UCSB Launch Pad ‘Alone, Together’ Festival Zooms on June 6

Have all those zoom meetings got you down? Feel like you can’t spend another minute feigning interest as poorly lit colleagues with bad sound drone on about work? Join the club, but don’t give up on the medium. Believe it or not, the best cure for zoom overexposure is not abstinence, but more zoom, only in the form of zoom theater. On Saturday, June 6, the UCSB Theater Department’s Launch Pad program presents Alone, Together, a daylong festival of original short plays and monologues written specifically for everyone’s new favorite medium, the video conference.

As a result of the depth of the Launch Pad program’s contact list, these will not be just any zoom plays. The 24 writers involved include some of the top playwrights in the country, and they have been working tirelessly with the UCSB BFA students who will perform their work since April. Expect to be amused, provoked, soothed, and tickled by the mass of collective theatrical intelligence that will be on display. Contributors include Arlene Hutton, Sheri Wilner, Yussef El-Guindi, Anne Garcia-Romero, and Dan Castellaneta. Artistic director Risa Brainin was just made a member of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre, and she’s as fired up about this innovative Launch Pad move to online as she has ever been about any of the dozens of great shows she has brought to UCSB in the past. Performances begin at 11 a.m., and continue throughout the day and into the early evening, with “chapters” beginning at 11, 1, 4 and 6. Registration is required, but it can be done at the virtual door.

CHAPTER 1: Begins at 11 a.m. (PST)

Quietus, by Mia Chung; directed by Frances (Yizhou) Sun

King Zoom,by Katie Bender; directed by Julie Fishell

But Here I Am, by Lynn Rosen;directed by Sara Rademacher

Corona Chicken (part 1), by Cheryl L. West; directed by Katherine Hamilton

Corona Chicken (part 2), by Cheryl L. West; directed by Katherine Hamilton

Neither Here nor There, by Arlene Hutton; directed by Nicole Zahner

2084, by John Walch; directed by Iris Skeen

Here Comes the Sun, by Alison Tatlock; directed by Irwin Appel

Do Not Go, My Love, by Enid Graham; directed by Daniel Andres Blanco

CHAPTER 2: Begins at 1 p.m. (PST)

First Date, written and directed by Annie Torsiglieri

Talk Tomorrow, by Idris Goodwin; directed by Nicole Zahner

Cha-Cha, by Yussef El Guindi; directed by Hala Baki

Rosebud, by Dan Castellaneta and Deb Lacusta; directed by Maria Zelaya Santillan

Dynamite Sales, by Dan Castellaneta and Deb Lacusta; directed by Daniel Stein

All the Cranes in the World, by Arlene Hutton; directed by Maria Zelaya Santillan

Mom’s Kids, by James Still; directed by Michael Bernard

The Most Human Human, by Katie Bender; directed by Jack Richman

The Great Greats, written and directed by Cheri Steinkellner

The Art of Coping, by Idris Goodwin, directed by Sara Rademacher

CHAPTER 3: Begins at 4 p.m. (PST)

LOL OL, by Sheri Wilner; directed by Stefan James

That Flower, That Flower, by Lynn Rosen; directed by Kate Bergstrom

Zoom Baby, by Leo Cabranes-Grant; directed by Frances (Yizhou) Sun

Les Mots Justes, or Hold Your Tongue, by William Davies King; directed by Jack Richman

Safety Net, by Cheryl L. West; directed by Riya Sahasrabudhe

The Shakespeare Section, by Lynn Rosen; directed by Daniel Andres Blanco

Whitman vs. the United States: Case 36 (via Zoom), by James Still; directed by Selene Betancourt

The Safest Space, written and directed by Annie Torsiglieri

Auld Lang Syne, by Jenny Mercein; directed by Risa Brainin

CHAPTER 4: Begins at 6 p.m. (PST)

Pick Me Up, by Linda Alper; directed by Leo Cabranes-Grant

Pandemic Therapy, by Jami Brandli; directed by Billie Stouter Hassebrock

I’m Not Coming Home, by Brian Otaño; directed by Shianne Dingeman

South Lake Tahoe, California, by Brian Otaño; directed by Shianne Dingeman

Flight, by Alison Tatlock; directed by Sara Rademacher

Which Actually Isn’t So New, by Mia Chung; directed by Kate Bergstrom

Pandemic Romance Monologue, by Lila Rose Kaplan; directed by Iris Skeen

Waiting for Now, by James Still; directed by Leo Cabranes-Grant

Late Night Prayer, by Anne Garcia-Romero; directed by Daniel Andres Blanco

Zoom Audition, by Jami Brandli; directed by Katherine Hamilton

Abundance (a requiem on zoom), by James Still; directed by Risa Brainin

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