PlayGround presents the 3rd Annual Solo Fest!

PlayGround has announced the lineup for its third annual PlayGround Solo Performance Festival, a curation of the best in Bay Area solo performance, celebrating diversity and innovation, running January 23 to February 9 at Potrero Stage. The festival features 12 double-bill performances by 11 local artists over three weeks, including premier performances by John Fisher, Jessica Bates, Annamarie MacLeod, Trixxie Carr, Vera Hannush, Llano River Blue, Emil Guillermo, and Christopher Magee; also featuring performances by Geoffrey Pond, Houston Robertson, and Talisha Tolliver, bringing fresh development to existing content. In their continuing efforts towards inclusion and accessibility, PlayGround opens their stage to the next generation of performers with a special Open Mic Night on Monday, January 27 at 8pm, hosted by San Francisco drag innovator Polly Amber Ross. This year’s festival was curated as a celebration of the intersectionality and diversity that exemplifies Bay Area artistry, 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 $31.50 – $46.50 with multiple accessibility options available upon request. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://playground-sf.org/solofest or call (415) 992-6677.

SCHEDULE OF PERFORMANCES AND SHOW SYNOPSES:

BAY AREA PREMIERES:

John Fisher A HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR
Thurs Jan 23-8PM / Sat Jan 25-8PM
An incisive examination of the American Civil War framed through the childlike lens of “playing war,” History of the Civil War is an adventure story about America’s bad habit of hiding behind “states rights” when what it really means is prejudice.

Jessica Bates WAITING ROOM
Fri Jan 24-8PM / Sun Feb 2-7PM / Fri Feb 7-8PM
A one-woman musical about hope, tenacity, and the courage to keep showing up for our dreams, Jessica chronicles her battles with breast cancer and a life in the theater through original music, dance, and storytelling.

Annamarie MacLeod FULL FATHOM FIVE
Sun Jan 26-7PM / Thurs Jan 30-8pm / Fri Feb 7-8pm
An intimate investigation of Annamarie’s passage through postpartum depression in the form of spoken word.

Trixxie Carr HERSELF
Sun Jan 26-7PM / Thurs Feb 6-8PM
A wild and subversive investigation of gender and identity in the mainstream and its many subcultures, this introduction/indoctrination into Trixxie’s expectation-defying drag style is a celebration of the individual in all of us.

Vera Hannush SWANA KING
Sat Jan 25-8PM / Sat Feb 1-8PM
A performance collage that explores the (resolvable?) tensions between gender expression expectations in Southwest Asian and North African & Middle Eastern culture through dance, drag, dance as drag, Arabic Gotye covers, a cousin’s song about grape leaves, and flying keffiyehs!

Llano River Blue SELF-MADE GIRL
Sat Feb 8-8PM
Through storytelling, live music, and drag performance, Llano River Blue opens up about discovering, exploring, and expressing her queer gender identity. From pivotal moments in her childhood, to coming out as a teenager, and then coming into her own as part of the SF Bay Area’s performance art scene, Llano documents her gender odyssey towards becoming a self-made girl.

Emil Guillermo EMIL AMOK: MARRIED TO PETA AND OTHER LOVE STORIES
Sat Feb 1-8PM / Thurs Feb 6-8PM
In this intimate comic epic, Emil explores the sexual jealousy that defined his life when racism and anti-intermarriage laws in America combined to prevent his father from starting a family for 30 years, juxtaposed against his own intermarriage to a white woman, who is also a vice president at PETA. The similarities between racism and speciesism are investigated as she turns him from a raging animalistic meat-eater into a vegan. Culminating in a road-trip across America to care for his wife’s elderly father, born in Appalachia, this tale of intergenerational identity is a love story to the unique personal narratives that expose the diverse core at our country’s core.

Christopher Magee A KINK IN THE HOSE
Fri Jan 31-8PM / Sun Feb 9-7PM
Join aquatic adventurer Eino Janssen as he explores and observes rare and exotic sea life found only in the deep ocean trenches below the Yrjö Fjord. Whether it be the bizarre Squellete Fish that imitates dead relatives, the iridescent multicolored coral, the skull rattling Yorbo Drum Fish, or the 6-inch Funereal Eel that releases depressant ink as a defense measure, the Fjord is full of unique and magical fish to discover. Forget the surface and dive into a rarely experienced wonderland below the waves with this world premiere work from PlayGround Innovator Incubatee ‘The Moonrisers’.

EXISTING PERFORMANCES IN NEW EVOLUTIONS:

Geoffrey Pond I’M ALWAYS DRUNK IN SAN FRANCISCO
Fri Jan 24-8PM / Fri Jan 31-8PM
A loving tribute to the culture and history of the greatest city in the world by some of the greatest writers of all time, featuring music and storytelling San Francisco history comes to life in a fun and lively show created and performed by Subterranean Shakespeare’s artistic director Geoffrey Pond.

Houston Robertson THE STORY OF A NICE WHITE LADY
Thurs Jan 30-8pm / Sun Feb 9-7PM
In The Story of a Nice White Lady–a confessional scolding of nice white ladies through storytelling and Houston’s trademark humor–Houston suggests “good intentions are not good enough” as she parallels her personal story with a conveniently titled storybook to highlight the clueless racism and homophobia of “nice white ladies” and pays tribute to her mother who seemed to have no racial walls.

Talisha Tolliver SIR, I’M SORRY, MA’AM! (2020 EDITION!)
Thurs Jan 23-8PM / Sun Feb 2-7PM / Sat Feb 8-8PM
“How tall are you?” “Do you play basketball?” “How can I raise my grade?” “Can I get extra credit?” “Did you know you fit the description?” “Are you on parole or probation?” The answers to these questions and the stories that accompany them are revealed through the many characters of Talisha’s inspired imagination.  Tackling mistaken gender identity, single life, mental health, the education system, and racial profiling, Talisha’s stories relate her experience as a tall, outspoken, educated, Black teacher.

PERFORMER BIOS:

Jessica Bates is an actress, singer-songwriter, teacher, and choreographer. She has been performing and teaching professionally for twenty years. She trained at The Central School of Speech and Drama in London. While abroad, she performed with the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival and Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival. In the US, she has worked with esteemed choreographer Martha Clarke and played lead roles in two National Tours in addition to performing with many Regional Theatres across the country. She has worked as a teaching artist with SFartsED, Leap, and Word for Word and performed with Capital Stage, and the Idaho Shakespeare Festival.

Llano River Blue is a performer, creator, designer, and popular craftsperson featured regularly at SF community events like the Castro Street Fair. The through-line in Llano’s art is storytelling. Whether that’s acting and animating for her sci-fi YouTube series, Chenille Stems & the Dream Machine, writing songs with The Sweet Trade (available on iTunes & Spotify), creating elaborate costumes and narratives through drag, or sharing her own story in shows like Self-Made Girl.

Trixxie Carr is a musician, drag queen and multimedia artist who plays with iconography and myth – truly she is a high art fetish, working on many different levels. Always pushing boundaries and defying assumptions, her politically subversive drag created a shockwave in San Francisco, and has dazzled, shocked and seduced audiences internationally, at festivals such as AND (UK), and LUFF (CH). Cyndi WIlson from the B52’s said she was “very talented”, and Jane Weidlin from the Go-Go’s taught her how to guitar sync. A ferociously fearless comic by nature, she continues to flaunt her individuality, refusing to conform to preconceived standards.

John Fisher is the Executive Director for the historic Theatre Rhinoceros.  John’s recognitions include 2019 TBA Award for Outstanding Direction of a Play for his play Action Hero, which was nominated for six TBA Awards including Best World Premiere and Best Production; Best Actor Award – United Solo Festival, NYC for his long-running hit A History of World War II; two-time recipient of the Will Glickman Award for Playwriting.

Emil Amok Guillermo is an award-winning journalist at www.amok.com, SF native, and former host of NPR’s “All Things Considered.” His “Amok Monologues” are adapted from a column collection that won an American Book Award. A Filipino American, he graduated from Harvard, and has developed his work through classes at the SF Marsh and Berkeley Rep, performed in the Bay Area at SF Solofest, and around the country at the San Diego Fringe, Baltimore Fringe, Orlando Fringe, and the Cap City Fringe. 

Vera Hannush has been in the performance world for 8+ years, known for holding awkwardly long eye contact, resembling an Armenian Weird Al, and hitting the splits. Vera is one of the Rebel Kings of Oakland, Pacific Center Board President, LGBT National Hotline operator, YEAH! Youth Shelter volunteer, and SWANABAQ member.

Annamarie MacLeod has worked locally with the Arabian Shakespeare Festival (with whom she is an artistic associate), the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Pacific Repertory Theatre, New Conservatory Theatre Center, the Pear Ave Theatre, theatre Q, the Ragged Wing Ensemble, and Dragon Productions. Ms. MacLeod trained in New York at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, and in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. This piece was developed with David Ford and is her first foray in solo performance. It is dedicated to all the women who fought and are fighting PPD.

Christopher Magee is a playwright and founding member of The Moonrisers Productions. He is from Montana. The Moonrisers were one of 6 companies selected by PlayGround to be a part of their inaugural Innovator Incubator.  Since their inception, Moonrisers have produced 9 world premier plays, penned by Christopher. In the Bay you may have seen “The Inn at Derbyshire”, “The Moonrisers”, “Reginald and Ruckus: Werewolf Hunters”, or their recent “Darling Marjorie’s Arboretum” developed as part of the PlayGround 2019 Innovator Incubator Showcase.

Geoffrey Pond has been a participant in some of the great eras of Bay Area culture the past 50 years. He has produced and performed everything from punk rock to Shakespeare. As an actor he has played Claudius, and Falstaff, and Shelly Levine in Glengarry Glen Ross, among many other roles. He directed John O’Keefe’s renowned anti-play Mimzabim! that ran in Berkeley and San Francisco 12 weeks to critical acclaim.  He has been artistic director of Subterranean Shakespeare since 2001. Recently he produced two critically-acclaimed CDs, Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits and Folkspeare. Currently he is the front man for The Temple Beautiful Band. 

Houston Robertson, 83, is a retired human resources professional and brings to her solo work her experience as a writer, motivational speaker, and award-winning clown.  She has been called a “gutsy storyteller” and “an insanely expressive and inspiring spirit,” qualities that inhabit her memoir, Paper Chain Confessions, which is available through Amazon.com.

Talisha Tolliver is the charismatic, witty math teacher people wish they had in school. (Do they know that you quit teaching? Shhh! No spoilers!) The actor, writer, comedian, flashmob dancer, and creator of MAFF (Math Activities For Fun) is known for eccentric characters and using humor to create friends out of strangers. (Don’t forget Sir, I’m Sorry, Ma’am! You loved doing that show! The new and improved version is going to be awesome!)

PlayGround Solo Performance Festival

Performance Schedule

Thursday, January 23, 2020, 8pm
Talisha Tolliver SIR, I’M SORRY, MA’AM! (2020 EDITION!)
John Fisher A HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR

Friday, January 24, 2019, 8pm
Jessica Bates WAITING ROOM
Geoffrey Pond I’M ALWAYS DRUNK IN SAN FRANCISCO

Saturday, January 25, 2019, 8pm
Vera Hannush SWANA KING
John Fisher A HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR

Sunday, January 26, 2019, 7pm
Trixxie Carr HERSELF
Annamarie Macleod FULL FATHOM FIVE

Monday, January 27, 2019, 8pm
Open Mic Night! Hosted by drag innovator Polly Amber Ross

Thursday, January 30, 2019, 8pm
Houston Robertson THE STORY OF A NICE WHITE LADY
Annamarie Macleod FULL FATHOM FIVE

Friday, January 31, 2019, 8pm
Geoffrey Pond I’M ALWAYS DRUNK IN SAN FRANCISCO
Christopher Magee A KINK IN THE HOSE

Saturday, February 1, 2019, 8pm
Emil Guillermo EMIL AMOK: MARRIED TO PETA AND OTHER LOVE STORIES
Vera Hannush SWANA KING

Sunday, February 2, 2019, 7pm
Jessica Bates WAITING ROOM
Talisha Tolliver SIR, I’M SORRY, MA’AM! (2020 EDITION!)

Thursday, February 6, 2019, 8pm
Emil Guillermo EMIL AMOK: MARRIED TO PETA AND OTHER LOVE STORIES
Trixxie Carr HERSELF

Friday, February 7, 2019, 8pm
Jessica Bates WAITING ROOM
Annamarie Macleod FULL FATHOM FIVE

Saturday, February 8, 2019, 8pm
Llano River Blue SELF-MADE GIRL
Talisha Tolliver SIR, I’M SORRY, MA’AM! (2020 EDITION!)

Sunday, February 9, 2019, 7pm
Houston Robertson THE STORY OF A NICE WHITE LADY
Christopher Magee A KINK IN THE HOSE

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