PlayGround Company in the News August 2020

Read on to learn more about PlayGround Company Member and Alumni recent news, current happenings, and upcoming events!

Jonathan Luskin’s play, PERFECT, has been selected for the Catalyst 2020 Festival at UC Davis. JanLee Marshall, artistic director of Oakland’s B8 Theatre Company, will direct a developmental workshop collaborating with University students, alumni, and staff.  The play explores the nature of disability and genetic enhancement and what parents will do to give their children the best advantages in life. Originally workshopped and given a staged reading as part of the 2019 PlayGround Festival of New Works, the play was further developed as part of Laguna Playhouse’s Bare Bones Reading Series this past March.

Madeline Puccioni had a 10-minute play, WONDER PEOPLE,  in  the  first league of the Playwrights Center San Francisco Playoffs Competition, on August 1st.    PIt’s about Ken, who meets an ageing WONDER WOMAN at the Uptown Bar in Oakland — they commiserate about their love lives,  get to know each other, and discover a little wonder — and maybe, their true selves.  Register here for the PCSF zoom link.

Michael J. Asberry recently recorded with the San Francisco Mime Troupe for their radio play, THE GOOD COP, and will be performing in an upcoming virtual performance of FLYING with The Tampa Repertory Theatre.

Melissa Ortiz is currently playing Regan in SF Shakespeare’s KING LEAR, live on Youtube every weekend through the end of September.  Visit SFShakes.org for details.

Christian Haines wrote and directed The King Lear Green Show for SF Shakespeare, available for viewing here.

Rob Dario has been observing the lights in this dark and writing about them, so we remember to be unafraid and live as such.

Nancy Carlin is missing sharing physical spaces with all of you. She is teaching a summer public speaking course for UC Berkeley on Zoom. The ensemble film she is in, Eleanor Coppola’s LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE was recently accepted into the 46th annual Festival du Cinema Americain in Deauville, France, but of course no Americans are welcome at this time so neither Eleanor nor any of us will be found frolicking in France in September.

Michael Barrett Austin recently played a prisoner attempting to escape from Alcatraz for a television renectment, and participated in his second developmental reading for TheatreWorks’ new feminist musical commission from Lynn Rosen and the Kilbanes. He also continues to record and share one “Sequester Song” on social media every day, now more than 130 tunes!”

Annette Roman’s play POUND FOR POUND originally written for the last MNP prompt of last season, will receive a staged reading at PCSF PlayOffs on August 8th, at 3 pm, via Zoom staged reading!

Katja Rivera and Evelyn Jean Pine are excited to announce that they were recipients of the TBA CA$H Creates grant for their play The Invisible Project.  The grant will finance a developmental workshop this October!

Cindy Goldfield continues to cook and deliver food all over the Bay Area through her upstart Covid-response meal delivery service, MARTHA AVENUE Home Cooked Meals. www.marthaavenuefood.com if you want to get in on the fun!

Gwen Loeb is in workshops for QUEEN MAIR by Matthew Wells with Central Works, and is performing in a live radio reading of THE APPROPRIATION OF CULTURE by Percival Everett with Word for Word on KALW August 27. When not performing, Gwen is Executive Director of Arts for Oakland Kids, an arts justice funder dedicated to ensuring that every student in Oakland public schools has equitable access to the advantage of a consistent, high-quality arts education.

Ayelet Schrek is a Bay Area educator, director, and playwright, who specializes in the intersection of arts and socio-politics, and creativing brave and generous workspaces. With over a decade of teaching experience, they are currently offering online coaching for folks of all ages. This includes Acting Coaching, Public Speaking Coaching, and Tutoring. Find out more on their website. First session half price with the code: PlaygroundSF.\

Lisa Gaye Thompson has been appearing in monthly shows with playwrights on both coasts who write plays in 45 minutes based on audience suggestions followed by mostly-brilliant, always-fun cold readings. Next show—August 24th at 4:15pm. Register here to participate on Zoom or watch it live on YouTube.

Ellen Koivisto is journaling the epidemic by writing a 150-word play per day.  Read any day you’d like, from March 20 to today, at A COVID DIARY on NPX.

Same Boat Theater Collective (a PlayGround Innovator Incubator Company that includes PlayGround writers Linda Amayo-Hassan, Lynn Aylward and Lisa Kang) is soliciting short plays and theatrical pieces for EarthQuake: Moving the Earth with Our Voices, a global Zoom festival of performances to further the cause of environmental justice. We are looking for theater pieces that raise the awareness of how specific environmental issues affect the lives and communities of the underrepresented and underprivileged among us. The festival intends to produce work that gives an opportunity for a diversity of voices to be heard, with an emphasis on underrepresented and underprivileged artists. Same Boat will cast and direct the zoom performances, to be performed October 25. For more information, email Lisa Kang at LisaYKang@gmail.com.