UC San Diego Alumna Wins Inaugural Humanitas Playwriting Award

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Ngozi Anyanwu, ’13, performs as Lucille in “June Moon,” written by American playwright George S. Kaufman; featured at UC San Diego, 2012. Photo by Manny Rotenberg

A 2013 University of California, San Diego M.F.A. graduate in acting, Ngozi Anyanwu, has won the inaugural Humanitas Prize for “Good Grief,” a play about a first-generation Nigerian girl dealing with love and loss in a small Pennsylvania town. Chosen from more than 230 submissions, “Good Grief” will be presented in staged readings Feb. 12-14 at the Humanitas Play Festival in Culver City.

“I was born a Jersey girl but raised in Bensalem Township by Nigerian parents who moved here in the 1960s and 1970s,” said Anyanwu, an alumna of the UC San Diego Department of Theatre and Dance, who will play the lead role of Nkechi. “I actually wrote the play with one of my good friends in mind for the lead, until she booked multiple television shows and I stepped into a workshop for ‘Good Grief’. I have been attached to the part ever since.”

The Humanitas awards jury also found a lot to like about Ngozi’s play.

“It has a particular vigor that I don't often come across in plays, much less in plays by first-time playwrights,” said Pier Carlo Talenti, director of new play development at Center Theatre Group (CTG). “The committee loved the kaleidoscopic manner in which Ngozi explores the grief of her central character and the joy that paradoxically pervades this play about loss.”

Anyanwu began writing “Good Grief” in 2013 while completing her graduate degree in acting. In 2014, she raised nearing $5,000 on the crowdfunding site IndieGoGo and staged the play at the INTAR Theatre in New York City with a professional artistic team and cast. Now, with the Humanitas award, which is presented to southern California writers with financial support for project development, Anyanwu is refining the play.

Anyanwu as Chloe in “Hookman,” written by UC San Diego M.F.A. alumna Lauren Yee; performed on campus in 2012. Photo by Manny Rotenberg

“‘Good Grief’ will receive 12 hours of rehearsal over four days with a professional director, a dramaturg and a cast of Equity actors assembled by CTG's casting department in concert with director Patricia McGregor and Ngozi,” Talenti said. “The reading of ‘Good Grief’ will open our Humanitas Play Fest. Everyone in the rehearsal room will be there to serve Ngozi as she continues developing her play.”

Workshopping with a group of seasoned thespians might be intimidating to a young playwright, but that does not seem to be the case with Anyanwu.

“I’m an actor so that’s what I do. And I’m a multi-disciplinarian, but this will be the first time for a play that I have created on my own,” admitted Anyanwu. “It’s more exciting than scary.”

Talenti said that the process of workshopping their plays with a group of professionals can help emerging playwrights take their work to the next level.

“Playwrights need to hear their plays in order to know what works or doesn't work, and hearing your play read by talented actors in a reading with an experienced director is very different from hearing it in your living room with your best friends.”

UC San Diego’s theater and dance program is known for mounting original new plays by graduate students, as well as innovative productions of classic and modern plays. Anyanwu, for example, has acted in or directed plays ranging from Shakespeare’s, “Titus Andronicus,” and, “As You Like It,” to Henrik Ibsen’s, “Hedda Gabler,” and August Wilson’s, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.” She said that these experiences helped develop her capabilities as an actor, director, producer and playwright.

“At the moment I’m spinning all plates,” Anyanwu said. “Acting is what I’ve trained for and what I know how to do. But I’ve always had a passion to make work as well. I just like creating, and I think all of my skills help me in that process.”

The UC San Diego Department of Theatre and Dance regularly ranks among the top three in the country. The program also shares a close relationship with the Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse, and its graduate students get at least one professional residency. Upon graduation, students go on to work professionally in theater, film and television. For more information visit the website.