatre on Monday May 14th at 7pm and is free to the public.

6/11 WORLD PREMIER OF “ILLUMINATED” AT CONVERGENCE CONTINUUM

After a successful staged reading in February 2017 of Illuminated (prequel to Darker and O’Keefe’s latest finish play) at Dobama Theatre as part of the Dobama Theatre Playwright’s Gym Reads, director Sarah Greywitt of  Ohio City Theatre Project will take on this one act play in the world premier of this darkly comic drama.  Starring Stuart Hoffman, Kayla Gray and Michael Randall this play explores the story of Max, Lucy and Tom before it got dark, when the world was filled with light and possibilities, or not.  This is part of the Tweeners program at Convergence Continuum and proceeds go towards their capital campaign.  Show is one weekend only, June 22nd – 24th at 8pm. Tickets HERE.