Interview: Marti Gobel on Opening OnWord Theatre’s Season Two with RED LIGHT WINTER

Marti Gobel is a Producing Artistic Director, performer, and director whose work and presence in San Diego theatre cannot be denied. As the Producing Artistic Director of OnWord Theatre, Gobel helped lead the company to a Craig Noel Award nomination for Best Dramatic Production for "Beauty’s Daughter," a solo performance in which Gobel portrayed multiple characters. Gobel is also a Craig Noel Award nominee for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play.  Before that ceremony happens, though, Gobel returns to the director’s chair to open OnWord Theatre’s second season with "Red Light Winter" by Adam Rapp.

The production stars Geoffrey Ulysses Geissinger as Matt, Ibraheem Farmer as Davis, and Jamaelya Hines as Christina, and runs January 9–24, 2026 at Light Box Theatre in Liberty Station.  "Red Light Winter"  follows two longtime friends traveling abroad whose bond is tested by desire, power, and consequences when they encounter Christina, a woman navigating her own agency within a transactional world. The play examines intimacy, masculinity, and emotional immaturity through language-driven storytelling and stark human honesty.

As Gobel preps for the opening, she took the time to talk a bit about the piece, working with this cast, and what audiences can expect from this and the upcoming season.

 OnWord Theatre is launching its Season 2 with “Red Light Winter," a play that’s intimate, provocative, and emotionally exposed. Why did this feel like the right piece to open the season, and what does it signal about the kind of conversations you want OnWord to be having right now?

There is some calculation to the shows we select at OnWord, but we use our Mission Statement to guide what a season is likely to look like.  For Red Light Winter by Adam Rapp, the play answers to our dedication to producing classic works through a contemporary lens that relies on the use of language for storytelling rather than complex production elements.  This play, in particular, is rich in the themes of human exploration it offers.  I hope that is what patrons leave talking about. That is, how beautiful and ugly the human experience can be. And we want to make it very clear the types of plays you can expect to see at OnWord Theatre. Rich in language, sometimes dark, sometimes humorous, in spite of the pain, and produced to the best of our ability. 

Adam Rapp’s writing is famously unflinching—his characters are messy, yearning, and often terrible at communicating what they need. What drew you personally to direct Red Light Winter, and what continues to surprise you about it as you dig into rehearsals?

First and foremost, I was looking to work with a very particular set of actors.  Red Light Winter is a perfect vehicle for my cast to challenge themselves as artists and as people. The intimacy work we have been tasked with engendered a room of trust and abandon.  What surprises me most is the moments of lyrical language and the ways in which it packages horrific actions.

At its core, the play is about friendship as much as it is about desire. How do you see the dynamic between Matt and Davis evolving over the course of the story, and what makes that relationship so fragile—and so recognizable?

We as a group spent a lot of time dissecting this component of the play.  Matt and Davis are clearly best friends.  Still, Davis is unflinchingly cruel to Matt, and Matt accepts it. The pair are fascinatingly toxic.  And yet, there are moments of great tenderness between them.  Rapp has also written them as wickedly intelligent, however, despite their high IQ’s, they are incredibly immature in the ways in which they navigate their relationships. I think patrons will come to understand that Matt and Davis are the dark side of male friendship.

Christina is the catalyst who shifts the emotional gravity of the play, yet she’s also navigating her own loneliness and agency. How do you hope to approach her portrayal to avoid easy archetypes and instead honor her humanity in a profession that can easily become a caricature?

Well, that is tricky because stereotypes are born from the foundations of truth.  I don’t think I can avoid easy archetypes, but I certainly don’t have to lean in to them.  I honor the actress's humanity by staying out of the way of her individual human-ness. I mold what the actress is willing to give and avoid forcing what is unnatural.  This approach has led to some incredible moments in the rehearsal hall.

“Red Light Winter”  asks a haunting question- when audiences leave the theater, what do you hope lingers with them—emotionally, intellectually, or even uncomfortably—long after the final moment?

This is a wild story chosen for its outlandish reveals concerning consequences in the pursuit of self-fulfillment.  

How To Get Tickets

“Red Light Winter” runs January 9th - 24th, 2026, at the  Light Box Theatre in Liberty Station at 2590 Truxtun Rd #205, San Diego, CA 92106.  For ticket and show time information, go to www.OnWordtheatre.com