Student Blog: On Failing & Finding

Happy spring break everyone! At least for us quarter system folk. Even the semesterers who have been back in class will enjoy reading about my next guest, one of the coolest people in San Diego theater: Quentin Nguyen-Duy! He’s an actor and playwright who’s approaching the end of his first year in UC San Diego’s MFA program. His journey to this point has taken a multitude of twists and turns, but the common theme is that his talent is unquestionable. 

Beginning as a creative writing major at Oberlin College, he later pursued a BFA in acting at Boston University, but shifted gears to the broader track of a BFA in theater arts. Doing so was a decision he’s glad he made since it opened up countless new opportunities in and around theatermaking. Much like his fellow first-year writer, Katie Đỗ, he was quite dissatisfied with both the quantity and quality of the Asian roles up for grabs, so he took it upon himself to start writing new ones. Through the Signpost Fellowship, he was introduced to the mentor who made so much of his journey possible: Chris Peña. He notes that their relationship is what made him a writer, and that “[connecting] with people who’ve traveled farther down this path, whether in a mentor way or a friend way, is so important” because at the end of the day, “it’s very hard to do this all by yourself.” 

Surprisingly, being part of the class of 2027 was his third time applying to UCSD. Each attempt brought him a few steps closer, and he learned the value of putting yourself out there in professional circles with the people you admire. In between application years, he attended an event that featured UCSD playwriting professor Naomi Iizuka as the keynote speaker, and because she recognized him from his application, she personally called him and gave him the advice that pushed him to reapply. The third time ended up being the charm. Looking back on it makes him realize that “getting turned away was just the start” because it’s never truly over.

This upcoming quarter will mark the first fully staged piece of his degree program: Nerve Endings. Ansel and Izzy, an estranged former couple, both walk out on their friends’ wedding and are forced to resolve their animosities in order to move forward. It’s a play about breaking cycles of personal pain and staring regret directly in the eye, which any human will certainly be able to relate to. He started brainstorming two-hander ideas for his premier Wagner New Play Festival premiere while in the cast of Signature Theater’s Another Shot and eventually had six completed drafts on his hands. All of them went to Professors Iizuka and Deborah Stein, who did not like any of them; but, they had their interests piqued by an eight-page scene of two people talking on the side of the highway. That scene blossomed into an entirely new play that has been born and reborn countless times over the course of the 2024-2025 year to this point, in large part thanks to the collaboration with first-year MFA director Kieran Beccia. 

Nguyen-Duy is fundamentally an open, collaborative writer who holds the thoughts of others in the rehearsal room in high regard. The way he sees it, “some playwrights would rather have less cooks in the kitchen, but for me, I think that whoever’s going to be working out the logistics of this thing should definitely be able to say things that affect the trajectory of the play.” On top of the enormously helpful input he’s gotten from Iizuka and Stein when shaping the structure of this play, Beccia has played a pivotal role in creating what Nerve Endings is today. He’s found that “they’ve been so generous in reading the script and telling [him] what’s landing and not landing.” Being paired up with them super early on granted him the privilege of their perspective months ahead of the first rehearsal and led to an incredible working relationship. 

What made Nguyen-Duy want to study playwriting at UCSD was twofold. The immense benefit of a guaranteed annual production was always there in his mind, but primarily, it was how inspirational he found UCSD’s playwriting alumni. In pieces like How to Defend Yourself by Liliana Padilla and Exotic Deadly: The MSG Play by Keiko Green, he finds that “everything has such a weird, surrealist, but real and unique flavor to it that’s from only UCSD playwrights.” Iizuka and Stein’s guidance have led dozens of writers to possess a sort of flair that exclusively exists on this campus. He would even go so far as to say that looking back at his work before this first year as a Triton, he doesn’t think “[his] growth as a writer even began until [he] started studying with them.” 

For all the readers out there considering a path in theater, his biggest piece of advice— aside from the earlier discussion about learning from the people you admire— is to “try your hand at almost everything, fail at almost everything, and find what you’re good at so you can get better.” This industry of ours is one that demands enormous amounts of perseverance from us, requiring us to channel ourselves into all sorts of jobs and skill sets. As Chris Peña told Quentin, you don’t have to be the greatest playwright in the world. You “need to be the playwright who shows up.” 

Thank you so much to Quentin for the illuminating conversation, and thank you for reading! Don’t go anywhere though– next time will feature our third and final superstar thesis candidate for the year: Phanésia Pharel!