KU News Release

LAWRENCE — Two student playwrights from the University of Kansas are competing this week in the regional round of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in Ames, Iowa,

Kimberly Michelle Condon, a law student from Baldwin City, and Saira Jehangir Khan, a senior in biology from Lawrence, qualified to compete in the Ten-Minute Plays competition. They are among six students selected in the region to compete. Two winners will be selected to advance to the national competition in April in Washington, D.C.

Two more KU entries also qualified as runners-up in the Ten-Minute Plays competition: “Interference,” a second play by Condon, and “Eggs and Issues” by Kelsey Rene Murrell, a senior in English from Overland Park, Kan., and Kearney, Mo.

All of the plays were written in spring 2010 in the last playwriting class taught by Paul Stephen Lim, who retired in August. Lim and Darren Canady, assistant professor of English, who teaches playwriting, plan to accompany Khan, Condon and Murrell to Ames.

Lim said the plays were selected from more than 100 submitted for the regional competition.

The students are listed below by hometown, major, parents’ names, previous schools attended or degrees earned and honor.

DOUGLAS COUNTY
From Baldwin City 66006
Kimberly Michelle Condon, first-year law student; Sharon Condon; bachelor’s in English from KU, spring 2010; Lawrence High School; her play “Mother of the Bride” was selected for competition and she was a runner-up for her play “Interference.”

From Lawrence 66046
Saira Jehangir Khan, senior in biology; “Fortune 500” selected for competition.

JOHNSON COUNTY
From Overland Park 66210 and Kearney, Mo.
Kelsey Rene Murrell, senior in English and journalism; Dawn Murrell, Overland Park, and Ronald Murrell, Kearney, Mo.; Kearney R-1 Sr. High School; runner-up for “Eggs and Issues.”

MISSOURI
From Kearney 64060 and Overland Park, Kan.
Kelsey Rene Murrell. SEE JOHNSON COUNTY