Monday Night PlayGround “Holiday Celebration”

“Bah,” said Scrooge, “Humbug.” – Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. PlayGround puts its spin on the holidays with its annual Monday Night PlayGround “Holiday Celebration” as PlayGround’s 78 writers in the Bay Area and Los Angeles write their own original short plays inspired by this year’s topic, “Home for the Holidays.” The top six Bay Area scripts will be presented on Monday, December 18, 8PM at Berkeley Repertory Theatre (L.A. will have its own “Holiday Celebration” on December 11). The evening will also include a special holiday cookie bake-off, with all funds raised supporting PlayGround’s new play incubator programs. General admission tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. For tickets or more information, visit https://playground-sf.org//monday.

Recent topics have included: “In the Beginning” and “Reap What You Sow.” The top six plays from each month are rehearsed for just one-and-a-half hours each and presented as script-in-hand staged readings at Monday Night PlayGround, now celebrating its twenty-fourth year. PlayGround audiences get to enjoy a unique behind-the-scenes perspective, with a free Pre-Performance Discussion at 7:10pm.  Audience members can also experience the thrill of being a producer through the monthly People’s Choice Awards, helping to determine which plays and playwrights go on for consideration in PlayGround’s annual showcase, the Best of PlayGround.

PlayGround, the Bay Area’s leading playwright incubator, provides unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s best new playwrights, including the monthly Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, annual PlayGround Festival of New Works, full-length play commissions and support for the production of new plays by local playwrights through the New Play Production Fund. To date, PlayGround has supported over 200 local playwrights in the development and staging of more than 850 original short plays and 75 new full-length plays, with 6 more commissions currently in development. PlayGround also operates Potrero Stage (formerly Thick House), a state-of-the-art 99-seat black box theatre in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, home to some of the Bay Area’s leading new play developers and producers, including PlayGround, Crowded Fire, Golden Thread, and Playwrights Foundation. For more information, visit https://playground-sf.org/.