PlayGround Gala: September 14 at A.C.T.

Join us for the ONE PLAYGROUND GALA (2026)
Celebrating the June Anne Baker Prize 25th Anniversary
September 14, 2026, 5:30pm-7:30pm PT
American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Tickets: $150 or review Host levels

PlayGround will honor four theatre luminaries at our annual four-city gala on Monday, September 14th. In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of PlayGround’s June Anne Baker Prize, one of the nation’s longest-running play commissions dedicated to the next generation of promising women/non-binary playwrights, PlayGround will recognize significant theatre artists and producers who have elevated womxn playwrights and stories throughout their careers: Margo Hall, Lorraine Hansbury Theatre (San Francisco), Jessica Kubzansky, Boston Court Pasadena (Los Angeles), Emily Shooltz, Signature Theatre (New York), and Ericka Ratcliff, Chicago Shakespeare Theater (Chicago). The 2026 June Anne Baker Prize winners are Esther Banegas Gatica (PlayGround-Los Angeles), KT Frances Hartline (PlayGround-SF), Uma Incrocci (PlayGround-NY), and Toby Inoue (PlayGround-CH). The Gala honorary committee includes June Anne Baker Prize alumni Lauren Yee and Geetha Reddy (honorary co-chairs), as well as Rachel Bublitz, Patricia Cotter, Laura Domingo, Brady Lea, Alanna McFall, Erin Marie Panttaja, Evelyn Jean Pine, Bridgette Dutta Portman, and Kimberly Ridgeway.

MEET THE PLAYGROUND HERO GALA CO-CHAIRS AND HONOREES

Geetha Reddy (Co-Chair) is a playwright and filmmaker. Her plays include The Employee Dharma Handbook (TheaterWorks Silicon Valley), Mahābhārata (Oakland Theatre Project) Far, Far Better Things (Shotgun Players/ TheatreFirst), Hela (with Lauren Gunderson, TheatreFirst), Safe House (SF Playhouse), Blastosphere (with Aaron Loeb, CentralWorks). Geetha’s plays Me Given You, Girl in a Box, and On a Wonderverse  were part of the Playwright’s Foundation’s ‘In the Rough’ reading series. Safe House and On a Wonderverse were featured in the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. She has been commissioned by TheatreWorks, SFPlayhouse,  Oakland Theatre Project, Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire, the Gerbode Foundation, and PlayGround (3). Her plays have also appeared in the San Francisco Fringe Festival, the Santa Rosa Quickies festival, the Best of PlayGround Festival, the Just Theatre Lab series, the Crowded Fire Matchbox series, and the Theatreworks New Works Festival. Her short film Obit appeared at LA Shorts, NY Indie Fest, Bend Film Festival, the GI Film Festival and many others. Geetha is a member of the Dramatist’s Guild and alumna Resident Playwright at the Playwright’s Foundation.

Lauren Yee (Co-Chair) is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter based in New York. Recent plays include Cambodian Rock Band (South Coast Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Signature Theatre), The Great Leap (Denver Center, Seattle Rep, the Atlantic, Steppenwolf, ACT), King of the Yees (Goodman Theatre, Center Theatre Group), and Mother Russia (Seattle Rep, Signature Theatre). Honors include the Doris Duke Artist Award, Whiting Award, Steinberg/ATCA Award, Horton Foote Prize, and Kesselring Prize. TV:  “Pachinko” (Apple), “Soundtrack” (Netflix), “Interior Chinatown” (Hulu), “Billions” (Showtime), “Clipped” (FX). She’s previously developed pilots for Netflix and Apple, and is currently developing TV and feature projects for Netflix and Universal. BA: Yale, MFA: UCSD. laurenyee.com

Margo Hall (San Francisco Honoree) is an award-winning actor, director, playwright, educator, and the Artistic Director of Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (LHT). She was recently awarded the 2021 Kenneth Rainin Fellowship in Theater and listed as one of the YBCA 100 honorees for 2020. She debuted as a Theater Director with The World Premiere of Joyride, from the novel Grand Avenue by Greg Sarris, which was the Bay Area Critics Circle Winner for Best Original Script; the SF Weekly Black Box Awards for Best Production, Best Ensemble, Best Director; Drama-Logue Awards- Northern California for Best Production, Best Ensemble; the Backstage West-Garland Awards- Northern California for Best Production, Best Ensemble, and the Bay Guardian GOLDIE Award Winner for Stage. She recently directed FLEX, FAT HAM and Nollywood Dreams for SF Playhouse, and Garuda’s Wing for Campo Santo. Hieroglyph by Erika Dickerson-Despenza was a co-production for LHT and SF Playhouse. The play was filmed live onstage and streamed virtually during COVID. Other LHT credits include Black Feminist Guide to the Human Body, Sunset Baby, In the Evening by the Moonlight, Soulful Christmas, Thurgood, and Rejoice! Other directing credits include How I Learned What I Learned for Lorraine Hansberry Theater, Ubuntu, and Marin Theatre Company, Barbecue, Red Velvet, and The Story, an SF Playhouse/Lorraine Hansberry Theatre Co-Production. Prior directing credits include Sonny’s Blues, a story by James Baldwin, for Word for Word, which toured France. She co-directed Bulrusher with Ellen Chang for Shotgun Players, In the Red and Brown Water, and Polaroid Stories for UC Berkeley, and Once on This Island, Hamlet, Blood in the Brain, SPUNK, The Trojan Women, It Falls, Ragtime, and A Streetcar Named Desire for Chabot College. Margo’s recent film credits include Louise in Bottled Spirits, a one-woman short; Lamya in The Come Up, Pastor Brown in Thirsty, Grammy in Artisan, Leslie White in All Day and a Night; Nancy in Blindspotting; and the voice of Melba in Pixar’s Soul. TV credits include Nancy in Blindspotting –STARZ, Helen in Chances –Hulu, Marsha Watkins, and Blind Witness on Nash Bridges.

MEET THE SF JUNE ANNE BAKER AWARD WINNER

KT Frances Hartline (PlayGround-SF), she/her, is a Berkeley-based playwright and screenwriter. After working as a New York City public school teacher, she was editor for two New York-based magazines and wrote for Oakland and Parents Press. Her plays have appeared in festivals around the country, including It’s Alarming, a Heideman Award finalist which premiered in Playground’s Monday Night Series. Her screenwriting accolades include AFF Second Rounder and Finalist in the International PAGE Awards. She is now a Top Tier member of Roadmap Writers’ Career Writer Program. Her greatest joy is squeezing into a hardcore punk show and watching the son she homeschooled absolutely shred on drums. Her short play, A Wayward Tale, will be featured in Best of PlayGround(SF) ‘26.