Company in the News June-2024

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

Jeunée Simon has the pleasure of performing in a new play by Naomi Iizuka, Garuda’s Wing, a mesmerizing blend of personal intimacy and international intrigue! Garuda’s Wing is a magical experience, a spellbinding trance that begins in Borneo and takes us back and forward in time. Hold on and follow the ghosts as we traverse a riveting tale of search, discovery, and even murder, both at an intimate, familial level and on a grand, global colonial scale. Featuring an all star cast: Juan Amador, Catherine Castellanos, Nora el Samahy, Kina Kantor, Jeuneé Simon & Mia Tagano. Collaborative design team: Monique Crawford, Camryn Daniels, Maria Frangos, David Gardner, AeJay Marquis Mitchell, Ashley Mendez, Lauren Quan, Joan Osato, Christopher Sauceda, gg Torres, Kyo Yohena; Lead Producer Craig Moody. Tickets available here. The play runs June 05 – June 23, Wednesdays – Saturdays 8PM, Sundays at 4PM. Feel free to message Jeunée to see if any codes are still available.

Miyoko Sakatani will be performing alongside fellow PlayGrounders Sakura Nakahara and Zoe Chien in 3Girls Theatre Company’s reading series in Cathy Midori Stonie’s excellent play “In the Shadow of Mt. Fuji” on Sunday, June 9th. 3GT’s mission is to develop, promote and present new plays by women+ playwrights. Tickets available here.

Ben Chau-Chiu is performing in Yellow Face for Shotgun Players’ Champagne Staged Reading Series! Louel Señores is also stage managing for us! Similar to our Best of Festival and Monday Nights, we’ll be on book with staging, lighting, and costumes. Tickets are only $15 and include a glass of champagne, or non-alcoholic beverage!

Bridgette Dutta Portman‘s full-length play AGELESS is now available for preorder from Original Works Publishing. This speculative drama follows Marin, who refuses to take the anti-aging pill celebrated by the rest of society. As Marin’s choice begins to affect not only her but the people she loves, will she find the strength to hold out, or succumb to social pressure? Preorder here.

A play Greg Lam started writing over 20 years ago is being produced this month by Pear Theatre in Mountain View. Chaplin & Keaton on the Set of Limelight runs from June 28-July 21, imagining the only collaboration between the two most iconic silent film comedians long after the close of the silent era. The play explores the tension between the desire to entertain and the need to fight for a greater world in politically dangerous times. What responsibilities does an artist have beyond bringing a smile to the face of an audience? Greg would love to invite anyone in the Playground SF family to see the play, which despite being written years ago seems more relevant than ever. Tickets available here. If you are planning to go, please contact greg.lam.writing@gmail.com, as Greg should be able to share a discount code to anyone who wants one.

Cherielyn Ferguson‘s short work, titled Fair Play, is one of the seven plays selected for full production at Fusion Theatre Company’s short works festival called “The Seven.” Fair Play was written in response to PG-SF’s January topic asking writers to explore the Shakespeare multiverse. It’s happening in Albuquerque June 6-9. Learn more here.

Robyn Brooks is thrilled to have her full-length play “The Ghost of Genevieve Baptiste” receive a staged reading in the CIMIENTOS ’24 Festival at IATI Theater, NYC. CIMIENTOS ’24 will take place June 5 – June 9. The Ghost of Genevieve Baptiste will be performed on June 6, 2024. Tickets available here.

Zoe Chien is excited to announce she is now managed by Deirdre McCarthy of WSM Talent and represented on the East Coast by Swain-Thomas Agency. For more, click here.

Stan Stone‘s poetry, “Common Practice,” and brief memoir, “Crying Together,” are included in the newly published book, “THRIVING, An Anthology,” by Rhonda Rosenheck. The works of art between these covers comprise fiction, poetry, photographs, illustration, memoir, and creative non-fiction. They offer variably simple, complex, joyful, painful, imaginative, challenging, comforting glimpses of what it means, and what it takes to thrive. The book is available here.

River Bermudez Sanders will be appearing in the ensemble of San Francisco Playhouse’s Evita! Previews begin June 27th. Tickets available here.

 J. Lynn Jackson‘s Lucía Fuentes has 4 staged readings June 14-22 at Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette. Katja Rivera directs the cast of Bay Area favorites, including PlayGround company member April Ballesteros. Theatre Bay Area just named the production a “Homegrown Achievement – driving the future of theatre forward.” Lucía Fuentes was a semi-finalist for the 2024 Bay Area Playwrights Festival. J. Lynn Jackson is an Innovator Incubator alum and Miyoko Sakatani‘s Playland Productions produced Lucía Fuentes as part of PlayGrounds inaugural Free-Play Festival. Tickets available here.

After a couple of years of development and stage readings, the Baldwin Centennial Project will finally premiere on August 2nd at the Potrero Stage in San Francisco. Norman Gee is thrilled to be producing & directing this new work, bringing to life onstage the words of African-American author & social critic James Baldwin. The play will perform in SF for the first week of August, then move to the BAM House in downtown Oakland for the last two weeks. You can find more info on our Baldwin Sightings Facebook page, and @baldwincentennialproject on on Instagram. Tickets available here.

Hector Zavala is currently in Artist Residency in Canary Island at Casa de la Colon collaborating with Gloria Godinez in a Dance Performance piece named “El Millo de las Mujeres.” A piece based on the migration of corn from Mexico to the Spanish islands. Hector Zavala was recently highlighted in the podcast “Repurpose your Purpose.” Listen here.

Steve Koppman‘s short play The Pessimists’ Club has been short-listed for short-play festival Short & Sweet Essex (in UK). It was short-listed for Short & Sweet Hollywood as well several weeks ago though apparently not chosen for that festival.

Ross Peter Nelson‘s one-act “Master of the Revels” has been selected for performance in the Spokane Playwrights’ Festival, June 13-16, 2024. Tickets available here.

Elena Wright will be in The Book Club Play at RossValley Players in May/ June and in Twelfth Night at SPARC in July/August.

Kimberly Ridgeway is playing the titular role in Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s at City Light Theatre Company (San Jose, CA), directed by Aldo Bllingslea. The show runs May 16-June 9.