5th Annual PlayGround Solo Fest Lineup Announced!

PlayGround has announced the lineup for its fifth annual PlayGround Solo Performance Festival, a curation of the best in Bay Area solo performance, running January 28 to February 13 presented live at San Francisco’s Potrero Stage and simulcast online. The festival of new work features 9 double-bill performances by 11 California artists over three weeks, including Rotimi Agbabiaka, Linda Amayo-Hassan, Summer Broyhill, Sharon Eberhardt, Elijah Jalil Paz Fisher, Vicki Juditz, M.J. Kang, LOTUS BOY, Daniel Martinez, Joyful Raven, and Chris Steele. No two evenings are the same! This year’s festival was competitively selected from open applications, and is a direct extension of PlayGround’s mission and commitment to the discovery of bold new voices for the stage and the development of innovative and timely original content. Tickets are free (donations gratefully accepted with reservations in support of the artists). For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://playground-sf.org/solofest or email boxoffice@playground-sf.org.

About the Performances

Rotimi Agbabiaka in Manifesto
Fri Jan 28 – 7pm PT / Sun Feb 6 – 7pm PT     It’s a new day in America! There’s a vaccine for the virus, democracy has been saved, and now, more than ever, Black Lives Matter. As live entertainment makes its comeback, a queer, black actor decides to create a manifesto for theatre in our brave new world. But just when a revolutionary artist thinks he knows all the answers, a shot at Off-Broadway stardom and a visit from artistic mentors James Baldwin, Nina Simone, and Alejandro Jodorowsky lead him to start asking some new questions. Using comedy, drag, music, and dance, Rotimi Agbabiaka’s solo show gives an inside look at the terminally inequitable entertainment industry and then leaps forward to imagine the future of revolutionary art in a time when diversity is on trend, shining a comedic light on the triumphs, failings, and absurdities of our current moment.

Linda Amayo-Hassan in The Missing Songs
Fri Feb 4 – 7pm PT / Sat Feb 5 – 7pm PT   THE MISSING SONGS is a collection of songs and text composed and written by Linda Amayo-Hassan, from stories of missing and murdered indigenous women in the United States. Few know that indigenous women in the U.S. are the most likely of any ethnic group to fall victim to kidnapping, rape and murder. Memories and connections are shared through ritual, song and story-telling, as Amayo-Hassan humanizes some of the women who have suffered these fates, as well as the surviving mothers, sisters and daughters who search for the beloved women who have been torn from their lives. A co-production of Theatre Cultura and Native Writers’ Theater.

Summer Broyhill in DREAM Lover
Sat Feb 12 – 7pm PT    DREAM LOVER is a dark comedy exploring the complexities of the immigration process, anxiety, and American identity by zooming in on a Stokes Interview: the portion of immigration proceedings wherein a citizen sponsor and their applicant spouse may be separated and questioned to determine the veracity of their marriage. Using memory, movement, magical realism, and an Anxiety Hotline attendant named Dolly, the protagonist reckons with what it means to be considered a “worthy” immigrant and comes to understand the depth of her DREAM-er husband’s trauma, how it has limited their relationship, and how they must move forward.  

Sharon Eberhardt in The Mark of the Minotaur
Fri Feb 4 – 7pm PT / Sun Feb 13 – 7pm PT  1900. The Island of Crete. Archaeologists unearth tablets with mysterious writing. It may hold the secrets of the legendary Labyrinth, the Minotaur, and Ariadne, who helped the hero Theseus kill the beast. A working-class woman in New York and a rich male architect in London made history solving the mystery. But versions of that history differ.  It’s a mystery of revealing ancient truths, righting historical wrongs and the fun of ditching old versions to make history today.

Elijah Jalil Paz Fisher in Screamin’ from the Zoo
Sun Jan 30 – 7pm PT   SCREAMIN’ FROM THE ZOO (SFTZ) is a one-person, Neo-Spiritual developed through the method of SoulWork that explores Fisher’s own soul and shares multiple pieces of the whole on a mind-bending road in an effort to connect, reflect, and inspire those who are willing to witness and listen. SoulWork is a training method developed by Dr. Cristal Chanelle Truscott. The term Neo-Spiritual is defined by Dr. Truscott in her publication of SoulWork in the Black Acting Methods textbook as “a musical, but with soul.” This piece utilizes theatrical dialogue, spoken word, and songs to explore stillness, hope, change, pain, freedom, grief, empowerment, and joy. SFTZ shares four distinct iterations of Fisher with the intention to highlight the complexity of their individual and collective experiences as people of color and shed them in the best light possible. Each character presents an opportunity to challenge and question the stereotypes set in place by the popular media. The show also opens up dialogue about code switching, toxic masculinity, violence on black bodies, and systemic oppression. The river runs deep in this one.

Vicki Juditz in Solo at the End of the World
Sat Jan 29 – 7pm PT   Some people spent the last year learning to make sourdough bread.  Hunkered down in her house with her elderly cat, Juditz spent her time refreshing the COVID numbers, calculating the risk-versus-reward of grocery store runs, and sobbing over the phone to her twenty-three-year-old only child.  She’s an anxious person.  Riding the daily rollercoaster of hilarity, absurdity and loss, she bonded with a single mom raccoon, spent the night in a sleep center, survived a self-help seminar and strengthened the relationship with her kid.

M.J. Kang in The Winner
Sat Jan 29 – 7pm PT    THE WINNER, recipient of the Hollywood Fringe scholarship, is a collection of comedic personal stories that go deep about being, “a winner,” as a  Korean-Canadian-American. Her life has been nothing like the model minority myth of Asian Americans.

LOTUS BOY in Disability is a Drag!
Sat Feb 5 – 7pm PT / Sun Feb 13 – 7pm PT     DISABILITY IS A DRAG! blends drag, poetry, video projection, lipsync, and original music to explore the experience of surviving as a multiply-disabled, transgender, non-binary, Chinese-American drag king, LOTUS BOY. When LOTUS BOY’s internal monologue comes to life, ze must learn to manage the conflicting advice of zir two alter egos: LOTUS ROOT, who is snarky, self-critical, and full of ancestral rage, vs. LOTUS BLOOM, who is patient, compassionate, and has an endless supply of free emotional labor. Through their sometimes campy, sometimes dramatic, and always brutally honest voice, LOTUS BOY unearths some of the realities of existing at the intersections of a capitalist, ableist, racist, transphobic society. Featuring original songs: “The Disability Song,” and “Accessibility,” and “Google is Free,” LOTUS BOY invites the audience to sing along, learn, and unlearn together.

Daniel Martinez in Me Again
Sun Jan 30 – 7pm PT / Fri Feb 11 – 7pm PT    ME AGAIN is a narrative solo performance about the character known as D. D grapples with the aftermath of being sexually assaulted after coming out of the closet. He’s lost, listless, and barely getting through each day and settles for a teaching job at his old school. D is faced with a peculiar situation when he shows up to his first day of work to find his bubbly 8-year old self as one of his own students. D literally comes face to face with his former self and has to keep his young spark alive while also finding the current spark buried deep inside himself.

Joyful Raven in Breed or Bust
Sun Feb 6 – 7pm PT / Sat Feb 12 – 7pm PT    To breed or not to breed: that is the question Joyful Raven wrestles with in her new solo show. Blending standup and storytelling, Raven recounts her difficult reproductive “choices ” and contends with her primal baby making instincts. Should she surrender to the role of weird aunty OR should she start a GoFundMe to freeze her geriatric eggs? With her breeding window rapidly shrinking, she reflects on her abortions, the father of her abortions, and the complexity of modern womanhood. Come for the laughs and stay for the sex education…in case you forgot how babies were made.

Chris Steele in My Grandmother Wore Pants
Fri Jan 28 – 7pm PT / Fri Feb 11 – 7pm PT     A choreopoem with lip sync and projections, MY GRANDMOTHER WORE PANTS chronicles four generations of the author’s matriarchy, from great-grandmother to self, as an investigation of the ways in which we must work to uproot inherited trauma. Pulling from personal experience, memory, anecdote, and Family historical records the performance examines the ways in a cultists religious upbringing affects femme people, how one’s proximity to white supremacy must always be investigated, and at its core is asks how much of our fate us up to choice versus chance versus genetics predisposition. A bittersweet celebration of the way we strive for order in the entropy of the universe, the performance veers between poetry, drag, and dance.

About the Artists

Rotimi Agbabiaka (all pronouns): Rotimi Agbabiaka uses humor, glamor, and drama to upset the status quo. Most recently, Rotimi originated the roles of Aladdin in The Magic Lamp (Presidio Theatre), Salima in House of Joy (CalShakes) and Cellphone in If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka (Playwrights Horizons, NYC). Other acting credits include roles at Yale Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Magic Theatre, Word for Word, BACCE, and the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Rotimi penned the solo shows Homeless and Type/Caste (Theatre Bay Area award); the musical, Seeing Red; and dazzles nightlife stages (as alter ego Miss Cleo Patois). www.rotimionline.com

Linda Amayo-Hassan (she/her/hers): Linda Amayo-Hassan is a Chicana/Native actor and playwright, and the Artistic Director of Theatre Cultura. Linda is also a singer, director, and theatre professor at Chabot College. Her most recent performance was in Beth Piatote’s Indian Reality show for Native Writers’ Theatre. Linda is currently under commission with PlayGround for her play LA VIDA LOBO which was featured in Best of PlayGround 23. She is a member of the Pear Playwrights Guild, SameBoat Theatre Collective, Native Writers and had the honor of attending The Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive in 2018.

Summer Broyhill (she/her): Summer Broyhill is an actor, dancer, choreographer, director, musician, singer, improviser, and writer.  She has performed on Broadway (Hairspray), National tours (Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Hairspray), Off Broadway (Killer Therapy, The Day Before Spring, and The Independents, a New York Times Critics’ Pick), and in numerous regional productions, short films, and web series.  She is particularly interested in reimagining classical text and exploring the comedy and magic inherent in our most vulnerable moments of transformation.  She also enjoys good, old-fashioned, banana-peel-slipping pratfalls.  MFA: Old Globe/ University of San Diego Graduate Acting Program.  summerbroyhill.com, @summerbroyhill on IG.

Sharon Eberhardt (she/her): Sharon Eberhardt’s previous solo performances, Crazy Famous and Savage Arts, were both performed at The Marsh and at Fringe festivals in Canada. For Playground-SF, Hands in Trash was a Best of Playground and You Can Radiate was her favorite.  Her plays have been performed in NY and across the U.S. She is working on a nonfiction book for kids about Million Dollar Math Problems –seven math mysteries with $1,000,000 prizes. She has an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University.

Elijah Jalil Paz Fisher (he/him/his): Elijah Jalil Paz Fisher is a human being, multidisciplinary social justice artist, and an athlete paving a way in the American Theatre landscape for underprivileged individuals and communities. One of his many life projects is building a next-level accessible, public arts institute within the Universe of Much Ease that reimagines the current system of teaching and learning. You can support this project and others through his Patreon, stream his original music under “Elijah Jalil” on all music streaming platforms (Tidal, Apple Music, Spotify, etc.), and/or follow one of his many artistic iterations on social media platforms.

Vicki Juditz (she/her): Vicki Juditz has performed her original stories at theaters and festivals across the country, including the National Storytelling Festival, Aspen LAFF Festival, and Jewish Women’s Theatre.  Her solo shows “Life After Life” and “Where do Babies Come From?” received rave reviews, and her solo show “Teshuvah, Return” was nominated for an Ovation Award and an LA Weekly Award.  Her story “Dancing at Joe’s” aired on The Moth Radio Hour.  She has played comic roles on TV, including “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Coach”, and in countless commercials.

M.J. Kang (She/Her/Hers): M.J. Kang is a playwright, actor, director, storyteller and improvisor based in Los Angeles and Montreal. She’s recently been commissioned by Portland Playhouse, Shotgun Players, and AFO Solo Shorts and her plays will be produced by Shakespeare in Action, Workman Arts and Enrichment Works this season. She continues to be part of the Playwrights Group at Company of Angels (second year), The Barrow Group’s Restorative Stories with Seth Barrish (second year,) and is part of the Writer’s Pool at Playground-LA. She’s had her plays produced at Son of Semele, Pan Asian Rep, Theater Passe Muraille, Tarragon Theater, Factory Theater, Blyth Festival Theater and others, as well as been playwright in residence at Nightwood Theater and Theater Passe Muraille. She’s nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best New Play and has received other awards, fellowships, and nominations. She has won 5 Moth slams as well as many other story slams. Her narration work on Scholastic’s The Girl From The Sea was recently awarded a SOVAS Award for  “Audiobook Narration – Teens – Best Voiceover” and she played Kwan Won-Ji on CBS’ Seal Team. As an actor, she’s appeared in film, television, and acted on stages across the US, Canada, and London, England.

LOTUS BOY (ze/they/he): LOTUS BOY is a shapeshifting, transgender & non-binary, disabled Chinese-American drag king who has been performing in occupied Ohlone land (the Bay Area) for the past 4 years. Ze uses zir art to explore the fluidity of gender, to advocate for accessibility, and to channel messages from his ancestors and his Highest Self about anger, healing, and hope. In November 2021, LOTUS BOY was a featured artist of the first ever Theyfriend: Non-Binary Performance Festival. You can follow their work on Instagram and TikTok: @kinglotusboy or on Facebook: LOTUS BOY

Daniel Martinez (he/him/his): Daniel Martinez is an award winning gay Mexican-American actor/writer from San Jose. Daniel is passionate about creating and performing stories that showcase characters you wouldn’t normally see in mainstream media. His web series pilot Play the Fool was featured in and honored by several film festivals. Daniel also starred in and wrote two short plays; We Need to Talk About New Year’s Eve, and The Pact. Daniel recently returned to the stage in Dress Blues as part of the Santa Cruz 8 Tens Festival. Me Again is Daniel’s first venture into solo performing, and this piece is extremely intimate. He’d like to give special thanks to Austin Bean for directing this piece and being a huge help every step of the way. Thank you to Mom, Dad, Candace, Gladys, and Odie for being patient with all the time spent locked away in his room, writing. And thank YOU for attending- whether by chance or by choice, Daniel is honored to share this story with you all.

Joyful Raven (she/her): Born into an iconic theater family, Joyful Raven is a seasoned performer. Her last solo comedy ‘Sexual Tomboy’ was dubbed  “…one of the funniest shows now on display on Bay Area stages” by the SF Chronicle in 2017. ‘Tomboy’ won “Best of the Fringe” at the 2016 San Francisco Fringe Festival and received an “Encore Performance” at the 2017 United Solo Festival in NYC. She holds an MFA in theater from UC Davis and teaches Solo Performance at Berkeley Rep School of Theater.

Chris Steele (they/them): Chris Steele is a queer trans nonbinary performance artist, writer, and activist whose work centers on highlighting queer narratives throughout history and combating bigotry and white supremacy. They are a co-founder of the subversive, queer, feminist collective Poltergeist Theatre Project through which they’ve funded and produced 3 years of world premiere works. 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. As a community activist, their work centers on connecting the Queer Trans community in the Bay with professional artistry opportunities. They are a founding member of the Trans & Gender Non-Conforming Advocacy Collective and the upcoming queer artistry resource BookBayDrag.com.

Performance Schedule

Friday, January 28, 2022, 7pm
Chris Steele in MY GRANDMOTHER WORE PANTS
Rotimi Agbabiaka In MANIFESTO

Saturday, January 29, 2022, 7pm
Vicki Juditz in SOLO AT THE END OF THE WORLD
M.J. Kang in THE WINNER

Sunday, January 30, 2022, 7pm
Daniel Martinez in ME AGAIN
Elijah Jalil Paz Fisher in SCREAMIN’ FROM THE ZOO

Friday, February 4, 2022, 7pm
Sharon Eberhardt in THE MARK OF THE MINOTAUR
Linda Amayo-Hassan in THE MISSING SONGS

Saturday, February 5, 2022, 7pm
Linda Amayo-Hassan in THE MISSING SONGS
US BOY in DISABILITY IS A DRAG!

Sunday, February 6, 2022, 7pm
Rotimi Agbabiaka in MANIFESTO
Joyful Raven in BREED OR BUST, direction by Jael Weisman

Friday, February 11, 2022, 7pm
Chris Steele in MY GRANDMOTHER WORE PANTS
Daniel Martinez in ME AGAIN

Saturday, February 12, 2022, 7pm
Joyful Raven in BREED OR BUST, direction by Jael Weisman
Summer Broyhill in DREAM LOVER

Sunday, February 13, 2022, 7pm
LOTUS BOY in DISABILITY IS A DRAG!
Sharon Eberhardt in THE MARK OF THE MINOTAUR

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