Company in the News July-2021

Julia Brothers will be performing a reading of Lynne Kaufman’s beautiful one woman play, Susan Sontag: The Smartest Woman in America via zoom on Sat eve July 10th and Sunday afternoon July 11th. Directed by Warren David Keith, the tickets are sliding scale $0 to whatever you would like to contribute to The Marsh.

Rachel Bublitz has been commissioned by Stage Partners to write a full length play about the Pack Horse Librarians who delivered books in rural Eastern Kentucky during the Depression, called “The Book Women.” It will premiere next Spring with Play is the Thing. Stage Partners is also publishing a collection of her short holiday plays, “Holly, Jolly, & Extra Folly.” Finally, her play “Burst” is in the Road Theatre Company’s 12th annual Summer Playwrights Festival.

Madeleine Butler’s short play POSSESSED FOR SUCCESS is included in the upcoming PCSF PlayOffs, streaming on Zoom on Sunday July 25 at 4:00 PM. The event is free of charge, although you must register in advance in order to attend (see link below). The play is included in a 5-play anthology featuring the work of PCSF members, running for one hour total. At the end of the performance, viewers will be asked to vote for their two favorite plays, with the winners eligible to be included in a full production later in the year. POSSESSED FOR SUCCESS was originally written for Monday Night PlayGround based on the theme “fearless.” In other news, Madeleine is excited to announce that she has been accepted into the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive, to be held virtually in October.

Alanna McFall will be reading an excerpt from her debut novel, The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus, on July 25th as part of the virtual Authors Read! event hosted by FOGcon, a sci-fi and fantasy convention in the East Bay. Tickets are free for the Sunday, 5pm event; authors Clare Light and Nancy Jane Moore will be the featured artists.

Louis Parnell has been busy with 3 Girls Theater on Zoom. He will direct and perform in Susan Jackson’s SAMARITAN and SWIMMING WITH PUPPIES and will direct NEXT TO THE LAST BOX by Karen Carrona. All 3 plays are part of 3 Girls Theater’s Salon series. You can find out more information on the 3 Girls Theater website.

Madeline Puccioni’s new play, 79 NORTH, will be featured in the July 18th show of the PCSF PLAYOFFS at 4:00 pm., along with several plays by top Bay Area playwrights. Please vote for her 79 NORTH! She’d love to have her 79 NORTH in the Best Short Plays show in November! SYNOPSIS — 79 NORTH: 86 year old TONI wanders out of her group home, Redwood Gardens, and hops the 79 North to 1242 Rose Street in Berkeley, because she wants to go HOME. But where is home, really? And when? REGISTER HERE FOR THE JULY 18th show at 4:00 pm.

Jonathan Spector’s audio drama OWNER OCCUPY is now available as a podcast with Playing On Air.

Tom Swift’s full-length play, A Marriage, originally developed from the Monday Night Playground Series (and a PlayGround Commission), is appearing online as part of TheatreFirst’s Pride Season. Available through September 1st. This play would not be possible without PlayGround.

Lisa Gaye Thompson’s short play, Pebbles on a Shore, is in the Playwright Center of San Francisco’s playoffs on July 25th at 2pm. The play had its start with the Playground prompt “Fearless” last season. The playoff audience will vote for the two plays they like the most in each round with winning plays going on to a full production in November. Lisa would love your support!

Maury Zeff’s monologue “Mariah Has an Imaginary Conversation with Dee Dee Ramone” (based on a character originally created in a PlayGround workshop) was directed this month by Tony Award-winner Karen Olivo in Forward Theater’s “Within These Walls” Festival in Madison, WI. This was the first live performance of his work in a year and a half. Additionally, Maury’s short play “Tybalt and Nutella” (originally written for PlayGround’s “Shakespeare Prequel” prompt) has been long-listed in the British Theatre Challenge.