Social Justice & Community

Two UC Santa Cruz alumnae make their Off-Broadway debut 

Rosie Glen-Lambert (Porter ’14, theater arts) and Hailey McAfee (Rachel Carson ’13, theater arts) make their Off-Broadway debut at Soho Playhouse from January 14 to February 13. The limited Off-Broadway engagement follows a sold-out run at the Hollywood Fringe Festival where the duo’s production received multiple honors.

January 13, 2026

By Haneen Zain

Rosie Glen-Lambert (Porter ’14, theater arts) and Hailey McAfee (Rachel Carson ’13, theater arts) met in an acting class at UC Santa Cruz in 2010. It was Glen-Lambert’s first year and McAfee’s second. They took several more classes together, appeared in multiple UCSC theater productions, and quickly became close friends. Now, a play the two alumna co-wrote will hit the Off-Broadway stage at Soho Playhouse starting Jan. 14. In addition to co-writing, Glen-Lambert directs the play, and McAfee stars in it.

The duo’s production, and her Children, offers a unique lens on gun violence in the United States. The piece follows Anna, an NRA spokesperson played by McAfee, as she balances her public role with the private reality of raising her three children.

Following a sold-out run at the Hollywood Fringe Festival—where it received multiple honors, including Best Dramatic Theatre, Best World Premiere, Top of the Fringe, and the International Fringe Encore Award—and her Children was invited to New York for a limited Off-Broadway engagement.

“We were so moved by the reactions that we got from Los Angeles audiences, and we are eager to see how it will be received in New York,” Glen-Lambert and McAfee said about their upcoming debut. “Making your Off-Broadway debut is a milestone in and of itself. But to make your Off-Broadway debut with someone you met on your very first day of college in your very first acting class in Santa Cruz, California—someone you’ve been collaborating with, cheering for, and calling a friend for years—is the absolute coolest thing on planet Earth.”

and her Children is an adaptation of the play Mother Courage and her Children by Bertolt Brecht—an assigned reading Glen-Lambert and McAfee had as students at UC Santa Cruz.

Mother Courage and her Children follows a mother of three who travels with soldiers during the 30 Years’ War and profits by selling goods to them. McAfee had the idea to write a modern reimagining of the play that reframed the “war” as the American gun violence epidemic. Over the course of eight months, the duo logged into Zoom and Google Docs and co-wrote and her Children.

Anna, the NRA spokesperson played by McAfee, speaks directly to the audience at the beginning of and her Children, boldly stating that she will not apologize for her job. Mixed with controversial and potentially shocking statements, the audience is left to grapple with a polarizing character who is also surprisingly charming, funny, and relatable.

“But as the play goes on, we see that she is much more vulnerable than she appears, and that her decision to do this work is weighed against her fears of not being able to support her children,” Glen-Lambert and McAfee said about their main character. “The central question of Mother Courage and her Children, which our play is based on, is what it means for someone to choose to profit off of war. Our play is no different.” 

“Trying to understand how our main character is able to defend the NRA while also being a mother is a huge ask we are making of the audience. Our play doesn’t offer solutions, but it does offer many important questions. We hope they will walk away grappling with them.”

and her Children’s Off-Broadway engagement begins Jan. 14 and runs through Feb. 13.

Theater foundations at UC Santa Cruz

Glen-Lambert and McAfee both earned degrees in theater arts from UC Santa Cruz. They credit the university with giving them the freedom to pursue different avenues within theater, which ultimately led them to discover their passions.

Glen-Lambert arrived at UC Santa Cruz knowing she wanted to pursue theater, but it was at the university that she discovered her passion for directing. She acted in various UCSC productions, including The Mineola Twins, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Vinegar Tom, Almost, Maine, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Rent, as well as student-written plays in UCSC’s New Play Festival.

The first play she ever wrote, Stray, was produced in the New Play Festival during her third year. Glen-Lambert also directed Curse of the Starving Class and Spring Awakening, and assistant directed Peer Gynt—alongside McAfee—and Hamlet.

In addition to Theater Department productions, Glen-Lambert founded and performed with UC Santa Cruz’s first co-ed sketch comedy team, performed with UCSC’s student-run theater company Barnstorm, and was part of the improv team Someone Always Dies.

“UCSC allowed me to try out so many different areas of theatre, which is how I eventually learned I loved directing,” Glen-Lambert said. “The faculty at UCSC really encouraged me to take risks, and Barnstorm gave me a place to fail bravely. So much of my career as a director has been buoyed by the confidence and independence that was instilled in me during my time in UC Santa Cruz’s theatre department.”

In her final year at UC Santa Cruz, Glen-Lambert founded her own theater company, The Attic Collective, which hosted its first-ever show in Glen-Lambert’s residential attic in Santa Cruz.

As a first-year student, McAfee planned to major in English, but after auditioning for a play during her first quarter at UC Santa Cruz—to take her mind off being homesick—she knew she needed to pursue theater instead.

“The UCSC theatre arts department was fantastic because it allowed me to explore so many different aspects of the theatre-making process,” McAfee said. “Although I consider myself an actor first, I learned about costume design, playwriting, directing, clown—things I wouldn’t necessarily have learned about in other theatre departments. As an indie theatre maker, I’ve had to wear many different hats, and I’ve always felt confident about that given what I learned at UCSC.”

At UC Santa Cruz, McAfee acted in Splendor and Death of Joaquin Murrieta, Dock 23, All in an Evening, The Seagull, Vinegar Tom, The Thinning Veil, Almost, Maine, Twelfth Night, and The Illusion. She also wrote and directed a one-person act, I Love You Madly, which was produced through Barnstorm, and was part of SheBam—an all–female-identifying and nonbinary sketch team.

After years of acting together at UC Santa Cruz and continuing to write and direct side by side before and after graduation, Glen-Lambert and McAfee have long known they thrive as collaborators and are now stepping into a new chapter of that partnership on the Off-Broadway stage.

The duo hope to see fellow Banana Slugs in the crowd starting Jan. 14.