Annie Stuart Announces Departure for Next Chapter

After 25 years with PlayGround, Associate Artistic Director Annie Stuart has announced that she is leaving to embark on her next adventure. Annie’s last day at PlayGround will be July 31st. PlayGround Artistic Director Jim Kleinmann commented, “The PlayGround Community and I are deeply indebted to Annie for her 25 years of service. There’s not a PlayGround program that she hasn’t helped shape or had an impact on, for the betterment of Bay Area playwrights, performers, directors and more. On a personal note, I will deeply miss our 25-year artistic partnership and collaboration and the many discussions we’ve had on how to serve and support Bay Area artists.” Annie has served as casting director for PlayGround for the past 24 seasons and in 2005 was named Associate Director, eventually becoming Associate Artistic Director. As a freelance casting director, her other credits include Marin Theatre Company, SF Playhouse. Center REP, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, San Francisco and Los Angeles Shakespeare Festivals, Brava!, Theatre Rhinoceros, and Z Space, among others. For more than two decades, Annie has cast over 300 roles per season on behalf of PlayGround, making her one of the most active casting directors in the Bay Area.

“After 25 years of making amazing theatre with all of you, it is time for me to explore new things,” said Annie in her parting words to the PlayGround company. “I am blessed to have been a part of the PlayGround community these many years… you have all shaped me, my voice and my aesthetic.”

Annie’s impact on the theater community extends beyond her many contributions as a casting director. She has produced a number of shows, including Atomic Clown by Sarah Moore, for which she served as executive producer. She also has taught at San Jose State University, College of Marin, and Marin Theatre Company.

Annie has been a champion for transformation in the Bay Area theatre community, committed to equity and inclusion and improving how that manifests onstage. She has been an advocate for performers, helping to create unique opportunities and open doors for the first time that for many of the actors is pivotal in their professional journey. 

Members of the PlayGround community have profound respect and appreciation for the depth, support, and joy that Annie has brought to her work. College of Marin Drama Department Faculty and PlayGround Company Director Molly Noble shared, “Annie’s ability to see beyond the surface into the heart and soul of what we make is the kind of trust that moves us all forward.” Gwen Loeb, an award-winning actress and longtime member of the PlayGround community, added, “Annie put the “play” in PlayGround by giving us all countless opportunities to test our mettle and throw ourselves into characters we might never have had the chance to play before or after.” PlayGround thanks Annie for all of her contributions and wishes her all the best in the future. 

PlayGround, California’s leading playwright incubator, provides unique development opportunities for the best new playwrights in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, & New York City, including the monthly Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, annual PlayGround Festival of New Works, full-length play commissions and support for the production of new plays by local playwrights through the New Play Production Fund. To date, PlayGround has supported over 250 early career playwrights, developing and staging more than 1,000 of their original short plays through the Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series and the PlayGround Festival. PlayGround has also commissioned 90 new full-length plays by 60 of these writers through its Commissioning Initiative and, through the innovative New Play Production Fund, has directly facilitated the premiere of 34 plays at theatres of every size, including three that have gone on to NYC and other major theater communities. Most recently, PlayGround renovated and relaunched the former Thick House Theater in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill as Potrero Stage, a state-of-the-art center for new plays, home to PlayGround’s expanding artistic programs and some of the Bay Area’s most distinguished new play developers and producers. Over the past twenty-eight years, PlayGround has served to identify some of the most important new local voices for the theatre.

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, and The Lark’s Playwrights’ Week, among 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. Visit https://playground-sf.org for more information.