Company in the News October 2023

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

April Ballesteros is serving as the lead Stage Manager for Golden Thread Production’s ReOrient Festival opening October 16th at Potrero Stage! Tickets to the ReOrient Festival available here. April is also appearing in (trans)formada this month at Shotgun Players as part of their Champagne Reading Series.

Rudy Guerrero is appearing in CITIZEN by Greg Sarris, presented by Word for Word at Z Below, from October 18 to November 12. 

Eteya Trinidad’s play the Lizard Women is now running at the Phoenix Theatre in San Francisco through October 14. Produced with Awesome Theatre and directed by Nikki Meñez, Lizard Women is an outrageous queer love story that’s equal parts raunchy rom-com, high femme revenge fantasy, and B-grade creature feature. Tickets on sale now at awesometheatre.org. Don’t miss out on this campy good time!

Mary Baird has an up and coming Actor’s Reading Collective (ARC) reading of Cross My Heart by Lawrence Nelson and Lovers by Brian Friel. Learn more about ARC here.

Michael Waterson is off to the Midwest Dramatist Conference in Olathe, Kansas October 5-7. Learn more about the conference here.

Lana Richards is in residence this month at the Lucas Arts Residency Program at Montalvo Arts Center, working on the creative team of We Players’ production of Adventures with Alice. Lewis Carroll’s classic tales leap to life as the audience follows Alice through the gardens and grounds of Montalvo Arts Center. September 28-October 8. Tickets available here.

Danielle Levin will be appearing in My Name is Asher Lev at The 222 Gallery in Healdsburg from October 14 – October 22, produced by fellow company member Aldo Billingslea. Tickets available here.

Aldo Billingslea is also playing the husband of Agatha Christie at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto in “Mrs. Christie”. Tickets available here.

Hector Zavala is the new Interim Production Manager at Stanford’s Department of Theatre and Performance Studies.

Kristy Lin Billuni has co-edited the “We Teach Sex (To Everyone!)” issue of Sinister Wisdom, the original intersectional lesbian literary & arts journal. This collection of poetry, essay, play, and fiction will drop 10/15, with an online celebration 10/17 and a local reading at the San Francisco Main Library 11/9. More info plus a link to order the latest issue of Sinister Wisdom here.

Michael Barrett Austin will be appearing as Fred in ‘A Christmas Carol’ at Center Rep this December. Check out tickets here.

Krystle Piamonte voices Grace Han and other lively characters in THE FOREVER WAVE by Nicole Gluckstern. Inspired by Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, this futuristic radio play will be featured at Melbourne Fringe (#MelbFringe) from October 3-22. More info here.

Cindy Goldfield is playing the title role in MAME at 42nd Street Moon November 2-19 (tickets here), then goes straight into her 18th season of A CHRISTMAS CAROL at ACT, followed by FALSETTOS back at Moon in the beginning of the new year.

Kimberly Ridgeway is directing Misery at Palo Alto Players; opening January 20, 2024. Additional information here.

Mikee Loria is appearing in WOLF PLAY this September-October at Shotgun Players. Tickets here!

Cherielyn Ferguson‘s 10-minute play Lit Crit is part of the Tapas Festival which begins on September 15 and runs on weekends through October 8 at Pegasus Theater of Sonoma. 

Michael Tuton is appearing in The Engine of our Disruption premiering at Central Works this fall. In November Network Effects will be presenting a staged reading of his full-length play Dawn’s Early Light, set in the Global Climate Model Project, where a breakthrough forces the question: What moral obligation are scientists under to publish their findings?

Rachel Bublitz‘s play FUNNY, LIKE AN ABORTION, originally developed at PlayGround, is getting a World Premiere at Mile Square Theatre in Hoboken, New Jersey, and a Regional Premiere at Cleveland Public Theatre in this coming 2023/24 season. She also has two plays being published; THE SUMMER I HOWLED will be available with YouthPLAYS and BLOOD & SEQUINS will be available with Brooklyn Publishers. More information 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.

Tracy Ward will be directing Larissa Fasthorse’s Thanksgiving Play at Whitman College in Sept/Oct.

Rebecca Ennals is keeping busy this Fall with a brand-new gig as the Lecturer in Stage Management for UC Berkeley, while also continuing to work as the Community Connections Liaison for A.C.T. She’s also looking forward to stage managing A Christmas Carol in its final year of this version at A.C.T.

Molly Noble is also directing “A Doll’s House” at the College of Marin this fall. Take a look at Molly’s website for more info.