PlayGround Company in the News March 2020

Rachel Bublitz received the 2020 Will Glickman Award for RIPPED, which premiered last summer at Z Space, directed by Lisa Steindler. The Will Glickman Award is presented each year by Theatre Bay Area, for the best play to premiere in the Bay Area the previous year, adjudicated by five leading Bay Area critics. Additionally, Rachel’s commissioned play, THE NIGHT WITCHES, is being published in two different lengths by Dramatic Publishing. She’s also thrilled to have her play BURST performed in MACH 33 Festival of New Science Driven Plays on April 3rd at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Planet a Tree Fundraiser is being held Sat, March 28, 9am – 1pm in  Bayview, San Franciscoby Same Boat Theater Collective, which includes PlayGround writers, Lynn Aylward, Lisa Kang and Linda Amayo Hassan as its members and is a PlayGround 2019 Innovator Incubator company. For details, go to our Facebook event site here.  

Aldo Billingslea is  directing Sarah Burgess DRY POWDER at Santa Clara University which was at the Aurora two seasons ago.

Rob Dario is currently writing My Parents 50th Anniversary House Party, which opens March 22 after church at his parents’ house in Vallejo.

Anne Darragh is currently wrapping up THE CHILDREN at the Aurora Theatre. Next up is ESCAPED ALONE at the Magic Theatre.

Livia Gomes Demarchi just closed the critically acclaimed GHOSTS OF BOGOTÁ by Diana Burbano and will next be seen in COMEDY OF ERRORS at Livermore Shakespeare this summer.

Rebecca Ennals is producing a staged reading of QUERIDA SOR JUANA/DEAR SOR JUANA: THE LETTERS OF SOR JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ for the Bay Area Women’s Theatre Festival on March 16 at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in SF. Carolina Morones directs Regina Morones, Brady Morales-Woolery, and Olivia G. Browne in this bilingual exploration of the 17th-century Mexican nun, poet, and philosopher.

Victoria Erville’s short play, THE TEST will be performed as part of: AMPLIFY! a 24-Hour Celebration of Women+ in Performance from April 18 – April 19, 2020 at Brava Theater Center as part of the Bay Area Women’s Theatre Festival (baWTF).  

Sarah Gasser is stage managing THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE at Bay Area Children’s Theatre.  

Lauren Gorski will be moderating a panel at the AWP Conference in San Antonio, Texas called From Page to Stage: How to Write a Play That Will Actually Get Produced on Saturday, March 7th at 9:00am. She will also be facilitating the opening poetry readings for The Rape Kit, a hybrid musical and poetry performance, in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 13th at 8:00pm. In the Bay Area, Lauren will be the keynote speaker for the Be Fearless Summit at UC Berkeley on Wednesday, April 1st.

Garret Jon Groenveld, who’s play DISBELIEF will appear in this summer’s PlayGround Festival, will have a reading of his play THE HUMMINGBIRDS at New Jersey Repertory Theatre on Monday, March 23 in Long Branch, New Jersey.

Daryl Anthony Harper is back in the studio first week of March recording more spots for the Northern California Honda Dealers “Ask” campaign. He also just wrapped on a 2 day rehearsal project working with Tracy Ward’s directing class at Academy of Art University. Daryl continues his work with AAU on a new project in March working with the class of director Jack Perez out of Los Angeles.  Daryl also has some staged readings on his plate with Each One Reach One, recently merged with Success Stories, a non profit working with incarcerated teens. In particular, their playwriting workshop class. The readings take place on Saturday March 7 at the Juvenile Justice Center in San Francisco!

Every Wednesday morning, Ellen Koivisto stands in front of San Francisco City Hall to Strike for the Planet.  She’s outside from 8:30 to 10 a.m. to greet the arriving supervisors and leg aides, then goes upstairs to deliver a new letter every week on a specific action SF can and must take to combat climate chaos and the current mass extinction.  This is her 44th week. Her 52nd week will fall on Earth Day. Come join in! Look for the signs on the Polk St. side of the building.

Gwen Loeb has just completed voiceover work on a new video game, A.I. CONFIDENTIAL, and will soon be appearing in a reading of Aaron Loeb’s new script, THE PITCH, directed by Bill English in a co-development with SF Playhouse and Playwrights Foundation March 2 & 3. After that she will be playing Goneril in QUEEN MAIR by Andrew Wells, a new 5-woman prequel to KING LEAR at Central Works May 9-June 14. 

Jonathan Luskin‘s play, PERFECT, will have a staged reading at the Laguna Playhouse on March 2, 2020. Tickets here.   

Alanna McFall will be presenting readings from her debut novel and appearing on panels at FOGcon, a sci-fi and fantasy convention, in Walnut Creek, March 6-8th. Book tickets now and check out the full schedule and many authors and creators who will be presenting.: https://fogcon.org/.  Also, on March 7th, that same weekend, friends are invited to attend the table reading of her full-length play THIS TIME LAST YEAR at the PlayGround PlaySpace in Berkeley from 9am-12pm

Molly Noble is preparing to direct THE IMAGINARY INVALID at College of Marin and a site specific production of SEAGULL at Leonard Lake Reserve in Mendocino next fall.

Evelyn Jean Pine performs her one-woman play, FREELOADER IN THE HOUSE OF LOVE, at the Rogue Festival at Goldstein’s in Fresno, March 6-14

Madeline Puccioni will see her new play, VALENTINE FOR ELLIE,  up for 6th Street Playhouse, opening 2/28. She’ll attend the opening night and playwright talk  back on the 28th.

Rebecca Schweitzer is appearing in the World Premiere of LOVE at Marin Theatre Company from March 5th- March 29th.

Mark Sherstinsky will have his holiday horror radio play NO TREE produced by the nationally-syndicated radio program Shoestring Radio Theatre in March; the play will also broadcast live on KXSF radio (102.5FM) in San Francisco.   Mark’s immigration apocalypse play THE SOUND OF INVASION will be part of the Towne Street Theatre 10-Minute Play Festival from April 4-26.