PlayGround’s New “Twisted” Holiday Show, “A VERY HITCHCOCK CHRISTMAS” Dec 10-11 only!

PlayGround marks the holiday season with a brand-new “twisted” holiday show, “A VERY HITCHCOCK CHRISTMAS,” featuring new short plays by Jeffrey Lo, Marissa Skudlarek, Cleavon Smith, Alexis Standridge, Eteya Trinidad, and Maury Zeff, melding holiday themes and your favorite Hitchcock thrillers, including “Vertigo”, “Rear Window”, “Notorious”, “North by Northwest”, “Strangers on a Train”, and “Rebecca”! A Very Hitchcock Christmas runs two nights only, December 10 & December 11 at 7pm PT, live in-person at Potrero Stage and simulcast, with on-demand viewing through New Year’s. Admission is free (donations gratefully accepted) but advance reservations are strongly recommended. For more information or to reserve in-person or online tickets, visit https://playground-sf.org/hitchcockchristmas.

The “Twisted” Holiday Show is the latest innovation by PlayGround in support of new voices for the stage and is supported by the PlayGround 25th Anniversary Fund.

About the Playwrights

Jeffrey Lo (A Stranger on a Holiday Train, inspired by “Strangers on a Train”), he/him, is a Filipino-American playwright and director based in the Bay Area. He is the recipient of the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award, the Emerging Artist Laureate by Arts Council Silicon Valley and Theatre Bay Area Director’s TITAN Award. Selected directing credits include The Language Archive and The Santaland Diaries at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Hold These Truths at San Francisco Playhouse, Vietgone and The Great Leap at Capital Stage, A Doll’s House, Part 2 and Eurydice at Palo Alto Players (TBA Awards finalist for Best Direction), Peter and the Starcatcher and Noises Off at Hillbarn Theatre, The Grapes of Wrath, The Crucible and Yellow Face at Los Altos Stage Company. As a playwright, his plays have been produced and workshopped at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, The BindleStiff Studio, City Lights Theatre Company and Stanford University. His play Writing Fragments Home was a finalist for the Bay Area Playwright’s Conference and a semi-finalist for the O’Neill Playwright’s Conference. Jeffrey has also worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Asian American International Film Festival, San Jose Repertory and is a company member of Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company and SF Playground. In addition to his work in theatre he works as an educator and advocate for issues of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and has served as a grant panelist for the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Silicon Valley Creates and Theatre Bay Area. He is the Director Community Partnerships and Casting Director at the Tony Award Winning TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, a graduate of the Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute and a proud alumnus of the UC Irvine Drama Department. Jeffrey is also a founding member of OUR DIGITAL STORIES, for more info www.OurDigitalStories.org.

Marissa Skudlarek’s (The Sugarplum Trap, inspired by “Notorious”), she/her, full-length plays include You’ll Not Feel the Drowning (Custom Made Theatre workshop, 2017), Pleiades (No Nude Men, 2014), Juana, or The Greater Glory (Loud & Unladylike Festival, 2016), Deus ex Machina (Young Playwrights Festival National Competition winner, 2006), and The Rose of Youth (Vassar College, 2008). Her shorter plays have been commissioned and staged by EXIT Theatre, the San Francisco Olympians Festival, PianoFight, and more. Her translations from French include Cocteau’s Orphée for San Francisco Theater Pub and Rostand’s Cyrano for Cutting Ball (postponed due to COVID). Keep in touch at marissaskudlarek.com.

Cleavon Smith (The Story of Black Santa, inspired by “Vertigo”), he/him, is a PlayGround alumnus and past Resident Playwright. His new play, The Incrementalist, premiered at Aurora Theatre Company last Spring, following the 2020 premiere of The Flats, co-written with Lauren Gunderson and Jonathan Spector. As Playwright in Residence at Berkeley’s TheatreFIRST (T1) for three years, he wrote and produced six new works. T1’s production of his critically acclaimed full-length work, The Last Sermon of Sister Imani was nominated for a 2018 Theatre Bay Area (TBA) Best Production award, and his short play Just One Day was included in T1’s TBA “Best Anthology” award-winning production Between Us. Additionally, Cleavon has had a multitude of short plays performed by theaters in Ann Arbor, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. Cleavon lives in Oakland and teaches English at Berkeley City College. Upcoming work includes a podcast series about the relationship between spiritual leader Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as an immersive theater project based on Bop City, a restaurant and jazz club located in San Francisco’s Fillmore District and decimated by the city’s failed redevelopment program of the 1950s.

Alexis Standridge (A Window-ful Christmas, inspired by “Rear Window”), she/her, is a recent graduate of Santa Clara University, where she studied Playwriting. She spends her time exploring queer theatre spaces in the Bay Area, and working with others to produce new works by upcoming young artists. When she’s not writing, Alexis works as a Coordinator for Santa Clara University, and enjoys being a dungeon master for Dungeons and Dragons games.

Eteya Trinidad (Christmas at Manderley, inspired by “Rebecca”), she/her, is a playwright, stage manager, and theater artist. She is a resident playwright at PlayGround and a member of the 2021 LezWritesBTQ Cohort at 3 Girls Theatre. Her writing has been recognized in the 2021 Best of PlayGround Festival with the June Anne Baker Prize, and as a finalist for the 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Her work has also been seen at Berklee College of Music, SF Olympians Festival, Ross Valley Players, and Amios West, among others. www.eteyatrinidad.com

Maury Zeff’s (North by North Pole, inspired by “North by Northwest”), he/him, work has been performed around the US and in Europe, and published in American Fiction, Crab Orchard Review, Southern California Review, and elsewhere. His plays have appeared in the 2014 and 2017 Best of PlayGround festivals and won four PlayGround audience awards. He has received playwriting commissions and fellowships from PlayGround, SF Olympians, and the SF Writers Grotto, where he works and teaches. He won the 2021 Clark-Gross Award in the Novel and was nominated for a 2020 Pushcart Prize in fiction. Maury earned an MFA in writing from the University of San Francisco.

About PlayGround

Founded in 1994 by Jim Kleinmann, Brighde Mullins and Denise Shama, PlayGround has grown into the Bay Area’s leading playwright incubator and theatre community hub, with a deep commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, helping to uplift and center artists from historically underrepresented communities. Over the past 28 years, PlayGround has supported more than 300 early-career playwrights, developing and staging over 1,000 of their original short plays through PlayGround’s signature programs, Monday Night PlayGround and the PlayGround Festival of New Works. PlayGround has also commissioned 94 new full-length plays by 60 of these writers through its Commissioning Initiative and has directly facilitated the premiere of 34 of those works through its innovative New Play Production Fund. Over the past 28 years, PlayGround has developed a unique model for identifying and nurturing the Bay Area’s best new writers, while helping them to build a significant body of original work and lasting connections with the artistic collaborators they need to know to ensure their success. PlayGround expanded to Los Angeles in 2012 and to NYC in 2021, and is launching PlayGround-Chicago this fall.

In 2015, PlayGround signed a long-term lease to operate the former Thick House Theater, where PlayGround has produced its festival since 2008. Following a successful $300,000 renovation which included new theatrical lighting, seating, signage, and upgrades to the lobby, box office and restrooms, PlayGround reopened the theatre in February 2017 as Potrero Stage: PlayGround Center for New Plays. In addition to supporting PlayGround’s expanding new play programs (including the PlayGround Solo Performance Festival launched in 2018), the theatre serves as home for some of the Bay Area’s other leading new play developers and producers, including Crowded Fire, Golden Thread, and Playwrights Foundation, as well as up-and-coming companies such as Ferocious Lotus and Bread & Butter Theatre, among others. In 2019, PlayGround launched the Innovator Incubator, fostering theatrical innovation and next generation innovative theatre companies. The program culminates in the annual Innovators Showcase, which takes place each November/December, featuring over half-a-dozen new works, from developmental readings to full premieres, by the year’s Innovator Incubator cohort.

Following the closure of theaters due to the pandemic in 2020, PlayGround was one of the first theatres in the country to shift all of its programming online, with the launch of the PlayGround Zoom Fest and a unique partnership with the performers union, SAG-AFTRA. With the return of in-person performance, PlayGround has recommitted to radical accessibility with admission-free programming and online simulcast and on-demand streaming of all performances. PlayGround’s radical accessibility initiative is sponsored in part by First Republic Bank.

PlayGround’s alumni have gone on to win local, national, and international honors for their short and full-length work, including recognition at the Steinberg Awards, Humana Festival, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, New York International Fringe Festival, and others. PlayGround received the 2009 Paine Knickerbocker Award for outstanding contributions to Bay Area theatre, 3 BATCC Awards for Best Original Script for PlayGround commissions, a 2014 National Theatre Company Grant from the American Theatre Wing (founder of the Tony Awards®) and a 2016 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award.

In addition to its company of playwrights, PlayGround maintains a company of leading Bay Area directors, actors, designers and technicians whose work is regularly seen on the Bay Area’s top professional stages.

PlayGround’s 2022-23 Writers Pool, the thirty-six Bay Area-based writers competitively selected to participate in the monthly series, are: Monique Hafen Adams, Barbara Anderson, Esther Banegas Gatica, Nicole Bruno, Madeleine Butler, Jediah Craig, Cherielyn Ferguson, Ipsheeta Furtado, Sam Hurwitt, Tejahra Jacobs, Lisa Kang, Ruth Kirschner, Anne Yumi Kobori, Steve Koppman, Jennifer Le Blanc, Kristy Lin Billuni, Justin P. Lopez, David MacFadden-Elliott, Daniel Martinez, Bacilio Mendez II, Matthew Morishige, Vicky Pham, Bridgette Portman, Alexis Roblan, Anthony Sampson Semandiris, David Schweidel, Susan Sher, Marissa Skudlarek, Alexis Standridge, Max Tachis, Lisa Thompson, Eteya Trinidad, Michael Tuton, Kaz Valtchev, Michael Waterson, Christian Wilburn, Maggie Wilson, & Maury Zeff.

Supporting PlayGround playwrights and the Monday Night series are the members of the PlayGround Company, representing some of the Bay Area’s leading directors, actors, designers, and stage managers. The 2022-23 PlayGround Company includes: Molly Aaronson-Gelb, Angel Adedokun, Patrick Alparone, Liz Anderson, Rinabeth Apostol, Michael Asberry, Michael Barrett Austin, Mary Baird, Aldo Billingslea, Millie Brooks, Julia Brothers, Nicole Apostol Bruno, Lizzie Calogero, Ron Campbell, Joy Carlin, Nancy Carlin, Tessa Corrie, David Cramer, Will Dao, Anne Darragh, Dodds Delzell, Livia Gomes Demarchi, Carolyn Doyle, Nora el Samahy, Rebecca Ennals, Gisela Feied, Britney Frazier, Michael French, Claire Ganem, Sarah Gasser, Norman Gee, Douglas B. Giorgis, Amy Glazer, Cindy Goldfield, BW Gonzalez, Gabriel Grilli, Christian Haines, Rosie Hallett, Eric Fraisher Hayes, Brian Herndon, Monica Ho, Laura Humphrey, J Jha, Colin Johnson, Jennifer King, Dean Koya, Danielle Levin, Amy Lizardo, Jeffrey Lo, Gwen Loeb, George Maguire, Melanie Marshall, Alicia Mason, Leontyne Mbele-Mbong, Julia McNeal, Bacilio Mendez II, Sam Misner, Brady Morales-Woolery, Lisa Morse, Khary L. Moye, Molly Noble, Joseph Patrick O’Malley, Karen Offereins, Annete Oliveira, Soren Oliver, Ely Sonny Orquiza, Melissa Ortiz, Doyle Ott, June Palladino, Carla Pantoja, Louis Parnell,​​ Jed Parsario, Michael Phillis, Krystle Piamonte, Rebecca Pingree, Stephanie Prentice, Ezra Reaves, Virginia Reed, Cathleen Riddley, Katja Rivera, Adrian Roberts, Stacy Ross, Adam Roy, Katie Rubin, Patrick Russell, Lindsey Marie Schmeltzer, Louel Senores, Robert Sicular, Jeunee Simon, M. Graham Smith, Ken Sonkin, Lauren Spencer, Teddy Spencer, Chris Steele, Howard Swain, Jomar Tagatac, Emilie Talbot, Danielle Thys, Isabel Anne To, Jon Tracy, Dane Troy, Mark Rafael Truitt, Liam Vincent, Ian Walker, Maryssa Wanlass, Tracy Ward , Reggie D. White, Aaron Wilton, & Elena Wright.

PlayGround has actively positioned itself as a hub, bringing together hundreds of individuals and organizations representing the best in Bay Area theatre. For more information about PlayGround, visit https://playground-sf.org.

WHAT: PlayGround presents a brand-new “twisted” holiday show, featuring short plays by Jeffrey Lo, Marissa Skudlarek, Cleavon Smith, Alexis Standridge, Eteya Trinidad, and Maury Zeff, melding holiday themes and your favorite Hitchcock thrillers, including Vertigo, Rear Window, Rebecca and more!

WHERE: Potrero Stage, 1695 18th St, San Francisco, CA 94107, and simulcast online

WHEN: December 10 & December 11, 7pm PT

TICKETS: Admission is free (donations gratefully accepted) but advance reservations are recommended. Proof of vaccination (including booster) and masks are required for in-person performance at Potrero Stage. Links for online viewing will be sent the day of the performance and can also be accessed through your PlayGround account at https://tickets.playground-sf.org (log in, click “home” for the main menu, then “tickets for upcoming performances”, select the proper show, and choose “watch”). If you have any questions, please contact the Box Office at boxoffice@playground-sf.org.  For more information about PlayGround’s “twisted” holiday show, call (415) 992-6677 or visit https://playground-sf.org/hitchcockchristmas.