PlayGround Company in the News October 2020

Read on to learn more about PlayGround Company Member and Alumni recent news, current happenings, and upcoming events while we prepare for the October 19th Monday Night PlayGround.

On October 24, a staged reading of Evelyn Jean Pine and Katja Rivera’s play, THE INVISIBLE PROJECT, with dramaturgy by Linda Maria Giron, will be zoomed as a fundraising event for Linda Amayo-Hassan’s Theatre Cultura, a PlayGround Innovator Incubator company.

Ivan Rivas  will be directing a Zoom reading of Linda Amayo-Hassan‘s CHEER for Theatre Cultura on October 17th.

Cindy Goldfield and her partner, Chef Willi Nordby, continue to deliver food throughout the Bay Area through their business MARTHA AVENUE Home Cooked Foods.. They most recently had the distinct pleasure of catering the PlayGround Gala to rave reviews!  Cindy also gets to play with Thursday’s at Seven, a  play reading group that includes dozens of Bay Area (and further afield) actors.

Michael Barrett Austin is currently performing in DARK MATTER,  a series of sci-fi themed audio plays with B.A.R.D.” (Bay Area Radio Drama), October 1-3 at 7pm! Check them out at here. . He also continues to record and share one “Sequester Song” on social media every day, now nearly 200 tunes!- follow the link on his website to the youtube channel.

Tom Bruett had a virtual reading of THE NESTING INSTINCT, directed by Patrick Russell and produced by Create4Relief with UC Berkeley.

Alanna McFall is currently enrolled in the local comedy group Killing My Lobster’s Sketch Writing 1 class. The class final read, with examples of everyone’s new comedy sketch scripts, will be performed over Youtube Live on October 25th, 5pm, and all are welcome to watch.

Rachel Bublitz suffered a mild concussion when she was hit in the head with debris in early September during a freak wind storm that hit Northern Utah. She’s nearly back to normal, and doesn’t recommend concussions of any size. In better news Rachel has two virtual productions of her play THE NIGHT WITCHES happening in October, the University of Utah will open October 23, and the Pulley & Buttonhole Theatre Company‘s production opens October 18th.. Additionally, her short play GHOST HOUSE was just selected to be published with Playscripts and will be available soon.

Carolyn Doyle will be appearing in THE PRIVATE LIFE OF THE (NOT SO) MASTER RACE with The Brecht Project. The first performances in The Brecht Project will occur the week before the November 3, 2020, election with Live-Over-Zoom performances on Oct. 27, 28, 29 @ 7:30 PM. This project is ongoing. Click here for details.

Daryl Anthony Harper is happy and interested to be volunteering as a poll worker. Get out and Vote! After 8 years of public transportation and a recent desire to control his environment in these times, while still moving around, Daryl leased a new car! Hello Honda Family!  Speaking of which Daryl continues to have renewals of spots running on Radio, Pandora and TV for the Northern California Honda Dealers!

Giselle Boustani-Fontenele is so excited to be a new company member with PlayGround after finishing her Directing Apprenticeship last season. She has also recently become a member of Poltergeist Theatre Project, an Innovator Incubator company. She is thrilled to have these new artistic homes in the Bay Area. Giselle has been playing around with playwriting recently: participating in online writing workshops, writing monologues and scenes, and reading plays from a playwright perspective. When Giselle isn’t writing, she is working for the Census Bureau gathering statistics for our country.

Playground Alums Nic A. Sommerfeld and Sean Owens are starring in a web comedy series through Killing My Lobster called Gothic Poetry Corner.  It is available through the KML Patreon page now, and then on KML Youtube each following Monday.  It is a six part series full of spooky silly fun.

Aaron Higareda is one step closer to making his dream come true! On October 1st he is launching the “10:22AM TO 10:22PM (PST) AARON HIGAREDA’S DIRTY 30 PLAYWRITING PROJECT” fundraising campaign! The goal is to get 50 folks to donate as Day Ones at $30 to ensure the project can continue. Donate at GoFundMe.

Eric Fraisher Hayes has directed videotaped stage performances of three early Eugene O’Neill one-act plays, which will premiere on YouTube this October.

Stacy Ross has been framing pictures, taking part in the occasional Zoom reading and will be performing in the upcoming audio presentation of Lynn Nottage’s LAS MENINAS with Portland’s Profile Theatre, to be directed by Dawn Monique Williams.

Trevor Allen had a full production of his play, THE CREATURE at Dragon Theatre in Redwood City set for this month. It will now be an online streaming play here.  Also, his #49MilePlay project: continues with more new “mile” monologues. His podcast of Working for the Mouse is now streaming here. His PlayGround play, LOLITA ROADTRIP is being adapted for other media, more info when I can talk about it. Thanks, PlayGround!!!

Molly Noble is  preparing  a piece called WINDOWS at College of Marin.  Devised, written and performed by ten actors; part story circle, part pub quiz, part musical interlude,  part mystery, part history, part advent calendar and part absolutely unknown, “Windows“ will have 6 live stream performances via Zoom with a gently interactive component for our audiences.

Sarah Gasser is stage managing zoom performances of WHY WOULD I MISPRONOUNCE MY OWN NAME with Irma Herrera, and running trainings on zoom.

Lauren Gorski‘s short digital story “T.G.I.Effed” about a Zoom party gone wrong will be featured in an upcoming episode of Our Digital Stories.

Nancy Carlin is typing up a new draft of a screenplay she wrote in a previous lifetime, last seen on floppy disk….

Joy Carlin is officiating Nancy Carlin’s daughter Celeste’s wedding in her garden on October 10th. Small group as befits the times, It is the best role she’s had in months

Louel Señores performed  in a radio play with New Conservatory Theatre Center,  called THE LAW OF ATTRACTION  written by Patricia Milton, available online from Oct 14th – Nov 18th!

Eteya Trinidad has a new fancy schmanzy website, complete with a mailing list! You can check it out at www.eteyatrinidad.com.

Angel Adedokun just released a music video called SUNSHINE, of her new ep. You can watch it here. 

Marissa Skudlarek Just joined the PlayGround Writer’s Pool and was featured in Local News Matters, discussing being a playwright and theatre lover in pandemic times.

Rob Dario, a proud Board & Company Member of THEATREFIRST is excited for our brand new SERIAL SEASON of plays, created by the Bay Area’s most talented, passionate, & revolutionary artists & theatre producers.

Linda Amayo-Hassan’s full length play ¡CHEER! STORY OF A DREAMER will have a Zoom reading with the original Theatre Cultura cast from last year’s PlayG Innovator Incubator on Saturday, October 17 at 7:00 pm. ¡CHEER! STORY OF A DREAMER is a play about the harsh realities of being undocumented in the United States. This reading will be a fundraiser for Theatre Cultura. Go to Theatre Cultura’s Facebook page or theatrecultura.org for more information.

Reg Clay’s one act piece, JUDICIAL PROCESS, is part of five one acts that will be presented by The Brecht Project called THE PRIVATE LIFE OF THE (NOT SO) MASTER RACE.  Zoom performances will be on October 27, 28 and 29, 2020.

Norman Gee and Reg Clay are recording the The Yay,  a podcast where they host guests and talk about life in the theatre and the Theatre of Life. Their guests are a mix of the people that make up the bay area theatre.  Actors, writers, directors, owners of theatre companies, and people involved in tech.  Our guests are diverse in culture, race, sexual identity, and spans many generations.  We talk about current events that affect our lives, we find out about our guests’ backgrounds, what current projects they’re working on and what they’re looking for in their future careers.  You can find video episodes here and audio episodes here.

Isabel Anne To has just finished filming Lauren Gorski‘s short,”T.G.I.Effed” for Our Digital Stories: Volume 4, directed by Tessa Corrie! It will be broadcast on Twitch in late October. Also, her 13.5yo cat Patrick’s veterinarian just said he looks *really good* for his age, so she’s also really proud about that.
On October 25 at 7 pm, Same Boat Theater, an Innovator Incubator company whose members include Writers Pool-ers Lisa Kang and Lynn Aylwatd, will present EARTHQUAKEE,an on-line festival of diverse voices, each answering the question: what does who I am and where I live have to do with the environment? Three unique EarthQuake performances will livestream from three different continents  and include plays,movement pieces, puppet shows, monologues, spoken word pieces, and videos in English, Spanish and Hindi by environmentalists and creators representing a diversity of voices, including those of African, Indigenous, Asian and European descent, Kurdish, Arabic and Romani ethnicities and Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Jewish faiths.  Get tickets here.
Lynn Aylward helped Rising Voices, the playwriting group of justice-involved young women that she facilitates, create a piece for the Breath Project’s “8 MINUTES AND 46 SECONDS” . The Breath Project seeks to build a more equitable theater community in this country, and actively dismantle structural racism in the American Theater.  Watch “The Generation Cycle” here. 
Same Boat Theater Collective will be holding EARTHQUAKE: MOVING THE EARTH WITH OUR VOICES, a festival of readings and performances of gorgeous, heart-felt, impactful new short plays, monologues, spoken-word pieces, songs, puppet shows and a short film, all on environmental justice themes. Three Zoom shows, from the Bay Area, London and New Delhi, will be held on October 25 at 7pm in their respective time zones. Same Boat Theater Collective is a PlayGround Innovator Incubator company and includes PlayGround writers Lynn Aylward, Linda Amayo-Hassan and Lisa Kang. The UK EarthQuake will feature writing by Los Angeles PlayGround writer Michael P. Adams. For tickets and more information: https://www.sameboattheater.org.