PlayGround’s 4th Annual Solo Fest Moves Online!
PlayGround announces the lineup for its fourth annual PlayGround Solo Performance Festival, a curation of the best in Bay Area solo performance, running January 22 to February 7 online via Zoom. The festival features 9 double-bill live-streamed performances by California artists over three weeks, including one-night-only featured highlights by Marga Gomez and Sara Moore, and Bay Area premiere performances by Diane M. Barnes, Steve Budd, Caroline Hawthorne, Mars Magee, Melissa Ortiz, Rayshawn Chism, Chris Steele AKA Polly Amber Ross, and Carla Vega. 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 already released for sale and are $15 for any double-bill with multiple accessibility options available upon request. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://playground-sf.org/solofest or email boxoffice@playground-sf.org.
Schedule of Performances and Show Synopses:
ONE-NIGHT-ONLY FEATURED PERFORMANCES:
Marga Gomez in Memory Tricks
Fri Jan 22 – 7pm PT
To commemorate the 30 year anniversary of the Off-Broadway premiere of Memory Tricks, Marga Gomez will perform its virtual adaptation for one night only. Memory Tricks is a heartfelt and occasionally sassy portrait of Gomez’s larger than life mother Margarita (AKA Margo The Exotic.) Following her mother’s hardscrabbled childhood in Puerto Rico to her upgrade as a renowned head-turning Latin dancer in New York, Marga illustrates the ill-advised second marriage and suburban captivity which led her mother to flee to Paris. Memory Tricks was presented in San Francisco at The Marsh, at New York’s Public Theater, and internationally.
Sara Toby Moore in Thrillrider: Sara Moore’s Greatest Hits Vol. 2
Fri Jan 29 – 7pm PT
A kind of rummage sale, a smorgasbord, no wait – an amusement ride through some of Moore’s indelible, strange, funny, shocking characters from past shows. And maybe a surprise. Whatever happens, we know you’ll have a blast.
BAY AREA PREMIERES:
Diane M. Barnes in Not One of Us
Sat Jan 23 – 7pm PT / Fri Feb 5 – 7pm PT
Not One of Us is a comedic/dramatic exploration of class, race, gender and privilege from Yale Medical School to Lagos Nigeria, from practicing medicine to becoming a patient.
Steve Budd in What They Said About Sex
Sun Jan 24 – 7pm PT / Sat Feb 6 – 7pm PT
Ever wonder what other people know about sex that you don’t? Meet a gay man, a polyamorous woman, a trans man, and an octogenarian, and take a ride through their stories, struggles, and secrets—and Steve’s.
Caroline Hawthorne in The Slutty Virgin
Sun Jan 24 – 7pm PT / Sat Jan 30 – 7pm PT
Vulgar, brash, and honest, The Slutty Virgin is a feminist, musical comedy that explores being obsessed with sex and terrified of it at the same time.
Mars Magee in The Painter’s Oubliette by Christopher Magee
Sat Jan 30 – 7pm PT / Sun Feb 7 – 7pm PT
Locked away in a dungeon for years, utterly forgotten, painter Augustus Grey hallucinates a spectral visitor. To this new guest Augustus recounts his past and reveals his life’s work: a series of paintings lining the cell walls. Mad with loneliness he has crafted a meticulous world in miniature, one with plotting vermin, a nemesis in the flea Artorius Tyrannus Snell, and the landscapes and characters he’s painted all around him. Company at last, finally someone with which to share all of it!
Melissa Ortiz in F L I G H T by Neiry Rojo, direction by Christian Haines
Fri Jan 29 – 7pm PT / Sat Feb 6 – 7pm PT
Gemma sips her last flight of tea as she relives the most pivotal moments in her life, cup by cup. A magical realism journey inspired by Renee Magritte’s paintings.
Rayshawn Chism in Beethoven and Misfortune Cookies by Joni Ravenna, direction by Allison Bergman
Sat Jan 23 – 7pm PT / Sun Jan 31 – 7pm PT
An African American professor from the University of Arkansas is fired after a complaint from a white student; the journey of a music professor teaching in the south who truly mattered to his students, until the university decided that he didn’t.
Chris Steele AKA Polly Amber Ross in The Bride: How to Take Every Wrong Turn and End in the Right Place
Fri Jan 22 – 7pm PT / Sun Feb 7 – 7pm PT
In spite of being the titular character, the Bride of Frankenstein has a whopping three minutes of screen time. How did this blip from a bastardized silver screen retelling of Mary Wolstonecraft Shelley’s first novel become so instantly iconic? This solo performance through drag aims to dissect the problematic queer classic, and find the still-beating heart of cinema’s first diva of horror.
Carla Vega in Grandma’s Hands, direction by Shyamala Moorty
Sun Jan 31 – 7pm PT / Fri Feb 5 – 7pm PT
Grandma’s Hands is a touching exploration of ancestry that weaves multiple characters, poetry, movement and music to connect to a universal thread of our humanity through memories, magic, spirit and soul.
Artist Bios:
Marga Gomez (she/they) is a teaching artist, comedian and writer/performer of thirteen solo plays which have been presented nationally, internationally, and at Bay Area venues. Since the pandemic Gomez has applied herself to adapting solo theatre from stage to the virtual medium, being featured in several online theater festivals from New York to San Diego. In 2020 she was awarded a grant by Center For Cultural Innovation to launch her first radio play. Gomez offers one-to-one coaching for virtual performance. Information can be found at margagomez.com.
Sara Toby Moore (she/they) is a physical comic, poet, actor, multi-award winner, “action librettist” and character morpher. Toby has been on the scene in San Francisco for over 2 decades creating and performing material in an ever expanding variety of theatres & circuses. Prior to this she ran the gamut from Ringling Bros. to the Tropicana Casino to Off-Broadway. She’s “Boss Clown” at Circus Center where she trains people in human animation & she was damn lucky in 2019 to squeeze two shows in before lockdown, Atomic Clown at Potrero Stage and The Supers at Z Space, both pushing the boundaries of what American clowning can be.
Diane M. Barnes (she/her) is an actor, writer and speaker. Her award winning solo show, My Stroke of Luck, developed with David Ford, shared her story of stroke, recovery and reinvention as a single mother and working physician. Extended multiple times at The Marsh, it has played internationally, and at numerous theater festivals. Barnes is a Meisner-trained actor and BATS trained improvisor. She completed the Global Identities Workshop with Anna Deveare Smith, ACT Summer Intensives and Berkeley Rep Spring Intensive. She is a graduate of Stanford University and the Yale University School of Medicine, with postdoc training at UCSF and Stanford.
Steve Budd (he/him) is an actor, writer, storyteller, standup comic, and award-winning solo performer. Steve has performed with the San Francisco Playhouse, Custom Made Theatre, New Conservatory Theatre, Central Works, Marin Shakespeare, and The English Theatre Company of Israel. He’s appeared at the Punch Line, Tommy T’s, and Rooster T Feathers. His solo show What They Said About Love enjoyed an extended run at The Marsh in 2018 and was chosen as a Top 5 Solo Show by Theatre Bay Area. Steve has toured the show in NYC, Boston, Indianapolis, Portland, L.A., Ottawa, and London.
Caroline Hawthorne (she/her) is an actress, singer, and comedian from Los Angeles, California. She has performed in many artistic mediums, from opera to Shakespeare to stand-up. She also wrote the satirical advice column “The Crazy Kazoo Lady”. She was recently an apprentice at the Commonweal Theatre Company, where she sound designed and acted in The Fox. She is a graduate of Oklahoma City University for acting and Los Angeles County High School for the Arts for classical voice. Check out her podcast “The Gays, the Goys, and the Jews” as well as her YouTube channel “CaroltheComic”.
Mars Magee (he/they) loves monkeys, bees, D&D, pirates, rum, cryptids, witchcraft and English lawn bowling. However he’s thinking about giving all that up to reenact classic westerns with his stuffed animals in his room.
Christopher Magee (he/him) is the Artistic Director for the Moonrisers. He is from Montana.
Melissa Ortiz (she/her) is a Playground Company member & Ambassador. Most recently she has played Lila in The Moonrisers’ Baboons in the Nighthouse and Regan in SF Shakespeare’s King Lear. She’d like to thank her family and her husband, for their love and support, and Neiry Rojo for writing this amazing play.
Neiry Rojo (she/her) is a theatre artist interested in finding ways to challenge the status quo in the theatre industry. She has most recently worked as an actress with OurDigitalStories, PlayGround Zoom Fest, and Central Works. She has previously worked with San Francisco Playhouse, Z Space, Marin Theatre Company, Livermore Shakespeare Company, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, PianoFight, and more. She has directed for ShotzSF, PlayGround Zoom Fest, and Ross Valley Players. She has worked as a teaching artist with American Conservatory Theatre and is a PlayGround company member. Theatre belongs to all. Black Lives Matter.
Christian Haines (he/him) is the founding Artistic Director of AmiosNYC and ShotzSF in San Francisco. Directing credits: Ripcord (Altarena), Bus Stop, Boeing Boeing (RVP), The Guys (Pear) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Tides), A Message (Arabian Shakes), Heroes and Other Strangers (Best of Fringe NYC). MFA in acting from the National Theatre Conservatory. Love to family, friends and Melissa.
Rayshawn Chism (he/him) has been acting since 2011. He has appeared in over 20 stage productions throughout Los Angeles. Also he has appeared in multiple web series and short films, which has garnered him 2 awards. Rayshawn is grateful for the opportunity to be part of such an astounding piece.
Joni Ravenna (she/her), multi-hyphenate, was head writer of ACE Nominated, “Great Sports Vacations,” 36-part series which was at one time The Travel Channel’s highest rated show. Her plays have been produced all over the country. She’s also a journalist and the co-author of “You Let Some GIRL Beat You? – The Story of Ann Meyers Drysdale” which is the 2020 Book Pipeline Adaptation Runner Up (out of 1700 published books). The Pipeline team is currently pursuing a film deal.
Allison Bergman (she/her) has directed over 40 stage productions on both coasts, including large musicals and world premieres. Her latest film project has garnered a 2020 Accolade Global Award of Merit. A highly sought-after dramaturg, Ms. Bergman has helped notable writers and producers develop new scripts and adapt popular movies for Broadway and international production. Her book Acting the Song is widely used in theatre training programs as a textbook and a teacher’s guide. Ms. Bergman is a member of Directors Lab West and a proud graduate of Carnegie Mellon and Boston University. Please visit www.allisonbergman.com for more.
Chris Steele (they/them) is a queer trans-nonbinary performance artist, writer, activist, and horror enthusiast. Their work centers on highlighting queer narratives throughout history and combating bigotry and white supremacy. They have performed across the Bay Area in productions with We Players, New Conservatory Theatre Center, Cutting Ball Theatre, SF Shakespeare Festival, Spare Stage, and more. They’re a co-founder of queer theater collective Poltergeist Theatre Project where they wrote and debuted The Julie Cycle and I Am Dracula: a docudrama experiment, and their award-winning drag personas Polly Amber Ross & Peter Pansexual can be found on instagram @pollyandpeter.
Carla Vega (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary performing artist based in Los Angeles, with roots in San Francisco. Her 20+ years of local and international experience includes acting on stages and screen, writing poetry & solo shows, singing, martial arts/ dance/ yoga, teaching and spirit. She is a company member of PlaygroundLA Theatre Co., Los Angeles Playback Theatre Co., Kaiser Permanente’s CareActors, TeAda Productions teaching artist & collaborator/singer/actor with Great Leap, Inc. Carla believes in the power of the performing arts and storytelling as catalysts for healing, inspiration, compassion & positive social change & justice.
Shyamala Moorty (she/her) is a director, writer and choreographer who is dedicated to healing, connecting, and transforming individuals and communities. She is a founding member of the Post Natyam Collective and The Dancing Storytellers, and has performed across the U.S. as well as in Canada, Europe and India. As a director, Shyamala specializes in nurturing and growing the visions of multi-disciplinary solo artists. Please visit her website at www.shyamalamoorty.com.
PlayGround Solo Performance Festival
Performance Schedule
Friday, January 22, 2021, 7pm
Marga Gomez in Memory Tricks
Chris Steele AKA Polly Amber Ross in The Bride: How to Take Every Wrong Turn and End in the Right Place
Saturday, January 23, 2021, 7pm
Rayshawn Chism in Beethoven and Misfortune Cookies by Joni Ravenna, direction by Allison Bergman
Diane Barnes in Not One of Us
Sunday, January 24, 2021, 7pm
Steve Budd in What They Said About Sex
Caroline Hawthorne in The Slutty Virgin
Friday, January 29, 2021, 7pm
Sara Toby Moore in Thrillrider: Sara Moore’s Greatest Hits Vol. 2
Melissa Ortiz in F L I G H T by Neiry Rojo, direction by Christian Haines
Saturday, January 30, 2021, 7pm
Caroline Hawthorne in The Slutty Virgin
Mars Magee in The Painter’s Oubliette by Christopher Magee
Sunday, January 31, 2021, 7pm
Rayshawn Chism in Beethoven and Misfortune Cookies by Joni Ravenna, direction by Allison Bergman
Carla Vega in Grandma’s Hands, direction by Shyamala Moorty
Friday, February 5, 2021, 7pm
Diane Barnes in Not One of Us
Carla Vega in Grandma’s Hands, direction by Shyamala Moorty
Saturday, February 6, 2021, 7pm
Steve Budd in What They Said About Sex
Melissa Ortiz in F L I G H T by Neiry Rojo, direction by Christian Haines
Sunday, February 7, 2021, 7pm
Chris Steele AKA Polly Amber Ross in The Bride: How to Take Every Wrong Turn and End in the Right Place
Mars Magee in The Painter’s Oubliette by Christopher Magee
For tickets and more information, visit http://playground-sf.org/solofest or call (415) 992-6677.