Company in the News December 2023

See what PlayGround Writers, Company Members and Alumni are up to this December!

Ben Chau-Chiu is assistant directing A.C.T.’s A Christmas Carol! It’s the last year to see this version of the show. Come see fellow company members Brian Herndon, Khalia Davis, Cindy Goldfield, Howard Swain, and Jomar Tagatac onstage, with Rebecca Ennals in the booth as SM and Carla Pantoja’s fight choreography! Performances start Dec 6. Tickets available here.

Kimberly Ridgeway is the recipient of Theatre Bay Area’s Arts Leadership Residency. She will be residency at Central Works Theatre (Berkeley, CA) for their 23/24 season.

Kristy Lin Billuni‘s short plays, “Auntie Vanna’s Vanity” and “Maybe, Baby” will appear in Left Coast Theatre Company’s “Found Family,” a staged reading anthology celebrating the special people we choose to hold close. Tuesday, 12/5, 730pm at STRUT in the Castro. FREE, but you must register here.

Joel Willison is Director for a New work in a 10-minute Play Festival for The Runaways Lab. People/places/things get milked?!? December 7-10th. Tickets available here.

Robert Sicular is happy to be participating in PlayGround’s own “A Very Hitchcock Christmas” Performing at the Potrero Stage and in simulcast, 12/9, 10, 16, and 17, all shows at 7:00 PM. Happy Holidayze! Tickets available here.

Lina Patel‘s short play “Karma” developed at PlayGround is part of The Echo’s “Alternate Endings” short play festival. More information available here.

Anthony Rutowicz is in the wildly absurd feature film, Hanky Panky, which will be having its world premiere on December 9 at the LA Comedy Film Festival. More information here.

Betsy Rosen is the Puppetry Director for a brand new adaptation of A Christmas Carol at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, now running through Dec 30th. Tickets available here.

Hey friends, Amy Lizardo here, currently in a train traveling from NYC to Cambridge, MA where I am working in the musical Real Women Have Curves, opening at ART in December and slated to move to Broadway (cross all the fingers I will continue to be involved) hope everyone is well!!!

Mildred Inez Lewis was featured in American Theatre’s Role Call of Los Angeles-based theater makers. Check it out here.

Jonathan Spector’s BATCC and Glickman Award-winning play, THIS MUCH I KNOW will have its European premiere at The Hampstead Theater in London, Dec 13-Jan 27. More information here.

Jully Lee will be working on the workshop of Ayad Akhtar’s new play MCNEAL at the La Jolla Playhouse as part of the Playhouse’s new play development initiative, the DNA New Work Series. Reading presentations will be on December 7 and 9. Tickets are free and reservations are required.

December 8th through 10th at Brickhouse Theatre in North Hollywood… Force of Nature Productions will present Evan Baughfman‘s new play, PIGS OUT OF WATER, as part of “RUSH Around the World: A Holiday Adventure”! Eight short plays inspired by lesser-known holiday celebrations/traditions from around the globe! The premise for PIGS OUT OF WATER: “On a winter trip to the Caribbean, two pigs meet a very friendly(?) wolf.” Tickets for the show are now available here.

Cherielyn Ferguson‘s short play, Carolers, is being produced as part of Quannapowitt Players Suburban Holidays 12. The production will run the weekends of December 2 and 9 in Reading, MA. Carolers explores how we might respond to strolling carolers who . . . just aren’t very good. Find out more here.

Rachael Richman plays Janelle in the short film Janelle’s Baby, which has been showing in festivals all over the world, including Telluride, Los Angeles, Miami, London, Montreal, Australia, and others. It won for best international short in Chile’s Santiago Horror Film Festival. It will be playing in New York City on Dec 10th at 5:30 at the NYC Horror Film Festival. Information available here.

Jediah Craig‘s minute play “Apart of Us” was published in riverSedge: A Journal of Art and Literature. Learn more here.

Greg Lam‘s short play “The Santa Thing” will be one of the plays presented in Le Chat Noir’s (Augusta, GA) event THE ELF’N MIRACLE ON 8TH STREET SLEIGH HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND HOLIDAY SPECIAL PLAY FESTIVAL on December 14-16. Tickets available here. Greg will be participating as one of the writers in Synergy Theatre’s (Walnut Creek, CA) event called Write Away! on December 18 at 4:30pm PST, wherein the writers will be challenged to write a new short play during a live call. (So like Playground SF but even more masochistic?) More information can be found here.

Michael Barrett Austin will be returning to the role of Scrooge’s nephew Fred in Center Rep’s annual production of ‘A Christmas Carol‘ at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek this December.

The War Letters, by Charlotte Purser, a theatrical production inspired by the real collection of over a thousand love letters exchanged by the author’s grandparents during World War II, delves into the depths of love, memory and resilience. The War Letters will perform at WP Theater in NYC 15-21 December. Directed by Ana Margineanu (Pop-Up Theatrics) with performances by Charlotte Purser and Jens Rasmussen (American Dreams), “The War Letters” weaves together two profound narratives — first and foremost, the touching love story between Purser’s grandparents, offering a glimpse into a time when the handwritten letter was a lifeline that transcended distance and danger. And also the heart-wrenching journey of Purser’s grandmother as she grapples with late-stage Alzheimer’s disease. The play offers a sensitive portrayal of her experiences, immersing the audience in the fractured landscape of her memories where reality and illusion intermingle, blurring the lines between past and present. Tickets available here.

Jennifer King is directing the world premiere of Holiday Happenings (working title) at Napa Valley College. She is also producing Es Una Vida Maravillosa, a new play by Aisha Rivera for Shakespeare Napa Valley. Both works open Dec 1.