Twisted Holiday Announced: December 4-20, 2026
PlayGround is thrilled to announced the second annual TWISTED HOLIDAY FESTIVAL, December 4th – December 20th, 2026, at Potrero Stage and simulcast. This three-week “fringe style” new works festival features 8 productions and 24 performances of new holiday-themed works (with a twist!) by talented theatre artists from across the country including a variety PlayGround artists. Ranging in subjects from “Naughty” to “Nice”, and scaled from ensemble plays to one-person shows, PlayGround’s Twisted Holiday Festival features a stellar lineup of seasoned theatre professionals, first-time producers, and all-star performers in every aspect of live performance.
Productions will be presented for 3 performances at Potrero Stage (18th Street @ Arkansas), detailed schedule below. Admission is free (donations gratefully accepted) the day of performances for in-person attendance and all online viewing (live simulcast as well as on-demand); a minimal $10 donation is requested for advance in-person reservations. For more information or to reserve in-person or online tickets, visit https://playground-sf.org/boxoffice
Full Lineup & Synopses
American Christmas, by Axel Osterberg Gentley
December 5 at 5:30pm, December 12 at 7pm, and December 19 at 7pm
American Christmas is a haunting, darkly tender theatrical meditation on the divided realities of the holiday season in America. Through storytelling, humor, heartbreak, and sharply observed social commentary, one performer guides audiences through two parallel Christmases: one of abundance and spectacle, the other of survival, longing, and fragile hope. Set against malls, soup kitchens, school pageants, parking lots, and city sidewalks, the play asks what children truly inherit from the world we’ve built — and whether compassion itself may be the last remaining miracle. A timely, provocative, and deeply human work blending spoken word, memoir, satire, and political theater.
A Very Hitchcock Christmas, presented by PlayGround
December 11 at 7pm, December 12 at 8:30pm, December 13 at 4pm
A spoof on classic Hitchcock films with an added holiday twist, now back for its fifth iteration!
Eye Society: Twisted Holidays
December 6 at 4pm, December 11 at 8:30pm, December 13 at 5:30pm
FSI Society is an improvisational theater collective fusing movement with authentic emotional life. Known for structural rhythm and repetition with jagged leaps into the unexpected. By forging a visceral connection from performers to audience, they craft unforgettable shared spaces designed to make you feel, think, and laugh. FSI Society begins with an audience suggestion for Intercut Stories and delivers theater pieces exploring related themes and characters.
Same Time, Next Christmas, by Jon Peterson
December 18 at 7pm, December 19 at 8:30pm, December 20 at 4pm
Same Time, Next Christmas is a heartwarming new holiday play with a twist about an unexpected friendship that spans a lifetime. On Christmas Eve, a curious ten-year-old boy accidentally comes face-to-face with Santa Claus. Over a plate of cookies and a glass of milk, the two forge an unlikely bond and make a promise to meet again every year at the exact same time. As the decades pass, each reunion reveals how their lives—and the world around them—have changed. Filled with humor, nostalgia, and the magic of Christmas, this touching story reminds us that the greatest gifts are the relationships that endure. When the sixtieth year arrives, one final Christmas visit brings a surprising twist that will leave audiences believing in the wonder of the season all over again.
The Last Christmas Tree or “Chanukah Bush? I Don’t Think So!” by Linda Ayres-Frederick and TBA piece by Carolyn Doyle
December 12 at 5:30pm, December 13 at 2:30pm, December 20 at 5:30pm
Two Holiday shows: One woman’s funny and touching reminiscences about growing up Jewish during an American Christmas celebration! and a new Holiday piece by Carolyn Doyle!
The Long Christmas Dinner, by Thornton Wilder
December 4 at 8:30pm, December 5 at 7pm, December 6 at 5:30pm
Oakland Public Theater relocates Thornton Wilder’s LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER to the Bay Area and shifts the story to a Filipino-American family! 90 Christmases pass in the span of this one-act, as we watch this family from the setting of the table through to the coffee & dessert. Seven actors bring the four generations to life!
To Bah or Not to Bah Humbug, produced by Jennifer Chun and Richard Large
December 4 at 7pm, December 5 at 8:30pm, December 6 at 2:30pm
Toss A Christmas Carol and Hamlet together in a blender to create a festive favorite with a twist – add a generous splash of monologuing, sprinkle with skulls, and enjoy! Follow the adventures of Scrooglet, a tight-fisted old miser as he is haunted by his dead partner, Jacob Yorick. Together they travel though time to visit past, present, and future Christmases. Along the way, they see Scrooglet’s old love, Ophelia, the home and family of his clerk, Horatio Cratchit, and the future of Scrooglet’s counting house and skull. After his time travels, Scrooglet must decide whether ’tis nobler in the mind to bah or not to bah humbug.
Whenever You’re Ready, by Bel Mehaffy
December 18 at 8:30pm, December 19 at 5:30pm, December 20 at 2:30pm
On New Year’s Day, a young woman sits alone in an ordinary waiting room. As the minutes stretch on, she fills the silence with sharp observations, imagined lives, and increasingly honest confessions. The audience is never told where she is or why she’s there. Instead, the play invites us into the universal experience of standing on the edge of a life-changing moment, wondering if everyone else knows something we don’t.
Schedule By Date:
Friday, December 4
7:00PM To Bah or Not to Bah Humbug, Jennifer Chun
8:30PM The Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder, Norman Gee
Saturday, December 5
5:30PM American Christmas, Axel Osterberg Gentley
7:00PM The Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder, Norman Gee
8:30PM To Bah or Not to Bah Humbug, Jennifer Chun
Sunday, December 6
2:30PM To Bah or Not to Bah Humbug, Jennifer Chun
4:00PM Eye Society: Twisted Holidays, Marcia Aguilar
5:30PM The Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder, Norman Gee
Friday, December 11
7:00PM A Very Hitchcock Christmas, PlayGround
8:30PM Eye Society: Twisted Holidays, Marcia Aguilar
Saturday, December 12
5:30PM The Last Christmas Tree or “Chanukah Bush? I Don’t Think So!”/tba by Carolyn Doyle, Linda Ayres-Frederick
7:00PM American Christmas, Axel Osterberg Gentley
8:30PM A Very Hitchcock Christmas, PlayGround
Sunday, December 13
2:30PM The Last Christmas Tree or “Chanukah Bush? I Don’t Think So!”/tba by Carolyn Doyle, Linda Ayres-Frederick
4:00PM A Very Hitchcock Christmas, PlayGround
5:30PM Eye Society: Twisted Holidays, Marcia Aguilar
Friday, December 18
7:00PM Same Time, Next Christmas, Jon Peterson
8:30PM Whenever You’re Ready, Bel Mehaffy
Saturday, December 19
5:30PM Whenever You’re Ready, Bel Mehaffy
7:00PM American Christmas, Axel Osterberg Gentley
8:30PM Same Time, Next Christmas, Jon Peterson
Sunday, December 20
2:30PM Whenever You’re Ready, Bel Mehaffy
4:00PM American Christmas, Axel Osterberg Gentley
5:30PM The Last Christmas Tree or “Chanukah Bush? I Don’t Think So!” / tba by Carolyn Doyle, Linda Ayres-Frederick
About PlayGround
PlayGround was founded in 1994 by Jim Kleinmann, Brighde Mullins and Denise Shama, beginning as a professional-academic partnership in residence at San Francisco State University and with initial sponsorship from SFSU’s Creative Writing Program. Early participating artists included Prince Gomolvilas, Garret Jon Groenveld, Daniele Nathanson, Sandra Rodgers, Colman Domingo, Kent Nicholson, Antigone Trimis, Mary Coleman and Rhonnie Washington. The fledgling organization moved to Project Artaud and A Traveling Jewish Theatre’s new 80-seat black box theatre in 1996, at which time Kleinmann took on sole leadership as PlayGround’s founding Artistic Director.
The company was in residence at Berkeley Repertory Theatre from 2003 until the COVID pandemic of 2020 and has also presented at the San Francisco Main Library, Freight & Salvage, Zeum, ACT’s Costume Shop, and Thick House, as well as co-producing with such notable Bay Area theatres as SF Playhouse, Shotgun Players, Impact Theatre, San Jose Stage, and Magic Theatre, among others. PlayGround first brought its work to NYC with the 2008 co-production of Garret Jon Groenveld’s Missives, followed by the 2009 NY International Fringe Festival hit co-production of Aaron Loeb’s Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party, 2013 NY International Fringe Festival co-production of Katie May’s Manic Pixie Dream Girl. PlayGround celebrated its 25th anniversary with a one-night program of original short musicals at NYC’s Theatre Row in 2019.
PlayGround’s first ongoing regional expansion came in 2012 with the launch of PlayGround-LA at West Hollywood’s Zephyr Theatre. In 2018, PlayGround-LA relocated to Hollywood’s Broadwater Theaters (home of Sacred Fools Theater Company), where the company continues to present its Monday Night series. PlayGround expanded to NYC in 2021 and Chicago in 2022, with in-person performances (and simulcasts) beginning in the Spring of 2023, at NYC’s Producers Club and Chicago’s Theater Wit, respectively.
Over its 30+ year history, PlayGround has grown into a leading national playwright incubator and theatre community hub, providing unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s and, more recently, Los Angeles’, New York’s, and Chicago’s best new playwrights through innovative programs such as the monthly Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, annual PlayGround Festival of New Works, full-length play commissions, playwright residencies and production support through the New Play Production Fund.
To date, PlayGround has developed and staged more than 1,500 original short plays through Monday Night PlayGround and the PlayGround Festival. PlayGround has also commissioned and/or developed several hundred new full-length plays by PlayGround alumni through its Commissioning Initiative, Playwrights Residency and Alumni Programs and, through the innovative New Play Production Fund, has directly facilitated the premiere of 40 full-length plays at theatres of every size, including many that have gone on to NYC and other major theater communities across the country.
In 2017, PlayGround launched Potrero Stage: PlayGround Center for New Plays, a 99-seat state-of-the-art performance venue to serve as a shared community resource for dozens of local companies and hundreds of artists. New programs in residence at Potrero Stage like the Free-Play Festival, Solo Performance Festival, and Innovator Incubator provide opportunities for local and national artists to self-determine and showcase their work in San Francisco at little to no cost.
Over 350 early-career playwrights have gotten their start at PlayGround, including Lauren Yee, Jonathan Spector, Geetha Reddy, and Cleavon Smith, helping to expand and deepen the canon of American 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 Tony Awards, Steinberg Awards, Glickman Awards, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and New York International Fringe Festival, among others. PlayGround serves one of the largest theater artist networks in the nation, connecting hundreds of Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York artists in support of a common vision: the development of bold and diverse new voices and new works.
This work has not gone unnoticed. PlayGround has received numerous awards, including: Playwrights Foundation’s Inaugural New Play Champion Award, BATCC’s Paine Knickerbocker Award for ongoing contributions to Bay Area theater, and American Theater Wing’s National Theater Grant. In 2016, Artistic Director Jim Kleinmann was recognized by Theatre Bay Area as one of the Bay Area’s top 40 leaders. Three of PlayGround’s commissioned plays have won the Bay Area Critics Circle award for Best New Play, and three have had subsequent productions in NYC. Four of the past ten Will Glickman Award winners for best new play are PlayGround alumni. When other theater companies think of producing new work, PlayGround artists are often their first call. As a result of PlayGround’s strong leadership, planning, and a willingness to take bold risks with high payoff, the new play ecosystem has been utterly transformed by PlayGround.
For more information, visit https://playground-sf.org.
FOR CALENDAR EDITORS
WHAT: PlayGround presents the Inaugural TWISTED HOLIDAY FESTIVAL, a fully free-admission “fringe-style” festival of new works that includes 8 productions and 24 new holiday-themed works (with a twist!) by talented theatre artists from across the country including PlayGround artists based in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.
WHERE: Potrero Stage, 1695 18th St, San Francisco, CA 94107, and simulcast online
WHEN: December 4 – December 20th, 2026
WHO: To Bah or Not to Bah Humbug, Jennifer Chun(Fri Dec 4 at 4pm, Sat Dec 5 at 8:30pm, Sun Dec 6 at 2:30pm), The Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder, Norman Gee(Fri Dec 4 at 8:30pm, Sat Dec 5 at 7pm, Sun Dec 6 at 5:30pm), American Christmas, Axel Osterberg Gentley (Sat Dec 5 at 5:30pm, Sat Dec 12 at 7pm Sat Dec 19 at 7pm), Eye Society: Twisted Holidays, Marcia Aguilar (Sun Dec 6 at 4pm, Friday Dec 11 at 8:30pm, Sun Dec 13 at 5:30pm), A Very Hitchcock Christmas, PlayGround (Fri Dec 11 at 7pm, Sat Dec 12 at 8:30pm, Sun Dec 13 at 4pm), The Last Christmas Tree or “Chanukah Bush? I Don’t Think So!”/tba by Carolyn Doyle, Linda Ayres-Frederick (Sat Dec 12 at 5:30pm, Sun Dec 13 at 2:30pm, Sun Dec 20 at 5:30pm), Same Time, Next Christmas, Jon Peterson(Fri Dec 18 at 7pm, Sat Dec 19 at 8:30pm, Sun Dec 20 at 4pm), Whenever You’re Ready, Bel Mehaffy (Fri Dec 18 at 8:30pm, Sat Dec 19 at 5:30pm, Sun Dec 20 at 2:30pm)
TICKETS: Admission is free (donations gratefully accepted) the day of performances for in-person attendance and all online viewing (live simulcast as well as on-demand), a $10 donation is requested for advance in-person reservations. For more information or to reserve in-person or online tickets, visit https://playground-sf.org/boxoffice