PlayGround’s Silver Jubilee

On Monday, September 23, California’s leading playwright incubator, PlayGround, will celebrate its Silver Jubilee with a glam gala fundraiser at San Francisco’s Verdi Club. Chaired by Flour + Water co-founder David Steele, the event will feature a cocktail reception, silent auction, seated dinner and special performances of original 80s rock-inspired short musicals by PlayGround alumni, straight from their off-Broadway debut last April. Tickets are $250-$525 ($2,500-$5,250 for tables of 10) and all proceeds support PlayGround’s award-winning playwright incubator programs. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://playground-sf.org/benefit.

For the past twenty-five years, PlayGround has provided unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s (and, since 2012, Los Angeles’) best new playwrights, including the monthly Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, annual PlayGround Festival, full-length play commissions and support for the production of new plays by local playwrights through the New Play Production Fund, among others. Founded at San Francisco State University in 1994 by Jim Kleinmann (Artistic Director), Brighde Mullins, and Denise Shama, PlayGround has supported more than 200 California playwrights in the development and staging of over 950 original short plays and 90 new full-length plays over the past two decades, including 30 that have since premiered in the Bay Area and around the country. PlayGround alumni – including some of the most distinguished new writers coming out of the Bay Area, such as Aaron Loeb, Lauren Yee, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, and Geetha Reddy, among others – have gone on to win local, national, and international honors for their short and full-length work, including recognition at the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Humana Festival, Sundance Festival, The Lark, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and New York International Fringe Festival, among others.

Bay Area alumni include: Trevor Allen, Linda Amayo-Hassan, Jen Anderson, Veronica Andrew, Robert Barker, Crish Barth, Tim Bauer, William Bivins, Cailin Boyle, Cass Brayton, Erin Bregman, Ed Brownson, Tom Bruett, Rachel Bublitz, Madeleine Butler, Patricia Cotter, Rob Dario, Victoria Chong Der, Sharon Eberhardt, David Garrett, Jerome Joseph Gentes, Kristina Goodnight, Lauren Gorski, Ruben Grijalva, Garret Groenveld, Daniel Heath, Sam Hurwitt, Genevieve Jessee, Nicole Jost, Tania Katan, Melissa Keith, Sang S. Kim, Amy Kirk, Ellen Koivisto, Jennifer Kollmer, Katherine Koppett, Molly Olis Krost, Brady Lea, Aaron Loeb, Jonathan Luskin, Michael Lutz, Karen Macklin, Carol Marshall, Katie May, Alanna McFall, Alex Moggridge, Genne Murphy, Peter Nachtrieb, Daniele Nathanson, Ross Nelson, Isaac Ontiveros, Sean Owens, Erin Marie Panttaja, Evelyn Pine, Ken Prestininzi, Kenn Rabin, Geetha Reddy, Molly Rhodes, Mandy Hodge Rizvi, Robin Lynn Rodriguez, Maria Rokas, Mark Routhier, Diane Sampson, Amy Sass, Mercedes Segesvary, Mark Sherstinsky, Kirk Shimano, Nick Sholley, Ken Slattery, Cleavon Smith, Sean Smith, Nic Sommerfeld, Martha Soukup, Jonathan Spector, Tom Swift, Mary Michael Wagner, Malachy Walsh, John Warren, Steven Westdahl, Arisa White, Joshua Williams, Davern Wright, Lauren Yee, Maury Zeff, and Ignacio Zulueta.

Los Angeles alumni include: Megan Breen, Diana Burbano, Ron Burch, Tiffany Cascio, Kathleen Cecchin, John Corcoran, Allie Costa, Andrew Crabtree, Kevin Crust, Vincent Terrell Durham, Forrest Hartl, Dan Hirsch, Julianne Jigour, Starina Johnson, Jonathan Josephson, Arthur Keng, Rhea MacCallum, Nicholas C. Pappas, Carolina Rojas, Jessica June Rowe, Mercedes Segesvary, Mark Sherstinsky, Nicki Spencer, and Jennie Webb.

In 2017, PlayGround completed renovations on its San Francisco home, Potrero Stage: PlayGround Center for New Plays, a 99-seat state-of-the-art performance venue and 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. Most recently, PlayGround launched the Innovator Incubator, fostering the creation of innovative new theatre companies and productions. The 2019 Incubator cohort will be featured in the upcoming Innovators Showcase, running August 1-25 at Potrero Stage. For more information on PlayGround and Potrero Stage, visit https://playground-sf.org.

WHAT: PlayGround’s Silver Jubilee

WHERE: Verdi Club, 2424 Mariposa Street, San Francisco

WHEN: 6pm-9:30pm

TICKETS: $250-$525; https://playground-sf.org/benefit