Company in the News Feb-2024

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

River Bermudez Sanders and Melanie Marshall are performing, Lana Richards is directing a piece she adapted & wrote, and Claire Ganem is directing a play by Eteya Trinidad in Cutting Ball Theatre’s Short Cuts Festival. The Short Cuts director series features 6 directors working with one repertory cast and set pieces, creatively stringing together their distinct styles through a series of short play experiences that challenge the theatrical form. Featuring many PlayGrounders including PlayGrounders Lana Richards, Justin Lopez, Claire Ganem, L. Duarte, Tessa Corrie, and Chris Steele. The festival runs February 1-18. Learn more here.

Norman Gee’s past year has taken him from performing in Meet John Doe at the San Jose Stage, to a Word For Word production of HOME which toured France, to Much Ado About Nothing in Livermore with SPARC. He was delighted to close out the year with the PlayGround Holiday show before starting this year understudying BIG DATA at A.C.T. Norman will round out 2024 directing a new work in August to celebrate the James Baldwin Centennial, more info here.

Jonathan Spector’s THIS MUCH I KNOW runs Jan 31 – Feb 25 at Theater J in Washington DC. Its London run at Hampstead was extended to Feb 8, so he will briefly have three productions running simultaneously in three countries (the German-language premiere of Eureka Day runs in rep at Burgtheater in Vienna until May). Find out about the show here.

Greg Lam’s full-length play LAST SHIP TO PROXIMA CENTAURI will have a reading at Full Circle Theatre Company in St. Paul, MN on February 4. His reality TV satire short play cycle TREACHERY ISLAND will be read at The Depot, in Hampton, CT on February 25.

Karen Offereins will be performing in SPARC Theater’s staged reading of a three-person retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Performances will be on Wed Feb. 14 at 7:30 pm and on Sat Feb. 17 at 2 pm and 7:30 pm. All performances are at SPARC Studio (2172 Railroad Avenue in Livermore). PlayGround company member Molly Noble will be directing.

A monologue from FREE CONNECTION, a short play by Steve Koppman that premiered last year at the Tapas Festival produced by Guerneville’s Pegasus Theatre, has been published in The Best Men’s Stage Monologues 2023 from Smith & Kraus.

Lisa Morse opens in OUR TOWN this weekend playing the iconic role of The Stage Manager with Ross Valley Players. The show runs Thur-Sun Jan 25th-Feb 25th. Get tickets here.

Nancy Carlin and Howard Swain will be reprising the Valentine’s Day performance of LOVE LETTERS by A R Gurney at The Lark in Larkspur on February 14th @ 7 and 17th @ 2 pm.

Katie Rubin’s new company, Sixth Line Studios, is opening our first production on March 2nd at The Front Row Theater in San Ramon. We’re producing Peter Nachtrieb’s THE TOALITARIANS. Use this PROMO CODE for Theater Friends for your discounted tix at sixthlinestudios.com: Pennysworld. See you March 2-25.

Robyn Brooks is so excited to be one of ten playwrights selected as a CIMIENTOS 2024 PLAYWRIGHT. Her full-length play, THE GHOST OF GENEVIEVE BAPTISTE, has been selected to be developed and to receive a curated staged reading by Cimientos Play Development Program, through Instituto Arte Teatral Internacional (IATI) Theater, New York, NY.

Katja Rivera just finished assistant directing “As You Like It” for SF Shakespeare’’s Shakespeare On Tour.