This week, host Justin Boark sits down with playwright and educator Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin. Their work bends time, unravels inherited systems, and insists on theatrical forms that refuse the predictable. Kaela’s plays explore identity through diaspora, queerness, power, and the ghosts that follow us into the rehearsal room. Their writing has been recognized by the Leah Ryan Prize, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and the Kennedy Center, produced by companies including the Know Theatre of Cincinnati and the Strand Theater of Baltimore, and developed at Ma-Yi, 2ST, and the Alliance. Now an Assistant Professor of Playwriting at Salem State University, Kaela brings a sharp, generous perspective on what the next generation of theatre can and should be. If you are drawn to inventive structure, big questions, and writers who challenge the rules because the rules were never big enough to hold their stories, this episode is worth your time.
Guest: Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin
Official Website - https://www.kaelameishinggarvin.com/
Playwright of Tiger Beat, Ping Pong, Corners Grove, High School Coven, do this in [x] of, you know that feeling, Cap’s Last, Harpers Ferry, Call Out Culture: or, the unbearable whiteness of being, Pride and Prejudice, The Well-Tempered Clavier, and The Bakunawa.
Guest Bio – Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin (they/she) is a playwright, theatermaker, educator and new work advocate drawn to messy truths, slippery timelines, and theatrical forms that refuse the expected. Kaela's plays distort time, poke at power, and explore identity through diaspora, queerness, and quick changes. Their work questions norms at the heart of the theatrical form — weaving nonlinear structure, questioning inherited systems, conjuring ghosts, magic, and 雲吞麵. Their plays have been published by DPS; honored by the Leah Ryan Prize, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, & the Kennedy Center; produced at the Know Theatre of Cincinnati & Strand Theater of Baltimore; and developed by theaters like Ma-Yi, 2ST, & the Alliance. They are currently Assistant Professor of Playwriting at Salem State University.
The Scene Team
LINKS
Special Thanks
Show Contributors