Is having enough enough? Why need more? It’s about knowing the world through the lens of its carefully collected objects. And a bigger telescope will reveal more galaxies. Then there is inheritance and its pain, the inevitability of passing on—to others—something smaller than a virus. Nothing at all. This Zoom play goes knee-deep into collecting and neck-deep into mortality, and comes out ahead.

William Davies King, as well as being a victim of his own pleasure in collecting, is Distinguished Professor of Theater at the UC Santa Barbara. His critical edition of The Iceman Cometh recently came out from Yale UP. His multimedia edition of Long Day’s Journey Into Night won the 2017 PROSE Award in Literature. He has written several critical/biographical studies of Eugene O’Neill and is currently finishing a book about O’Neill’s Tao House. His first book, Henry Irving’s “Waterloo”: Theatrical Engagements with Late-Victorian Culture and History, won the Callaway Prize. His memoir/essay about collecting, Collections of Nothing (Chicago UP), was named one of Amazon’s best books of 2008, and LAUNCH PAD gave a staged reading of an adaptation/sequel of the book in 2019. He edited an anthology of all the Zoom plays that came from the June 2020 LAUNCH PAD festival, Alone, Together, and he wrote one of the plays. That book is now available from Dramatic Publishing Company. To get a glimpse of the exhibit he co-curated of material from his collections, click HERE. Also see his newly redesigned website, with many images from his Hyper-Illuminated books and a list of all the brands of blueberries in his collection: http://williamdaviesking.com.

A freelance director, Risa Brainin is Professor of theater and Founder/Artistic Director of LAUNCH PAD, an artist residency and performance program for new plays housed in the Department of Theater and Dance at UCSB. She served as Artistic Director for Shakespeare Santa Cruz; Associate Artistic Director for Kansas City Repertory Theatre and Indiana Repertory Theatre; and Resident Director and Associate Company Director for the Guthrie Theater. Other regional theaters include: Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Clarence Brown Theatre, Great Lakes Theatre, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Portland Stage Company, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Syracuse Stage and many more. She is a member of the National Theatre Conference and College of Fellows of the American Theatre. Brainin is a graduate of the Carnegie-Mellon University Drama Program. www.risabrainin.com

Irwin Appel (he/him/his) is Professor and Chair of the Department of Theater and Dance at UCSB. He is thrilled to once again join Risa Brainin and LAUNCH PAD; he recently acted in Cheryl L. West’s Elocutia for the LAUNCH PAD Summer Reading Series and also directed and composed original music for two different plays in Alone, Together. He also originated the role of Aunt Chuck in LAUNCH PAD’s preview production of James Still’s Appoggiatura, and has participated in many LAUNCH PAD readings by playwrights including Joyce Carol Oates, Cheryl L. West, Barbara Lebow, Anne Garcia-Romero, Alison Tatlock, Jenny Mercein, William Davies King, Christina McMahon and others. As a director, Equity actor and composer/sound designer, he has worked throughout the United States, as well as internationally in China and Europe. He is the artistic director of Naked Shakes, which presented a premiere adaptation combining Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra and George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra into one play called Immortal Longings for its 15th anniversary season earlier this summer and fall. He is a graduate of Princeton University and The Juilliard School.  www.deathofkings.com

 

Annie Torsiglieri has had the great pleasure of acting in over 12 LAUNCH PAD projects, including 5 preview productions. She has been seen on Broadway in TopGirls, Parade, Blood Brothers and Miss Saigon as well as in the National Tour of Les Misérables as Fantine. Off-Broadway and regionally she's performed at Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theatre, NY Stage and Film, Williamstown Theatre Festival, McCarter Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, The Huntington, The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Festival, Sundance Theatre Lab, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Cleveland Playhouse, Northern Stage and others. She is the recipient of Back Stage West/Drama Logue and Garland Awards for her performance as Catherine Sloper in The Heiress (Berkeley Rep) and the New Hampshire Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as the titular role in The Drowsy Chaperone. TV and film include “Seagull”, “Law & Order”, “Kidnapped”, “Gossip Girl” and the award winning “Albert Schweitzer: Called to Africa.” Her autobiographical play "A" TRAIN was awarded "Best Production" at the United Solo Festival in 2017, “Best Encore” there in 2018 and a Santa Barbara Independent Award in 2019. Annie is a Professor in the Department of Theater and Dance at UCSB. She is a graduate of Princeton University and The Juilliard School.