From the UCSB Theater & Dance Department’s website: “Featured in American Theater magazine in 2013 as an innovative model of new play development in the USA, LAUNCH PAD is a high-tech lab for playwrights-in-residence, aspiring theater students, faculty and guest artists. Led by founding Artistic Director Risa Brainin, a new play is developed each year. The residency culminates in a full-scale “preview production” as part of the Departmental season. With a mix of student and professional actors, LAUNCH PAD is collaboration and experimentation at its finest, providing the missing link in new play development between a reading/workshop and a professional world premiere.” This year, Anne García-Romero’s “Staging the Daffy Dame” is not only a probing look at relationships in our increasingly diverse society, and the thorny issue of immigration, but the structure of the play is a perfectly apt look at the processes of creating a new theatrical production. part of the “preview” status owes to the fact that during the run (which continues tonight through March 11 @ the Studio Theater on Campus) director Risa Brainin, Ms. Garcia Romero, actors and crew experiment and refine so that the play evolves and gives deep meaning to live theater. It’s a pretty darn good play too, funny and serious in striking ways!
