PlayGround on the Big Screen / Mar 23 & Mar 30

Missed a Monday Night PlayGround? We got you! Announcing MONDAY NIGHT PLAYGROUND LIVE, a special in-person screening at Potrero Stage of the entire 30th season of Monday Night PlayGround, offered over two Saturdays, at 6pm, 7:30pm, and 9pm on March 23 and 30. Join fellow PlayGround lovers for performances originally performed for a live audience at Freight & Salvage and Potrero Stage from October through March and captured via our unique 3-camera HD livestream, projected cinema-style on the big screen! On Saturday, March 23, PlayGround will present the performances from Oct (“The Origin Story”), Nov (“The Legacy of the Land We Inhabit”), and Dec (“Surviving the Holidays”) at 6pm, 7:30pm and 9pm, respectively. The following weekend, on Saturday, March 30, PlayGround will present the final three rounds, Jan (“The Shakespeare Multiverse”), Feb (“Flashback: 1994”) and Mar (“Reclaiming Herstory”), at 6pm, 7:30pm and 9pm, respectively. Admission for all screenings is free (donations gratefully accepted) and concessions will be available. Tickets can be reserved at https://tickets.playground-sf.org/TheatreManager/1/online?event=374.

Monday Night PlayGround is PlayGround’s founding program and, over the past 30 years, has supported the development of over 1,000 original ten-minute plays by some of the Bay Area’s most promising new playwrights. Monday Night alumni include: Lauren Yee, Christopher Chen, Jonathan Spector, Geetha Reddy, Cleavon Smith, Aaron Loeb, Marisela Treviño Orta, and Rachel Bublitz, among countless others.

Screening Schedule

March 23 @ 6pm PT
Monday Night PlayGround: Origin Story (Oct-2023)
Gothamopolisville and the NGA by Elizabeth Flanagan
Iván y El Justiciero by Justin P. Lopez
The Aisle by Daniel Martinez Jr.
Where Does a Piece of Paper Come From by Xinyuan Pu
Madam Gorgo by Kimberly Ridgeway
America Chavez: Particle Flyer by Lisa Gaye Thompson

March 23 @ 7:30pm PT
Monday Night PlayGround: The Legacy of the Land We Inhabit (Nov-2023)
Indigo Dusk by Robyn Brooks
Life on Mars by Sam Hurwitt
Mom and Dad’s House by Sarena Kuhn
Acknowledgment by Justin P. Lopez
Fertile Soil by Bridgette Dutta Portman
Acknowledgment by Louel Señores

March 23 @ 9pm PT
Monday Night PlayGround: Surviving the Holidays (Dec-2023)
Tom and Kat and The Journey of The Wonderful by Ruth Kirschner
Light Speed to New Years by Mikee Loria
Off the Shelf by Daniel Martinez, Jr.
Christmas Spirits by Bridgette Dutta Portman
The Negotiators by Kimberly Ridgeway
Zephyr by Michael Tuton

March 30 @ 6pm PT
Monday Night PlayGround: The Shakespeare Multiverse (Jan-2024)
Coronation Day by Jediah Craig
Juliet’s Post Credits Scene by Greg Lam
The Antonio Play by Jennifer Le Blanc
Less than Noble by Kimberly Ridgeway
Queer (Shakes)Peer Support Group by Kaz Valtchev
The Selfish Atlas or How Hamlet Got His Groove Back by Christian Wilburn

March 30 @ 7:30pm PT
Monday Night PlayGround: Flashback-1994 (Feb-2024)
Mom Overkill by Tejahra Jacobs
Prop Fiction by Mikee Loria,
Diana Laura by Matthew Y. Morishige
Better Unkept by Louel Señores
Mack & Mimi Encounter Totality by Lisa Gaye Thompson
Pulp Legislation by Maury Zeff

March 30 @ 9pm PT
Monday Night PlayGround: Reclaiming Herstory (Mar-2024)
Bessie in Medias Res by Robyn Brooks
The Elaborate Entrance of Delia Bacon by Jennifer Le Blanc
Corazon y Alma by Richard Perez
Jocasta Regina by Bridgette Dutta Portman
Freedom by Stan Stone
Welcome to the Club by Lisa Gaye Thompson

Why Free?

PlayGround has made all programs admission-free in furtherance of our commitment to radical accessibility. If you are able, we hope that you’ll consider donating with your free ticket reservation, recognizing that your direct support makes it possible for us to continue providing fair and equitable wages for professional artists while sustaining our radical accessibility efforts for all.

PlayGround Company

PlayGround’s 2023-24 Writers Pool, the thirty-six Bay Area-based writers competitively selected to participate in the monthly series, are: Daniel Baxter, Robyn Brooks, Nicole Apostol Bruno, Madeleine Butler, Jediah Craig, Cherielyn Ferguson, Elizabeth Flanagan, Ipsheeta Furtado, KT Frances Hartline, Sam Hurwitt, Tejahra Jacobs, Ruth Kirschner, Steve Koppman, Sarena Kuhn, Greg Lam, Jennifer Le Blanc, Kristy Lin Billuni, Justin P. Lopez, Mikee Loria, Daniel Martinez, Jr, Alanna McFall, Matthew Morishige, Richard Perez, Bridgette Dutta Portman, Xinyuan Pu, Kimberly Ridgeway, George Rose, David Schweidel, Louel Senores, Stan Stone, Lisa Thompson, Mike Tuton, Kaz Valtchev, Michael Waterson, Christian Wilburn, and Maury Zeff.

Supporting PlayGround playwrights and the Monday Night series are the members of the PlayGround Company, representing some of the Bay Area’s leading directors, actors, designers, and stage managers. The 2023-24 PlayGround Company includes: Molly Aaronson-Gelb, Angel Adedokun, Patrick Alparone, Linda Amayo-Hassan, Liz Anderson, Rinabeth Apostol, Michael Asberry, Michael Barrett Austin, Mary Baird, April Ballesteros, Tanika Baptiste, Aldo Billingslea, Millie Brooks, Julia Brothers, Nicole Apostol Bruno, Lizzie Calogero, Ron Campbell, Joy Carlin, Nancy Carlin, Ben Chau-Chiu, Tessa Corrie, David Cramer, Will Dao, Anne Darragh, Roshni Datta, Khalia Davis, Natalia Delgado, Dodds Delzell, Livia Gomes Demarchi, Carolyn Doyle, Leticia Duarte, Nora el Samahy, Rebecca Ennals, Gisela Feied, Britney Frazier, Michael French, Claire Ganem, Sarah Gasser, Norman Gee, Douglas B. Giorgis, Linda Giron, Amy Glazer, Cindy Goldfield, BW Gonzalez, Gabriel Grilli, Rudy Guerrero, Rosie Hallett, Katherine Hamilton, Eric Fraisher Hayes, Brian Herndon, Champagne Hughes, J Jha, Colin Johnson, Jennifer King, Dean Koya, Danielle Levin, Amy Lizardo, Jeffrey Lo, Gwen Loeb, George Maguire, Melanie Marshall, Alicia Mason, Leontyne Mbele-Mbong, Julia McNeal, Sam Misner, Brady Morales-Woolery, Lisa Morse, Khary L. Moye, Molly Noble, Karen Offereins, Annette Oliveira, Soren Oliver, Ely Sonny Orquiza, Tony Ortega, Doyle Ott, June Palladino, Carla Pantoja, Louis Parnell, Jed Parsario, Michael Phillis, Krystle Piamonte, Rebecca Pingree, Stephanie Prentice, Ezra Reaves, Virginia Reed, Cathleen Riddley, Kimberly Ridgeway, Katja Rivera, Adrian Roberts, Stacy Ross, Adam Roy, Katie Rubin, Patrick Russell, Miyoko Sakatani, Louel Senores, Robert Sicular, Jeunee Simon, M. Graham Smith, Ken Sonkin, Lauren Spencer, Teddy Spencer, Chris Steele, Howard Swain, Jomar Tagatac, Emilie Talbot, Danielle Thys, Isabel Anne To, Jon Tracy, Dane Troy, Mark Rafael Truitt, Liam Vincent, Ian Walker, Maryssa Wanlass, Tracy Ward, Reggie D. White, Christian Wilburn, Elena Wright, and Hector Zavala.

PlayGround, a leading national playwright incubator, provides unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s, Los Angeles’, New York’s, and Chicago’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 350 early career playwrights, developing and staging more than 1,500 of their original short plays through the Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series and the PlayGround Festival. PlayGround has also commissioned 100 new full-length plays by 60 of these writers through its Commissioning Initiative and, through the innovative New Play Production Fund, has directly facilitated the premiere of 36 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, Glickman Awards (including 6 of the last 10), O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and New York International Fringe Festival, 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.