Interview (Part 2): Karin delaPeña Collison

My interview with the 2021 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner.

Karin delaPeña Collison wrote the original screenplay “Coming of Age” which won a 2021 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Karin about her creative background, her award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl Award has meant to her.

Today in Part 2 of a 6 part series to run each day through Saturday, Karin discusses how she found her way into screenwriting.

Scott: What about this MSW and your New York City private psychotherapy practice?

Karin: Well, I went back to therapy. And I also went back to college. I got my bachelor’s degree and my master’s degree. I’d had a couple of years in talk therapy; but I’d been out of it for a while. When I returned, it was to a very expressive form of therapy in a group format. It was a form of primal scream therapy. In this group, you worked with other group members, and people were constantly asking to work with me. Finally, my therapist said, “I should apprentice you.” I was intrigued and agreed. Before I knew what was happening, I was running groups. Professional therapists will be appalled to hear this — especially because I didn’t even have my MSW at this point. But I was still under very serious supervision from therapist. And I started making a very nice living, thank you very much, as a psychotherapist — while still getting my master’s degree in clinical social work. I must admit that it was all pretty bizarre. If you could see me now, you’d see me shaking my head in amazement.

By the time I finished my degree, I was clinically burned out — between the academic work, my field placement, and my private practice. I referred my private clients out to other psychotherapists and left New York. I moved to Santa Barbara.

Setting up a private practice in Santa Barbara seemed way too entrepreneurial to me, so I got a job working at Santa Barbara County Mental Health. That’s when I jumped back into writing. I took an adult ed fiction course and the teacher told me to sign up for the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. I did and won a short story prize.

When you win, you have to read it out loud to the whole conference. There were hundreds of people there and one of them came up to me afterwards and told me about an anthologist in Santa Barbara who had just started a program called “Speaking of Stories.” She suggested I offer myself as an actress to this man. Have you heard of Selected Shorts, Scott?

Scott: Yes.

Karin: I used to go to Selected Shorts when I was living in New York. And Santa Barbara was an ideal place for a local version of Selected Shorts because there are so many professional actors and stars living there. So I called him, but he told me he only used well-known actors for his series.

I was fine with that — I had nothing invested in acting again. I went to see one of his shows and had a few opinions about it. But it was none of my business, so I kept my opinions to myself.

I was introduced to him in person a couple of weeks later and he remembered that I’d called him about being one of his readers. I told him I’d seen his most recent show and he asked me what I thought. I just said, “I’m delighted you’re doing this out here, because I was a Selected Shorts Subscriber when I lived in NYC.” He asked me again what I thought. I tried to duck out of giving my opinion, but he said, “I really want to know.” So … I told him. I said, “The stories are terrific — wonderful writers. But they could be better balanced, and the presentation is sloppy. The actors weren’t well‑rehearsed. They didn’t dress nicely. I think it’s a privilege to read such beautifully-written stories to a live audience. Much like art song.”

I remember we were standing in the portico of a lovely home in Santa Barbara, overlooking a wide vista of the mountains and the beach. He took a moment after I finished talking, then he said, “Thank you.”

Somebody dropped out of his final performance of that season and he tracked me down and asked me if I would step in. I was being hoist on my own petard. I rehearsed thoroughly. I dressed nicely. And the difference between me and the other actors really showed when I read the story he’d assigned me.

The next day, he asked me to be his artistic director, and I agreed. I had that position for the next, I don’t know, seven years, something like that. We grew from a 150 seat theater to a 750 seat theater; and I was soon able to give up my social work job and earn a living wage.

We used professional actors as well as all kinds of stars like John Cleese, Jeff Bridges, Jane Seymour — on and on. I can’t even remember all the people. It was wonderful fun. And, as well as our ongoing seasons in which an actor stood at a podium reading a story, I staged huge productions as fundraisers — replete with live musicians. I felt very well‑used.

Although I’d left my social work position, I still had all my social work skills and the degree, so I was able to develop a very strong outreach program. In truth, that was what brought in the most money to the organization. Donors and grantors like to give to social issues more than they like to give to the arts.

Eventually, the US Embassy found out about what we were doing and invited me to Kuala Lumpur to mount a show and teach my outreach program. This was in the immediate wake of 9/11. They wanted to reach out to Muslims in that area, using American literature as a bridge. I included a lot of Malaysian writing in the show too, though.

Speaking of Stories was a nonprofit by this time, so we had a board, which started to try and tell me what stories I could and couldn’t use in our season. After a couple of years of that pressure, I quit.

By that time, the theater world there ‑‑ there’s a lively professional theater world in Santa Barbara ‑‑ had caught on to the fact that I had experience and skills as an actress. They started offering me wonderful roles. I couldn’t resist. And before I knew what was happening I had spread myself too thin again and burned myself out.

Also, while Santa Barbara is lovely it is also very self-contained. After I left Speaking of Stories, I realized that I needed to put on my big girl trousers and get back into the real world again as an actress.

Scott: Moved to LA.

Karin: Yes, I moved to LA. I didn’t raise my head into the radar initially. Just took classes, and did some Shakespeare in the Park. It wasn’t till I got signed by an agent in New York and moved there that I started back in earnest. I lived in NYC from 2007 until 2017, when I moved back to LA.

Tomorrow in Part 3, Karin shares how she learned she was a Nicholl winner.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

For my interviews with every Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner since 2012, go here.

For my interviews with Black List writers, go here.