Kimberly Ridgeway: 2025 Hitchcock Christmas Playwright Spotlight
Welcome to the Playwright Spotlight series – Holiday Edition! Today we’re featuring PlayGround-SF alum Kimberly Ridgeway and her play Fool Proof (Inspired by Strangers on a Train), one of five plays being presented as a part of PlayGround’s 4th annual A Very Hitchcock Christmas, running at Potrero Stage and Simulcast, December 6-7 at 7pm. Advance reservations are required: visit playground-sf.org/hitchcockchristmas for details.
What was the impetus for your Hitchcockian/Christmas mash-up?
My favorite holiday movie of all time is A Christmas Story and one of my favorite Hitchcock films is Strangers on a Train. I wanted to take some iconic holiday characters, tap into their ultimate desires, and mash that up with the impulse to do whatever it takes to get what you want. That’s how Fool Proof was born.
Give a teaser for your play.
Inspired by Strangers on a Train, RALPHIE Parker and Ethan GRINCH have a chance meeting on an Amtrak. They devise a plan to help each other achieve their biggest holiday desire. But will this fool proof plan go as expected?”
Did you start writing any other scripts before you submitted that one?
No. I got the idea for this script after last year’s Twisted Christmas and awaited the announcement to start writing. I was overjoyed that it was one of the plays selected. It was fun and nostalgic to write, and I hope that’s how audiences feel about it as well.
Generally speaking, are you more of a Hitchcock fan or Christmas fan? Tell us why!Hitchcock. I LOVE suspense, murder mysteries and psychological thrillers.
Can you imagine a 2-hour version of your play? What might that look like?
Absolutely. The two-hour version of Fool Proof would expand the worlds of Ralphie Parker and Ethan Grinch before fate brings them together on the train. Seeing their lives in the lead-up to that chance encounter would make their “fool proof” plan—and the chaos that follows—all the more fun.
What’s your favorite film? Tell us what you love about it!
A Few Good Men. Find the flaw in the writing. I double-dog dare you.
If you could pick the next iconic director/holiday mash-up as a prompt for PlayGround, what would your combination be?
Jordan Peele / Halloween. How delightfully dark, entertaining, and insightful those stories could be!
What do you do creatively other than writing?
I’m a director and actor as well.
Kimberly Ridgeway is an award-winning Playwright, Actor, and Director. Kimberly is a PlayGround-SF company member, is in the Actor’s Pool, Director’s Pool and this is her third year in the Writer’s Pool. Kimberly is a Brady Fellow Recipient, a Theatre Bay Area (TBA) Art Leadership Residency Grantee and the Artistic Associate at Altarena Playhouse. Kimberly is also the recipient of the 2024 June Anne Baker Prize. Her play Snowbound: A Holiday Tale, which she co-wrote with Writer’s Pool member Richard Perez, will have its World Premiere in December 2025 at Town Hall Theatre.
A VERY HITCHCOCK CHRISTMAS was created from submission by playwright alumni in each of PlayGround’s four regions (SF, LA, NYC, and Chicago). Over the last three years, A VERY HITCHCOCK CHRISTMAS reached nearly 2,500 audience members, in person and online. The 2025 production includes two audience favorites from previous years, The Birds is Coming by Jonathan Josephson from 2024 and How the Bates (Almost) Stole Christmas by J.S. Puller from 2023; and three world premiere short plays: Dial M for Merry by Christian Wilburn, Fool Proof by Kimberly Ridgeway, and Shadow of an Uncle Nick by Mark Sherstinsky. The plays are in conversation with the Hitchcock films The Birds, Psycho, Dial M for Murder, Strangers on a Train, and Shadow of a Doubt. Visit playground-sf.org/hitchcockchristmas for details.