Potrero Stagers Digital Launch Party!

PlayGround and the Potrero Stage community will celebrate the launch of the new POTRERO STAGERS membership program with a free digital launch party and evening of performances on Saturday, May 1, 7pm-8:15pm PDT via Zoom livestream. Co-hosted by beloved local performers Marga Gomez and Liam Vincent, the event will feature short performances by more than a dozen artists and companies, including: Diane M. Barnes (“Not One of Us”), Rayshawn Chism (“Beethoven and Misfortune Cookies”), Chris Steele AKA Polly Amber Ross (“The Bride”), Analog Theatre, The Chikahan Company, The Forum Collective, The Moonrisers, PlayGround, Poltergeist Theatre Project, Theatre Cultura, and more! The event is free but advance reservations are required. One reservation = one Zoom link good for up to two devices. For the complete launch party lineup and to reserve a ticket, visit https://potrerostage.org/stagers.

Potrero Stagers is a paid membership program that unlocks access to Potrero Stage digital programming (live and on-demand), priority reservations for in-venue seats, and access to the creators and creative processes of the many producers housed at Potrero Stage through monthly member-only events and an exclusive Potrero Stagers member newsletter. Potrero Stagers gain immediate access to more than 50 digitally-accessible events each year, including the PlayGround Solo Performance Festival, PlayGround Festival of New Works (aka Zoom Fest), and PlayGround Innovators Showcase, featuring the work of nearly a dozen innovative new theatre companies. If you are seeking ways to ensure the continued innovation of Bay Area artistry post-pandemic, join in this community-targeted membership and get to know the full diaspora of groundbreaking art housed at Potrero Stage! A Potrero Stagers membership is just $60 per year or $5 per month with options to pay-as-you-go or reserve your year with one upfront sum. Working artists enjoy membership at half-price: just $30 per year or $2.50 per month!

For more information, visit https://potrerostage.org/stagers or contact PlayGround at boxoffice@playground-sf.org.

PlayGround, California’s leading playwright incubator, provides unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s (and now Los Angeles’) 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 200 early career playwrights, developing and staging more than 950 of their original short plays through the Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series and the PlayGround Festival. PlayGround has also commissioned 85 new full-length plays by 55 of these writers through its Commissioning Initiative and, through the innovative New Play Production Fund, has directly facilitated the premiere of 30 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, Humana Festival, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and The Lark’s Playwrights’ Week, 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. Visit https://playground-sf.org for more information.

Potrero Stage is a 99-seat state-of-the-art performance space located in the heart of San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, operated by PlayGround, and serving as 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. While the venue is closed during the COVID pandemic, Potrero Stage will highlight the best in online programming by PlayGround, Potrero Stage resident companies and other Potrero Stage producers. And, now through the Potrero Stagers membership program, PlayGround provides opportunities for access to and engagement with some of the Bay Area’s most innovative artists and companies. For more information, visit https://potrerostage.org.

WHAT: Potrero Stagers Digital Launch Party, a free, live 75-minute Zoom performance and party featuring the best in Bay Area theatre and celebrating the launch of Potrero Stagers, a new membership program granting exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the artistry and community housed at Potrero Stage. Co-hosted by Marga Gomez & Liam Vincent and featuring works by Diane M. Barnes (“Not One of Us”), Joni Ravenna & Rayshawn Chism (“Beethoven and Misfortune Cookies”), Chris Steele AKA Polly Amber Ross (“The Bride”), Analog Theatre, PlayGround, Poltergeist Theatre Project, Theatre Cultura, and more!

WHEN: Saturday, May 1, 7pm-8:15pm PDT

WHERE: via Zoom Live Stream

HOW: Admission is free but advance reservations are required. For the complete Launch Party lineup or to reserve your ticket (one reservation = one Zoom link good for up to two devices), visit https://potrerostage.org/stagers.