Tag archives: UCSB Launch Pad

Still at It
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 27, 2024

Playwright James Still has authored several dozen plays over his long career, many of which focus on a combination of political, cultural, and personal topics, including The Velocity of Gary, Appoggiatura, and the much-translated, globally produced And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank. But his current passion project is one […]

Mariachi in His Veins
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 17, 2023

Born and raised in Bakersfield, Jimmy Cuéllar has never lived a day of his life in Mexico, but it’s safe to say that mariachi music is in his blood. Both of his parents migrated to the United States with their parents when they were kids, his father brought here in his pre-teens to work the […]

Abundance After the Winter Dry Spell
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 10, 2023

The arts and entertainment scene in Santa Barbara stays particularly fallow in the current year-spanning four-week period, as none of the major producing organizations in town are staging events between mid-December and mid-January, save for the Santa Barbara Symphony’s annual New Year’s Eve concert. The Lobero is the first downtown to spring back into action, […]

Theater Talk: Launch Pad Already Firing Rockets 
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 19, 2022

The summer reading series from UCSB’s laudable Launch Pad program – which pairs playwrights’ new or underproduced works with professional directors and student performers – is an enviable experiential environment for professionals and students to participate in the creative process as it takes shape. In addition to acting, students get to explore stage management and […]

Launch Pad Preview
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 17, 2022

“I’m a survivor of childhood sexual assault,” Candrice Jones said plainly when asked about the origin of her latest play, A Medusa Thread, which is getting its first-ever production this week via the inspired theatrical incubator known as UCSB’s Launch Pad. Placing Medusa, the mythological Gorgon with snakes instead of hair, as the owner of […]

Embracing Experimental
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 28, 2021

As the inaugural collaboration between UCSB’s much-lauded Launch Pad artist residency and performance program with Local Theater Company, the Boulder-based leader in new play development, Yellowstone will have a lot of voices shaping its first-ever fully staged reading on Friday, September 24. But for playwright Jennifer Barclay, the process has been playing out for more […]

Elocutia Does Pygmalion
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 6, 2020

Cheryl L. West’s plays have been performed on and Off-Broadway and on stages in England as well as myriad regional theaters across the U.S. including Seattle Rep, Arena Stage, Old Globe, The Goodman, Indiana Rep, Williamstown Festival, Cleveland Play House, South Coast Rep. Those venues have collectively produced some of her long list of titles […]

Play Reading Season Launches on Zoom at UCSB
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 16, 2020

After the sensational success this spring of UCSB Launch Pad’s Alone, Together project that found more than 20 past playwrights-in-resident contributing short original works created to be performed and directed by theater students and faculty over Zoom, the 2020 Summer Reading Series: New Plays in Process might seem a bit anticlimactic. But don’t sell the […]

Fortunes Launches on Zoom
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 2, 2020

UCSB’s Launch Pad program began in 2005 as a grand experiment to offer a high-tech lab for playwrights-in-residence, UCSB theater students, faculty, and guest artists to collaborate in developing a new play each year. The residency culminates in a fully realized Preview Production, when the play completes its journey from incubation to professional world premiere […]

One Last Conversation in Prima Materia
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 2, 2020

Cheri Steinkellner had no idea when she showed up for a one-day introduction to Pacifica Graduate Institute that the visit would eventually have a big impact on her writing. “I just wanted to see what was going on over there, figuring maybe I’d take a weekend program or perhaps get a certificate, because I’d already got […]

“A” Train and RTC Show Sent Separately
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 18, 2018

Anne Torsiglieri has been seen on Broadway in Top Girls, Parade, Blood Brothers, and Miss Saigon, as well as in the official national tour of Les Misérables. Her off-Broadway and regional performance have taken place everywhere from Manhattan to the Pacific Northwest, and she earned DramaLogue and Garland awards for her portrayal of Catherine Sloper […]