This year’s winning projects were centered on a theme of unleashing potential, focusing on amplifying the power of knowledge and discovery through the intersection of arts and wellness. These project teams join ten other Pabst Steinmetz Foundation Arts and Wellness Innovation award recipients since its inception in 2018.

The awards were founded by Central Florida’s Pabst Steinmetz Foundation to recognize teams building sustainable models for arts and wellness innovation. The teams, composed of UCF personnel and community organizations, involve collaboration with the College of Arts and Humanities, at least one partner from the university, and a community organization, to promote cross-disciplinary collaboration and research.

“This year we were seeking initiatives that are closely aligned with UCF’s ‘unleashing potential’ strategic plan,” says Margery Pabst Steinmetz, who, along with her husband Chuck Steinmetz, co-founded the foundation and initiated these annual awards at UCF. “The selected projects not only met the criteria, but also reflected exciting, sustainable models. In addition to strengthening UCF’s research and creative activity, they will bring more access to … community groups that have great potential to shine.”

In Fall 2023, teams from across the university submitted proposals for the two awards. Winners were chosen for being interdisciplinary, sustainable, community focused and demonstrating innovative development in their research.

Pegasus PlayLab: Daring to Dream

UCF’s Pegasus PlayLab is an annual festival dedicated to developing plays by emerging playwrights for performance at Theatre UCF. Responding to the theme unleashing potential, UCF’s and will partner with Central Florida Community Arts (CFCArts) to make the Pegasus PlayLab process accessible to young adults with and without disabilities.

This collaboration will build on the 2022-23 Pabst-Steinmetz Building a Shared Home project, where students were brought together with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities in partnership with Best Buddies and devised a new play around experiences of home and community in June 2023.

Adapting the model of UCF’s Pegasus PlayLab, theater artists with and without disabilities will have the opportunity to submit works in progress with the theme of unleashing potential to be developed during a weeklong series of workshops and performed at UCF in early Summer 2024 as part of Pegasus PlayLab. Participants will explore theater, music, writing, visual art and other forms of storytelling to weave their personal experiences into a new play that engages with themes of personal growth, overcoming adversity, forging new paths and embracing change.

The project’s second phase will connect to inclusive artists on a national scale by partnering with UCF’s Office of Student Accessibility Services and CFCArts. Project facilitators will bring the previous processes and discoveries to the New London Barn Playhouse in New Hampshire. The Barn Playhouse has partnered with their local school district’s student support services to create theatrical experiences for students with disabilities in their community.

“By partnering with Student Accessibility Services and CFCArts, and engaging diverse communities in Central Florida and New Hampshire, our initiative will further raise national awareness about disabilities, empower participants to build self-esteem and confidence, and offer a model for … creative practices at UCF and beyond,” says Pegasus Professor Julia Listengarten.

Researchers from the College of Arts and Humanities, Student Accessibility Services, and CFCArts include:

• Listengarten, artistic director and graduate program director in the School of Performing Arts.
• Vandy Wood, associate professor in the School of Performing Arts
• Sage Tokach ’22MF, guest artist, director of education at New London Barn Playhouse in New Hampshire
• Terrance Hunter, chief executive officer with CFCArts
• Adam Meyer, director of Student Accessibility Services
• Keri Watson, associate professor in the

Limbitless Journey: ALS Games for Health Creative Jam

Limbitless Solutions, a UCF-based nonprofit, is dedicated to increasing accessibility through creating accessibility devices with training games to empower children and adults in the disability community while also enhancing the workforce through its student scholar internship and research experience program.

Building on the work of the initial phase, the Limbitless Journey: ALS Games for Health Creative Jam initiative aims to harness the power of a custom-designed video game and game controller, which utilizes muscle flex in the temporalis muscles to enhance the lives of individuals living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The second phase focuses on generalizable functionality and expanding the reach of the original project to improve quality of life outcomes for ALS patients.

In partnership with healthcare professionals from the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, the overarching goal of the project is to refine the hands-free wheelchair control system for electric wheelchairs and improve the gamified training that is critical to learning to drive/navigate using the custom EMG-powered hands-free interface in a low-stress, safe environment.

The project will also incorporate a game jam event hosted at Limbitless Solutions. Participants in the game jam will be invited to design levels or mini games that align with the training objectives guided by the medical staff. A panel of judges consisting of potential users and Mayo Clinic medical staff will evaluate the creations. The game jam will promote awareness and understanding of an individual’s challenges with ALS, helping to bridge the gap between accessibility, gaming technology developers and end-users.

Researchers from the College of Arts and Humanities, College of Sciences, , Mayo Clinic Jacksonville and Limbitless Solutions include:

• Matt Dombrowski ’05 ’08MFA, associate professor of emerging media
• Peter Smith ’05MS ’12PhD, associate professor of game and interactive media
• Björn Oskarsson, associate professor of neurology, Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, Jacksonville director of the ALS Center of Excellence
• Albert Manero ’12 ’14MS ’16PhD, executive director of Limbitless Solutions
• John SparkmanÌę’13 ’15MS, associate director of Limbitless Solutions

#GodHatesYou is a new play receiving its first full production at UCF’s Pegasus PlayLab in June and August. The story follows Laurel who takes the message of her radical church to Twitter and is confronted with unexpected encounters, leading her to question the meaning of her faith, her relationship with God and the impact of her words.

This play was first seen in Orlando at Orlando Shakes’ Playfest 2018.

“When we did the reading of #GodHatesYou last November, we really liked the play but in many ways the script seemed to be a better fit for UCF’s Pegasus PlayLab than for Orlando Shakes,” says Cynthia White, director of #GodHatesYou and director of New Play Development at Orlando Shakes. “The central character is 26 and is just stepping out into a larger world and finding her voice, something you could say students do when they come to a university.”

Pegasus PlayLab at UCF is a new play festival in its second year dedicated to developing plays by emerging playwrights. The 2019 festival kicked off with a series of workshop readings during which actors presented new plays with minimal staging and scripts in-hand in front of an audience. #GodHatesYou is this year’s full developmental production, meaning a script that has already been polished through workshops and readings and is ready to introduce the elements of sets, costumes and lighting.

That’s not to say that this is the final product. The cast and playwright are still digging deeper into these characters and discovering what their journey holds.

“Exploring the characters and building relationships within the play, I have been impressed by the way the words resonate,” says White. “On the surface, one could see a group of rigid and angry fanatics, but we find as we dig deeper, a group of people who think they are saving the world and deeply believe that they love everyone.”

If there is something to take away from this play, according to White, it is “Words matter.” The main character is opened to new ideas and thoughts when she talks to people outside of her constrictive religious bubble. When she sees that her words cause harm, she must reconsider her entire life. “She comes to the conclusion that she doesn’t just need to ask for God’s forgiveness, but for humanity’s forgiveness.”

Although this play covers several heavy themes, there’s levity as well.

GodHatesYou is full of enormous contradictions, but the director says it will take viewers on a fascinating and unexpected journey towards a better understanding of what makes us all human.

Pegasus PlayLab runs through June 23 with an encore production of #GodHatesYou Aug. 29-Sept. 1. Tickets, information and more at

#GodHatesYou | Main Stage

June 13-23 and Aug. 29-Sept. 1

By Emily DendingerÌęDirected by Cynthia White

Having attended her first picket at 5 years old, Laurel is proud of the good work she has done in the name of the Lord. Groomed to be the next leader of her radical church, Laurel takes to Twitter to spread the Word. When her tweets are responded to by an agnostic college student, a rabbi and a few Twitter trolls, Laurel struggles to determine the true meaning of her faith and define her relationship with God.

On Thursday, Aug. 29, the production will be joined by WMFE’s for a post-show talkback about the play, religion and social media.

“It’s refreshing to work on a contemporary piece because the script reflects conversations people are having in daily life. The reactions you see on stage are done in a truthful way that finds the comedic and human side of the characters,” says Matthew Buckalew, an acting student who plays the role of Jim in the production. “I think it’s necessary to let new works come alive and see how the audience interacts with them.”

For most students at UCF, Pegasus PlayLab is their first encounter working on a new play. “I don’t have any experience working on contemporary plays, so I think that’s one of the amazing things our artistic director, Julia Listengarten, has done is bring these new plays to the forefront for UCF to examine and to produce. It’s a unique experience you won’t find in other university theatre programs,” says Ramon Paradoa, assistant director of Human Error working on his master’s in theatre. “When working on a new piece, you’re going in with a blank slate and don’t have any expectations in regards to what you’re going to see. What you see the actors bring to life is something you didn’t expect and is something you get to watch unfold before your eyes.”

For Be Boyd, director of Human Error, working on new plays is about valuing the next generation of emerging playwrights. “We have the opportunity to be the voice of the new generation. We need to foster new playwrights and tell their stories in unique ways,” Boyd says. “It’s recognizing that those famous playwrights got their start in a very similar way to what we are doing and we are honoring that process. This is the generation that has to lay the groundwork for new classics.”

Boyd says the greatest thing students get from working on a new piece like Human Error is the fluid workshopping process.

“They have to stay on their toes,” she says. “They know that at any moment, the script could change. They have to be flexible, they have to have a collaborative spirit and they have to respect the text because something could be snatched from them and rewritten at any moment.”

Those who are new to theatre may not understand how a play comes to life, and Boyd hopes that audiences attending Human Error and other Pegasus PlayLab events will better understand the role of the playwright in this process – from the initial spark of an idea to opening night.

Human Error by Eric PfeffingerÌę

After an unfortunate mix-up by their blundering fertility doctor, a couple is mistakenly impregnated with the wrong child. Now two very different couples face sharing an uproarious nine-month odyssey of culture shock, clashing values, changing attitudes and unlikely – but heartfelt – friendships.

Directed by Be Boyd

Join the cast and crew for a post-show reception following today’s 7:30 p.m. opening-night performance. The rest of the schedule is:

Tickets $20, $10 with UCF ID