PlayGround Company in the News Nov-2018
Read on to learn more about PlayGround Company Member and Alumni recent news, current happenings, and upcoming events.
Nicole Jost’s play INTIMATES will be presented as a free staged reading at Custom Made Theatre on Sunday, November 18th at 7pm. In INTIMATES, a sex worker and her client begin a whole new kind of relationship after the client is killed. A story about the point where love meets lust, honesty meets artifice, and life meets death. https://www.facebook.com/events/311728326307127/
Linda Amayo-Hassan’s full-length ¡CHEER! Story of a Dreamer runs November 1 – November 11 in Stage One at Chabot College. Linda is also featured on The Yay podcast Episode 83 with Norman Gee and Reg Clay.
Michael J. Asberry is performing in a production of Lynn Nottage’s SWEAT with Capital Stage Company in Sacramento, CA. It closes on 11/18/18. http://www.capstage.org.
Michael Barrett Austin just closed THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS with 42nd Street Moon, and was thrilled to finally return to Monday Night PlayGround on October 15th under the new Equity contract!”
Mary Baird has been doing some restorative voice work with an actor at Sacramento Theatre Company. She will soon be working with a Halau in Grass Valley to strengthen their voices. She hasn’t been acting these days, only reading scripts, some auditions, seeing lots of theatre and music and enjoying life.
Tom Bruett co-wrote a play called CAUGHT UP that runs at Gritty City Rep in Oakland from December 6-15. Tickets- http://www.grittycityrep.org/
Rachel Bublitz has two productions of short plays coming up in November; MOM’S HAM with Clairemont Act One Community Theater and EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH with Utah New Works Theater Project. She also has a reading in the Utah New Works Theater Project of her play THE GARDEN. Coming up in December Rachel is heading to New York City for a workshop with Phoenix Theatre Ensemble and a reading of her play RIPPED with Athena Theatre Company, where it’s being considered for production.
Ron Campbell will be the Ringleader/Master of Ceremonies for The Lone Star Circus’s CIRQUE JOYUEX in Texas starting Dec.14th to Jan. 4th.
Rebecca J. Ennals is starting workshops in December for a new musical version of AS YOU LIKE IT featuring company members Gwen Loeb, Akaina Ghosh, and Michael Barrett Austin and the music of the Kilbanes, which will be performed in our 2019 summer season.
Nancy Fishman is the Festival Producer of New Italian Cinema, screening at the Vogue Theatre in San Francisco from November 30-December 2, 2018. This annual presentation of dynamic cinema brings Italy’s newest directors and veteran filmmakers to Bay Area audiences. www.newitaliancinema.org
Sarah Gasser will be stage managing Bay Area Children’s Theatre’s production of WONDERLAND, a rock musical of Alice in Wonderland. It runs from November 17 through February 10 throughout the Bay Area
Jerome Joseph Gentes has a workshop production of his musical THE RIGHT NOTE coming up in late November-early December at the Phoenix Theatre, produced and directed by fellow PlayGround writing pool member, Laylah Muran de Assereto and her company, Spare Stage. THE RIGHT NOTE updates Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to our contemporary world, where the major characters are competing on a singing reality TV show called The Right Note. Created with composer and co-lyricist Rice Majors, and the show runs Friday & Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm on the weekends of November 30 – December 2 and December 13 – 15. Tickets and more info are available here now.
Douglas B. Giorgis is currently recording his first iTunes podcast, “The Henry Rios Mysteries” in addition to workshoping the new play DERECHO by Noelle Vinas at Playwrights Foundation.
Rosie Hallett and Lauren Spencer are performing in MEN ON BOATS at ACT’s Strand Theatre, now through December 16.
Daryl Anthony Harper has two commercials running at the moment, one for Comcast and a Voice Over for Allen Edmonds Shoes. He also just shot an Industrial Video for Cisco Systems last Friday for bbn in-house use.
Eric Fraisher Hayes is the Artistic Director for the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House. He just returned from an international tour of his original adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s HUGHIE
Nicole Jost’s play INTIMATES will be presented as a free staged reading at Custom Made Theatre on Sunday, November 18th at 7pm. In INTIMATES, a sex worker and her client begin a whole new kind of relationship after the client is killed. A story about the point where love meets lust, honesty meets artifice, and life meets death. https://www.facebook.com/events/311728326307127/
RULES OF THE GAME, by Ellen Koivisto, has its last performance on 11/11 at 4 p.m. at the Book Passage in the Ferry Building. To date, the show’s teen cast has raised $440 for non-governmental organizations working with the migrant children in detention camps or separated from their families and in foster care
Melanie Marshall is performing in The Secretaries I’m Shotgun’s Champagne Reading Series on the 5th and 6th. She is also doing a reading of Sappho at Cutting Ball on November 10th.
Ross Peter Nelson‘s play SIMULACRA will be premiering at the Last Chance New Play Fest, Nov 2-11 in Helena, MT. In the same festival, his ten-minute piece, WORKERS OF THE WORLD will also be produced. Later in November, he will direct Sybil Rosen’s DUET FOR BEAR AND DOG in the Carroll College 10-Minute Play Fest, Nov 28-Dec 1.
Molly Noble just finished a run of Marisela Trevino Orta’s play THE RIVER BRIDE at College of Marin. She is also appearing in Birdbath Theatre’s extraordinary production of UNCLE VANYA, directed by David Abrams, and adapted by Jesse Brownstein that opens 10/26 and play through 11/18 (http://www.birdbaththeatres.com). Molly is holding auditions for THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH by Thornton Wilder at the James Dunn Theatre on Wed. 11/ 28. Performances will be in late Feb, early March. http://pa.marin.edu/drama
Joseph Patrick O’Malley is currently vocal coaching Napa Valley College and Cafeteria Kids’ production of MARY POPPINS (Runs 11/2 – 11/11).
Evelyn Jean Pine performs a section of A MERMAID’S TEARS at StageWerx Solo Sundays at 7:00 on Sunday, November 11.
Rebecca Pingree plays Feste in ASF’s Twelfth Night at Royce Gallery in SF, opening November 2! Arabianshakespearefestival.org
Two of Madeline Puccioni‘s short plays, EURYBIA AND THE PIRATE QUEEN and GERTRUDE, are up and dancin’ for Turn to Flesh theatre in NYC this November. Eurybia is the Greek Goddess of navigation and Gertrude is — yes, that Gertrude. Only she lives. And gets even.
PlayGround alum Geetha Reddy and resident Cleavon Smith along with Lauren Gunderson are supporting 3 young playwrights/performers in their development of The People’s History of Next which kicks off the TheatreFirst 2018-19 season beginning on the 6th of December at Live Oak Theater in Berkeley.
Cathleen Riddley can be seen in AN AMERICAN MA(U)L at the studio theatre at Brava through November 11th. It’s a hilarious satire about… slavery
Marsha Roberts‘ LOGAN COMES OF AGE will be featured in Playwrights’ Center SF’s Audience Favorites Showcase of 10-minute Plays, Nov 8 – 18, Shelton Theater, Thurs – Sat 7;30, Sun 2:00. http://playwrightscentersf.org for ticket and other info.
Diane Sampson’s full-length play. THE GREATER GOOD, is one of six finalists in Playhouse on the Square’s (Memphis, TN) New Works competition. It will receive a staged reading there in early December. Two of the six finalists’ plays will be selected for full productions in the theatre’s 2019-2020 season.
Robert Sicular is beginning rehearsals soon for The Christmas Revels: The Mysteries of Andalusian Spain; to be performed in Oakland at the Scottish Rite Temple on Lake Merritt. Revels is always an amazing and wonderful show, and has been delighting families for over 30 years. More info at californiarevels.org.
Cleavon Smith‘s full-length comedy, FLOW, is a part of the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s Playwright’s Festival. His is one of three plays being read November 16th – 18th.
Nic Sommerfeld will be playing the Tin Man in THE WIZARD OF OZ at Berkeley Playhouse, November 10th through December 23rd!
Emelie Talbot is performing in THE RESTING PLACE at the Magic Theatre. It is one of the most powerful piece she’s ever been a part of, and the work that Jim Carpenter, Martha Brigham, and Emily Radosevich are doing is stunning. It is an honor to be onstage with them. Plus you get to see her do what she does best— act.