Chicago native Inda Craig-Galván came up in the world of improv theater, eventually finding her place at the historic Second City, where she developed her love for sketch comedy.
As a playwright, Craig-Galván often felt that her writing would conflict with her instincts. She pushed herself to write more serious plays while pursuing her graduate degree in dramatic writing from the University of Southern California, but learned that she worked well in embracing her full artistic expression.
“They didn’t work because I was compartmentalizing that other part of my experience,” she said. “Instead of embracing it and using it in my second year in my graduate program I decided I’m going to try to use some of the things that we use in sketch in my plays and so now that’s sort of what I do.”
Much of Craig-Galván’s work imagines characters who look like her in different scenarios throughout life. Her recent play, “A Jumping-Off Point,” follows that tradition of her work as she imagined the life of Leslie Wallace, a promising Black writer, who navigates the cutthroat industry of Hollywood when she eventually lands her first deal with HBO. But just as Wallace finds a bit of success, a former classmate shows up and leverages allegations of plagiarism against her.
Craig-Galván wrote the first draft of the play in 2017, during the last year of her graduate program, before her career as a television writer.
Eventually, Craig-Galván put the project on hold until she received an email from the Bay Area Playwrights Festival offering to develop it.
After this opportunity, she contacted Christina Baldwin, the artistic director of the Jungle Theater, who expressed interest in the play.
“A Jumping-Off Point” had a near simultaneous premiere as it held its world premiere at the Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Md., just 10 days before the premiere in Minneapolis.
The Jungle Theater production of the play is directed by Shá Cage and stars Vinecia Coleman who plays Leslie Wallace, Ashanti Sakina Ford who plays Leslie’s best friend Mariam Forest, and Gabriel Murphy who plays Andrew Littlefield.
Craig-Galván contacted Cage as she sat in on the rehearsal process of the Bethesda production, sharing her notes and changes to keep both shows consistent.
Cage, who is both an actor and director based in the Twin Cities, enjoyed the questions evoked from the play. She enjoyed having the opportunity to tell a story that captured Black life on stage.
“I like the play and I like the complexity of what is this going to mean for our audiences? And it just kind of worked,” she said. “I wish there was more Black theater here and when there is an opportunity, I want to jump on it.”
Ford was pushed to work on the show when she saw the other cast members involved. Although this would be her first time working at the Jungle Theater, Ford had worked alongside Cage and Coleman in the past.
“I love being a comedic person against this person,” she said in reference to Coleman. “Vinecia and I have worked together on a different show and I just love those. The vibe of just being kind of like that straight man, comic man, character set.”
Coleman appreciated the chance to work on a new play and the opportunities that it brought as an actor.
“I love new plays,” she said. “They’re just the best. It’s fun when it’s not already put together. You get to come in and put your own print on it. The thing that I bring to the table is me.”
For Cage and the cast, the opportunity to tell a contemporary story and tackle a new play gave them the comfort to have creative latitude.
“It feels like this character was written for a Black woman to do and that’s exciting because that’s rare,” Coleman said. “And a Black woman who lives in 2024, not one who lives in 1964. I love those plays too. No shade. It feels nice to do something that fits in my life that I truly have a reference for.”
Murphy echoed the shared sentiment of working on a new play.
“There’s this great freedom to kind of figure out when it’s new and you don’t have other references in your head that it’s like, okay, well what’s my way into this?” he said. “There’s also great pressure with that too. You don’t want to get it wrong.”
Cage shared that she envisions the play developing through closing night and continuing to resonate with the team and the audience with each performance. She also shared that, through a collaborative process with the cast, she believes the show reaches its full potential.
“The best way to get the best product [and] performance is to let us all really be invited to the table to talk it through, work it through, shout it through, debate it through, figure it out, question, answer, and leave some things unresolved,” she said. “I think that’s what makes theater special; it is that living and breathing organism.”
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