PlayGround presents Season 27

MONDAY NIGHT PLAYGROUND

Topic: “FEARLESS“

March 15, 2020 7pm PT

via Zoom Live Stream

For What Fears the Taster
by Christopher Robin Magee
Directed by Jim Kleinmann
Empress………………………………………….………………Karen Offereins
Taster………………….………………………………………….……Ezra Reaves

Give Me The Sky
By Anne Yumi Kobori
Directed by Claire Ganem
Billie Frechette…………………….……………………………Shannon Davis
Johnnie Dillinger………………….…………………………Joseph O’Malley
Melvin Purvis…………………………………………………………Chris Steele

1913
by Madeline Puccioni
Directed by Lana Richards
Mary Ovington….…………………………………………………….Stacy Ross
Ida B. Wells………………………………..……….Leontyne Mbele-Mbong
Lucy Burns…………………………………………………………Elena Wright
Alice Paul………………………………………………………………Lyndsy Kail

Candy’s House!
by Samuel Kelly Fair Levit
Directed by Tessa Corrie
Candice…………………………………….………..…………………Monica Ho
Bedrick…………………………………..……..…….Michael Barrett Austin
Smarty………………………………………..………………….……….Isabel To
Front Door……………….………………..………………………Liam Vincent

The Talk Back
by Linda Amayo-Hassan
Directed by Norman Gee
Director………………………………………………………..Rinabeth Apostol
Monica………………………………………………………………..Melissa Ortiz
Janice………………….………..………..…………….………..Annette Oliveira

and the moon, she saw
by Eteya Trinidad
Directed by Katja Rivera
Me…………………………………………………….……………….Alicia Mason
You…………………………………………………..………………..Amy Lizardo
Lion…………..………………………………..………………..……..Chris Steele

Stage Manager: Sarah Gasser

This live stream is produced under a SAG-AFTRA New Media Agreement.

PlayGround is a member of Theatre Bay Area and Theatre Communications Group,
and an Associate Member of the National New Play Network (NNPN).

BIOGRAPHIES

PLAYWRIGHTS

LINDA AMAYO-HASSAN (The Talk Back), she/her/hers, is the Artistic Director of Theatre Cultura and a theatre professor at Chabot College. Linda’s play, La Vida Lobo was part of Best of PlayGround 23 and ¡CHEER! STORY OF A DREAMER and CORAZÓN OF A LATINA were featured in PG’s Incubator showcase. Linda has an MFA from UMKC.

ANNE YUMI KOBORI (Give Me The Sky), she/her/hers, is a Japanese-American theatre artist. She is excited for her third piece in Monday Night PlayGround, after The Art of Suffrage and Coward’s Flame. Her full-length plays Seeds and Every Day Alice, and her adaptation of The Seagull, have premiered with Utopia Theatre Project. The Scourge of Verona, her comedic short, won the Audience Favorite Award in Silicon Valley Shakespeare’s 48Hr Playfest. Currently, she is a co-writer for Braided, in development with Theatre of Yugen. See her work next in Fresh Baked Pears One-Act Festival with the Pear Theatre. www.anneyumikobori.com

SAMUEL KELLY FAIR LEVIT (Candy’s House!), he/him, is a Bay Area playwright. His work has been seen and developed at Magic Theatre and PianoFight in San Francisco, and Bennington College in Vermont. A former student of Sarah Hammond, Sherry Kramer, and Jackie Sibblies Drury, Samuel’s writing explores masculinity, the closet, and forgiveness and healing. He was a finalist for the Southeastern Theatre Conference’s 2019 “Ready to Publish” award.

CHRISTOPHER ROBIN MAGEE (For What Fears the Taster), he/him, is thrilled to be writing for us here at PlayGround and no longer a human battery to power our computers for Zoom. His legs are finally healing, we’ve allowed him a chair, and he swears the water in his drip dispenser tastes better. Best of all we are nearly certain he’s abandoned any attempt at leaving detailed instructions for his rescue encrypted within his script. So really, there’s no point trying to decode it and figure out his location. We are serious.

MADELINE PUCCIONI (1913), she/her/hers, is a “re-entry” playwright, 76 years old, and she aims to get the work done before she goes home. Her first full-length was produced in 1980 at The Magic. Since retiring from Los Medanos College, she’s had 40 plus productions of her short plays. PLAYLAND FOREVER won a spot in the Inge Fest 2018. She’s grateful to be a member of Towne Street Theatre, L.A.’s premiere African American theatre, and PlayGround SF, both of which have nurtured her and her work for the past eight years. She’s working on three full-length plays: TIME AFTER TIME AGAIN, FINDING MEDUSA (a musical), and MONTICELLO 2020. 1913 will be a scene in M 2020, a play about Thomas Jefferson, his family, and his legacy. She lives in beautiful Oakland with her husband Monroe, and their insane Rat Terrier, KiKi. She’s having way too much fun.

ETEYA TRINIDAD (and the moon, she saw), she/her/hers, is a playwright, stage manager, and theater artist. Her full-length play, La Sirena, was recognized as a finalist for the 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and received a staged reading at Ross Valley Players. She wrote and directed her first play, La Mestiza’s Colors, with the College Players at the University of San Francisco. Since then, her work has been seen at San Francisco Olympians Festival, Amios West, 3Girls Theatre, and Theatre is the Cure, among others. Her work can be seen next on March 24 for Shotz Plus, featuring her short play The Lizard Women: Brunch Edition.

ACTORS

RINABETH APOSTOL, (The Talk Back, “Director”), she/her/siya, is a member of the PlayGround Company.

MICHAEL BARRETT AUSTIN (Candy’s House!, “Bedrick”), him/his, in addition to being a member of (and frequent performer with) local companies Just Theater and PlayGround, has worked with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks, SF Playhouse, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Center Repertory Theatre, San Jose Stage, 42nd Street Moon, Central Works, TheatreFIRST, and many others. Michael has also starred in several independent films, appeared on television series and been featured in many commercials and industrials. He is married to a fantastic woman named Emily and is the father of a clever daughter named Lucille. www.michaelbarrettaustin.com

SHANNON DAVIS (Give Me The Sky, “Billie Frechette”), she/hers, originally from Wisconsin, is a San Francisco Bay Area-based Director/Artivist/Actor. MFA in Directing & Acting from UW-Madison. She has worked with the following companies: New Native Theatre Company, American Conservatory Theatre, American Indian Community House, The American Repertory Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Theatre of Yugen, Berkeley Rep, Brava Theater, The Ashland New Play Festival, Forward Theatre, Shotgun Players, CalShakes, TheaterWorks, Theatre Bay Area, Children’s Theatre of Madison, Playwrights Foundation, San Anselmo Playhouse, BACT, Vortex Rep, others. www.shannonrdavis.com

MONICA HO (Candy’s House!, “Candice”), she/her/hers, is currently sheltering-in-place in Oakland, CA. She is a recent graduate of the American Conservatory Theatre MFA program, class of 2020. Regional credits include Top Girls (American Conservatory Theater); The Good Person of Szechuan (California Shakespeare Theater); Noises Off (SF Playhouse); The Taming (Marin Shakespeare Company); Crane (Ferocious Lotus Theater Company); Shiner (FaultLine Theater). Monica is the winner of the 2016 San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle Award for Best Actress for her work in In Love and Warcraft (Custom Made Theater). In October 2020 she just finished producing, directing, and performing a one-woman play about legendary silver-screen actress Anna May Wong [China Doll, by Elizabeth Wong]. @1monicaho

LYNDSY KAIL(1913, “Alice Paul”) is a member of the PlayGround Company.

AMY LIZARDO, (and the moon, she saw, “You”), she/her/hers, is an actor, singer and teaching artist formerly based in the Bay Area. Amy is currently an actor with The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, before joining OSF Amy was seen in numerous productions around the bay, working with California Shakespeare Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Theatreworks and many more!

ALICIA MASON, (and the moon, she saw, “Me”), she, is a Bay Area actor, daughter, partner and diligent cat mom. She was raised by parents who served in the military and a mother who was a clinical psychologist, who taught her the value of understanding all that encompasses the human experience. Her goal and mission as an actor is to tell stories that move and transform the audience and highlight the communities of color she grew up in.

LEONTYNE MBELE-MBONG (1913, “Ida B. Wells”), she/her/hers, is delighted to return to PlayGround. 2020 shows: Half-Life of Marie Curie with TheatreSquared in Arkansas and King Lear live streamed with SF Shakes. Other favorites: Bull in a China Shop, Temple, and Breakfast with Mugabe with the Aurora; title role in Medea (TBA Award), Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra (TBA Award Finalist), and Lady M in Macbeth with African-American Shakespeare Company; Watch on the Rhine with Guthrie/Berkeley Rep, Top Girls with Shotgun Players, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Fences; Andromache, Candide, Richard III (3 times), Twelfth Night, and Intimate Apparel (Mayme; ARTY Award, best supporting actress). www.leontynembele-mbong.com

KAREN OFFEREINS (For What Fears the Taster, “Empress” ), she/her/hers, was last seen on stage in Custom Made Theatre’s How to Transcend a Happy Marriage, having previously performed there in The Pain and the Itch and M. Butterfly. Recent credits include Elevada at Shotgun Players (as well as The Mousetrap, Top Girls, and Our Town), Two Mile Hollow (Ferocious Lotus), Phèdre (Cutting Ball Theater), The Potrero Nuevo Project (PlayGround), The Rules (SF Playhouse), and Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Big Funk, and No Exit (AtmosTheatre). She can next be seen in Custom Made Theatre’s Zoom staged reading of The Re-Education of Fernando Morales on April 2nd.

ANNETTE OLIVEIRA, (The Talk Back, “Janice”), she/her, had theatre roles which include quite a few women of a certain age these days…some wise, some fierce, some losing marbles, many Latina. She performed at Marin’s redwood-ringed Curtain Theatre in Henry IV, Part 1 and in the Merry Wives of Windsor. She narrates fiction and non-fiction audiobooks for Princeton’s Learning Ally — often bilingually. She was honored to play in Hector Zavala’s “40, Latino, Single and Gay” web series. Annette has acted via Zoom for Altarena, Central Works and Contra Costa Civic theatres, for fruitlessmoon theatreworks and, of course, for PlayGround.

JOSEPH O’MALLEY (Give Me The Sky, “Johnnie Dillinger”), he/him, is a proud member of Bay Area Playground. He has also appeared on stage locally at Aurora Theatre Co., Marin Theatre Co., Cal Shakes, Shotgun Players, Marin Shakespeare Co. and the Magic Theatre.

MELISSA ORTIZ (The Talk Back, ”Monica”), she/her, is a Playground Ambassador and Company Member who couldn’t be more excited to be part of this loving and wonderful community.

EZRA REAVES (For What Fears the Taster, “Taster”), they/them, is a non-binary actor, performer, comedian, singer and experimental theater artist. They’ve tour nationally and internationally with The Neo-Futurists, performed over 150 shows as the lead character in the immersive show The Speakeasy and have performed locally at Magic, Shotgun, NCTC, ACT, and SF Playhouse. As a comedian, Ezra has opened for Janeane Garofalo, Bob Odenkirk, John Hodgman, Paul F. Tompkins and even shared the stage with Michael Ian Black at SF Sketchfest. Next up, Ezra will be writing and directing The Program with the SF Neo-Futurists! www.ezrareaves.com

STACY ROSS (1913, “Mary Ovington”), she/her, is a member of the PlayGround Company. She will be performing in They Promised Her the Moon at TheatreWorks (March 7–29) and in Clean House at San Francisco Playhouse (May 5–June 20).

CHRIS STEELE (Give Me The Sky, “Melvin Purvis” and and the moon, she saw, “Lion”), they/them, is a queer trans nonbinary performance artist, writer, and activist. Their work centers on highlighting queer narratives throughout history and combating bigotry and white supremacy. As an actor, they have performed with companies across the Bay including We Players, NCTC, Cutting Ball, SF Shakespeare Festival, and the SF Playwrights Festival. As a writer they premiered adaptations of Miss Julie and Troilus and Cressida with their queer collective: Poltergeist Theatre Project. Chris is a co-founder of Poltergeist Theatre Project: a new queer theater collective, on instagram @poltergeist_theatre_project, and their award-winning drag personas Polly Amber Ross and Peter Pansexual can be found on instagram @pollyandpeter, where they’ve been creating politically subversive video performance art throughout the Covid pandemic.

ISABEL TO (Candy’s House!, “Smarty”), she/her/hers, is a San Jose-based actor, singer, aspiring voice actor, and avid cross-stitcher. She is overjoyed and grateful to have been a part of Monday Night PlayGround’s first entirely virtual season on Zoom, as well as the inaugural PlayGround Zoom Fest. As we approach the anniversary of the Bay Area’s shelter-in-place order, Isabel wishes to celebrate the ~95.6 million people confirmed to have recovered from COVID-19 worldwide, and acknowledge and honor the estimated 2.6+ million excess deaths associated with COVID-19, 530,833 from our country alone (at the time of writing this). Thank you for doing what you can to ensure that live in-person theatre is a thing of the near and not-too-distant future.

LIAM VINCENT (Candy’s House!, “Front Door”), he/him, is beyond proud to have been a PlayGround company member for over twenty years. He is currently in rehearsals for ARMS AND THE MAN at the American Conservatory Theater, directed by Colman Domingo.

ELENA WRIGHT (1913, “Lucy Burns”), she/her, is a bay area actor, fight choreographer, teacher, and director.  She has performed with Theatreworks, SF Playhouse, Marin Theatre Company, Marin Shakespeare, Capital Stage, Symmetry Theatre, California Shakespeare Theatre, Shotgun Players, Pacific Repertory Theatre, B Street Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare, Foothill Theatre, and Commonwealth Shakespeare among others. She is a company member of Playground, Symmetry Theatre, and Actors Equity. She holds an MFA in acting from the University of Washington and a BS in theatre from Northeastern University.

DIRECTORS

TESSA CORRIE (Candy’s House!) is a Queer Latinx director and arts advocate based in the Bay Area. Her work is grounded in creating space for marginalized and underrepresented communities and narratives. She is a company member at PlayGround SF. Her credits include work at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Center REPertory Company, Hillbarn Theatre, Pear Theatre, TheatreFirst, Shotgun Players, PianoFight, and AmiosWest.

CLAIRE GANEM (Give Me The Sky), she/her/hers, is a Bay Area based director, teacher, and baker. She is thrilled to be joining PlayGround this season as a company member after completing the directing apprentice program last spring. In addition to PlayGround, Claire’s work has been featured at PianoFight, Cutting Ball Theatre, and Magic Theatre. She is a proud graduate of UC Santa Cruz and Nazareth College of Rochester, NY.

NORMAN GEE (The Talk Back), he/him, is an equity actor, director, and teacher, who has worked with the Arabian Shakespeare Theater, SF Shakes, Ubuntu, Shotgun Players, Utopia Theater, PlayGround-SF and many others. He is the founder of the Oakland Public Theater.

JIM KLEINMANN (For What Fears the Taster; Artistic Director & Co-Founder), he/him, co-founded PlayGround in 1994, along with playwright Brighde Mullins and director Denise Shama, and has served as Artistic Director since 1996. For PlayGround, he has provided artistic and administrative leadership for the past twenty-four seasons, developing PlayGround’s unique array of new playwright and new play incubator programs, including Monday Night PlayGround, the PlayGround Festival of New Works, the full-length play Commissioning Initiative, the New Play Production Fund, Potrero Stage: PlayGround Center for New Plays, and most recently the Innovator Incubator. For PlayGround, he has directed more than one hundred short and full-length plays, including works by Garret Jon Groenveld, Aaron Loeb, Geetha Reddy, Lauren Yee, Katie May, and many others. Recent directing and dramaturgy credits include David Steele’s Vignettes on Love and Ruben Grijalva’s Value Over Replacement. He is a veteran arts administrator with more than thirty years of experience, including stints leading Traveling Jewish Theatre, Smuin Ballet and Berkeley Symphony, and received his MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

LANA RICHARDS (1913), she/her, is a director focused on new work development, site specific work, and adaptation. She likes big plays about small things, the tender awkwardness of growing up, and stories that connect people to place. She has been in residence at The Dragon’s Egg, Access Theater, and The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and is an alumna of Connecticut College where she studied theater and environmental studies. Training: SITI Company, The Michael Chekhov Association, Bread and Puppet, Complicite, and the National Theater Institute for Advanced Directing. Recent credits: Grapefruit (an adaptation of the art book by Yoko Ono) at Parallel 45, My Girl (co-developer) at Dixon Place, Arabella at Planet Connections Theater Festivity, Ithaca at The Electric Lodge, and Eurydice (Sarah Ruhl) at Connecticut College. lanarichards.com

KATJA RIVERA (and the moon, she saw), she/her, studied theater at LACC Theatre Academy and Drama Studio London at Berkeley. Bay Area acting credits include Shotgun Players, Magic Theatre, Theatre Rhinoceros, Center Rep. Directing credits include Shotgun Players, Douglas Morrison, Custom Made, RPE (Danville), SF Playground and TheatreFIRST. She is a proud member of AEA, Shotgun Players, SF Playground and Latinx Mafia. Her next project is directing SAPIENCE, by Diana Burbano at SF PlayGround’s Festival of NewWorks this May.

PRODUCTION & STAFF

ALDO BILLINGSLEA (Associate Producer), a long-time PlayGround Company Member, has worked with PlayGround as actor, director, script reader and board member. As an actor, he has worked throughout the Bay with Cal Shakes, TheatreWorks, Marin Theatre Company, Aurora Theatre Company, Center Rep, and Marin Shakespeare. He has served on boards with Arabian Shakespeare, Gritty City Youth Repertory and the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre where he also served as Interim Artistic Director. Aldo is the Father William J. Rewak S.J. Professor of Theatre Arts at Santa Clara University.

SARAH GASSER (Resident Stage Manager & Sound Designer) joined PlayGround in 2017 and has staged managed for the Monday Night PlayGround series and PlayGround Festival. She stagemanages for companies around the Bay Area, including Brava and Bay Area Children’s Theatre. In her administrative capacities, she assists with PlayGround’s marketing, social media, communications, and website, as well as serving as assistant to the Artistic Director.

COLIN JOHNSON (Visual Designer) is a multi-hyphenate production artist who has sullied the grounds of the Bay Area arts since 2008. His work has been produced or featured at PlayGround, Pianofight, The Circus Center Cabaret, San Diego Comic-Con, Image Comics, Potrero Stage, Pint-Sized Plays, The Olympians Festival, Shotz, Shotgun Players, The Curran, and various theatre, radio and film venues throughout the country. He is the Artistic Director of Awesome Theatre, Chief Creative Officer at Troubleshoot Productions and an Instructor / Director / Designer at Circus Center. He makes movies until he gets too frustrated and makes theatre until he has panic attacks.

ANNIE STUART (Associate Artistic Director) has served as casting director for PlayGround for the past twenty-one seasons. In 2005, she was named PlayGround’s first Associate Director, recognizing her increased producing responsibilities, and was recently named Associate Artistic Director. As a freelance casting director, her other credits include Marin Theatre Company, Center REP, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, San Francisco and Los Angeles Shakespeare Festivals, Brava! for Women In The Arts, Theatre Rhinoceros, and Z Space Studio, among others. For the camera, she has cast Falcon Crest, An Inconvenient Woman, Midnight Caller and The Two Mrs. Grenvilles. She has taught at San Jose State University, The Bennett Theatre Lab, Center REP, the College of Marin, Marin Theatre Company and for Theatre Bay Area.

PLAYGROUND, California’s leading playwright incubator, provides unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s (and now Los Angeles’) best new playwrights, including the monthly Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, annual PlayGround Festival of New Works, full-length play commissions and support for the production of new plays by local playwrights through the New Play Production Fund. To date, PlayGround has supported over 200 early career playwrights, developing and staging more than 850 of their original short plays through the Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series and the PlayGround Festival. PlayGround has also commissioned 85 new full-length plays by 55 of these writers through its Commissioning Initiative and, through the innovative New Play Production Fund, has directly facilitated the premiere of 30 plays at theatres of every size, including three that have gone on to NYC and other major theater communities. Most recently, PlayGround renovated and relaunched the former Thick House Theater in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill as Potrero Stage, a state-of-the-art center for new plays, home to PlayGround’s expanding artistic programs and some of the Bay Area’s most distinguished new play developers and producers. Over the past twenty-four years, PlayGround has served to identify some of the most important new local voices for the theatre. PlayGround’s alumni have gone on to win local, national, and international honors for their short and full-length work, including recognition at the Humana Festival, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, The Lark’s Playwrights’ Week, New York International Fringe Festival, and others. PlayGround received the 2009 Paine Knickerbocker Award for outstanding contributions to Bay Area theatre, 3 BATCC Awards for Best Original Script for PlayGround commissions, a 2014 National Theatre Company Grant from the American Theatre Wing (founder of the Tony Awards®), and a 2016 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Visit https://PlayGround-sf.org for more information.

POTRERO STAGE is a 99-seat state-of-the-art performance space located in the heart of San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, operated by PlayGround, and serving as home to some of the Bay Area’s leading new play developers and producers, including PlayGround, Crowded Fire, Golden Thread, and Playwrights Foundation, among others. While the venue is closed during the COVID pandemic, Potrero Stage will highlight the best in online programming by PlayGround, Potrero Stage resident companies and other Potrero Stage producers. For more information, visit https://potrerostage.org.

PLAYGROUND CONTRIBUTORS

PlayGround is deeply grateful for the generous contributions of the many individuals, foundations, gifts of $125 or more committed between February 1, 2020 & March 15, 2021.

GOVERNMENT, CORPORATE, & FOUNDATION DONORS

Alameda County Arts Commission • Amazon • Art Space Development Corporation • Berkeley Civic Arts • The Bernard Osher Foundation • Bill Graham Supporting Foundation of the Jewish Community Federation & Endowment Fund • California Arts Council • Creative Capacity Fund • The Fleishhacker Foundation • Goldman Sachs • Google • Grants For The Arts • Koret Foundation • Lenore & Howard Klein Foundation • The Leo J. & Celia Carlin Fund • Negley Flinn Charitable Foundation • NIAC • Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation • Planet Earth Arts • San Francisco Arts Commission • The Shenson Foundation • The Shubert Foundation • Stanford University • The Tournesol Project • Voluntary Arts Contribution Fund • The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation • Zellerbach Family Foundation

INDIVIDUAL SUPPORTERS

SEASON SPONSORS ($5000+)
Donna Ano, William Bivins, Emilie T. & Gordon C. Brooks, Daniel E. Cohn & Lynn Brinton, Jerome Joseph Gentes & Michael David Bourque, Lara Gilman & Jim Kleinmann, Regina S. Guggenheim, David Steele

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS ($2500–$4,999)
John H. Gilman & Linda Kremer, Tom Goetzl, Keith Goldstein & Donna N. Warrington, Kathy Roberts & Aaron Loeb, Diane Sampson, Marian Scheuer Sofaer & Abraham D. Sofaer, Anonymous

PRODUCERS CIRCLE ($1000-$2499)
Kellie Abreu, Erik Blachford, Jessica Forbess, Sandra Hess, Tracy Brown and Greg Holland, Brady Lea & David Gallagher, Rebecca Sloss Martinez, Nitin, Alan Olejniczak & David Bourne , Ms. Carol Louisa Owens, Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock, Anonymous (3)

PLAYWRIGHTS CIRCLE ($500-$999)
Dr. Elaine Baskin, Karen Chakmakian, Paulette Donsavage & Deeje Cooley, Richard Davis – Lowell and Bill Lowell , Ms. Kathryn A Hecht, Janine & Darryl Wilburn, Maury Zeff, Anonymous (2)

PATRON ($250-$499)
Rob Bailis, Sharon Baldwin, Dr. Elaine Baskin & Kenneth R. Krechmer, Tom Bruett, William Cornwell, Victoria Chong Der, Krystyna Finlayson, Michael Fried, Sarah Gasser, Keith Goldstein, Eileen Grady, David, Stephanie, Aiden, and Devan Haines , Ray & Carla Kaliski, Curt Larson, Gwen Loeb & Doyle Ott, Jonathan Luskin & Leslie Katz, Michael Lutz, Cecily T. Martin, David M. Martin, Toni Martin & Michael Darby, Brittany S Mellerson, Lisa Morse and Bruno Kurtic, Michele & Rob Pilgrim, Kathy J Reynolds, Pauline Roothman, Michele and John Ruskin, Rolf Saxon, Mr. Cleavon Smith, Annie Stuart & June Palladino, Jon & Susan Sweedler, Lisa R. Taylor, Janine & Darryl Wilburn, Christian Wilburn, Janine Wilburn, Anonymous (3)

ASSOCIATE MEMBER ($125-$249)
Angel Adedokun, Ann E. & David S., Mr. William Bombria, Christopher Lee Kuckenbaker, Amy Kelly Lauer, Katie May, Kirby Sack and Pamela Merchant, Trynne Miller & David Prince, Sondra Murphy, Ms. Madeline Daly Puccioni, Carol Pugh, Tipu Purkayastha & Poorva Malhotra, Geetha Reddy, Kirk Shimano, Ms. Pamela Wetzell, Jeff Wincek, Barbara Sahm & Steven Winkel, Elizabeth Wright, Anonymous (2)

Become a PlayGround contributor!

DONATE

PlayGround 25-Day Challenge

In the age of internet challenges, the Bay Area’s leading playwright incubator, PlayGround, is introducing a challenge of their own. On the tail end of our 25th anniversary, we are introducing the PlayGround 25-Day Challenge! The rules are simple: 100 Donors must contribute $250 (or more) in just 25 days to match a $25K challenge grant awarded to PlayGround by the Negley Flinn Charitable Foundation!

For just $21 per month (or $.68 per day), you can help PlayGround meet the $25k challenge. To learn more, click here.

DONATE TO THE 25-DAY CHALLENGE

PLAYGROUND COMPANY

PLAYGROUND WRITERS COMPANY 2020-21

Lynn Aylward, Cass Brayton+, Tom Bruett, Diana Burbano+, Madeleine Butler, Reg Clay, Rob Dario, Victoria Chong Der+, Victoria Evans Erville, Akaina Ghosh, Linda Maria Giron, Lauren Gorski, Garret Jon Groenveld+, Aaron Higareda, Sam Hurwitt, Tejahra Jacobs, Eddrick Jerome, Lisa Kang, Melissa Keith+, Anne Yumi Kobori, Molly Olis Krost, Samuel Levit, Jonathan Luskin+, Christopher Magee, Meghan Maugeri, Katie May+, Alanna McFall, Misao McGregor+, Bacilio Mendez II, Amissa Miller, Erin Marie Panttaja, Evelyn Jean Pine+, Madeline Puccioni, Annette Roman, Rebecca Schweitzer, Marissa Skudlarek, Martha Soukup, Chris Steele, Lisa Thompson, Eteya Trinidad, Leela Velautham+, Daysha Veronica+, Madison Wetzell, Christian Wilburn+, Sean Wong-Westbrooke
+ Resident Playwright

PLAYGROUND COMPANY 2020-21

Molly Aaronson-Gelb, Angel Adedokun, Patrick Alparone, Liz Anderson, Rinabeth Apostol, Michael Asberry, Michael Barrett Austin, Mary Baird, Aldo Billingslea, Giselle Boustani-Fontenele, Millie Brooks, Julia Brothers, Nicole Apostol Bruno, Lizzie Calogero, Ron Campbell, Joy Carlin, Nancy Carlin, Desdemona Chiang, Tessa Corrie, David Cramer, Will Dao, Anne Darragh, Dodds Delzell, Livia Gomes Demarchi, Carolyn Doyle, Nora el Samahy, Rebecca Ennals, Britney Frazier, Michael French, Claire Ganem, Sarah Gasser, Norman Gee, Douglas B. Giorgis, Amy Glazer, Cindy Goldfield, BW Gonzalez, Christian Haines, Margo Hall, Rosie Hallett, Daryl Anthony Harper, Eric Fraisher Hayes, Brian Herndon, Laura Humphrey, J Jha, Lyndsy Kail, Dean Koya, Danielle Levin, Jeffrey Lo, Gwen Loeb, George Maguire, Melanie Marshall, Julia McNeal, Sam Misner, Brady Morales-Woolery, Lisa Morse, Molly Noble, Karen Offereins, Soren Oliver, Joseph Patrick O’Malley, Ely Sonny Orquiza, Melissa Ortiz, Doyle Ott, June Palladino, Carla Pantoja, Louis Parnell, Jed Parsario, Michael Phillis, Rebecca Pingree, Stephanie Prentice, Virginia Reed, Cathleen Riddley, Katja Rivera, Adrian Roberts, Neiry Rojo, Stacy Ross, Adam Roy, Katie Rubin, Lindsey Marie Schmeltzer, Louel Senores, Robert Sicular, Jeunee Simon, M. Graham Smith, Ken Sonkin, Lauren Spencer, Teddy Spencer, Howard Swain, Jomar Tagatac, Emilie Talbot, Danielle Thys, Isabel To, Jon Tracy, Mark Rafael Truitt, Liam Vincent, Maryssa Wanlass, Tracy Ward, Reggie D. White, Aaron Wilton, Elena Wright

PLAYGROUND AMBASSADORS 2020-21

Aldo Billingslea (Co-Chair), Stephanie Prentice (Co-Chair), Tessa Corrie, Livia Demarchi, Britney Frazier, Cindy Goldfield, Jeffrey Lo, Gwen Loeb, George Maguire, Brady Morales-Woolery, Ely Sonny Orquiza, Melissa Ortiz, Katja Rivera, Jomar Tagatac, Aaron Wilton

PLAYGROUND STAFF

Jim Kleinmann, Co-Founder & Artistic Director
Annie Stuart, Associate Artistic Director
Aldo Billingslea, Associate Producer
Jacque Bugler, Production Manager
Brittany Mellerson, Resident Designer
Sarah Gasser, Resident Stage Manager & Assistant to the Artistic Director
Edna Mira Raia, Theatre Management Fellow
Lana Richards, Development Fellow
Chris Steele, Communications Fellow

PLAYGROUND BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Regina Guggenheim, Chair
James A. Kleinmann, President
Jerome Joseph Gentes, VP-Communications
Emilie Talbot, VP-Development
Nitin, Treasurer
Victoria Evans Erville, Secretary
William Bivins
Eleanor Clement Glass
Keith Goldstein
Rebecca Martinez
Katie May
Rondrell McCormick
Stephanie Prentice
David Steele

www.PlayGround-sf.org
3286 Adeline St #8
Berkeley, CA 94703-2485
info@playground-sf.org
(415) 992-6677