By Lian Benasuly
Six months ago, emerging playwright Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters began writing a play about a young girl grieving the death of her mom on a farm in Michigan. Walters saw her story come to life earlier this month, as UC Santa Barbara students performed it in a staged reading at UCSB’s Studio Theatre.
The 90-minute staged reading of “Dalia is Dead and Her Dad Keeps Making Dumplings,” went through several drafts on the Monday to Thursday leading up to the reading, as part of a playwriting festival hosted by UCSB Theater and Dance.
Director Julia Cho & Playwright Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters working together during workshops in the LAUNCH PAD AMPLIFY Reading Series Festival. Photo by Jan Ruskin.
The reading at the LAUNCH PAD AMPLIFY Reading Series festival was co-organized by department’s LAUNCH PAD initiative and UCSB student-led initiative AMPLIFY. Several hundred people attended. The National New Play Network, an alliance of nonprofit theatres, connected playwrights nationally to LAUNCH PAD.
In 2005, Risa Brainin founded LAUNCH PAD to help emerging playwrights go through the process of rewriting their plays to figure out what next steps to take. And, in response to the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, UCSB students created AMPLIFY, a student-led initiative that aims to uplift the voices of marginalized communities in the world of theater.
“When I originally created LAUNCH PAD, I was responding to a need for professional playwrights to have an incubator that could fully produce their work, but in a safe environment,” Brainin said. “This particular festival addresses the need for writers of colors to have more development opportunities. We want to support a diversity of voices in the theater. There are so many important stories being told, and our mission is to give as many writers as possible the chance to be heard.”
The company of "Dalia is Dead and Her Dad Keeps Making Dumplings" during rehearsals. Photo by Jan Ruskin.
Though this was the third annual festival, it was the first year that LAUNCH PAD and AMPLIFY could put the festival on in-person due to COVID restrictions. The in-person nature of staged reading helps playwrights experiment with movements and see how the play would look in a professional setting, according to KC Buller, community relations specialist in UCSB Theater and Dance.
Along with Walters, three other playwrights came to UCSB to develop their plays alongside UCSB students. The three playwrights, Yussef El Guindi whose play focuses on personal identity, Jacqueline E. Lawton whose play honors people who fought against racism, and Eric Reyes Loo, whose play asks the question, “Whose story is it to tell?” went through the same process as Walters. They began workshopping with the actors, directors, and dramaturgs on Monday and ended with the readings on Friday and Saturday. A committee of about 15 people, including UCSB faculty, staff, undergraduates, and graduate students chose which plays and playwrights to feature for the festival finale.
To be mentored by professional playwrights, directors and actors is an unparalleled experience for students, says LAUNCH PAD company manager Jan Ruskin.
“This is a phenomenal opportunity that doesn’t happen often,” Ruskin said. “The students get to play a part in developing new plays and can put this experience on their resumes.”
Student actors Monica Granados, Emma Roybal, Hind Jadallah-Karraa, Carlee Douglas, and Abbs Stoiber during the staged reading of "Dalia is Dead and Her Dad Keeps Making Dumplings" by Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters. Photo by Jan Ruskin.
The benefits go both ways. Walters and the other playwrights see this week-long intensive workshop as a time to make many changes and see how the audience responds.
“This is my time. I need weeks like this where someone says you don’t need to clean your house, instead you can rewrite your play five times,” Walters said.
For the playwrights, the audience Q&A session also helps them see if their vision came to life.
“Playwrights can see if what they’re imagining is getting through to the audience,” Ruskin said. “Are they getting the laughs and emotion when they want it, is the messaging good, does the story make sense.”
Some of the plays from past festivals have gone on to other theaters. “American Fast,” written by Kareem Fahmy, was workshopped during the 2021 LAUNCH PAD AMPLIFY Reading Series Festival and will be featured in several theaters this year, Ruskin said.
For English and Theater student Roni Ragone, the LAUNCH PAD workshops have proved a defining part of their USCB experience.
“They’re definitely intense, but also incredibly fruitful and fulfilling as an artist. For me, I’ve been able to work with and meet so many incredible playwrights which has already been so beneficial in my own growth as a writer,” Ragone said.
This year, they participated in LAUNCH PAD as playwright Yussef El Guindi’s assistant, as well serving as a leader in AMPLIFY.
“By bringing in professional writers, directors, actors, and more leaders in the industry, it’s an incredible time of learning for the students. We get to experience just a taste of what we can expect outside of the university, and I am beyond thankful for that experience,” Ragone said.
Lian Benasuly is a fourth-year student at UC Santa Barbara, majoring in communication and pursuing a minor in professional writing with an emphasis in journalism. She is a web and social media intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.