Announcing the 2025 FREE-PLAY FESTIVAL, August 1-24

Posted by on June 10, 2025

(SAN FRANCISCO) PlayGround closes out the summer season with the fourth annual FREE-PLAY FESTIVAL, August 1-24, at Potrero Stage and simulcast. This four-week “fringe style” new works festival features 17 productions and 58 performances by talented theatre artists from across the country including PlayGround artists based in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. Ranging in subject from improvised protest songs to how to resist an orange predator, and scaled from ensemble plays to one-person shows, PlayGround’s Free-Play Festival features a stellar lineup of seasoned theatre professionals, first-time producers, and all-star performers in every aspect of live performance, direction, and choreography. Productions will be presented for 3-4 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/freeplay.

The Lineup includes:

AI’s Cult by Melina Cohen-Bramwell
Thurs, Aug 21, 8PM; Fri, Aug 22, 6PM; Sat, Aug 23, 4PM; Sun, Aug 24, 2PM

Anak ni Tapia: Leaving Mother by Lani T. Montreal
Fri, Aug 8, 6PM; Sat, Aug 9, 2PM; Sun, Aug 10, 12PM

Belly of the Beast by Aisha Rivera
Sat, Aug 16, 12PM; Sat, Aug 16, 6PM; Sun, Aug 17, 2PM

Daddy’s Girl by Bill Savage
Sat, Aug 9, 12PM; Sun, Aug 10, 8PM; Mon, Aug 11, 8PM

Escape from Tehran by Stephanie Liss
Thurs, Aug 7, 6PM; Sat, Aug 9, 8PM; Sun, Aug 10, 4PM; Mon, Aug 11, 6PM

Everyone’s a Hamlet by Michelle Haner
Sat, Aug 23, 12PM; Sun, Aug 24, 12PM; Sun, Aug 24, 8PM

First Contact by Levani Ko
Sat, Aug 2, 12PM; Sun, Aug 3, 6PM; Mon, Aug 4, 6PM

Frank’s, a short play festival
Fri, Aug 1, 8PM; Fri, Aug 1, 4PM; Sun, Aug 3, 4PM

La Cucaracha, J. Lynn Jackson
Fri, Aug 1, 6PM; Sat, Aug 2, 2PM; Sun, Aug 3, 2PM

Lifedebt by JJ Sutton
Fri, Aug 8, 8PM; Sun, Aug 10, 6PM; Sat, Aug 16, 8PM; Sun, Aug 17, 4PM

Made In America? by Yide Cai
Thurs, Aug 14, 6PM; Fri, Aug 15, 8PM; Sat, Aug 16, 4PM

Man of Tomorrow by Reg Clay
Sat, Aug 16, 6PM; Sun, Aug 3, 8PM; Fri, Aug 15, 6PM; Sun, Aug 17, 8PM

Mine for the Tribe by Chris Smith
Thurs, Aug 7, 8PM; Sat, Aug 9, 4PM; Sat, Aug 16, 2PM; Sun, Aug 17, 6PM

The Miss Rose Show by Ken Prestininzi
Sun, Aug 17, 8PM; Mon, Aug 4, 8PM; Sat, Aug 9, 6PM; Sun, Aug 10, 2PM

Visions of an Innovator by Brittany Mellerson
Mon, Aug 18, 6PM; Fri, Aug 22, 8PM; Sat, Aug 23, 6PM; Sun, Aug 24, 4PM

What I Remember Most about the End of the World by Nino Greene
Thurs, Aug 21, 6PM; Sat, Aug 23, 8PM; Sun, Aug 24, 6PM

What’s Yo Protest Song? improvised by Melanie DuPuy and Cast
Thurs, Aug 14, 8PM; Mon, Aug 18, 8PM; Sat, Aug 23, 2PM

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 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 five 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.

Full Lineup & Synopses

AL’S CULT by Melina Cohen-Bramwell
Thurs, Aug 21, 8PM; Fri, Aug 22, 6PM; Sat, Aug 23, 4PM; Sun, Aug 24, 2PM
Al, a freshman at Three Pines High, is very cool. So cool, everyone is “afraid” to talk to him. He just needs his dad to see how cool he is, but, since he won’t come to Al’s birthday party or to Christmas, the only option left is for Al to become a cult leader.

Melina Cohen-Bramwell, he/him, is a writer and lifelong San Francisco Bay Area resident who also happens to be a biracial, gender-queer, spoonie. Never a fan of the education system, at age sixteen, Melina dropped out of school and began a career in theater. After years of working as a technician at regional theater companies such as Aurora, Cal Shakes, and Berkeley Rep, Melina “retired” to focus on healing from chronic illness and pursuing writing as a profession. His play, Please Don’t Slow Me Down, was workshopped in PlayGround SF’s summer 2023 Free Play Festival. His play, One of the Good Ones, received a reading in 2022 at Theatre Battery, and in PlayGround SF’s 2024 Free Play Festival. Buy his book, Bar Fights with Sad Kids, available from Finishing Line Press. In 2026, check out his book Nevada, due from Gnashing Teeth Press.

Anak ni Tapia: Leaving Mother by Lani T. Montreal (PlayGround-Chicago)
Fri, Aug 8, 6PM; Sat, Aug 9, 2PM; Sun, Aug 10, 12PM
Anak ni Tapia: Leaving Mother takes audiences on a personal and poignant journey through memory, identity, and reconciliation. The 80-minute performance unpacks the complexities of living life as a queer Filipina immigrant, a daughter living in the shadow of a larger-than-life celebrity mother, and a woman discovering her own voice. Directed by Daisy Castro with music design by Michael Querubin and Demetrio Maguigad, and projection design by Giau Truong.

Lani T. Montreal writes to create her home in the diaspora. She is a queer feminist Filipina writer, performer, educator, and community activist based in Chicago, whose works have been published/produced in North America, Asia, and in cyberspace. Lani has worked as a playwright and resident artist with CIRCA-Pintig, Chicago Danztheatre, and Free Street Theatre. Her play Panther in the Sky is a finalist for Best New Play (Chicago Reader’s 2024 Best of Chicago), and her solo show Anak ni Tapia: Leaving Mother is one of six featured plays at Artemisia Theatre’s 2024 #WeWomen Festival. Montreal is a two-time 3Arts Residency Awardee (2009 and 2016), 2017 alumna of the VONA Writers of Color Workshop, and 2024 Links Hall Co-MISSION Artist Fellow. She was also a semi-finalist for the Dramatist Guild 2024 Fellowship Award, and voted 1st Runner Up for Best Playwright in the Chicago Reader’s 2024 Best of Chicago.

Belly of the Beast by Aisha Rivera
Sat, Aug 16, 12PM; Sat, Aug 16, 6PM; Sun, Aug 17, 2PM
Angel is fresh out of being rejected from Law school and struggling to adjust to not being able to pursue their dreams for now. Months later Angel finds a strange creature under their bed, demanding to be fed and demanding to grow. Angel discovers that all who develop eating disorders birth these creatures and decides to get help.

Playwright Aisha Rivera is a California based Artist, Writer, and Actor. They hold a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Theatre Arts from California State University Fullerton. Aisha is also the current Poet Laureate for Napa County. Aisha’s poetry has been previously published in the Bilingual Anthology “Poetics without Borders/Poeticas Sin Fronteras” and “Latinas, Gender, Race, and Class” alongside other talented Mexican/Mexican-American Poets. Their Spanish adaptation of the classic film “It’s a Wonderful Life” (“Es Una Vida Maravillosa”) had its world premiere with Shakespeare Napa Valley in 2023, a production which they also Directed. Some of Aisha’s favorite acting credits include Yerma (Shotgun Players), Cymbeline (Berkeley Shakespeare Company), and Dead Man’s Cellphone (Upstage Napa Valley). Aisha is an eclectic artist who strives to create art that is interesting, moving, and meaningful.

Director Andres Agustin Barrera is a proud Napa Valley College student. Andres brings his passion for storytelling to 2025 as an assistant director for As You Like It. In 2024, he served as an assistant director for NVC’s Arty award-winning production of Spring Awakening and Shakespeare Napa Valley’s site-integrated production of Twelfth Night at di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art. A playwright and stage director, Andres was featured as an emerging theatre-maker in NVC’s 2025 Emergence Festival with his production of Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story. He has also written and directed original works for the festival, including his short play Moises and Ella (2024). NVC acting credits include Es Una Vida Maravillosa (Tony), She Kills Monsters (Orcus), and various roles in 2023’s Shakespeare Summer Stroll at di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art. Andres is co-founder and artistic director of Teatro Alebrijes del Valle, a growing Latino/ Hispanic theatre company based in Napa, CA.

Daddy’s Girl by Bill Savage
Sat, Aug 9, 12PM; Sun, Aug 10, 8PM; Mon, Aug 11, 8PM
Larry Rodney is in Chicago for a convention, and he happens to engage in a conversation with a bartender about the great tragedy of his life: his three-decade separation from his only child, a daughter he last saw when she was a toddler. In flashbacks, he recalls the pain of the separation from his only daughter. After he leaves the bar, he goes to a park across the street, where images of his past involving the daughter he hasn’t seen in about three decades return to him. The bartender finds him and they ponder the quirks of life and parenthood.

Bill Savage is a playwright, author, journalist and educator. He has written more than a dozen plays of various length, most of which have been presented in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area, at such venues as Open Stage (“On Our Way to the Fair”), Theatre Harrisburg (“Music in the House”), Mount Gretna (“Hot-Shot and Speedball,” and “Down to the Fifty-Four”) and several times in Dramatists Guild presentations in Philadelphia (various plays). His play “Men of the Empire” was presented by Fractured Time Productions in London. He is the author of “To the Mill and Back,” a novel based in the early 1970s, and a college writing textbook to be published in the fall of 2025, “All the Writing Moves.” Bill has also been an award-winning journalist for much of his career, including a long period as a sports writer.

Escape from Tehran, by Stephanie Liss
Thurs, Aug 7, 6PM; Sat, Aug 9, 8PM; Sun, Aug 10, 4PM; Mon, Aug 11, 6PM
A Jewish couple forced to flee Iran, at the start of the islamic revolution.

Playwright/Director Stephanie Liss is the award-winning writer of such television movies, as SECOND SERVE – THE RENEE RICHARDS STORY, starring Vanessa Redgrave, for CBS. SECOND SERVE was the first movie produced about the trans community, and was nominated for a Golden Globe, Emmy, and received worldwide attention. Stephanie has also written the award winning movies, DAVID for ABC, HIDDEN IN SILENCE for Lifetime, and her ABC movie, GOING UNDERGROUND, was screened before Congress as a testimony, in order to change laws in custody cases, where domestic violence was an issue. She created and Executive Produced the documentary, ONE SURVIVOR REMEMBERS, which won the Academy Award for Documentary Short.

Musical Director/composer RebbeSoul (Bruce Burger) created the contemporary Jewish music movement, from which the world of Jewish music reached a new dimension. His version of AVINU MALKEINU, was the first Jewish composition to hit the charts. With six albums to his credit, RebbeSoul has been featured on CNN INTERNATIONAL, and was on the cover of BILLBOARD MAGAZINE, as the quintessential and original producer of Jewish Roots and World Music. His CHANGE THE WORLD WITH A SOUND, album, was #1 on college radio’s CMJ WORLD MUSIC charts, and his groundbreaking 1995 album, FRINGE OF BLUE, has become one of the most famous Jewish music albums of all time. Since 2016, RebbeSoul has been working as composer, with playwright, Stephanie Liss, scoring all of her plays, and together, they experienced a highly successful, sold out, Chicago Run, of SISTER AFRICA, with RebbeSoul’s powerful score, garnering great attention.

Everyone’s a Hamlet by and with Michelle Haner & Tom Bentley-Fisher
Produced by blue monkey works in collaboration with the Yat-Bentley Centre
Sat, Aug 23, 12PM; Sun, Aug 24, 12PM; Sun, Aug 24, 8PM
Ay! Something is rotten in the state of Denmark! Tyranny, madness, chaos and corruption. Sound familiar? And midst it all, what will the Hamlets – the lovers of law, culture, education and theater – do about it? How can the Prince of Denmark reach across time to shake us into action? When artist friends connect over coffee, a restless Hamlet-ghost-stalker won’t leave them in peace. As he and his entourage take possession of the stage, Pirandello meets My Dinner with Andre meets the Wooster Group.

Tom Bentley-Fisher – Writer, Performer. Tom Bentley-Fisher is the artistic director of the Yat-Bentley Centre. Tom’s theatre career began as an actor, training with Sanford Meisner and Yat Malmgren. He has been the artistic director of five professional theatres, directed internationally over one hundred productions, and taught in universities and theatre schools throughout North America and Europe. He has a strong reputation for developing and producing new work (including Paula Vogel’s first professional play), as well as innovative European productions such as an all-female version of the Iliad which toured Spain for a year. His approach to teaching is based on his many years as a theatre artist, exploring and developing the techniques of Yat Malmgren. Read more at: https://www.tombentleyfisher.com

Michelle Haner – Writer, Performer. Passionate about the power of human connection in this digital era, Michelle works at the crossroads of international education, performing arts and community engagement. She leads the theater program and arts department at the International School of San Francisco. Michelle also works internationally with a range of professional and university programs in France (l’ESCA, le Programme Baudelaire and L’Ecole de l’Acteur-Sophie Akrich) and leads workshops on collaboration, public speaking and story-telling. Michelle is also an experienced professional producer, translator and theater maker (MFA from UCLA, SAG/AFTRA/AEA). She has performed and directed with foolsFURY, Ensemble Studio Theater- LA, Open Fist and Classical Theater. She co-leads the company Blue Monkey Works, with Steve Morgan Haskell. Read more at: www.michellehaner.com

Joshua Waterstone – Artistic Collaborator. Joshua Waterstone is an award-winning director, fight choreographer, actor and educator who holds an MFA in Directing for Stage and Screen. Joshua’s extensive teaching and directing portfolio includes collaborations with Berkeley Repertory School of Theatre, Foothill College, Yat Bentley Centre for Performance and Greater than the Sum productions in residency at Google Arts. His professional work spans engagements with California Shakespeare Theatre (Cal Shakes), San Francisco Youth Theatre, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Georgia Shakespeare, foolsFURY, Ragged Wing Ensemble, New Century Orchestra, Alliance Theatre and American Conservatory Theatre.This November Joshua is excited to travel to Belem, Brazil to direct the sustainable future production Bright Light Burning for The Theatre of Others at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 30). An Associate Member of the Society of Directors and Choreographers and a member of the Society of American Fight Directors, Joshua is also a 200-hour Classical Yoga Teacher, bringing a holistic approach to his craft. His work reflects a dedication to blending traditional and contemporary practices, creating transformative theatrical experiences.

First Contact by Levani Ko
Sat, Aug 2, 12PM; Sun, Aug 3, 6PM; Mon, Aug 4, 6PM
Humanity is about to face the most important event in its history… FIRST CONTACT with an intelligent extraterrestrial species. NOBODY PANIC! We need you to come together in a committee guided by A NASA Type Guy and decide if we should engage with the aliens diplomatically, treat them to the ol’ reliable human violence, OR …seduce them?

Levani (writer and NASA GUY) is an award winning actor, dancer, musician, and writer based in San Diego. Originally a refugee from the Republic of Georgia, Levani started training in the Brazilian art form of Capoeira at 15 years old which introduced them to not being sure which performance type to focus on, music or movement. After attending UC San Diego for Theatre, they added acting to that list and to further complicate things, started writing plays. The varied experience, however, led to each play having a unique combination of art forms, twist on theatre norms and a focus on social activism relating to the subjects of the plays. Arson 101, a choose-your-own-adventure acrobatic dance variety show that focuses on relationships and breaking gender norms (Artists’ Choice, SD Fringe 2023, Best of Fringe, Charm City 2023). Stay With Me, a D&D inspired, audience led jaunt through miscommunication and socioeconomic barriers within relationships (Spirit of Fringe @ Tucson Fringe 2024). THE OMEGA MALE PROGRAM, a personal take on masculinity and predatory online grifters (Also running at 2025 SF Fringe). More info on IG @Levani.k.o

Frank’s On Tour
Fri, Aug 1, 8PM; Fri, Aug 1, 4PM; Sun, Aug 3, 4PM
FRANK’s is a Los Angeles based theatre collective, in its first year of operation. We lean towards the absurd in our work, but our main goal is to simply put on great theatre. We are excited to present four short plays written by the founding members of our collective.

Lucy Parks Urbano is an actress and writer from Berkeley, CA who lives in Hollywood. A graduate of UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film, and Television in Acting & Playwriting, she has trained at Oakland School for the Arts, Fontainebleau School of Acting, Alexander Techworks, and Upright Citizens Brigade. Her screen acting has played at festivals nationally, including Sundance, and is streaming on NoBudge, Short of the Week, Amazon, and Tubi. She has performed on stage around the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Her writing has been produced in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and New York City. She is a proud member and producer of FRANK’s. She threatens you with multiple impending short films, and is honored to return to Playground SF after being a 2019 Writer’s Pool participant and two time Young Playwright Project winner!

Edward Hoke is an award-winning stage actor, published poet, and developing playwright, holding a degree from Northwestern University in addition to certificates from ACT, Interlochen Academy of the Arts and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He was awarded the fine arts award for distinguished performance while at Interlochen. He has appeared in over 20 plays on the West Coast and has worked with the likes of Sally Struthers, Kirsten Vangsness and Sam Waterston. He will next be understudying Hamlet in Hamlet, directed by Robert O’Hara at Center Theatre Group.

Playwright Frank Demma is an LA based writer. He is the founder of LA theatre collective FRANK’s.

Moses Mascuch is a proud member of the theatre collective FRANK’S. Born and raised in Berkeley, he now lives in Los Angeles.

La Cucaracha by J. Lynn Jackson
Fri, Aug 1, 6PM; Sat, Aug 2, 2PM; Sun, Aug 3, 2PM
An orange predator from the US invades a celebration of life in Mexico. June bug Salma joins forces with bug-loving human Lila to lead the resistance. La Cucaracha celebrates the nature of love, life, death and sweet justice. “It is not worthwhile to leave this world without having had a little fun in life.” – Frida Kahlo

Lynn Jackson (Playwright), he/him. Mexico/US-based playwright J. Lynn Jackson’s plays include La Cucaracha, Charles Darwin – Her True Story, Lucía Fuentes, and The Red Sweater. His plays have been developed/presented with PlayGround, Oficina de Proyectos Culturales, Latinx Mafia, Playland Productions, Town Hall Theatre, JUST Play Productions and others. Jackson’s a Playwrights Foundation and Woodward International Playwriting Prize semifinalist and a member of the Playwrights’ Center, the Dramatists Guild, Theatre Bay Area and Berkeley Play Cafe.

Richard Perez (Director), he/him. Richard is a nationally recognized director, actor, and educator with a focus on new play development. He has held leadership roles as Associate Artistic Director at Chicago Dramatists and Artistic Director at Bloomington Playwrights Project. Currently Artistic Director of Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette, Richard has collaborated with leading theatres including Goodman Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The New York Fringe Festival, and The Kennedy Center.

Aisha Rivera (bug Salma), they/them. Aisha is an Artist, Writer, and Actor. Aisha is the current Poet Laureate of Napa County. Their Spanish adaptation of “It’s a Wonderful Life” premiered with Shakespeare Napa Valley in 2023. Favorite acting credits include Yerma (Shotgun Players), Cymbeline (Berkeley Shakespeare Company), and Dead Man’s Cellphone (Upstage Napa Valley). Their newest play “Belly of the Beast” is also premiering in SF Playground’s Free Play Festival (2025).

Isabella E. Lowry (human Lila), she/her. Isabella made her professional debut on A.C.T.’s Toni Rembe stage this past winter in A Whynot Christmas, directed by Pam MacKinnon. She first discovered her love for acting at ACT’s Young Conservatory in the summer of 2022 and has been passionately training ever since. She dedicates her performance to all the young bug loving Latinas out there and her familia en El Salvador!

Noe Flores (orange human Sam), he/him. Noe is a homegrown comedic Bay Area actor with raíces in Mexico and El Salvador. Stage credits include Ghosts of Bogotá (AlterTheater) and Brilliant Lies (Firescape Theater). His screen work includes Spin Junkies and Start with Where. Noe is currently training in improv at All Out Comedy in Oakland and sometimes performs with the San Francisco sketch comedy troupe Killing My Lobster. He loves characters that make audiences laugh, squirm, and think.

Michelle Navarrete (human Mon), she/her. Michelle is a Salvadoreña-San Franciscan actor, theatre artist, and educator. From singing out her abuelita’s favorite rancheras to belting out show tunes, she has always followed her fire within. After receiving her BFA in Acting from Marymount Manhattan College, she continued her career in NYC performing and producing theatre. Michelle has worked in the SF Bay Area with numerous theatre companies and also in TV/film.

Hector Zavala (bug Gael), he/him/they. Hector is a multifaceted artist and international creative force with an expansive career spanning theater, film, and dance. As an actor, dancer, set designer, technical director, and producer, Hector’s work has graced stages across Mexico and the U.S., including standout performances in La Leyenda de Georgia McBride and the bilingual solo show Seeking the Last Gay Man. Hector’s work is rooted in cultural integrity, queer visibility, and transformative artistry.

Logan Christian (bug Diego), he/him. Logan wanted to be an actor since age nine. Taking singing and acting lessons in high school, followed by dancing in college, Logan has been able to make that dream a reality. Productions with Diablo Valley College have included Head Over Heels, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Witness for the Prosecution, as well as various dance shows in which he performed many styles of dance such as salsa, modern, hip-hop, and ballet.

Bert Ramirez (bug Dragon; human Fred), he/him. Bert has been active with the theater since retiring in Mexico in 2009, starring in many productions including as Trekkie and Nicky in Avenue Q, Dr. Scott in Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Mother Superior in Nunsense A-men. After a 31-year career with the fire service, Bert lives in Puerto Vallarta with his wife, Cindy.

Special thanks to early-bird supporters who help La Cucaracha resist-play-live: Playland Productions, Carlos Barón, Pilar Perez, Nicté Escalante, Leopoldo and Valorie Villela, Ed Martinez and Doug Brewster, Miyoko Sakatani, Gates McKibbon, Casey Lupton, Mae Chesney and Peter Rothblatt, Diane Foster and Peter Hannigan, Don Spencer at 82, John Glynn and Tina Monaco-Glynn, Ellen Flood & Liza Bippus, James Shay and Steven Correll, Pilar and Dwight Meier, Raquiba Labrie, Emily Golenberg, Jan Schmuckler and Jim Martin, Maurice Monette, Oficina de Proyectos Culturales, Wake UP Sonoma and Sonoma Community Center.

Lifedebt by JJ Sutton
Fri, Aug 8, 8PM; Sun, Aug 10, 6PM; Sat, Aug 16, 8PM; Sun, Aug 17, 4PM
Set in the not-so-distant future, Dana and Bobby work tirelessly in a warehouse for the global megacorporation Anadon. The two begin to see their own lives in a new light and question the only system they’ve ever known as we see just how far Anadon will go to keep them working.

JJ Sutton (they/she) is a playwright, director, and contemporary performance artist. JJ’s writing and directing capstone for the Stanford Theater and Performance Studies program, Antigone: A New Trans Play, premiered in the Nitery Experimental Theater’s 2021-22 season. They pursue theater with a drive towards political investigation, queer expression, and artistic innovation.

Lead designer Ari Pefley (they/them) is a multi-disciplinary artist with a strong visual background. A Stanford University graduate, they are a director, designer, fabricator, graphics artist, and more. Ari’s past work includes directing a production of Little Shop of Horrors for Ram’s Head Theatrical Society and prop fabrication/design for Antigone: A New Trans Play.

Made In America? by Yide Cai
Thurs, Aug 14, 6PM; Fri, Aug 15, 8PM; Sat, Aug 16, 4PM
“Made in America?” is a solo performance set in a museum and about the last piece of brick ever made in America. The performance follows a curator giving a tour of an artwork—a single brick—unraveling its unexpected history tied to economic collapse, transnational industry, and personal loss.

Yide Cai(Playwright) is a poet, translator, and award-winning playwright from Shenzhen, China. His work has been featured at OOB Festival, La MaMa, The Tank, Kanini Fest, and more. He is a fellow of the Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics, a member of TPOC Producing Cohort, and a scholar at Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Yide also works internationally as a producer, director, and dramaturg, with credits including German National Theater Weimar, Prague Shakespeare Company, and Chinese premieres of Dead Poets Society, The Book of Will, and Lydia & The Troll. He is a MFA in Playwriting candidate at Boston University, and holds a BA in Playwriting & German Studies at Emory University.

Lauren Komer (Director) is a Brooklyn-based director and theater artist. A majority of Komer’s work explores the convergence of theater, film, and interactive media. Komer is obsessed with deviancy, disgust, and the dark urges that lay in wait within the psyche. She rejects linear, naturalistic storytelling and embraces highly visual, fragmented, and referential narratives. Her work is steeped in pop culture, eroticism, mysticism, and postmodernism. Her work has appeared in NYC, Boston, and internationally in Europe and the U.K. She is a Theater Arts Fellow of Brandeis University (B.A. Theater Arts with Highest Honors). Komer also studied playwriting, theater theory, and screenwriting at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford University. Follow her work @postmodernlady_

Man of Tomorrow by Reg Clay
Sat, Aug 16, 6PM; Sun, Aug 3, 8PM; Fri, Aug 15, 6PM; Sun, Aug 17, 8PM
Twilight Zone-like drama of a young Victorian woman seeking to escape – to tomorrow.

Reg Clay is an actor and playwright who has worked in the bay area for 25 years. Reg is a former member of BayStage and Eastenders Repertory Company. Reg has worked with the Douglas Morrison Theatre, Town Hall Theatre, the Darkroom Theatre, Off-Broadway West, Bindlestiff Studios, Z Space, Ray of Light Theatre, and many others. Reg Clay is also a former member of the PlayGround Writers Pool.

Mine for the Tribe, Chris Smith
Thurs, Aug 7, 8PM; Sat, Aug 9, 4PM; Sat, Aug 16, 2PM; Sun, Aug 17, 6PM

“Mine for the Tribe” is a sermon for artists. Written and performed by Chris Smith, this one person show focuses on mental health in the arts. By following Chris’ journey through growing up on a ranch, attending theater school, being a television producer in LA, leaving LA because of his one-eyed rescue pup and then watching his world crumble as two important women in his life died (one an artist that never faced her demons), he drives home the point that we need to take better care of ourselves.

Playwright & Performer, Chris Smith is a country boy who reads philosophy and writes plays. He grew up on a cattle ranch, found theater, went to LA, became a producer for film and TV and then returned to the ranch. These days he’s writing and annoying cattle. As a writer, and due to events that shaped him in this solo show, he’s focusing on two areas that matter to him “Mental Health in the Arts” and “Building Better Men”. After years of acting, writing, directing, producing, designing and other film and theater stuff, he wants to help his fellow artists.

The Miss Rose Show, Ken Prestininzi, Christopher Winslow
Sun, Aug 2, 8PM; Mon, Aug 4, 8PM; Sat, Aug 9, 6PM; Sun, Aug 10, 2PM

Miss Rose Williams cordially invites you to attend her original cabaret show in honor of her brother Tennessee. Come see Big Sis take the stage at last! THE MISS ROSE SHOW is a play disguised as a cabaret that tells the story of Rose Williams’ love for her brother, Tom, and his for hers. Tom became famous as Tennessee Williams. Rose was taken to a hospital for a lobotomy operation and never came home again. Brother and sister have only each other when the world is brutal and unkind. They know each other’s humor and hurts as only siblings can. Through songs that Rose writes and performs, we experience the ridiculous and the vulnerability embedded in their shared ambitions, lusts and intimacies. Kenneth Prestininzi (Playwright/director) Alum New Dramatists, New York City. Alum, Playground. Ken has also worked as a director-dramaturg for new plays at the Sundance Institute, New York Theater Workshop, Huntington Theater, New Dramatists, Huntington, Kansas City Rep, Playwrights Horizons, Ryder’s Farm, Sleeping Weazel, Trinity Rep, South Coast Rep, Southern Rep, Z Space and elsewhere. His most recent plays are CAR PLAY; LOVE IN THE CHAOS;OPHELIA RUN AMOK and MATKA (Eugene O’Neill finalist, 2023). Recent original play productions: TIMBUKTU, USA (New Orleans, 2025), BEHOLDER (NYC, 2024), IMPURE THOUGHTS (WITHOUT APOLOGY), Saint Mary’s College, California. At the Yale School of Drama, he was the Associate Chair and (Acting) Chair of Playwriting during Paula Vogel’s tenure. Ken studied with María Irene Fornés.

Visions of an Innovator, Brittany Mellerson
Mon, Aug 18, 6PM; Fri, Aug 22, 8PM; Sat, Aug 23, 6PM; Sun, Aug 24, 4PM
VIP is a visionary collective of artists, creators, and performers obsessed with evolving arts relationships within our communities. This performance is a journey of manifestation and reinvention – finding family with whom we cultivate community. A carnival of black joy and existence. An auditory experience filled with a set of music, conversation, storytelling and love.

Brittany Mellerson – With a BFA in Theatrical Lighting and Sound Design from Point Park University’s Conservatory Program, Brittany is a multi hyphenate designer/director with a focus in sharing black stories and cathartic experiences. Some of their most notable professional credits include current residencies with PlayGround SF and Lamplighters Music Theatre for Lighting Design and Production Management, while also utilizing an extensive concentration in Sound Design and Intimacy Coordination as a freelance professional and consultant. When they are not bringing scripts to life on stage, Brittany is steadily curating their own visions, acting as the Director and Visual Designer/Consultant of published content, archival footage, and live performances for their own entertainment collective. IG: br00klynmonroe

Sterling Baker-Mcclary – As a graduate of The Center of Excellence in Performing Arts Magnet program at Pebblebrook High School, Sterling McClary is bonafide Arts enthusiast, a trained dancer in over 7 various dance styles as well as training vocally and dramatically in commercial and musical theater techniques. After living in Pittsburgh where he studied musical theater and dance at Point Park University he gained the opportunity to share his love and passion of creating and performing in various major theatrical venues and dance studios around the country as well as spending the past 5 years as a performer for Celebrity and Disney cruise lines. He recently finished the National tour of Madagascar The Musical as Marty The Zebra and is currently playing the role of Ike Turner in the second national tour of TINA The Tina Turner Musical. From choreographing to teaching, to casting, coaching and even recording music, Sterling has experienced entertainment at every level and consistently finds himself on the right side of quality. IG : flash_b

What I Remember Most about the End of the World, Nino Greene
Thurs, Aug 21, 6PM; Sat, Aug 23, 8PM; Sun, Aug 24, 6PM
A revolutionary, self-aware Artificial Intelligence ruminates on her tragicomic “first contact” with an alien species: Us.

Playwright Nino Greene recently completed both a mid-life crisis and an MFA in Creative Writing. His ten-minute play, THE TRAGEDY OF ROMEO & JULIET & BERNARD, THE SHAVE KING, won the Audience Favorite award at the 2025 Silicon Valley Shakespeare 48-Hour Play Festival. His full-length play, YOU DON’T HAVE TO CRY, was a semi-finalist at the Ashland New Play Festival, 2024. He is also a member of the SF PlayGround Writers Pool, which produced three of his ten-minute plays during the 2024-2025 season, including CONVERSATION, which was an honorary mention for Best of SF Playground. Another, SMALL CAT NEGOTIABLE, was turned into a radio-play podcast by the Open-Door Playhouse.

Director Bruce Avery is Professor of Theatre Arts at SFSU, and a San Francisco actor and director. He is the Artistic Director of Bread & Butter Theatre Co. His PhD is from UC Santa Cruz, where he also worked as Dramaturge for Shakespeare Santa Cruz. His recent directing credits include a devised pandemic radio show, Learning Alone. Also Twelfth Night for African American Shakespeare Company, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Marisol, Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice and Much Ado About Nothing at SFSU, along with the world premiere of Funeral Game, As You Like It, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Bread & Butter Theatre Co. Acting credits include Tom Sargeant in David Hare’s Skylight, Danielson in The North Pool, Rothko in Red, (Bread & Butter Theatre Co) Peter Quince in Midsummer, Polonius in Hamlet, Old Capulet in Romeo & Juliet, and Dennis Shepard in The Laramie Project. As an acting teacher, he is certified in Chekhov Technique, and has studied the Meisner Technique, Suzuki Movement, and stage combat. As a scholar, he has published acclaimed articles on James Joyce, Edmund Spenser, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kipling, and the pedagogy of Shakespeare.

What’s Yo Protest Song? An Improvised Musical, Melanie DuPuy
Thurs, Aug 14, 8PM; Mon, Aug 18, 8PM; Sat, Aug 23, 2PM
Tell us your story. What went wrong? What did you need in that moment? And…Boom! What’s Your Protest Song? An Improvised Musical is born. Starring Liz Baker, Jennifer Chan, Gabriel Chaparro, Melanie DuPuy, Susan Kleinman, Eric Lamothe, Sage Simms and Steven Tang as The Wypspers. We make up a mini-musicals on the spot, inspired by your stories and of course, we will always invite you to sing along! We wanna know: What’s Your Protest Song?

Cast Bios for WHAT’S YOUR PROTEST SONG? An Improvised Musical

Musical Director, Liz Baker is a Bay Area native who loves theater and performance. After studying Playwriting at San Francisco State, she went on to create her own theater company where she produced, directed, and wrote comedy stage productions across the Bay Area. She wears many hats, and has participated as a musician, composer, writer, and director for various theatrical groups including Leela SF, BATS, Unscripted, Flash Mob Musical, SF Fringe, SF Olympians, and The Great Charles Dickens Faire. In addition to performing, Liz is also a teacher. After her time producing, she taught theater to children with Learning Disabilities for 7 years, and helped them connect their love of performance to academics and social-emotional development. Currently, she teaches music lessons to students of all ages, and loves spending time showing others how to make their passion for music grow.

Back in the Late Pleistocene, Jennifer Chan studied theater at UC Santa Cruz and NYU. As the ice began to recede, it stole her ability to memorize lines. Now, she is an improv performer and coach. She performs regularly with Improv Marin and sporadically with other troupes, including Unhinged, Jill & Jackie, and the Silly Sunday Matinees at BATS. Significant coaches have included Jules Munns, Traci Burns and Drew Merit. She is thrilled to be here and wants to thank her parents and the now-extinct Glyptodon (a genus of large, herbivore armadillos roughly the size of a VW bug).

Gabe Chaparro is the tallest in his family. He is #MadeInHayward, having successfully completed elementary school through his bachelor’s degree and teaching credential in Hayward schools. Gabe has a bachelor’s degree in physics with a minor in music, a master’s in Educational Leadership, and continues to contemplate completing his PhD in Higher Education. As he muses this option, he enjoys serving as a community college STEM Center Equity Director, working his chops on saxophone, making audiences laugh through improv, and creating his own clothing and leather goods.

Melanie (Mel) DuPuy is a screenwriter from Los Angeles with decades of experience in theatre, film and TV. She writes stage plays, feature films, fictional podcasts, sketch comedy and teleplays. Her writing has been recognized by the Austin Film Festival, SlamDance and The Big Apple Screenwriting Competition. In a world where women are asked to starve, Mel loves to explore female characters who eat until they’re full – if not spilling over. She writes as a form of protest and a call for love. She’s also an actor and singer-songwriter who recently discovered musical improv and honestly, can’t get enough. When she’s not sitting in a café drinking too much coffee and writing, Mel loves to collaborate with others and get into good trouble with What’s Your Protest Song? Enjoy the show!

A New York City native, Susan Kleinman caught the acting bug as a child after appearing in the children’s show The Great Space Coaster and in several NYU short films. After being edited out of an SNL sketch, she quickly abandoned her dreams and for a time led a normal life, only to move to San Francisco and discover improv. Susan studied at BATS Improv and with teachers including Tim Orr and Becky Haycox. She was a founding member of the early aughts improv troupe the Frookies and the NYC sketch group Amazing Larry. She currently performs with the Improv Marin and with the longform improv group Unhinged. Susan sometimes appears as Jill in “From the Heart with Jill and Jackie,” dispensing spectacularly bad parenting advice.

Eric Lamothe has lived in the Bay Area for over 30 years. During this time he’s had the good fortune to dabble in acting, singing and improv. Before Wypsers, Eric has enjoyed improvising musically as part of Flash Mob Musical in the Bay Area and beyond, in the cast of Mixtape at Unscripted Theatre Company in SF, and on mixer teams at the Bay Area and Chicago musical improv festivals. This in addition to many workshops and classes at All Out Comedy, Endgames, Leela and others. In the early 2000’s, prior to a lengthy break from performing, Eric was a fixture in the SF cabaret scene and performed at Martuni’s, the Plush Room and other local venues, including the Thick House Theatre, now the Potrero Stage. Eric is thrilled to be performing in this amazing space again!

For the Monday, August 18th 8pm performance: Musical Director, Joshua Raoul Brody has been accompanying the members of BATS Improv since long before its origin — he first worked with Barbara Scott when she was with the legendary Santa Cruz troupe Screaming Mimis in the late 70s, and soon thereafter joined Reed Kirk Rahlmann (and BATS alumnus Brian Lohmann, as well as Greg Proops and Michael McShane) in Faultline. BATS founding member William Hall and his fellow Fratelli Bologna guested at a Dumb Songs Festival thrown by Brody’s band, the STUPEDS, in the early 80s. Joshua came to improv from the pop music field, although he was always attracted to bands with a comic/theatrical flavor — the Mothers of Invention, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Moving from New York in 1974, following a brief stay at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, Joshua discovered the Bay Area to be a hotbed of comical musedy acts. He quickly found work as musical director for the Pointless Sisters and the Rick & Ruby Show (who later found a smidgen of fame on the Pee-Wee Herman HBO special). With Rick & Ruby, he went on tour with Robin Williams, both opening the show and accompanying Williams on a couple of songs. This led to an appearance on Mork & Mindy and other TV exposure, a period Joshua refers to as “when we were almost famous.” Through Williams, Joshua met and began accompanying LA improv groups such as War Babies and the Comedy Store Players, but it wasn’t until he met Lohmann and Faultline that he began to pursue the craft of improv accompaniment regularly. Joshua is currently BATS Musical Director, accompanying many if not most of their Main Stage shows. He is principal accompanist for True Fiction Magazine (of which he was a founding member), Awkward Dinner Party, and other Bay Area improv groups.

Schedule By Date:

Friday, August 1, 2025
6:00PM La Cucaracha, J. Lynn Jackson
8:00PM Frank’s, Frank Demma

Saturday, August 2, 2025
12:00PM First Contact, Levani Ko
2:00PM La Cucaracha, J. Lynn Jackson
4:00PM Frank’s, Frank Demma
6:00PM Man of Tomorrow, Reg Clay
8:00PM The Miss Rose Show, Ken Prestininzi

Sunday, August 3, 2025
2:00PM La Cucaracha, J. Lynn Jackson
4:00PM Frank’s, Frank Demma
6:00PM First Contact, Levani Ko
8:00PM Man of Tomorrow, Reg Clay

Monday, August 4, 2025
6:00PM First Contact, Levani Ko
8:00PM The Miss Rose Show, Ken Prestininzi

Thursday, August 7, 2025
6:00PM Escape from Tehran, Stephanie Liss
8:00PM Mine for the Tribe, Chris Smith

Friday, August 8, 2025
6:00PM Anak ni Tapia: Leaving Mother, Lani T. Montreal
8:00PM Lifedebt, JJ Sutton

Saturday, August 9, 2025
12:00PM Daddy’s Girl, Bill Savage
2:00PM Anak ni Tapia: Leaving Mother, Lani T. Montreal
4:00PM Mine for the Tribe, Chris Smith
6:00PM The Miss Rose Show, Ken Prestininzi
8:00PM Escape from Tehran, Stephanie Liss

Sunday, August 10, 2025
12:00PM Anak ni Tapia: Leaving Mother, Lani T. Montreal
2:00PM The Miss Rose Show, Ken Prestininzi
4:00PM Escape from Tehran, Stephanie Liss
6:00PM Lifedebt, JJ Sutton
8:00PM Daddy’s Girl, Bill Savage

Monday, August 11, 2025
6:00PM Escape from Tehran, Stephanie Liss
8:00PM Daddy’s Girl, Bill Savage

Thursday, August 14, 2025
6:00PM Made In America?, Yide Cai
8:00PM What’s Your Protest Song?, Melanie DuPuy

Friday, August 15, 2025
6:00PM Man of Tomorrow, Reg Clay
8:00PM Made In America?, Yide Cai

Saturday, August 16, 2025
12:00PM Belly of the Beast, Aisha Rivera
2:00PM Mine for the Tribe, Chris Smith
4:00PM Made In America?, Yide Cai
6:00PM Belly of the Beast, Aisha Rivera
8:00PM Lifedebt, JJ Sutton

Sunday, August 17, 2025
2:00PM Belly of the Beast, Aisha Rivera
4:00PM Lifedebt, JJ Sutton
6:00PM Mine for the Tribe, Chris Smith
8:00PM Man of Tomorrow, Reg Clay

Monday, August 18, 2025
6:00PM Visions of an Innovator, Brittany Mellerson
8:00PM What’s Your Protest Song?, Melanie DuPuy

Thursday, August 21, 2025
6:00PM What I Remember Most about the End of the World, Nino Greene
8:00PM AI’s Cult, Melina Cohen-Bramwell

Friday, August 22, 2025
6:00PM AI’s Cult, Melina Cohen-Bramwell
8:00PM Visions of an Innovator, Brittany Mellerson

Saturday, August 23, 2025
12:00PM Everyone’s a Hamlet, Michelle Haner & Tom Bentley-Fisher
2:00PM What’s Your Protest Song?, Melanie DuPuy
4:00PM AI’s Cult, Melina Cohen-Bramwell
6:00PM Visions of an Innovator, Brittany Mellerson
8:00PM What I Remember Most about the End of the World, Nino Greene

Sunday, August 24, 2025
12:00PM Everyone’s a Hamlet, Michelle Haner & Tom Bentley-Fisher
2:00PM AI’s Cult, Melina Cohen-Bramwell
4:00PM Visions of an Innovator, Brittany Mellerson
6:00PM What I Remember Most about the End of the World, Nino Greene
8:00PM Everyone’s a Hamlet, Michelle Haner & Tom Bentley-Fisher

About PlayGround

For more information, visit https://playground-sf.org.

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/freeplay.

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