PlayGround Young Playwrights Project Finalists to Debut in 26th Annual PlayGround Festival of New Works

PlayGround has announced the winners of this year’s Young Playwrights Contest. The venerated playwright incubator will debut the four selected short plays from rising Bay Area young playwrights on Friday, May 13, 2022 at 7PM PDT as part of the 26th Annual PlayGround Festival of New Works. The four finalists — “Moon Eater” by Christopher John Dela Cruz, “Bamboo” by Sky Krueger, “The Mitten” by Emily Maremont, and “The Woman Who Refused to be Beaten” by Aleeza Zakai — will each receive a professional reading debut presented together in one evening. Competitively selected from open submissions inspired by the prompt “LORE”, the presentation of the four finalists’ short works is the culmination of the14th Annual Howard & Lenore Klein Foundation Young Playwrights Project, championing bold new playwrights from Bay Area high schools. These timely and insightful plays will be presented in-person at Potrero Stage and will also be simulcast to at-home audiences free of charge (advance reservations required). For more information and to reserve tickets, visit https://playground-sf.org/youngplaywrights.

Through the Lenore & Howard Klein Foundation PlayGround Young Playwrights Project, PlayGround and Bay Area high schools partner to enable young writers to find their own expressive voice through the creation, development, and production of short plays. Each year, Bay Area high school students, grades 9-12, are invited to submit short plays inspired by an assigned prompt for consideration in the Young Playwrights Contest. The top four playwrights receive professional public staged readings of their winning short works as part of the PlayGround Festival of New Works, this year presented fully online as the second annual PlayGround Zoom Fest. Through the Young Playwrights Project, PlayGround also offers Bay Area high school students free and significantly discounted student group tickets to its range of new play incubator programs, including Monday Night PlayGround series, PlayGround Solo Performance Festival, PlayGround Festival of New Works, and the PlayGround Innovators Showcase.

ABOUT THE PLAYS

Moon Eater by Christopher John Dela Cruz
A mafia boss and assassin are caught in a quarrel when something unexpected and devastating happens.

Bamboo by Sky Krueger
Two siblings struggle to come to terms with their grandmother’s death. One of them seeks hope in the bamboo.

The Mitten by Emily Maremont
Based on a Ukrainian folktale, a mouse seeks refuge when her home is threatened by a mountainous force.

The Woman Who Refused to be Beaten by Aleeza Zakai
A rich merchant’s son—who is foolish by nature—seeks his father’s acceptance to marry. He gets it, but it comes with much more than he bargained for.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS

Christopher John Dela Cruz (he/him, Moon Eater) is a senior at Galileo Academy of Science and Technology. Born and raised in the Philippines, he immigrated to the U.S. in 2019. He is interested in woodworking, video games, books, bikes, and technology. He has acted in many school plays and dance performances. He is a novice carpenter, food delivery guy, and future Marine.

Sky Krueger (she/her, Bamboo) is a sophomore at The Ruth Asawa School of the Arts and is very passionate about writing and other forms of storytelling. She would like to thank her friend Sophia Thein for reading her script, and her teacher Ellen Koivisto for providing excellent feedback and support.

Emily Maremont (she/her, The Mitten) is a member of the class of 2025 at San Francisco University High School. Her writing has been published by City College of San Francisco’s Forum Magazine and recognized by YoungArts and the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Emily is passionate about writing, folklore, and language revitalization.

Aleeza Zakai (she/her, The Woman Who Refused to be Beaten) is a high-school junior who enjoys scriptwriting, filmmaking, and music composition. She’s directed several films and documentaries, including The Future is Quantum, Truly 16, and March 13th – A COVID Short Film. Her original short film, “Ordinary”, was screened at the Bay Area’s Flip the Script Film Fest, and her most recent play, The Cassettes of San Francisco, recently placed Semi-Finalist in The Blank Theatre’s National Young Playwrights Festival. In the future, Aleeza hopes to make her mark as a director and screenwriter in the film industry.

ABOUT PLAYGROUND

PlayGround, the Bay Area’s leading playwright incubator, provides unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s 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 300 local playwrights in the development and staging of more than 1,000 original short plays and 90 new full-length plays, with 4 more commissions currently in development. PlayGround also operates Potrero Stage, a state-of-the-art 99-seat black box theatre in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, home to some of the Bay Area’s leading new play developers and producers, including PlayGround, Crowded Fire, Golden Thread, and Playwrights Foundation. For more information, visit https://playground-sf.org.

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