Company in the News Jul-2025

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

Congratulations to Jonathan Spector on winning the Tony Award for Best Play Revival for his play, Eureka Day at this year’s 2025 Tony Awards. Eureka Day premiered on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre as part of Manhattan Theatre Club’s season last November.

Greg Lam will be spending the next month in the Boston area, his old stomping grounds. And he will be participating in Fresh Ink Theatre’s Mad Dash event, a 24 hour play event where he’ll be paired with another randomly chosen playwright to write a new play utilizing their chosen prompts. The plays will be performed on July 19 at the Lyric Theatre in Boston. https://freshinktheatre.org/mad-dash

Mary E Baird will be seen in an ARC reading of RECIPE by Michael Gene Sullivan Aug 3rd and 4th at the Aurora Theatre and Magic Theatre. Both at 7 p.m.

Nancy Carlin is playing Marilyn in RIPCORD by David Lindsay-Abaire with The Rogue Theatre Company in Ashland, OR directed by Henry Woronicz, July 16-August 2

Emilie Tabot will be directing and performaing in the 2025 ARC Outside The Box Reading Series. She dierects THE THIN PLACE by Lucas Hnath on July at ZBelow, and July 13 at the Aurora. In August she wil be in Michael Gene Sullivan’s RECIPE, August 4 at Aurora, August 5 at The Magic. She is also jumping into RIPCORD by David Lindsay-Abaire at the Rogue Theatre Company in Ashland through August 3.

Alexis Standridge is working with her co-founded theatre group, Shitty Little Theatre, to put on Drag Bingo! Tyme for Bingo will be held at Tyme for Tea in Fremont on July 6th at 3:30 pm. Hosted by drag queens Jennie Kreg and Frankie Le Fae, featuring music by DJ Strappy G. Come enjoy tea service, drag performances, champagne, and prizes for bingo winners! Doors open at 2:30 PM, tickets on sale soon! 37501 Niles Blvd Fremont CA.

Lizzie Calogero playing a Revolutionary, and a Police Chief in Disruption, the SF Mime Troupe’s 2025 summer show, playing for free in parks all around the Bay Area!

Michael Barrett Austin recently participated in the ‘Best of PlayGround’ festival, and will be a part of the workshop of the new Kilbanes/Patricia Cotter musical ‘The Bridge’ at TheatreWorks’ New Works Festival this August.

Norman Gee rejoins SPARC/Livermore Shakespeare (https://sparctheater.org/) this summer in Merry Wives of Windsor. He is Artistic Director of Oakland Public Theater (OPT), Associate Producer with PlayGround-SF, and regularly directs there during the season. Norman also works with companies including A.C.T., SF-Shakes, Lorraine Hansberry, TheatreWorks, Shotgun Players, CentralWorks, Ubuntu, San Jose Stage, and SF Mime Troupe. Last fall Gee produced OPT’s INVENTORY/James Baldwin Abroad, celebrating Baldwin’s centennial. This spring Norman appeared in BUTTERCUP at the Marin Shakespeare Studio, and in a Word For Word workshop at Z Space-SF (for possible Spring 2026 production -stay tuned!)

Karen Offereins will be performing in a staged reading of an updated adaptation of Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” called “Tri Sestry” by Robert Parsons and directed by Lauren English, which is part of the Seeds of Time Festival for Marin Shakespeare (two performances on Saturday, 7/19 at 1pm and Sunday, 7/20 at 6:30pm at the 514 Fourth Street Theatre in San Rafael).

Alanna McFall’s ten-minute play The Most Just, originally written for Monday Night PlayGround, has been published in Exposition Review’s Vol. X: Spring issue. Check out the whole issue to read “The Most Just”, as well as short fiction, poetry, scripts and art from a variety of creators.

Michael Tuton’s full-length play The Return of Honor To American Life is a Semi-Finalist in the Playwright Foundation’s 2026 Bay Area Festival of New Works. His 1-act Boogie Cousins in 1.8 seconds was selected to the 2025 Samuel French/Concord Theatricals OOB Festival. It goes up 7/31. NYC peeps, come through. Tickets available. The Network Effects theater company is starting a monthly creative salon where creatives of every stripe gather to discuss ongoing projects. Join our substack to learn more: nfxtheater.substack.com

Leon Goertzen is a new member of the PlayGround company and is thrilled to continue to be involved! He will be playing Lysander in Inverness Shakespeare Project’s (founded by AEA member Sharron Drake) production of Midsummer Night’s Dream in late August. He is also starting the MFA in Playwriting program at San Francisco State University this fall.

Wayne Wong appears in Pocket Opera’s production of Offenbach’s LA VIE PARISIENNE

Monique Hafen Adams’ play, On Blackwell’s Island, was announced as a Finalist in this year’s 47th annual Playwrights Foundation Festival.

Julia Brothers will be fighting corporations, government bureaucracy, nuclear lies and ghosts of love long gone in Isabella Waldron’s HALF-LIFE in August at HERE Arts in NYC. Produced by Moxie Arts, a fledgling production house devoted to supporting the work of young women: “THE CURE FOR THE COMMON PATRIARCHY on the page, on the stage, and everywhere in between.” I’m very excited about this project!

Rachel Bublitz was thrilled to be interviewed for American Theatre Magazine’s playwright podcast The Subtext by Brian James Polak. Give a listen!

Robyn Brooks is thrilled to share that her full-length play THE GHOST OF GENEVIEVE BAPTISTE has been selected as a semifinalist in the 47th Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF47)

Cass Brayton’s play Lip Service has been selected as one of 37 finalists for the 47th Bay Area Playwrights Festival. The play originated as a 10-minute play in a Monday Night PlayGround collaboration with the Eugene O’Neill Foundation and was developed into a full-length in the PlayGround Resident Playwrights program.

Jacinta Kaumbulu will be making her debut with Oakland Theater Project in Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry in the role of Madame Neilson directed by James Mercier III. July 13 – 27 2025 For Tickets and more information go to https://oaklandtheaterproject.org/blancs

Matthew Y. Morishige was named a finalist for Playwrights Foundations BAPF47 festival for his original play Work/Shoot.