PlayGround’s Virtual Gala Celebrates Innovation!

To close out its historic 25th Anniversary Season and following the success of PlayGround Zoom Fest: the Bay Area’s largest online festival of streaming theater to date, PlayGround will host a live-streamed virtual gala and celebration on Monday evening, September 21. This Gala comes during a time of unprecedented and far delayed focus on prioritizing the empowerment of BIPOC individuals to have authority in telling their own stories, safety in the process of doing so, and financial support to realize these pursuits equitably and sustainably. As part of their continued commitment to fostering this next generation of theater creators in the Bay Area, this year’s Gala will be centered around the Innovator Incubator program, currently proceeding with its second cohort of brand-new theatre companies. Tickets are $250-$525 and all proceeds support PlayGround’s 25th Anniversary Campaign and the Innovator Incubator program. For tickets and more information, visit https://playground-sf.org/benefit.

The Innovator Incubator was developed to champion artist-led theater production, and to assist new generations of artists in breaking down the institutional barriers that often stand between the idea of a new theater company and its practical execution. By partnering with groundbreaking new theater groups to share PlayGround’s 25 years of expertise in producing, to grant fiscal sponsorship, and to provide free and discounted access to Potrero Stage and its audience base, PlayGround joined the launch of 2019’s selected companies: Same Boat Theater Collective, Theatre Cultura, Queer Cat Productions, Epic Party Theatre, Poltergeist Theatre Project, and The Moonrisers, culminating in the inaugural Innovators Showcase which featured three full-length premieres as well as developmental readings and presentations. The 2020 cohort sees a mix of newly-selected Bay Area theater innovators (The Forum Collective, Analog Theatre, Kunoichi Productions and, most recently, Juneteenth Theatre Justice Project) as well as the continued collaboration of programs from the 2019 class (Poltergeist Theatre Project, Theatre Cultura, and The Moonrisers). The 2020 showcase is slated for November 16-December 6 with the full schedule of programming to be announced in September.

This year’s virtual gala is chaired by PlayGround alumnus and board member Jerome Joseph Gentes and MC’d by company members (and co-chairs of the newly-launched Company Ambassadors) Aldo Billingslea and Stephanie Prentice. The fully-online live-streamed evening will feature short live performances by two of this year’s Innovator Incubator, Poltergeist Theatre Project (The Julie Cycle) and Theatre Cultura (Cheer). Guests at this year’s gala will each receive a Gala-in-a-Box gourmet meal, designed and executed by company member Cindy Goldfield’s Martha Avenue catering, to facilitate a cocktail reception and seated dinner (at virtual tables with fellow guests). Tickets are $250-$525 and all proceeds will support PlayGround’s 25th Anniversary Campaign and the Innovator Incubator. Now more than ever, supporting a diverse community of theater creators and centering diverse stories more fully representative of our communities is critical to the progress of the American Theater. As part of their 25th Anniversary Campaign, PlayGround is committed to raising $250,000 to continue equitably empowering new theater from concept to inception. Join us for an evening celebrating the joy of live theater and the artists who make it possible, both through and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

For more information, visit https://playground-sf.org/benefit or call (415) 992-6677.