Company in the News Jan-2021

See what PlayGround Writers, Alumni, and Company Members are up to as we get ready for the January 18th Monday Night PlayGround on Zoom!

Meghan Maugeri‘s new full length dramedy, POLAR BEAR SOCIETY, will have a virtual staged reading in American Stage’s 21st Century Voices New Play Festival! The reading, which is open to the public, will be held on January 22nd at 7:30pm. Three teens form a virtual mental health support group in this “compassionate and often funny play about finding humor, friendship, and hope in times of adversity.” For more information, please click here.

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—January 18th at 4:15 PST. Register here to participate on Zoom or watch it live on YouTube. Register for a ticket here.

Tom Bruett will have a short digital story in the upcoming January 29th edition of Our Digital Stories. It will be directed by Vinh Nguyen. Come find out what happens when a digital cooking date goes wrong. Find it here.

Louis Parnell will commence taping a 10 episode podcast for 3Girls Theatre that will start in January and tape through April. It is an original script penned in collaboration with more than 20 women writers. The podcasts will be posted here.

Jonathan Spector‘s play THIS MUCH I KNOW will have a (zoom) reading with the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis Ruth Easton Series on Feb. 3rd. Find more information here.

Madeline Puccioni‘s WONDER PEOPLE has been selected by SANTA CRUZ ACTORS THEATRE for their next 8×10’s@8 Festival, a full production, which will take place in their new actual real, live theatre venue, whenever … well, you know. Whenever. Probably late 2021. Stay safe, everyone!

Julia Brothers is hard at work on her solo piece, The Untitled RFK Project, and while it doesn’t have a title yet, it was commissioned by San Francisco Playhouse and will be filmed and presented this March/April as part of the Playhouse’s 20-21 season. Directed by Padraic Lillis, it is a tale of love, loss, memory and laughter, in equal doses. More info on this piece here.

Dave Garrett (Playground Alumnus) will be teaching a new “Playwriting For Kids” for MoonSchool at 42nd Street Moon starting in February. The weekly on-line class will lead kids aged 10-15 though the process of creating their own two-character 10-minute dramas. Register your children for classes here!

Michael Barrett Austin celebrated the holidays by being a part of 42nd Street Moon’s Home (Literally) for the Holidaysvirtual show, as well as reading his favorite Christmas story, Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory with Mary Baird, which streamed for free from the church of St. John’s in Ross all of December.

Rebecca Schweitzer is starting off the year by learning a new language and hopefully completing the first draft of the full length play she’s been working on about San Francisco at the turn of the last century.