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UC Santa Barbara summer program teams professional playwrights with the playwrights of the future

A summer program on the South Coast teams professional playwrights with the playwrights of the future
Sophia Papalia
A summer program on the South Coast teams professional playwrights with the playwrights of the future

No doubt, most of us have seen a performance of a play at some point – but – what about the opportunity to be part of the development process?

Three professional playwrights, three new plays and just three weeks to develop them with the student playwrights of tomorrow.

"All three writers are award-winning writers," explained Risa Brainin, the artistic director of Launch Pad:New Plays In Progress at UC Santa Barbara. The program opens up the creative process in a series of fast-paced workshops and culminates in a free public reading.

"A reading of whatever they have! Sometimes it's the whole play, sometimes it will be scenes, it depends where the play is at," she explained.

She says the response from the audience is a key part of the development of the plays.

Caroline joined KCLU in October 2020. She won LA Press Club's Audio Journalist of the Year Award for three consecutive years in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Since joining the station she's also won 11 Golden Mike Awards, 8 Los Angeles Press Club Journalism Awards, 4 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards and three Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for Excellence in Writing, Diversity and Use of Sound.

She started her broadcasting career in the UK, in both radio and television for BBC News, 95.8 Capital FM and Sky News and was awarded by Prince Philip for her services to radio and journalism in 2007.

She has lived in California for twelve years and is both an American and British citizen - and a very proud mom to her daughter, Elsie.