PlayGround-NY presents Season 1

MONDAY NIGHT PLAYGROUND

Topic: “Keep Moving Forward”
January 17th, 2022 7pm EST
Vimeo Live Simulcast & On Demand

Farther
By Jacob Marx Rice
Directed by Nathaniel Claridad
V……….…………..………..Jenny Nguyen Nelson
S………………………………………..Rami Margron

Good Grief
By Sam Affoumado
Directed by Jim Kleinmann
Robert……….…………..………..Michael Turner
Elaine…………………………………..Betsy Rosen
Dr. Berman…………………………..Mark Peters

Co-operative
By Christian Missonak
Directed by Eva Burgess
Alej…………………..Samantha Rose Cárdenas
Lucas……….….……….……………..Nick Sholley
Isaac……………..………………..William Warren

Moving Forward, In Time
By Leela Velautham
Directed by Neal Gupta
Jeanne……..……..………..……..BW Gonzalez
Michael……..…………………..David Kramer

Masculinity Complex
By Natalie Sacks
Directed by Jim Kleinmann
Anna Freud…………..……..Rebecca White
Sigmund Freud……….…………Alex Shafer

Until the Sun Rises
By Bailey Jordan Garcia
Directed by Kalina Ko
A Boy…..…..…..Graceson Abreu Nunez
Lover.………..…..….………Michael Curry
A Girl………..……Jenny Nguyen Nelson

Stage Manager – Sarah Gasser
Visual Design Consultant – Colin Johnson

This live stream is produced under a SAG-AFTRA New Media Agreement.

PlayGround is a member of Theatre Bay Area and Theatre Communications Group,
and an Associate Member of the National New Play Network (NNPN).

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD

Following tonight’s performance, we invite your participation in this month’s People’s Choice Award. Through the People’s Choice Award, our audience can play a direct impact in furthering the career of a promising new playwright. To vote, make a People’s Choice Award tax-deductible donation on behalf of your favorite play(s)/playwright(s) from the evening. Every donated dollar counts as a vote while directly supporting PlayGround’s award-winning incubator programs.

Cast your vote for your favorite play(s) by making a People’s Choice donation via Zelle (info@playground-ny.org), Venmo (our account ID is @playgroundsf and if they ask for the last four digits of my phone, it’s 8541) or on our website at https://tickets.playground-sf.org/TheatreManager/1/online?donationquick=168 (you can also visit the Monday Night PlayGround page for the People’s Choice donation button). Add a note/memo with your gift to indicate your favorite play(s) or email your selection to boxoffice@playground-sf.org.

At the end of next week, we’ll tally up the top vote-getter and automatic semi-finalist for our season-ending Best of PlayGround. It’s a powerful way of showing your support for new writers and their work, while helping PlayGround continue doing what we do!

ACKNOWLEDGING THE LEGACY OF THE LAND WE INHABIT

PlayGround-NY acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Munsee Lanape, the original inhabitants of the territory colonially known as the five burroughs of New York City. As the past and present Indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditions, the Munsee Lanape have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. We recognize the historic injustice of the forcible removal of the Munsee Lanape people from their ancestral lands, and that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. We wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the Ancestors, Elders and Relatives of the Munsee Lanape Communities and by affirming their sovereign rights as First Peoples. We honor the storytellers of the Lanape and are grateful for our ability to share and uplift Indigenous stories and those of other historically marginalized communities.

To learn about the legacy of the land you inhabit, visit Native-Land.ca | Our home on native land. To read the complete Land Acknowledgment Policy, click here.

PLAYGROUND’S ANTI-RACIST POLICY

PlayGround recognizes the impact of racial oppression within society and the American Theater and that we have been complicit in White Supremacy culture. Our goal is to co-create safety for our community by identifying and interrupting instances of racism and all forms of oppression when we witness them, through specific actions rooted in the principles of anti-racism and accessibility. In its endeavor to address the implications of our history, PlayGround is committed to its compliance with the following fundamental rights:
● The recognition of inherent dignity and worth of each human being.
● The recognition of equality of all human beings.
● Recognition of rights of ethnic, racial, cultural, linguistic and religious groups.
● Equality and non-discrimination.

PlayGround’s Anti-Racist Policy applies to: all members of the PlayGround community, including employees, independent contractors, volunteers, audience members, donors, and general members of the community.

To read the complete Anti-Racist Policy, click here.

BIOGRAPHIES

PLAYWRIGHTS

SAM AFFOUMADO (Good Grief), he/him, has written seven full-length plays and over a dozen short plays and monologues. An excerpt from his docudrama, The Panic Defense, was presented by Pride Plays (2020). His short play, Peanut Butter Patty, was a semi-finalist in the 37th Annual Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival. Anthology: More 10-Minute Plays for Teens, The Bully’s Eye, was published by Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. Upcoming NY Production: The Flogsta Scream, for the International Human Rights Arts Festival. Memberships: Dramatists Guild, AEA, SAG-AFTRA, NPX, and TRU. He is thrilled to be a participant in the Playground-NY Writers Pool. (www.samaffoumado.com)

BAILEY JORDAN GARCIA (Until the Sun Rises), they/them, is a NYC-based playwright and actor earning a BFA in Playwriting from The New School. In May 2021, their full length The Pedo Punchers Play was a part of The Blank Theatre’s Living Room series. Also with The Blank, they became a winner of The Young Playwrights Festival in 2020 with their piece “What to Expect When You’re Expecting Our Lord and Savior” (which also won “Best Play” at the 2020 Players Theatre Short Play Festival). When they aren’t writing, Bailey can usually be found at Bethesda Fountain or cuddling with their 3-legged pup, Mushu. baileyjordangarcia.com

CHRISTIAN MISSONAK (Co-operative) is a New York City-based playwright originally from Chicago, where he was a graduate of Columbia College and The Second City Conservatory. He was an ensemble member at Under the Gun Theater where his Chicago Reader-recommended play, SAVE FERRIS, was performed. In 2021, his new play SHERIDAN premiered at MadLab Theatre in Columbus, Ohio. His short play NOWHERE TO GO NIGHTS was published in the most recent edition of High Plains Register and an audio production of NO ONE LOOKS GOOD AT 4 IN THE MORNING was released as part of the Garden of Voices podcast. www.christianmissonak.com

JACOB MARX RICE‘s (Farther), he/him, plays have been produced and developed at The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, The Finborough Theatre in London, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Flea Theater, The New Ohio, Atlantic Theatre Stage 2, and others. His play Chemistry has premiered in seven cities across three continents, and Jacob’s screenplay adaptation is currently in development with Anonymous Content. Recent prizes include the Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, an Ensemble Studio Theater Sloan Commission, the Faculty Award from the NYU/Tisch Department of Dramatic Writing and the Excellence in Playwriting Award at the New York International Fringe Festival. MFA: NYU.

LEELA VELAUTHAM (Moving Forward, In Time), she/her, originally from the UK, is doing a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology. She was a member of Playground’s Playwright Residency Program (2020-21), has been featured in the Best of Playground 24 and 25, and won the 2011 University of Oxford’s New Writing Festival for her play Schroedinger’s Hat.

ACTORS

SAMANTHA ROSE CÁRDENAS (Co-operative, “Alej”), she/her, is a critically-acclaimed bicoastal actress in the Bay Area and New York City. Most recently seen as Anne Egerman in 42nd Street Moon’s A Little Night Music. Favorite roles include Peggy Sawyer (42nd Street; BATCC Nomination), Olive Ostrovsky (The 25th Annual…Bee; TBA Nomination), Nina (In the Heights; TBA Award), Millie (Thoroughly Modern Millie), Maria (West Side Story), Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Mallory/Avril (City of Angels), Emily Webb (Our Town), and Heather Duke (Heathers: The Musical; TBA Award). Samantha is also a private voice teacher and performance/audition coach. Website: www.samantharosecardenas.com. IG: @samantharosecardenas. For Mom.

MICHAEL CURRY (Until the Sun Rises, “Lover”) is a native of Pittsburgh, PA. He received his B.A in Drama from Morehouse College and is currently receiving his M.F.A at The University Of Connecticut. He’s excited to be working with PlayGround again. For updates on his happenings follow him on Instagram: @Kingcurry0730.

BW GONZALEZ (Moving Forward, In Time, “Jeanne”), she/her, was last seen in Arrested Development on Netflix as Lupe. Ms. Gonzalez has also worked for the following theatre companies: American Repertory Theatre, San Francisco Mime Troupe, Huntington Theatre Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Denver Theatre Center, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, LA Women’s Shakespeare, Center Repertory Theatre. At the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ms. Gonzalez performed such notable roles as Lady Macbeth, (Macbeth) Masha (The Three Sisters), Cassandra (Trojan Women) and Ariel (The Tempest). Other plays include, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and Good Person of Szechuan as Shen Te/Shui Ta.

DAVID H. KRAMER (Moving Forward, In Time, “Michael”) a native New Yorker, has studied with Stella Adler and Stephen Jobes. BA from Empire State College. Medicine Show Theatre Company member. Voice actor on 100+ movies. TV: Law and Order. Member of Productions with Actors for Training and Helping, Inc. Upcoming: Extrapolation (Apple TV). Painter davidkramerart.com mentored by Knox Martin Represented by CPM Talent Management. Love to Salla, Niilo, Risto and Toivo.

RAMI MARGRON (Farther, “S”), they/them, lives in Brooklyn, works in theater and television, and watches birds. Raised in circus and steeped in dance of the African diaspora, an audience member once called Rami the love child of Anna Deavere Smith and Harpo Marx.

JENNY NGUYEN NELSON (Farther, “V”; Until the Sun Rises, “A Girl”), she/her, is always thrilled to be working with PlayGround. She is currently in her third year with Brown/Trinity’s MFA Acting program. She loves her husband Ian and her dog Marty in no particular order. JennyNguyenNelson.com

GRACESON ABREU NUÑEZ (Until the Sun Rises, “A Boy”), all, with respect, is a Queer Afro-Latino native New Yorker, born and raised in Harlem to Dominican parents. His body of work encompasses acting, dramaturgy, and performance, with a BFA from Boston University. In addition to traditional Stanislavski and Meisner training, he has studied Physical Theatre (Grotowski, Viewpoints, Gaga) at Boston University, as well as Devised Theatre and Circus Arts (Double Edge Theatre) and Musical Theatre (NYU). Acting; New York; Quince (the Team). Regional Theatre; We the People, Leonara’s World (Double Edge Theatre). Workshop; In the Name Of…, Jubilee 11213, Laughs in Spanish. Dramaturgy; Knead, When the Cock Crows, Little Row Boat, or, Conjecture. Graceson currently lives in Spain working as a teaching artist in Spanish public schools. gracesonabreu.com Instagram @graceson.an

MARK PETERS (Good Grief, “Dr. Berman”), he/him, is an actor, singer and musician, and his first post-quarantine live stage appearance was in October at The Tank in a new play Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander. He was King Lear at IRT in January 2019. Other NYC and regional roles: DeGuiche – Cyrano with Gabriel Barre; Sharky – The Seafarer; Frank – The Country Girl; Vanya – Uncle Vanya; Doc – Come Back, Little Sheba (musical) oppo­site Donna McKechnie (cast album Amazon); Emile – South Pacific; Perón – Evita; Ahab – Moby-Dick (Katsaros-St. Germain). Numerous camera performances in film, television and commercials/industrials. www.MarkPeters.me

BETSY ROSEN (Good Grief, “Elaine”) is an actress, puppeteer, and teacher based in NYC. Recent credits include 9000 Paper Balloons (HERE Arts), the pilot series Smack Dab in the Middle of the Day Show, and the puppetry series Beautiful, Evil, Lost. Before the pandemic, Betsy toured Australia with Dead Puppet Society’s Laser Beak Man, which culminated in a run at the Sydney Opera House. New York credits: Lincoln Center, La Mama, The Drama League, St. Ann’s Warehouse. Regional credits: Cincinnati Playhouse, The Studio Theatre, Round House Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Folger Theatre, Delaware Theatre Company, Taffety Punk, Imagination Stage (Helen Hayes Award). Betsy loves designing and directing puppetry for the stage, as well as collaborating on the development of new works.

ALEX SHAFER (Masculinity Complex, “Sigmund Freud”) moved to New York from the SF/Bay Area in 2018. He is so happy to be working with PlayGround again, as they open in NYC. Theatre highlights here in NY are Catapult! at Theatre for a New City, The Cradle Will Rock at Theatre 2020. Some theatre highlights the SF/Bay Area include Colonel McKean in 1776 at ACT, Dan/Jack in Value Over Replacement with Playground, Michael Flaherty in Playboy of the Western World at Cinnabar, Gaev in The Cherry Orchard at Hapgood, and various roles in Coast of Utopia at Shotgun.

NICK SHOLLEY (Co-operative, “Lucas”), he/him, is happy to be back with PlayGround, where he cut his chops as actor and performer more than 20 years ago in San Francisco. Most recently, he appeared as Pastor Owen in the soon-to-be-released feature “Holy Irresistible.”

MICHAEL TURNER (Good Grief, “Robert”) has most recently been scene in Bull on CBS and Food That Built America on History Channel. He will also be appearing on Amazon’s yet to be released Dead Ringers (Starring Rachel Weisz). On stage Michael has been seen in Shadow of Heroes and Taliban at Metropolitan Playhouse as well as Come From Away’s pre-broadway production at La Jolla Playhouse. He is also the voice of Zero in the video games Borderlands 2&3. Michael holds an MFA from UCSD. For Mom.

WILLIAM WARREN (Co-operative, “Isaac”), he/him, is a native of Gary, Indiana. He began his journey at the famed Second City Theater Improvisation Workshop in Chicago, Ill. William who is an actor and vocalist has performed in various musical productions, toured Canada with the Platters and performed as a backup vocalist with recording artist Billy Davis and Marilyn McCoo of The Fifth Dimensions, Stephanie Mills, Deniece Williams and Phillip Bailey of Earth Wind and Fire, among others. William is currently collaborating on a production of Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and recently appeared in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars at The Long Beach Playhouse, the critically acclaimed The Little Foxes at Antaeus Theatre: Towne Street Theatre; IN RESPONSE; THE FERTILE RIVER at Baylor University, and 2019 NAACP Theatre Award nominee PERIPHERY at The Hudson Theatre.

REBECCA WHITE (Masculinity Complex, “Anna Freud”) is thrilled to be PlayGround-ing! Theater: Hadrian’s Wall (Best Actress, NY Fringe), The Taming (Shaker Bridge), 8 roles + guitar for A Christmas Carol (Merrimack Rep), Awake & Sing! (Aurora), The Exonerated (dir. Bob Balaban), World Premiere of T.I.C. (Magic Theater), & NY premiere of Talking to Terrorists. Film/TV: Homeland (Showtime), Falling Water (USA), Eye Candy (MTV), Person of Interest (CBS), The Waiting Room (dir. Oscar-winner Graham Moore & Ben Epstein), Limit (Golden Honu, Hawaii’s BIFF). Graduate: Brown University & The Shakespeare Lab (Public Theater). She singer-songwrites as Bexarkana. instagram/fb: @bexarkana

DIRECTORS

EVA BURGESS (Co-operative) is a New York based director and theatre artist, whose work has been seen in the States as well as internationally. She enjoys the collaborative process of developing new work for the stage (including the Zoom stage). She makes her living teaching theatre and is also an Applied Theatre practioner. Eva is pleased to be a part of Playground-NYC’s first season.

NATHANIEL P. CLARIDAD (Farther)’s directing credits include Weathervane Theatre, Southern Rep., Two River Theatre, PlayMakers Repertory Company, the One Minute Play Festival, New York Shakespeare Exchange, Peculiar Works Project, and a Drama League Resident in 2019 & 2016. He is also co-founder of Broadway Twisted, an annual event in North Carolina benefitting NCAAN and BC/EFA. Acting credits include Here Lies Love (The Public Theater), Taylor Mac’s 24 Decade History…(St. Ann’s Warehouse), numerous regional and international credits from the Kennedy Center to the Sydney Opera House. Upcoming: directing Mr. Popper’s Penguins at Imagination Stage, & A Class Act at Weathervane Theatre.

NEAL GUPTA (Moving Forward, In Time) is a NYC based director, actor, & cultural worker. Neal has worked as Associate Director with Arpita Mukherjee on Running by Danny Pudi (East West Players/Hypokrit), Bollywood Kitchen (Geffen Playhouse), Maya (NAMT), & Living Record Collection with Salty Brine. Selected Assistant Directing: A Prayer for the French Republic (David Cromer/MTC), A Small Fire, starring Bebe Neuwirth, (Philadelphia Theatre Co). Neal currently teaches at Rutgers University and ArtsBridge. Training: BFA Acting, Rutgers, Mason Gross. Shakespeare’s Globe. Interlochen Arts Academy.

JIM KLEINMANN (Masculinity Complex; Good Grief; Artistic Director), he/him, co-founded PlayGround in 1994, along with playwright Brighde Mullins and director Denise Shama, and has served as Artistic Director since 1996. For PlayGround, he has provided artistic and administrative leadership for the past twenty-four seasons, developing PlayGround’s unique array of new playwright and new play incubator programs, including Monday Night PlayGround, the PlayGround Festival of New Works, the full-length play Commissioning Initiative, and more than one hundred short and full-length plays, including works by Garret Jon Groenveld, Aaron Loeb, Geetha Reddy, Lauren Yee, Katie May, and many others. Recent directing and dramaturgy credits include David Steele’s Vignettes on Love and Ruben Grijalva’s Value Over Replacement. He is a veteran arts administrator with more than thirty years of experience, including stints leading Traveling Jewish Theatre, Smuin Ballet and Berkeley Symphony, and received his MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

KALINA KO (Until the Sun Rises) is a Cantonese-American theater director, dramaturg, and generator. She is interested in the radical connection and community building of storytelling. Select credits include directing Paige Conway’s Tag (drafted) and Sophie Poole’s Ethanol (NOMADS), assisting Will Detlefsen on T. Adamson’s The Straights (The JACK, Brooklyn), and script assisting Hansol Jung on Wolf Play (Soho Rep) and Amy Jo Jackson on Hatchetation (National Music Theater Conference). She is currently the artistic apprentice at Roundabout Theatre Company and has worked two summers in the literary department at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Kalina graduated recently from Barnard College. www.KalinaKo.weebly.com

PRODUCTION

SARAH GASSER (Stage Manager) joined PlayGround in 2017 and has staged managed for the Monday Night PlayGround series and PlayGround Festival. She stagemanages for companies around the Bay Area, including Brava and Bay Area Children’s Theatre. In her administrative capacities, she assists with PlayGround’s marketing, social media, communications, and website, as well as serving as assistant to the Artistic Director.

PLAYGROUND-NY is the second regional expansion of the celebrated Bay Area playwright incubator and theatre community hub, PlayGround(SF). PlayGround, California’s leading playwright incubator, provides unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s, Los Angeles’ and now New York’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 250 early career playwrights, developing and staging more than 1,000 of their original short plays through the Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series and the PlayGround Festival. PlayGround has also commissioned 90 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 34 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 Humana Festival, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, The Lark’s Playwrights’ Week, New York International Fringe Festival, and 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.

CONTRIBUTORS

PlayGround-NY is deeply grateful for the generous contributions of the many individuals whose support makes this first season and our playwright incubator programs possible.  The list below reflects gifts made between January 1, 2021 and January 17, 2022.

Associate Member ($125+)
Maura C. Berkelhamer, Anonymous (2)

Supporting Member ($75-$124)
Sarah Gasser, Mr. Stanley William Hathaway, Lara Gilman & Jim Kleinmann, Madeline  Puccioni, Dale Underwood and Kirsti Aho

Contributing Member ($25-$74)
Mr. Sam Affoumado, Susan Culver, Sabrina Garcia, Miss Catherine Isaacs, Nick Sholley, Catherine Weingarten, Janine & Darryl Wilburn, Janet Williams, Anonymous

Friends (Up to $24)
Brigid Amos, Sunah Cherwin, Lily Chow, Frieda de Lackner, J Diamond, Jasmine Elshamy, Ms. Cherielyn Ferguson, Jake Friedman, Danielle Green, Claire Greising, Ms. Mildred Inez Lewis, Mr. Jacob Picheny, Susan Randell, Mr. Barry Reitman, Mr. Jess Roat, Ms. Aiyana Ruiz, Tori Serpico, Alex Shafer, Anonymous

To contribute to PlayGround-NY, visit https://playground-ny.org/contribute.

PLAYGROUND-NY WRITERS POOL

Sam Affoumado, Anthony Anello, Maria Arreola, Karina Billini, Lilly Camp, Nelson Diaz-Marcano, Barry Eitel, Jessica Fleitman, Bailey Garcia, Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin, Ruth Geye, Stanley William Hathaway, Libby Heily, David Hilder, Nina Ki, Christian Missonak, Alex Moon, Louis DeVaughn Nelson, Matthew Park, Lila Perlman, Phanesia Pharel, Jacob Marx Rice, Rachael Richman, Natalie Sacks, Fernando Segall, Matthew Stephen Smith, Niara Smith, Cece Suazo, Kate Thomas, Charles Velasquez-Witosky, Leela Velautham, Annie Jin Wang, Catherine Weingarten, Cate Wiley, Maggie Wilson, Lauren Wimmer

PRODUCTION & STAFF

Jim Kleinmann, Co-Founder & Artistic Director
Annie Stuart, Associate Artistic Director
Sarah Gasser, Resident Stage Manager

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3286 Adeline St #8
Berkeley, CA 94703-2485