In April of 2023, the playwright and documentarian Dara Padwo-Audick made an ambitious request: that her community give $20,000 to underwrite staging her play, Onion Skin, as part of the Capital Fringe Festival. She explained to potential backers that Onion Skin, her first full-length play, drew on her experiences as a skin cancer survivor, as a caregiver for her parents, and as a young single mother to create a dark comedy about the journeys of four people facing different stages of skin cancer.
A month later, 64 backers had raised all of that money and then some. And in July, the production went up. The Washington Post described Onion Skin as one of the festival’s “shows to catch.” The three shows sold out.
Six months earlier, Padwo-Audick had submitted Onion Skin as her thesis to graduate from the Antioch MFA in Creative Writing. The play was a testament to everything that she had learned in her graduate studies—a time when she moved away from the documentary filmmaking and nonfiction writing that had characterized her career up to that point, and returned to her earlier love of writing fiction. And the way that she took the play and saw it through production showed she had taken another lesson of the MFA to heart.
“One of my biggest philosophies about art is that it should not stay on your computer where no one except you can see it,” says the MFA’s Dramatic Writing Officer, Colette Freedman. She explains that “Dara was someone who took this to heart, and she got Onion Skin on its feet as soon as she was done writing.”
For Padwo-Audick, the experience of finishing the MFA and staging Onion Skin have helped her explore new storytelling techniques and themes—and find a community to support her work. As Padwo-Audick says today, “If I hadn’t been to Antioch, I wouldn’t have had the courage to actually write something like this and try to get it produced.”
Deciding to Pursue Happiness—and an MFA
Before coming to Antioch, Padwo-Audick had established herself as a prominent producer and writer with credits and experience working with internationally recognized platforms such as the National Geographic Channel, the Discovery Channel, and ESPN. Padwo-Audick traveled the world, collecting and telling the stories she found.
A turning point came when she was asked to give a TedX Talk about her life-changing experience working in Bhutan. She reflected in particular on how she had taken that country’s idea of measuring Gross National Happiness—and she applied it in her own life. That experience helped her realize that she felt a creative void. She pinpointed this void to the way that her early love for writing fiction—something she had nurtured during her school years—had taken a backseat to her professional endeavors.
So she decided to go back to school and get an MFA in Creative Writing.
This plan had the added benefit of potentially enabling her to work as a professor. “My original idea was that I wanted to do something that would put me in a position to become a full-time tenured faculty,” explains Padwo-Audick. Up to this point her attempts to get a university-level teaching job had run up against the wall of credentialing: these positions almost all required applicants to have a “terminal degree” like a PhD or MFA.
Alongside this practical reason to go back to school, Padwo-Audick also sensed a chance to change from what she had been doing up to that point. As she explains, “I had this very extensive career in nonfiction, but I had an incredible calling to fiction.”
As she researched programs, Padwo-Audick narrowed in on the Antioch MFA. She found that it offered much more than just an academic qualification. The program’s low-residency structure, combined with its emphasis on mentorship and community, provided the perfect environment for Padwo-Audick to rediscover her passion for fiction.
And as soon as she arrived for her first residency, she found another benefit of her new school: the emphasis on collaboration. “Antioch had an incredible sense of community and camaraderie,” says Padwo-Audick. “I always felt like people had my back.” This support system was instrumental in helping her navigate the challenges of life while pursuing her creative goals.
Finding a New Creative Direction
As she studied for her MFA, Padwo-Audick realized that her creative writing was more important than simply adding a terminal degree to her CV—though of course the goals weren’t mutually exclusive. But as she threw herself into the program, she rekindled her love for telling fictional stories, allowing her to explore a side of herself that had been dormant for years. And the mentorship she received played a crucial role in this creative awakening.
Padwo-Audick specifically points to Dramatic Writing Program Officer Colette Freedman for giving her both guidance and encouragement. “Collette is a force in the universe,” says Padwo-Audick, adding, “As were many of the instructors and the students around me.”
One place where Padwo-Audick pushed boldly forward was in writing and producing Onion Skin. Encouraged by Freedman, she took the bold step of bringing her play to life on stage. She successfully raised over $20,000 through crowdfunding and collaborated with a stage director to co-direct the play for the Capital Fringe Festival. The play’s success, including sold-out performances and a positive review from the Washington Post, was a testament to Padwo-Audick’s ability to translate her creative vision into reality.
As Freedman says, “Not only is Dara a talented playwright, she is also proactive and unapologetic. She knows how strong her writing is and is unafraid to share it with the world. I am so proud of her and know that this is the first of many projects she will helm.”
The production of Onion Skin marked her successful transition from page to stage. And Padwo-Audick is proud that the play’s impact went beyond the theater, with audience members taking action to protect their skin after watching the performance. This is the kind of response Padwo-Audick aims for in her non-fiction work, and seeing it work with a fictional story reinforced her belief in the power of storytelling to inspire change.
A short screenplay Padwo-Audick developed during her time at Antioch has also garnered recognition, winning multiple awards at short film festivals. This success has motivated her to consider producing the film, despite the challenges of raising the necessary funds. The screenplay, like much of Padwo-Audick’s work, touches on themes of mental health and relationships, showcasing her ability to blend her nonfiction sensibilities with creative fiction.
Finding Solitude and Community After the MFA
For Padwo-Audick, balancing nonfiction and fiction work is an ongoing challenge. Her nonfiction television work, which remains her primary source of income, often demands her attention, leaving little time for her other creative projects. Additionally, as Padwo-Audick says, “Fiction work is very lonely if you don’t have the community.”
Despite the challenges, Padwo-Audick continues to draw on her nonfiction experience to inform her fiction writing. Her background in research and storytelling gives her fiction depth and realism, allowing her to create stories that are both imaginative and grounded in real-world issues. This blend of nonfiction and fiction is a defining characteristic of her work, setting her apart in both fields.
As she looks towards what’s next, Padwo-Audick remains committed to her nonfiction and fiction projects as well as teaching. She is currently developing a documentary series on social and restorative justice. We Persist is a project that aligns with her longstanding commitment to using storytelling as a tool for change. At the same time, she is eager to complete her YA novel and bring her award-winning screenplay to life.
In all of these projects, she carries her Antioch experience with her. “Antioch has made me more aware in my own teaching of how I want to be more of a mentor to my students and not just an instructor,” Padwo-Audick says. “I wish I could bottle up Antioch and just carry them with me constantly. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that way. I was surrounded by people who really supported my creative work and believed in me—and that makes a tremendous difference.”
