Company in the News June 2023
See what PlayGround-SF Writers, Company Members and Alumni are up to this June!
Alexis Standridge’s play, “Ball Biddies” will be performing as part of the LezWritesBTQ program with 3GirlsTheatre. Play synopsis: “The Ball Biddies are ready to play ball and break hearts. This boisterous group of older gay women play a mean game of softball as they laugh, fight, and fall in love. Meanwhile, a young lesbian observes from the dugout, desperate to feel a part of a community she feels so distant from.” Performed as a staged reading, there will be a talk-back after the performance. Time and Location: June 13th, 7:00 PM, Phoenix Theatre, 414 Mason St., San Francisco, CA 94102. LezWritesBTQ will have other performances by amazing playwrights throughout June. Free tickets available here.
You can catch April Ballesteros in Yerma as Concepcion and Assistant Stage Manager at Shotgun Players! Yerma explores the ways in which one’s greatest desire can become an all-consuming passion. Tickets available here.
Kaz Valtchev will be having his short play “Mom and Pop” performed in Left Coast Theater Company’s free reading, “Closets are for Clothes” at the Strut on June 26th at 7:30. Come celebrate Pride by supporting local queer theater! Tickets available here.
Norman Gee delightedly returns to Livermore this summer, in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING with Sparc’s Shakespeare in the Vineyard. He just finished the France tour of Word for Word’s production of HOME by George Saunders. Founder of Oakland Public Theater, a PlayGround Incubator company, Norman creates a ‘different kind of Black Theater,” expanding cultural notions to encompass often invisible roles of African-Americans. Look for The www.baldwincentennialproject.com, coming soon!
Nancy Carlin is playing Ouiser in Steel Magnolias at TheatreWorks in Mountain View. Tickets available here.
Maury Zeff‘s full-length play MERCHANT OF STRATFORD, which explores the theory that Shakespeare may have been a criminal as well as a playwright, was selected for Renaissance Theatre’s Emerging Artist program in Mansfield, OH. More info available here.
Emilie Talbot will be part of the ARC Outside of the Box Reading of PIPELINE by Dominique Morisseau on June 19 at Marin Shakespeare. Tickets available here. She will also be appearing alongside Elena Wright in SILENT SKY directed by Jennifer LeBlanc at SPARC Shakespeare-the-Vineyard, June 22-July 9. Tickets available here.
Cathleen Riddley is featured as The Cowardly Lion in ACT’s production of The Wizard of Oz. Tickets available here.
Ben Chau-Chiu is a new company member and will performing in She Loves Me at 42nd Street Moon! Based on the same play that inspired You’ve Got Mail, this musical adaptation is full of love, beautiful music, and is bound to be a great evening. It runs from June 8-25 at the Gateway Theatre in SF. Tickets available here.
Jonathan Spector‘s THIS MUCH I KNOW will have its UK premiere at London’s Hampstead Theater in December and EUREKA DAY will have its German-language premiere at Austria’s National Theater (Burgtheater) in Vienna, opening in September and running in rep for 10 months.
Kimberly Ridgeway has four exciting upcoming projects! She is performing in The Dignity Circle, Central Works Theatre (Berkeley, CA), June 24 – July 23, 2023, https://centralworks.org/the-dignity-circle/ and is directing The Birds at Altarena Playhouse (Alameda, CA), August 11 – September 10, 2023, https://www.altarena.org/2023-season-announcement/the-birds. Kimberly is also directing Misery at Palo Alto Players (Palo Alto, CA), January 19 – February 4, 2024, https://paplayers.org/event/misery/ and Unpacking In P’Town at New Conservatory Theatre Center (San Francisco, CA), March 1 – 31, 2024, https://nctcsf.org/event/unpacking-in-ptown/
Cherielyn Ferguson‘s 10-minute play Everything’s Under Control was selected as the April winner of Kumu Kahua Theatre’s monthly Go Try Playwrite Contest, which called for short plays about mansplaining. Information available here.
Barbara Anderson‘s short play “Sorry” will be presented by Pegasus this fall. Barbara was accepted into the Sewanee Writers conference in July.
Michael Barrett Austin is playing Daniel Cavanaugh in ‘Chinglish’ at SF Playhouse through June 10. Tickets available here.
Louis Parnell is Associate Director on the San Francisco Playhouse’s production of A CHORUS LINE opening June 28 & closing on Sept 9. There are low-priced previews June 21-June27. Tickets and info can be found here.
Michael Waterson‘s one act about women’s suffrage titled “In the Cards” is among several plays to be given a staged reading in Napa this month by the Valley Players. Tickets available here. Also in June, his one act “Ever After” is being staged by Cannon Theater in Devens, Massachusetts. Lastly, at the Playwright’s Slam last Friday, Mike read an excerpt from his Hamlet prequel “The Fool of Elsinore.” On Monday he was notified the play will be workshopped and staged at the Wisconsin Shakespeare Festival next month.
Kristy Lin Billuni will facilitate Left Coast Theatre Company’s FREE Playwriting Workshop, 6/4-8/20. LCTC’s mission is to develop and produce new LGBTQ+ works, and one of the best ways to do that is to provide a place where playwrights and playwrights-to-be can have pages read, exchange constructive feedback, and learn different methodologies of feedback.
Robert Sicular, fresh from the PlayGround Festival of New Works, is off to play Sir Toby Belch in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” at Island Stage Left on San Juan Island in Washington. Rehearsals begin June 20th with performances July 20 through August 20th. Come on up! Tickets available here.
Jennifer Le Blanc is directing Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson at SPARC Theater. Performs Outdoors June 23-July 9 at Darcie Kent Vineyards in Livermore. Tickets available here.