PLAYGROUND ANNOUNCES COMPLETE 2025 FESTIVAL OF NEW WORKS LINEUP

Posted by on April 7, 2025

The full lineup for PlayGround’s 29th annual Festival of New Works, a preeminent showcase for the next generation of great playwrights, has been announced! This year’s festival, all performed live at Potrero Stage May 6-25 and simulcast, will feature premiere presentations of Matthew Morishige’s Work/Shoot and Jessica June Rowe’s The Passing Storm; as well as developmental readings of The Red Fortune Cookie by Karissa Murrell Myers, Yi-An Bu Yi An (Madam Ease is not at Ease) by Lyra Nalan, Mycelium by Juliet Kang Huneke, and Winter’s End by J.S. Puller; as well as the annual Best of PlayGround(SF), featuring the top short works from the 30th anniversary season Monday Night staged reading series; an evening of the top short works by Bay Area high school dramatists as part of the 17th annual Young Playwrights Project; and a playwrights panel and festival opening reception. Admission for the entire festival is free (donations gratefully accepted) with extended on-demand viewing for Festival Sponsors. For tickets and the full lineup, visit tickets.playground-sf.org.

Taken all together, the festival provides theatre-makers and theatregoers with one of the most varied and robust opportunities to discover leading new voices of the American Theatre while providing up-and-coming writers with the exposure, production experience, and networks they need to succeed on the national stage. Both Funny like and Abortion by Rachel Bublitz (2022) and Sapience by Diana Burbano (2021) premiered in the PlayGround Festival of New Works before moving on to National New Play Network Rolling World Premieres. Other distinguished festival alumni include: Lauren Yee, Geetha Reddy, Jonathan Spector, and Cleavon Smith, among others.

Festival Schedule (all events are at 7pm PST):

May 6: Festival Kick-Off & Playwrights Panel
May 9: The Red Fortune Cookie by Karissa Murrell Myers
May 10-11: Work/Shoot by Matthew Y. Morishige
May 12: Yi-An Bu Yi An (Madam Ease is not at Ease) by Lyra Nalan
May 16: Mycelium by Juliet Kang Huneke
May 17-18: The Passing Storm by Jessica June Rowe
May 19: Winter’s End by J.S. Puller
May 23: Young Playwrights Project
May 24-25: Best Of PlayGround(SF) ’25

May 6, Festival Kick-off and Playwrights Panel
Hear from five of the playwrights featured in this year’s Festival of New Works! Join Artistic Director Jim Kleinmann in conversation with PlayGround playwright alumni Jediah Craig, Carl Andrew Johnson, Daniel Martinez Jr., Matthew Y. Morishige, and Bridgette Dutta Portman. These award-winning dramatists will discuss their plays, their processes, and the role of new works in the evolving landscape of American theatre. A festival kick-off reception with the playwrights immediately follows the panel discussion. More…

May 9, Festival Staged Reading
The Red Fortune Cookie by Karissa Murrell Myers

Reese wants the surprise wedding he’s planning for his pregnant girlfriend to be perfect, but when a hot air balloon full of blood crashes in their backyard, mayhem ensues. This kick-in-the-teeth Asian-American farce explores true love, family ties, and suburban ennui. More…

Winner of the 2023 Maxim Mazumdar New Play Award and an O’Neill NPC Finalist, Karissa Murrell Myers’s work has been developed/produced at Goodman Theatre, Alleyway Theatre, Paramount Theatre, Strawdog, Renaissance Theaterworks, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, The Road Theatre Company, among others. She recently participated in the 2024-2025 PlayGround Residency Program. Member of The Dramatist Guild. kmurrellmyers.com

May 10-11, Festival Premiere
Work/Shoot by Matthew Y. Morishige, directed by Ciera Eis

Maya Money, Aurora, and Farrah Fenix fight to find what’s real in the “heightened” world of professional wrestling. More…

Matthew Y. Morishige is a playwright, actor, and musician based in Berkeley, CA. Matt has worked with theatre companies such as American Conservatory Theater, Cornerstone Theatre Company, and Pan Theater as a performer. He has been a member of the PlayGround Writers Pool since the ‘22-‘23 season and is currently a resident playwright. He is energized by collaboration with artists across multiple disciplines.

May 12, Festival Staged Reading
Yi-An Bu Yi (Madam Ease is not at Ease) by An by Lyra Nalan

In 1133 AD, a widowed poetess defies tradition for love—only to discover that the true battle isn’t for honor, but survival. Inspired by the true story of Chinese poetess Li Qingzhao (李清照), Yi An Bu Yi An asks: What remains when a woman’s truth threatens the world built to contain her? More…

Lyra Nalan (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based Chinese playwright. Her plays include Paper Dream (Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award Winner), Chuan & Mom (Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Nominee), The Peachlanders (Horticultural Playwright’s Fellowship), Road Less Travelled (commissioned by Silk Road Cultural Center), Dream Reunion (Pan Asian Rep NuWorks 2023), and Blue Moon (Circle in the Square Emerging Writers Residency). She holds an MFA from Northwestern University and trained as a librettist at the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Lyra has been a PlayGround member since 2023 and is honored to be part of the New Works Reading Series! lyranalan.com.

May 16, Festival Staged Reading
Mycelium by Juliet Kang Huneke

In the American Redwoods, two old trees wonder when they will finally die; in the Pacific Ocean, a colony of coral deals with the trials and tribulations of living in a commune; and in a maple forest, a terminally ill young human stumbles upon two talking mushrooms who are experts on death. Mycelium explores our planet’s interconnections, from loneliness to queerness to life and death to dirt. More…

Juliet Kang Huneke is a playwright and performer who is passionate about theatre that is larger than life. Her new TYA play Hannah And Halmoni Save The World! recently had its world premiere at Filament Theatre. In addition, she was awarded the 2023 ReImagine: New Plays in TYA grant to develop Hannah And Halmoni with Filament. Juliet is also a 24-Hour Plays Nationals alum. Other Chicago writing credits include: Echo’s Inferno (The Understudy), Home For The Summer (Theo Ubique, American Music Theatre Project), and Mechanicals (Impostors Theater Co Footholds Vol. 4). Northwestern 2022!

May 17-18, Festival Premiere
The Passing Storm by Jessica June Rowe, directed by Ely Sonny Orquiza

A man trapped in a deadly storm during his ascent of Mount Everest must wrestle with ghosts of the past—both figurative and literal. More…

Jessica June Rowe is a writer, playwright, editor, and perpetual daydreamer. Her short plays have been featured on multiple stages in Los Angeles with companies such as PlayGround-LA and NEO Ensemble Theatre. She is the Flash Fiction Editor of Exposition Review and her own fiction has appeared in Best Microfiction 2022, among others, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net. One of her poems is stamped into a sidewalk in Valencia, CA. She also really loves chai lattes.

May 19, Festival Staged Reading
Winter’s End by J.S. Puller

Winter’s End is an absurdist (yes, the actual genre) retelling of the Persephone myth from Greek legend, examining and questioning the fact that in most tellings of the story, Persephone has no voice and makes no active choices of her own. Paralleling Persephone’s helplessness is the current debate raging over reproductive rights, told through the eyes of Cassie, a young woman on the run. More…

J.S. Puller is a playwright and author from Chicago, with an MSEd in education and a BS in theatre from Northwestern. An award-winning member of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, she has written about the social-emotional benefits of arts education with the UChicago Consortium on School Research. She is the author of two novels, Captain Superlative and The Lost Things Club. She also has several published plays, including: Women Who Weave, Perseus And Medusa – It’s All Greek To Me!, The Death Of Robin Hood, and five titles with Plays for New Audiences.

May 23, Young Playwrights Project Finalists
Finalists for the 16th annual Young Playwrights Contest, a showcase celebrating the best budding new voices for the stage, will be presented as a staged reading. Finalists were chosen from submissions by Bay Area high school students on the theme of “The American Experiment,” a prompt also given to PlayGround’s professional writers for the October 2024 round of Monday Night PlayGround. More…

May 24-25: Best of PlayGround(SF) ’25
A fully-produced evening of the top short plays from PlayGround’s 30th anniversary season. The lineup includes The Case of the Missing Messenger by Madeleine Butler, Ratification Panic Room by Jediah Craig, Grandma’s First Festivus by Laura Domingo, Twas the Launch Before Christmas by Carl Andrew Johnson, The Trial Run by Daniel Martinez Jr., and An Emblem of Christmas by Bridgette Dutta Portman. More…

The Case of the Missing Messenger by Madeleine Butler
It may seem like a simple tragedy, but Sergeant Venerdi Officer Fabbro of the Verona detective bureau uncover a darker crime.

Madeleine Butler. she/her, has had various plays staged for Monday Night PlayGround including A Beautiful Evening, The Story of Our Lives (People’s Choice Award), The River God (Best of PlayGround 2016), The Last Pirogue, Beshert, Stuck, and The Case of the Missing Messenger. Her short plays have also been staged by Playwright’s Center of San Francisco, FABUM (Washington, D.C.), Drama with Friends, and 3 Girls Theatre, including an episode of a collaborative serial radio drama. She has regularly attended the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive since 2021 and studies playwriting on an ongoing basis with Anthony Clarvoe.

Ratification Panic Room by Jediah Craig
This is true: On January 6, 2021, as rioters stormed the Capitol, congressional aides took it upon themselves to remove the boxes containing the electoral votes, preventing them from being destroyed, and in doing so preserved the ratification of the election and with it our democracy at large.

Jediah Craig, he/him, is a member of the PlayGround Writers Pool, Playwright’s Center of San Francisco, and Theatre Bay Area. He lives in Berkeley with his very patient family, who humor him as he stumbles through “this writing thing,” secretly hoping it’s just a phase.

Grandma’s First Festivus by Laura Domingo*
At Grandma’s first Festivus celebration, the “Airing of Grievances” takes an unexpected turn.
* June Anne Baker Prize Winner

Laura Domino, she/her, is a Native Hawaiian/Filipina writer and actor based in Oakland, CA. She has written screenplays for three Best Film winners for the 48-Hour Film Project (2019 – San Jose; 2020 – U.S. West; and 2021 – San Jose), and her short plays won runner-up in 2023 and 2024 for Silicon Valley Shakespeare’s 48-Hour Play Festival. She is part of the writing pool with SF-based sketch comedy company Killing My Lobster. Laura is the recipient of PlayGround’s 2025 June Anne Baker Prize.

Twas the Launch Before Christmas by Carl Andrew Johnson
Two soldiers, a silent night, and a naughty surprise.

Carl Andrew Johnson, he/him, is a recent addition to PlayGround-SF, with a passion for writing satire, speculative fiction, and comedy. While taking screen and stage playwriting courses at Berkeley City College, he was encouraged by his instructor to submit his work to local theater groups. His writing often draws from personal experiences, blending humor and thought-provoking elements, with the goal of ensuring that audiences leave with both a smile and something to ponder.

The Trial Run by Daniel Martinez Jr.
A grieving husband goes to an AI facility where his husband’s consciousness has been uploaded to the latest AI Droid and, in doing so, discovers a messy secret his husband never told him.

Daniel Martinez Jr. is an award winning playwright based in San Jose, CA. This is his third season in the Writers Pool and the water is still ~warm~. Daniel’s short plays have had several staged readings through PlayGround SF. Daniel’s newest one-act play, Vodka Cran, was recently featured in Mountain Community Theater’s New Works Festival. Daniel’s newest one man play, What’s in a Name?, premiered at PlayGround’s Solo Performance Festival in January 2025. Daniel loves writing and sharing stories with all of you- THANK YOU for watching! During the day, Daniel manages a film school for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

An Emblem of Christmas by Bridgette Dutta Portman
Lex, a struggling screenwriter, has had enough of formulaic Christmas movies. But does art imitate life?

Bridgette Dutta Portman, she/her, is a playwright, novelist, and teacher. She is president of the Pear Theatre board of directors and a member of the Pear Playwrights’ Guild and the Dramatists’ Guild. She received the 2023 June Anne Baker Prize from PlayGround and is currently developing a full-length commission, RIVALS OF MARS. She teaches composition and creative writing at UC Berkeley.

Ticket and Venue Information

Tickets are available now and can be reserved here:
tickets.playground-sf.org

Festival Sponsorships (starting at $100) include guaranteed reservations for all festival online events with extended on-demand access and in-person priority seating as well as a complimentary Potrero Stage cap and festival poster. Links for online viewing will be sent the day of the performance and can also be accessed through your PlayGround account at tickets.playground-sf.org (log in, click “home” for the main menu, then “tickets for upcoming performances”, select the proper show, and choose “watch”). If you have any questions, please contact the Box Office at boxoffice@playground-sf.org. For more information about the PlayGround Festival of New Works, call (415) 992-6677 or visit playground-sf.org/festival.

Why Free?

PlayGround has made all programs admission-free in furtherance of our commitment to radical accessibility. If you are able, we hope that you’ll consider donating with your free ticket reservation, recognizing that your direct support makes it possible for us to continue providing fair and equitable wages for professional artists while sustaining our radical accessibility efforts for all.

PlayGround was founded in 1994 by Jim Kleinmann, Brighde Mullins, and Denise Shama, beginning as a professional-academic partnership in residence at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and with initial sponsorship from SFSU’s Creative Writing Program. Early participating artists included Prince Gomolvilas, Garret Jon Groenveld, Daniele Nathanson, Sandra Hunter, Colman Domingo, Kent Nicholson, Antigone Trimis, Mary Coleman, and Rhonnie Washington. The fledgling organization moved to Project Artaud and A Traveling Jewish Theatre’s new 80-seat black box theatre in 1996, at which time Kleinmann took on sole leadership as PlayGround’s founding artistic director.

The company was in residence at Berkeley Repertory Theatre from 2003 until the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and has also presented at the San Francisco Main Library, Freight & Salvage, Zeum, A.C.T.’s Costume Shop, and Thick House, as well as co-producing with such notable Bay Area theatres as San Francisco Playhouse, Shotgun Players, Impact Theatre, San Jose Stage, and Magic Theatre, among others. PlayGround first brought its work to New York City with the 2008 co-production of Garret Jon Groenveld’s Missives, followed by the 2009 NY International Fringe Festival hit co-production of Aaron Loeb’s Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party, 2013 NY International Fringe Festival co-production of Katie May’s Manic Pixie Dream Girl. PlayGround celebrated its 25th anniversary with a one-night program of original short musicals at NYC’s Theatre Row in 2019.

PlayGround’s first ongoing regional expansion came in 2012 with the launch of PlayGround-LA at West Hollywood’s Zephyr Theatre. In 2018, PlayGround-LA relocated to Hollywood’s Broadwater Theaters (home of Sacred Fools Theater Company), where the company continues to present its Monday Night series. PlayGround expanded to NYC in 2021 and Chicago in 2022, with in-person performances (and simulcasts) beginning in the Spring of 2023, at NYC’s Producers Club and Chicago’s Theater Wit, respectively.

Over its 30 year history, PlayGround has grown into a leading national playwright incubator and theatre community hub, providing unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s and, more recently, Los Angeles’, New York’s, and Chicago’s best new playwrights through innovative programs such as the monthly Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, annual PlayGround Festival of New Works, full-length play commissions, playwright residencies and production support through the New Play Production Fund.

To date, PlayGround has developed and staged more than 1,500 original short plays through Monday Night PlayGround and the PlayGround Festival. PlayGround has also commissioned and/or developed several hundred new full-length plays by PlayGround alumni through its Commissioning Initiative, Playwrights Residency and Alumni Programs and, through the innovative New Play Production Fund, has directly facilitated the premiere of 40 full-length plays at theatres of every size, including many that have gone on to NYC and other major theater communities across the country.

In 2017, PlayGround launched Potrero Stage: PlayGround Center for New Plays, a 99-seat state-of-the-art performance venue to serve as a shared community resource for dozens of local companies and hundreds of artists. New programs in residence at Potrero Stage like the Free-Play Festival, Solo Performance Festival, and Innovator Incubator provide opportunities for local and national artists to self-determine and showcase their work in San Francisco at little to no cost.

More than 350 early-career playwrights have gotten their start at PlayGround, including Lauren Yee, Jonathan Spector, Geetha Reddy, and Cleavon Smith, helping to expand and deepen the canon of American Theatre. PlayGround’s alumni have gone on to win local, national, and international honors for their short and full-length work, including recognition at the Steinberg Awards, Glickman Awards, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and New York International Fringe Festival, among others. PlayGround serves one of the largest theatre artist networks in the nation, connecting hundreds of Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York artists in support of a common vision: the development of bold and diverse new voices and new works.

This work has not gone unnoticed. PlayGround has received numerous awards, including Playwrights Foundation’s Inaugural New Play Champion Award, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle’s Paine Knickerbocker Award for ongoing contributions to Bay Area theatre, and American Theater Wing’s National Theater Grant. In 2016, Artistic Director Jim Kleinmann was recognized by Theatre Bay Area as one of the Bay Area’s top 40 leaders. Three of PlayGround’s commissioned plays have won the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle award for Best New Play, and three have had subsequent productions in NYC. Four of the past five Will Glickman Award winners for best new play are PlayGround alumni. When other theatre companies think of producing new work, PlayGround artists are often their first call. As a result of PlayGround’s strong leadership, planning, and a willingness to take bold risks with high payoff, the new play ecosystem has been utterly transformed by PlayGround. For more information, visit PlayGround-SF.org.