PlayGround-NY Season 3 Writers Pool, Schedule & Auditions!

PlayGround-NY, the first East Coast expansion of the celebrated California-based playwright incubator, is pleased to share plans for its third season and first fully in-person with the announcement of  the Season 3 Writers Pool, 36 early-career NYC-based playwrights competitively selected from applications received this summer. Over the course of the upcoming 2023-24 season, these writers will generate over 150 original short plays, of which 36 will be developed as part of Monday Night PlayGround, a monthly script-in-hand staged reading series that is at the core of PlayGround’s multi-tiered writer development process. Each month, PlayGround announces a topic and invites members of the yearly Writers Pool to submit original ten-minute plays inspired by the topic and written in just four-and-a-half days. The top six scripts are staged by leading local directors and actors and presented at The Producers Club and simulcast, beginning on Monday, October 23 and continuing on fourth Mondays through March.

PlayGround-NY concludes its second season with the annual Best of PlayGround-NY, Monday, April 22, 2024, featuring a curated selection with input from audiences and Company members alike of the top six short works from the current season.

PlayGround now operates programs and companies in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago. In recognition of PlayGround’s national presence, PlayGround will host an integrated hybrid in-person/online fundraising gala, the One PlayGround Gala, on Monday, September 18 at The Producers Club in NYC, Potrero Stage in San Francisco, the Broadwater Plunge in Los Angeles, and Theater Wit in Chicago, with live performances, testimonials, and a four-course gourmet dinner. All proceeds will support the Monday Night series and artist compensation. 

In addition to PlayGround-NY, we are also offering streaming access to this year’s PlayGround (SF), PlayGround-LA and PlayGround-Chicago seasons, with all events admission-free. Individual tickets and Monday Night PlayGround memberships go on sale September 1. For more information, visit https://PlayGround-NY.org/Monday.

Introducing the PlayGround-NY 2023-2024 Writers Pool

Yearly submissions for the Writers Pool are open to all local writers, and an intentional eye towards cultivating a continuing class of writers from the year’s prior Pool in balance with recruiting new talent keeps each yearly Pool a dynamic entity. 

The Writers Pool for the 2023-2024 Season are: Claire Abramovitz, Anthony Anello, Todd Cerveris, Sean Dunnington, Barry Eitel, Madi Fabber, Bailey Jordan Garcia, Dana Leslie Goldstein, Lori Goodman, Melinda Gros, Patience Haggin, Michael Hagins, Bram Hartman, Stanley W. Hathaway, Howard Ho, Wade Lawrence Hollomon, Uma Incrocci, Avery Ingvarson, Rachel Leighson, Bailey C. Lewis, Bryson Lima, Alex Moggridge, Danielle E. Moore, Lyra Nalan, Vicky Pham, Leah Plante-Wiener, Colby Poston, Erin Proctor, Jacob Marx Rice, Rachael Richman, Katie Ryan, Marcus Scott, Matt Sievers, Gaven D. Trinidad, Rebbekah Vega-Romero, and SMJ.

Auditions 

NYC-based actors (union or non-union) are invited to audition online on Sunday, August 20, 3pm-6pm EDT in consideration for our 2023-24 Monday Night PlayGround season, to be performed in-person this year at The Producers Club (44th St & 9th Ave) and simulcast. Use the link below to sign up for a live online audition slot and then please submit your headshot and resume via the Google form below. If you are unable to participate in the live auditions, you can still submit your materials and an optional link to a recorded monologue. Selected performers receive a $50 per diem for ninety minutes of rehearsal, a brief tech and the ten-minute performance. For more Information or to sign up for an audition slot, visit https://playground-ny.org/audition/.

About PlayGround-NY

PlayGround-NY is the second regional expansion of the celebrated Bay Area playwright incubator and theatre community hub, PlayGround. PlayGround was launched in San Francisco in 1994 by co-founders Jim Kleinmann, Brighde Mullins, and Denise Shama. In 1996, Kleinmann became PlayGround’s first Artistic Director. Since its founding, PlayGround has developed and staged over 1,000 original ten-minute plays by nearly 300 Bay Area and Los Angeles early-career writers and has commissioned/developed 100 full-length plays by distinguished PlayGround alumni, premiering 36 of these through PlayGround’s innovative New Play Production Fund. In the process of staging those works, PlayGround has helped to identify some of the leading emerging writers and, at the same time, has effectuated the creation of a true community of theatre artists, bringing together hundreds of local actors, directors and playwrights.

PlayGround’s alumni have gone on to win local, national and international honors for their short and full-length work, including recognition at the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, The Lark, Humana Festival, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and New York International Fringe Festival, among others. Directors and actors participating in PlayGround are among some of the most distinguished theatre professionals, regularly working on leading local stages.

2023-24 Season

For the first time, all performances for PlayGround-NY will take place in-person at The Producers Club (44th St & 9th Ave). There will also be continued access online via Vimeo live stream, which will be available on-demand for pre-registered guests. To ensure maximum accessibility, admission is free (donations gratefully accepted).

One PlayGround Gala

  • September 18, 2023 @ 8:30pm-11pm ET

Monday Night PlayGround

  • October 23, 2023 @ 7pm ET
  • November 27, 2023 @ 7pm ET
  • December 25, 2023 @ 7pm ET
  • January 22, 2024 @ 7pm ET
  • February 26, 2024 @ 7pm ET
  • March 25, 2024 @ 7pm ET

Best of PlayGround-NY

  • April 24, 2024 @ 7PM ET / 4pm PT

Individual tickets and Monday Night PlayGround memberships will go on sale September 1.

For more information, visit https://PlayGround-NY.org or follow PlayGround-NY on Facebook (https://facebook.com/PlayGround.NewYork), Twitter (https://twitter.com/PlayGround_NY) and Instagram (https://instagram.com/playgroundnytheatre). For information on our sister programs, visit PlayGround, PlayGround-LA and PlayGround-Chicago.