PlayGround Announces Lineup for 30th Annual Festival of New Works!
PlayGround has announced the full lineup for the 30th annual Festival of New Works, a preeminent showcase for the next generation of great playwrights! This year’s festival, all performed live at Potrero Stage May 15-31 and simulcast, is highlighted by the premiere presentation of Mycelium by Juliet Kang Huneke (May 16-17 & May 23-24), a PlayGround commission originally developed at the 2025 Festival of New Works and based on the Best of PlayGround(Chicago) ’24 People’s Choice short play of the same name. The festival also features staged readings of three brand-new plays in development – all under commission and developed as part of PlayGround’s year-long Playwright Residency Program: Good Romans by Baylee Shlichtman (May 17), The Case of the Missing Messenger by Madeleine Butler (May 24), and Disloyal by Anne Brady (May 31). Four playwrights are also being recognized this year as Festival Finalists for their outstanding plays, each of which received an in-house reading earlier this season: Courting by Dana Leslie Goldstein, Merchant of Stratford by Maury Zeff, The Suit by Alex Kingsley, and The House of Flightless Birds by Baylee Shlichtman.
“It’s humbling,” said founding PlayGround Artistic Director Jim Kleinmann, “with everything our field and the arts in general have gone through particularly in the last six years, to see the impact PlayGround and the Festival of New Works have had in launching hundreds of new plays and playwrights over the past thirty years. I’m so proud of the numerous professional playwrights PlayGround has been able to support, nurture and champion.”
Since 1997, the Festival of New Works has provided 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 an 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.
The 2026 festival concludes with PlayGround’s annual Young Playwrights Project (May 29) and Best of PlayGround(SF) 2026 (May 30-31), the 30th annual iteration of PlayGround’s short play showcase featuring fully-produced versions of the top plays from this season’s Monday Night PlayGround series. The festival begins with a special Kick-Off and Playwrights Panel (May 15), featuring many of this year’s award-winning playwrights including: Baylee Shlichtman, Madeleine Butler, Juliet Kang Huneke and more. Admission for the entire festival is free (suggested donation: $10-$50) with extended on-demand viewing for Festival Sponsors. For tickets and the full lineup, visit playground-sf.org/boxoffice.
Festival Schedule:
May 15 7pm PT: Festival Kick-Off & Playwrights Panel
May 16-17 & 23-24 7pm PT: Mycelium by Juliet Kang Huneke (Premiere)
May 17 3pm PT: Good Romans by Baylee Shlichtman (Festival Reading)
May 24 3pm PT: The Case of the Missing Messenger by Madeleine Butler (Festival Reading)
May 29 7pm PT: Young Playwrights Project
May 30-31 7pm PT: Best of PlayGround(SF) ’26 (Premiere)
May 31 3pm PT: Disloyal by Anne Brady (Festival Reading)
May 15 7pm PT, Festival Kick-off and Playwrights Panel
Hear from nine of the playwrights featured in this year’s Festival of New Works! Join Artistic Director Jim Kleinmann in conversation with PlayGround playwright alumni Anne Brady, Madeleine Butler, Laura Domingo, KT Frances Hartline, Juliet Kang Huneke, Daniel Martinez Jr., Sophie Ruf, Baylee Shlichtman, and Stan Stone. 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 16-17 & 23-24 7pm PT, Festival Premiere
Mycelium by Juliet Kang Huneke, directed by Lana Richards
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. Juliet Kang Huneke’s ecological pattern play Mycelium is a mosaic of our planet’s interconnections, from loneliness to queerness to life and death to dirt. Featuring: L Duarte, Nikki Nutterfield, Krystle Piamonte, Kunal Prasad, and Dom Refuerzo. A PlayGround commission, originally developed as part of the 29th annual PlayGround Festival of New Works. More…
Juliet Kang Huneke is a playwright and performer who is passionate about theatre that is larger than life. In spring 2026, her new TYA play, THE DRESS-UP PLAY, had its world premiere at Jackalope Theatre Company. She was awarded the 2023 ReImagine: New Plays in TYA grant to develop HANNAH AND HALMONI SAVE THE WORLD! with Filament Theatre, where it had its world premiere in 2025. 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), MYCELIUM (Playground Chicago), and MECHANICALS (Impostors Theater Co Footholds Vol. 4). julietkanghuneke.com
May 17 3pm PT, Festival Staged Reading
Good Romans: A Shakespeare Reimagining by Baylee Shlichtman
It’s 44 BCE, and Julius Caesar has been assassinated. Now, two siblings find themselves at the center of a deadly power struggle. Octavian wants his destiny. Octavia wants to be safe. Both of them want what’s good for each other, but what is”good” when you’re building an empire? In conversation with Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, GOOD ROMANS is a play about power, patriarchy–and poetry. A PlayGround commission. More…
Baylee Shlichtman writes plays about love, autonomy, and magic in the mundane. Recently, her work has been featured with Full Circle Players Emerging Voices, EST/ LA Winterfest, and Afterlife Fest. Her work has been produced or developed with AlterTheatre Ensemble, Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble, Curtis Theatre, Flamboyán Theatre, Great Plains Theatre Commons, New Relic Theatre, PlayGround-LA, UC Irvine, Urbanite Theatre, The Vagrancy Theatre, and The Workshop Theatre among others. She is currently under commission with PlayGround-LA for her full-length play GOOD ROMANS. MFA, UC Riverside ’27.
May 24 3pm PT, Festival Staged Reading
The Case of the Missing Messenger by Madeleine Butler
Bringing the anachronistic investigative techniques of 20th century police dramas to 14th century Verona, Sergeant Beppe Venerdi and his eager sidekick Inspector Cesca Fabbro will stop at nothing to uncover the true story behind the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. A PlayGround commission. More…
Madeleine Butler has had various short 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, The Case of the Missing Messenger (Best of PlayGround 2025), Favorite Things, and I Saw the Figure Five in Gold. Other works have been staged by Playwright’s Center of San Francisco, FABUM, Drama with Friends, and 3 Girls Theatre, including an episode of a collaborative serial radio drama. She has attended the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive and studies playwriting with Anthony Clarvoe.
May 29 7pm PT, Young Playwrights Project
Finalists for the 18th annual Young Playwrights Contest, a showcase celebrating the best budding new voices for the stage, will have their short works – inspired by this year’s prompt, “Tales of the City” – presented as public staged readings. Submissions are being accepted through April 24, 2026. More…
May 30-31: Best of PlayGround(SF) ’26
A fully-produced evening of the top short plays from PlayGround’s 32nd season. The lineup includes A Wayward Tale by KT Frances Hartline, Abuela Knows Best by Richard Perez, Bridges of San Francisco County by Stan Stone, Certified Super Sleuth by Daniel Martinez Jr., Dolores Park by Laura Domingo, and Lil Ole Orphan Annie by Sophie Ruf. More…
A Wayward Tale by KT Frances Hartline
When two generations of San Franciscans collide, they realize they are living in two different cities. Which one will live on?
KT Frances Hartline, she/her, is a Berkeley-based playwright and screenwriter. After working as a New York City public school teacher, she was editor for two New York-based magazines and wrote for Oakland and Parents Press. Her plays have appeared in festivals around the country, including It’s Alarming, a Heideman Award finalist which premiered in Playground’s Monday Night Series. Her screenwriting accolades include AFF Second Rounder and Finalist in the International PAGE Awards. She is now a Top Tier member of Roadmap Writers’ Career Writer Program. Her greatest joy is squeezing into a hardcore punk show and watching the son she homeschooled absolutely shred on drums.
Abuela Knows Best by Richard Perez
What begins as a chance encounter between a teenage boy and a mysterious, weeping woman unfolds into a darkly funny and haunting reminder that people are not always what they seem.
Richard Perez, he/him, is a writer, actor, and director and with an emphasis on new play development. He is the former Artistic Director of The Bloomington Playwrights Project in Indiana, Associate Artistic Director of Chicago Dramatists and currently serves as the Artistic Director of Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette. His play Backdraft was recently chosen to be one of “The Seven”, a national ten-minute play festival at Fusion Theatre in New Mexico.
Bridges of San Francisco County by Stan Stone
Two bridges in a cat fight, and one city in the middle of it all.
Stan Stone, he/him, wrote and illustrated comic books at the ripe old age of 10, and he’s been writing ever since. Performing Improv as an adult helped hone his storytelling skills. Presently, he is a published poet, actor, screenwriter and playwright. His play, Trouble The Water, was a highlight of the recent AfroSolo Festival. Stan also wrote and performed a solo piece at The Marsh SF, bringing the audience to tears (in a good way).
Certified Super Sleuth by Daniel Martinez Jr.
Armed with a purse full of “evidence”, nosy neighbor Marge is convinced she’s cracked a murder case– until her sleuthing reveals more about jealousy and friendship than crime.
Daniel Martinez Jr., he/him, is an award-winning playwright and actor based in San Jose, CA. This is his third season in the Writers Pool and he feels so lucky to get to write stories with some amazing people. Daniel recently debuted his one-act play, Vodka Cran. Daniel has also been featured in Best of Playground. Daniel debuted his latest one-man play, What’s in a Name?, in PlayGround’s Solo Festival last January. Daniel was also recently named a semi-finalist in Nosotros’ Ya Tu Sabes Monologue Slam, for his comedic monologue “Honey Walnut Shrimp.”
Dolores Park by Laura Domingo
It’s Margie’s first time in San Francisco, and she’s making a trip to Dolores Park to learn more about her son.
Laura Domingo, she/her, is a Native Hawaiian/Filipina writer and actor based on 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 recipient of the 2025 June Anne Baker Prize.
Lil Ole Orphan Annie by Sophie Ruf
In this send-up of Annie, Grace makes an ill-fitted choice when she selects an orphan to bring new meaning to “Daddy” Warbucks’ life.
Sophie Ruf, she/her, is an Oakland-based theater fanatic. She has performed or written for staged readings and mainstage productions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area with the Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, SF Eagle Players, Queer as Fuck (Bindlestiff Studio), Orinda Starlight Village Players, and Theatre Lunatico. This summer she is performing with Shotgun Players in their Champagne Staged Reading Series: “The Gull” June 22nd, 23rd, and 24th. By day she is an architect and origami enthusiast. Her favorite playwrights are Paula Vogel and Wendy Wasserstein.
May 31 3pm PT, Festival Staged Reading
Disloyal by Anne Brady
The things a wife and mother has to do to take care of her family! Peggy Shippen’s certainly been through it, with a war, her husband accused of being a traitor, and suspicion around an attempt on George Washington’s life (really, just a misunderstanding!). But if she wants to get her husband’s veterans pension, she’ll have to make her case before a congressional tribunal stacked with the country’s founding fathers. A PlayGround commission. More…
Anne Kennedy Brady is a playwright and actress living in Chicago. Her work has been produced in Chicago, Seattle, and Ukraine. She’s also written a handful of children’s books and magazine articles with Worthy Publishing Company. As an actress she has performed onstage in Hawaii and both US coasts, as well as on television here and there. Catch her giving birth in a sedan on “Chicago Fire,” or lusting after one in a BMW commercial. She’s an alumna of PlayGround-Chicago where her original ten-minute play Disloyal was selected for the Best of PlayGround People’s Choice. Her play, This Christmas, premiered at Taproot Theatre Company in Seattle.
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 last ten 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.
WHAT: PlayGround’s 30th annual Festival of New Works (May 15-31, 2026), featuring a Kickoff Playwrights Panel, three Festival Staged Readings, a Festival Premiere, a presentation of the Young Playwrights Project finalists, and PlayGround’s annual shorts fest, Best of PlayGround(SF) ’26.
WHERE: Potrero Stage, 1695 18th St, San Francisco, CA 94107, and simulcast online
WHEN: May 15-31, 2026
Simulcast and On-Demand access available for one week after registration
TICKETS: Admission for in-person and online simulcast is free (donations gratefully accepted).
May 15 7pm PT: Festival Kick-Off & Playwrights Panel
May 16-17 & 23-24 7pm PT: Mycelium by Juliet Kang Huneke (Premiere)
May 17 3pm PT: Good Romans by Baylee Shlichtman (Festival Reading)
May 24 3pm PT: The Case of the Missing Messenger by Madeleine Butler (Festival Reading)
May 29 7pm PT: Young Playwrights Project
May 30-31 7pm PT: Best of PlayGround(SF) ’26 (Premiere)
May 31 3pm PT: Disloyal by Anne Brady (Festival Reading)
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. Links for online viewing will be sent in advance with a reminder sent just prior to the performance. 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.