Best of PlayGround 26: The Twenty-Sixth Annual Short Play Fest!

PlayGround is thrilled to announce the selected plays and playwrights for our 26th annual ten-minute play fest, BEST OF PLAYGROUND 26! Please join us in congratulating first-time festival writers Monique Hafen Adams, Jennifer Le Blanc and Justin P. Lopez, and returning “Best of” playwrights Akaina Ghosh, Alanna McFall, and Eteya Trinidad. For two nights only, PlayGround will celebrate these artists and their place within the next generation of great playwrights in the Bay Area and beyond. Tickets can be purchased here for live performances at Potrero Stage and simulcast online, Saturday May 14 and Sunday May 15 at 7pm PT and on-demand for one week. Admission is free (donations gratefully accepted) but advance reservations are required.

As part of PlayGround’s Festival of New Works, the Best of PlayGround festival does what it says on the tin: this is PlayGround at its best. From over 150 submissions and the 36 plays staged this season for PlayGround’s Monday Night PlayGround series, PlayGround’s artist leaders have selected six ten-minute plays to give full productions in “Best of”, based on the plays’ artistic excellence and dynamism and the playwrights’ unique voice. These plays and their playwrights highlight the commitment to playfullness, justice, and process at the heart of the PlayGround community.

Since 1997, PlayGround has recognized 96 of the Bay Area’s most promising new writers through the annual Best of PlayGround, including Lauren Yee, Aaron Loeb, Geetha Reddy and Jonathan Spector, among others. This lineage continues this year with the return to live performances at Potrero Stage and simulcast online, May 14 & 15, as part of 26th annual PlayGround’s Festival of New Works (May 19-29). For the complete PlayGround Festival of New Works schedule and lineup, visit https://playground-sf.org/festival.

Lineup & Synopses (alphabetically by playwright): 

Gently Down by Monique Hafen Adams, directed by Norman Gee
A man suddenly finds himself stuck on a rowboat with no escape even though moments before he was standing over his daughter’s crib.

In Search of an Ending by Akaina Ghosh, directed by Tracy Ward
A mystery writer experiencing writer’s block ends up with a bigger twist than she expected.

They Dun It by Alanna McFall, directed by Tessa Corrie
After the mystery is solved, the dinner party continues and the lady of the house has some loose ends (and bodies) to clear up.

Nutcracker Sweets by Jennifer Le Blanc, directed by Jim Kleinmann
The Nutcracker and its fantastical characters serve as the backdrop for this tale of a family outing and self-discovery.

Arpilleras by Justin P. Lopez, directed by Katja Rivera
A Chilean matriarch processes her husband’s disappearance by sewing small handmade pieces of fabric, but her daughter still tries desperately to search for answers.

A Cow Named Bo by Eteya Trinidad, directed by Ely Sonny Orquiza
Under a full moon, a young cow helps a cat who’s lost its fiddle.

About the Playwrights

Monique Hafen Adams (Gently Down), she/her, is an actress who has performed on stages across the Bay Area (ACT, TheatreWorks, SF Playhouse, SJ Stage, SJ Rep, Center REP). As the pandemic threw us all into our own personal chaos, Monique decided to double down in her passion for theatre. Left without a way to experience art in the real world, Monique escaped into her own words. A new mom, Monique would like to give credit to her writing assistant, Ella, now 8 months old. Monique is a graduate of Santa Clara University’s Theatre Department.

Akaina Ghosh (In Search of an Ending), they/them, is a non-binary theater artist. They’ve debuted original works at numerous Bay Area venues including PianoFight, Z-Below, TheatreFIRST, and The Flight Deck. They are a two-time recipient of 3GirlsTheatre’s Innovator’s Series Grant. In 2020, Akaina was a semi-finalist in the National Alliance for Musical Theater’s 15-Minute Musical Challenge with selections from their original folk musical Lilith. They are passionate about reconstructing historically significant narratives through a gender expansive lens and generating new works that center queer voices and perspectives. Follow Akaina’s work at akainaghosh.com.

Jennifer Le Blanc (Nutcracker Sweets), she/her, adapted Jane Austen’s Persuasion which received its world-premiere at San Jose Stage Company and Defoe’s Moll Flanders which received its world-premiere at Pacific Repertory Theatre. She wrote We Made Bread, a one-woman show adapted from interviews, for Perspective Theatre Company (formerly Arabian Shakespeare Festival). Jennifer has contributed short plays to Shotz, Perspective Theatre Company’s New Works Festival, and Our Digital Stories. Jennifer received her BA in English Literature from U.C. Berkeley and her MFA in Acting from the National Theatre Conservatory. She is an associate artist with the Perspective Theatre Company and Livermore Shakespeare Festival.

Justin P. Lopez (Arpilleras), he/him, is an actor, singer, writer, and boba-milk-tea enthusiast, who loves to find true connection and humanity in each script and song. Justin’s work has been presented by several companies, including Custom Made Theatre Company, The Pear Theatre, and Ross Valley Players. His new play, The Re-Education of Fernando Morales, was a finalist for the 2021 Bay Area Playwrights Festival. As an actor, recent credits include the world premieres of Kiss My Aztec! (Berkeley Repertory Theatre) and Unbreakable by Andrew Lippa (SFGMC). Find out what else Justin is up to at www.justinplopez.com

Alanna McFall (They Dun It), she/her, is a novelist and playwright. Her novel, The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus, was published by Atthis Arts. She was a company Resident Playwright for two seasons and has been featured in Best of PlayGround 22 and 23. Alanna was the 2019 recipient of the June Anne Baker Prize.

 

Eteya Trinidad (A Cow Named Bo), she/her, is a playwright, stage manager, and theater artist. Her full-length play, La Sirena, was recognized as a finalist for the 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and received a staged reading at Ross Valley Players. She wrote and directed her first play, La Mestiza’s Colors, with the College Players at the University of San Francisco. Since then, her work has been seen at San Francisco Olympians Festival, Amios West, 3Girls Theatre, and Theatre is the Cure, among others.

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 90 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 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 Best of PlayGround 26, the twenty-sixth annual short play festival featuring the best new work from the past season, live at Potrero Stage and via simulcast for two nights only, May 14 and 15 at 7pm PT. This year’s selections include: In Search of an Ending by Akaina Ghosh, They Dun It by Alanna McFall, Nutcracker Sweets by Jennifer Le Blanc, Arpilleras by Justin P. Lopez, A Cow Named Bo by Eteya Trinidad, and Gently Down by Monique Hafen Adams. Presented as part of the annual PlayGround Festival of New Works.

WHERE: Potrero Stage and simulcast/on-demand online

WHEN: May 14 & May 15 at 7pm PT

TICKETS: Admission is free (donations gratefully accepted) but advance reservations are required. 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 Best of PlayGround 26, call (415) 992-6677 or visit https://playground-sf.org/bestof.