An “Interview” with Playwright Laura Domingo

Wow has time flown!! It’s time for the final “interview” with one of the playwrights featured in the PlayGround’s 29th Festival of New Works! Unlike traditional playwright interviews, we asked our writers to reply to our questions with either a single word, an image, an obvious lie, or a rhyming couplet (or whatever they wanted if they weren’t in the mood). Looking for tickets to the festival? Find them here.

Enjoy our “interview” with playwright Laura Domingo whose play Grandma’s First Festivus is part of Best of PlayGround(SF) ’25, May 24-35 (this weekend!) at Potrero Stage.

1. What is your hometown?
Grew up in San Diego. Live in Oakland.

4. What do you do creatively other than writing?
I’m an actor, currently performing in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at SF Playhouse. (see above)

6. Give us an out-of-context spoiler for your play.
Great Aunt Millie was a hussy!

7. What was the seed of your play?
An old boyfriend took me to a Festivus party that his friends throw every year. We did the “Airing of Grievances where each person venting about another person there. He complained about something I did in a very resentful, mean way. In retrospect, it was a sign that the relationship wasn’t doing well — we broke up a few weeks later!

10. Describe where you were when you wrote this play.
I was holed up in my bedroom. I had family visiting and staying with me and needed a quiet place to write.

Laura Domino, she/her, is a Native Hawaiian/Filipina writer and actor based in Oakland, CA. She has written screenplays for three Best Film winners for the 48-Hour Film Project (2019 – San Jose; 2020 – U.S. West; and 2021 – San Jose), and her short plays won runner-up in 2023 and 2024 for Silicon Valley Shakespeare’s 48-Hour Play Festival. She is part of the writing pool with SF-based sketch comedy company Killing My Lobster. Laura is the recipient of PlayGround’s 2025 June Anne Baker Prize.

ABOUT THE PLAY: At Grandma’s first Festivus celebration, the “Airing of Grievances” takes an unexpected turn. More…