PlayGround Gala Celebrates 20 Years of June Anne Baker Prize!

On Monday, September 20, PlayGround will host its annual fundraising gala, commemorating twenty years of the June Anne Baker Prize and the incredible legacy of the twenty women playwrights who’ve received the Prize since 2002. Initiated by PlayGround benefactor John H. Gilman in memory of his late wife, the June Anne Baker Prize recognizes the top new female playwright representing a gifted new comedic and/or political voice and is selected from among the annual Best of PlayGround playwrights. Past recipients include Lauren Yee, Geetha Reddy, Robin Lynn Rodriguez, and Patricia Cotter, among others. This year’s Gala will be a hybrid online and in-person event, providing unique opportunities to celebrate the accomplishments of the June Anne Baker Prize winners from 2002 through 2021 through small in-person gatherings spread throughout the Bay Area and beyond, all connected via Zoom and featuring live performances, testimonials and a gourmet 4-course meal courtesy of Martha Avenue home cooking. Tickets are $250-$500. June Anne Baker Prize Host Tables start at $3,000 and provide an opportunity to host a June Anne Baker Prize winner. All proceeds support women artists through PlayGround’s 28th season of award-winning incubator programs. For tickets and more information, visit https://playground-sf.org/benefit.

Over the past twenty years, the June Anne Baker Prize has recognized some of the most significant new women playwrights coming up through the Bay Area. The Prize includes a full-length play commission and has resulted in the creation of eighteen new plays, with two plays currently in development. Past June Anne Baker Prize commissions include: Lauren Yee’s CREVICE (premiered in a co-production with Impact Theatre), Genevieve Jessee’s THE RENDERING CYCLE (online premiere as part of the inaugural PlayGround Zoom Fest last year), Patricia Cotter’s 1980 OR WHY I’M VOTING FOR JOHN ANDERSON (premiered by Jackalope Theatre, Chicago), Robin Lynn Rodriguez’s HELLA LOVE OAKLAND (premiered at the PlayGround Festival of New Works), Amy Sass’ WHALES WAKE (premiered in a co-production with Ragged Wing Ensemble), and Erin Bregman’s DOWN A LITTLE DIRT ROAD (premiered in a co-production with Just Theater).

This year’s hybrid in-person/online gala is co-chaired by PlayGround Board Members Rebecca Martinez and Eleanor Clement Glass. The evening will feature short live performances drawn from past June Anne Baker Prize winner short and full-length plays. Guests at this year’s gala will each receive a Gala-in-a-Box gourmet meal, designed and executed by company member Cindy Goldfield’s Martha Avenue catering, to facilitate a cocktail reception and seated dinner (in-home and at virtual tables with fellow guests). Tickets are $250-$500 (tables start at $3,000) and all proceeds will support women artists of PlayGround’s 28th season.

The twenty winners of the June Anne Baker Prize to date are:

2021: Eteya Trinidad
2020: Melissa Keith
2019: Alanna McFall
2018: Erin Marie Panttaja
2017: Genevieve Jessee
2016: Karen Macklin
2015: Rachel Bublitz
2014: Patricia Cotter
2013: Amy Sass
2012: Robin Lynn Rodriguez
2011: Mandy Hodge Rizvi
2010: Diane Sampson
2009: Erin Marie Bregman
2008: Lauren Yee
2007: Evelyn Jean Pine
2006: Brady Lea
2005: Geetha Reddy
2004: Maria Rokas
2003: Martha Soukup
2002: Kristina Goodnight

Gala Tickets

$250 ($100 tax-deductible) – General admission; includes Gala-in-a-Box (four-course meal including drink pairings for each course), reception, optional in-person (subject to availability and proof of vaccination) or virtual table seating, and live performances.

$500 ($350 tax-deductible) – Host ticket, includes all of the above and recognition on the PlayGround Gala Host Committee.

$3,000 ($2,100 tax-deductible) – June Anne Baker Prize Host table of 6. Includes: Gala-in-a-Box (four-course meal including drink pairings) for 6 people delivered to your home, a bottle of wine with a PlayGround Gala commemorative label, virtual table and reception, recognition on the PlayGround Gala Host Committee, opportunity to host in-person or online one of the June Anne Baker Prize winners, and a dramaturgical packet prepared by Cal Shakes Resident Dramaturg Philippa Kelly with information on your June Anne Baker Prize guest. To reserve a table, please purchase six (6) host tickets and email us to confirm details.

$4,000 ($2,800 tax-deductible) – June Anne Baker Prize Host table of 8. Includes: Gala-in-a-Box (four-course meal including drink pairings) for 8 people delivered to your home, a bottle of wine with a PlayGround Gala commemorative label, virtual table and reception, recognition on the PlayGround Gala Host Committee, priority opportunity to select and host in-person a June Anne Baker Prize winner, and a dramaturgical packet prepared by Cal Shakes Resident Dramaturg Philippa Kelly with information on your June Anne Baker Prize guest. To reserve a table, please purchase eight (8) host tickets and email us to confirm details.

NOTE: Gala-in-a-Box delivery will take place on the day of the event and is included for guests within 60 miles of San Francisco. For guests attending from outside of this area, PlayGround will make all reasonable efforts to source a comparable substitute for the Gala-in-a-Box.

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 950 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-seven 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 Steinberg Awards, Humana Festival, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and The Lark’s Playwrights’ Week, among 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. Through the new Potrero Stagers membership program, PlayGround provides opportunities for access to and engagement with some of the Bay Area’s most innovative artists and companies. For more information, visit https://potrerostage.org.

For more information, visit https://playground-sf.org/benefit or call (415) 992-6677.