PlayGround-NY presents Season 3

MONDAY NIGHT PLAYGROUND

Topic: “ORIGIN STORY”
October 23rd, 2023 7pm ET
Vimeo Live Simulcast & On Demand

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.

MONDAY NIGHT PLAYGROUND MEMBERSHIPS

We are deeply grateful to our 2023-24 Monday Night PlayGround Members, whose direct support helps to underwrite artists fees for the Monday Night series across all four regions: Sharon Baldwin, Jaisey Bates, Tim Bishop, Ms. Linda B Breaux-Smith, Summer Broyhill, Madeleine Butler, Ben Cain, Sidney Glass & Eleanor Clement Glass, Joan Cleveland, Ms. Marilyn Berg Cooper, Ms. Cherielyn Ferguson, Krystyna Finlayson, Dr. Jan Gilman, Michael Tonjum & Jan Gilman, Hollis Greenwood, Rachel Harner, Gail Hillebrand & Hugh Barroll, Ms. Anne M. Krause, Emily Kuroda, Ms. Kristy Lin Billuni, Mr. John Lindner, Jonathan Luskin & Leslie Katz, Rhea MacCallum, Dr. Sheila McCormick, Molly Noble & Bob Guilbault, Ms. Vicki Oswald, Mrs. Elizabeth Poston, Mr. George Rose, Jessica June Rowe, Michelle Ruscetta, John J. Ruskin, Kathryn Ryan, Miyoko Sakatani, Mark Sherstinsky, Nancy W. Smith, Mr. Richard Dana Swart, Michael E Tuton, Dr. Eidell Wasserman, and Janine Wilburn. Thank you!

To learn more about the Monday Night PlayGround membership program, click here.

BECOME A MEMBER TODAY!

Thanks for the Mammaries!
by Bailey Jordan Garcia
Directed by Jully Lee
Bailey………..Chloe Rice
Don………….Alex Shafer
Marty….Thomas Grube

The Origin of Prince of Denmark
by Lyra Nalan
Directed by Abigail Rosen
Claudius………..Noor Hamdi
Ghost……………..Chris White
Gertrude…..….Sheila Collins
Old Hamlet…..….Ed Moreno

Do Microbes Dream of Multicellular Sheep
by Claire Abramovitz
Directed by Neal Gupta
Microbe 3,294,502……Sarah Guilbault
Microbe 3,146,635..………Lucy Sarasin
Microbe 3,294,503..…………Monica Ho

Supergirls
by Kathryn Ryan
Directed by Natalie Glick Shalom
Rosie………Madalynn Mathews
Cassandra…….….Sheila Collins
Jade…………..….Christina Liang

Refuge to Planet Mìn
by Vicky Pham
Directed by Nathaniel Claridad
Kathy…………..……Claudia Nguyen
Chi…………………Amy Hart Nguyen
Superhero Chi….Kimberly Van Vo

King 1
by Barry Eitel
Directed by Jim Kleinmann
Side the Guardian……………Jetta Juriansz
Ga the Impatient….Wiley Naman Strasser
Cheek the Wise……………….Kathleen Kwan
Finn the Bleak…………………..Julia Crowley

Stage Manager – Sarah Gasser

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

PlayGround is a member of Theatre Bay Area and Theatre Communications Group.

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!

BIOGRAPHIES

PLAYWRIGHTS

CLAIRE ABRAMOVITZ (Do Microbes Dream of Multicellular Sheep), she/they, is an emerging playwright living and working in New York City. She holds a bachelors degree in English, Theatre, and Jewish Studies from Oberlin College. Her play To Rot in His Bones was a semifinalist in the 2021 Jewish Plays Project Annual Jewish Playwriting Contest. In her spare time she writes poetry, song parodies, jokes, keeps a list of fake band names, and makes soup for at least thirty. Her dream is to open a soup restaurant/comedy club.

BARRY EITEL (King 1), she/her, is a New York City-based playwright and screenwriter. His action/adventure screenplay Inferno Run was a top 10 finalist for Final Draft’s 2023 Big Break competition and his dark comedy The Clarinet was a 2022 Academy Nicholl competition quarterfinalist. His play The Ice Cream Sandwich Incident was produced by San Francisco’s FaultLine Theatre. He’s been published by Smith & Kraus and has had short plays produced around the country and in Canada. He’s been part of the PlayGround NY writers’ pool since its launch. He graduated with his MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch in 2020.

BAILEY JORDAN GARCIA  (Thanks for the Mammaries!) they/them, is a queer non-binary playwright based in NYC. They’d like to dedicate Thanks for the Mammaries! to the beautiful trans community. Bailey’s worked with places such as Atlantic Acting Studio, The Blank Theatre, Cry Havoc, Ohio University, both Playground-NY and Playground-LA and many others! They’re a graduate of The New School (‘22) with a BFA in Playwriting. Bailey is currently in PlayGround’s residency program where they are working on a new full length based off their 10 minute play, Eve. They also are serving as the Casting Associate for Playground-NY this season! baileyjordangarcia.com

LYRA NALAN (The Origin of Prince of Denmark), she/her, is a bilingual Chinese playwright based in Brooklyn. She is the Judith Royer Award-winning playwright for the play “Paper Dream” and recipient of the Horticultural Playwriting Fellowship and Three Brother’s Playwright Residency. Her work has been showcased or developed at the Kennedy Center, Cherry Lane Theatre, Theatre Row, Adventure Theatre MTC, Silk Road Rising Theatre, Round House Theatre, Spooky Action Theatre, Avant Bard Theatre, Strand Theatre, etc. Lyra is so thrilled and honored to be part of PlayGround-NY! EDUCATION: Northwestern University: MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage. WEBSITE: Lyranalan.com.

VICKY PHAM (Refuge to Planet Mìn), she/her, is a writer, SCU alumna, and current Playwriting MFA student at Columbia University. Through her work, Vicky wishes to raise awareness and champion change to issues afflicting the AAPI, immigrant, and first-gen communities. She is the writer of plays such as White Christmas and A Seat At The Table, which was selected for a reading under the direction of Tony Award winning actor, BD Wong. Vicky is a past Hackworth Fellow, recipient of the Justin T. McCarthy Award for Voice, and currently working on her next full-length play Lipstick Pig focusing on the ethical considerations of diversity casting.

KATHRYN RYAN (Supergirls), she/her, graduated from the NYC High School of Performing Arts and SUNY Purchase. A member of The Dramatists Guild, she studied playwriting at Ensemble Studio Theatre and has been a member of the PlayGround-NY Writer’s Pool since 2022. Her plays have been produced in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Also Alaska, California, Florida, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota and Missouri. Developed as part of the 2022-2023 PlayGround-NY season, HANNAH AND GREYSON was published by Drama Notebook. Two full-length plays, ALL YOU NEED and THE END OF THE MIDDLE, were recently honored as Second-Rounders in the 2023 Austin Film Festival Playwriting Competition.

ACTORS

JULIA CROWLEY  (King 1, “Finn the Bleak”) is an actress and creator working in NYC and New England. She is originally from Boston, and studied drama at Bennington College in Vermont. Julia can be seen in the indie films Artificial, Orphans, and Compersion, and starred as Charlotte in the regional premier of Hysterical! and Jamie in Athena with Thrown Stone Theatre Company. Past collaborations include performing with: Breaking and Entering Theatre Collective, First Kiss Theatre, Waterhouse Collective, and Belladonna Shakespeare Company. She has served as a writer for the original pieces Up Next, On the Bachelor…, A Plant Play, and How Do You Say…?

SHEILA COLLINS (The Origin of Prince of Denmark, “Gertrude”; Supergirls, “Cassandra”), she/her, has appeared in numerous stage plays, including these iconic roles: Ruth, in A Raisin in the Sun; Emilia, in Othello; (Duke)Duchess of Birmingham, in Henry VIII; Leonato(a) in Much Ado about Nothing; and Charlotte, in Charlotte’s Web. She’s also appeared in several TV shows: Grey’s Anatomy, Pretty Little Liars and General Hospital, and S.W.A.T., among others, as well as short films, two web series and a feature film. Sheila is always happy to perform in the Playground-NY events.

THOMAS GRUBE (Thanks for the Mammaries!, “Marty”), he/him, Actor, SAG-AFTRA, AEA. Website: www.thomasgrube.net

SARAH GUILBAULT (Do Microbes Dream of Multicellular Sheep, “Microbe 3,294,502”), she/they, is a curious little nuisance; a hopeful clown. They can be found on social media @guilbobaggins.

NOOR HAMDI (The Origin of Prince of Denmark, “Claudius”), they/them, who is proudly queer and Syrian-American, is a New York based actor, teacher, and writer. They’ve performed on Broadway (“Skin of Our Teeth” dir. Lileana Blain-Cruz), Off-Broadway (including “Cartography” dir. Kaneza Schaal), regionally, and internationally, as well as in various short films (including “Sherman” dir. Darine Hotait) and TV. Noor is always happy to popularize queer and SWANA narratives, and especially the intersection of the two, and is currently writing their “One They Show”. They’re also a clown, circus artist, polyglot, gamer, and eternal academic. www.noorhamdi.com

MONICA HO (Do Microbes Dream of Multicellular Sheep, “Microbe 3,294,503”), she/her, is delighted to join the NY company of PlayGround! She is a graduate of the American Conservatory Theater MFA program, class of 2020. Broadway nat’l tour credits: A Christmas Carol (BroadwaySF). Off-Broadway: In Corpo (The Assembly/Dutch Kills Theatre). Regional credits include The Great Leap (San Jose Stage); The Song of Summer (SF Playhouse); Top Girls (American Conservatory Theater); and The Good Person of Szechuan (California Shakespeare Theater). She is immensely thankful to her friends and community for their support. @1monicaho

JETTA JURIANSZ (Carriage, “Andy”), he/him, is delighted to return to Playground. THEATER Broadway: Betrayal, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz; Regional: Metamorphoses, Treasure Island, Three Sisters, Chinglish (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); Eat Your Heart Out, I Will Be Gone, (Actors Theatre of Louisville/Humana Festival); Clybourne Park, It’s a Wonderful Life, Baskerville(Long Wharf Theatre); Three Sisters(Yale Repertory Theatre); Christmas Carol, Beard of Avon (American Conservatory Theater) and others. PLAYWRITING The Boatman (Flint Repertory Theatre), Simon Dawes Becomes a Planet(Access Theatre, New York) FILM/TELEVISION Batman Begins; “The Defenders,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “Person of Interest,” “Trauma”.

KATHLEEN KWAN (King 1, “Cheek the Wise”), she/her, is thrilled to be invited to play with the talented and dedicated members of Playground-NY and work on Barry Eitel’s new work, King 1. Selected credits include Off-Broadway: Joy Luck Club (Pan Asian Rep), The Gentleman Dancing-Master and The Master Builder (understudy, Pearl Theatre Company). Regional: Issei He Say, or the Myth of the First (New Jersey Repertory Theatre) Oleanna (Northstar Theatre Arts). Film/TV: Noel Diary (Netflix), Bull (CBS), Younger (Hulu), A Father’s Son. Love to Ed, Maddie, Jacob and Koa. www.kathleenkwan.com

CHRISTINA LIANG (Supergirls, “Jade”), she/her, is excited to be working with PlayGround-NY She is an actress and writer based in New York. Her theater credits include The Chinese Lady (Kitchen Theatre), Pride and Prejudice (Triad Stage), Three Musketeers 1941 (Project Y Theatre), Quack (Alley Theatre), Issei, He Say (NJ Rep), A Christmas Carol (ACT), Ah, Wilderness (ACT), Love and Information (ACT). She has also made appearances on FBI: Most Wanted (CBS) and Grand Theft Auto Online (Rockstar). Workshops include, Northern Stage and NWTW. MFA in acting from A.C.T. and BA in Individualized Studies from N.Y.U.

MADALYNN MATHEWS (Supergirls, “Rosie”), is a graduate of the Professional Performing Arts High School’s musical theater major and studied acting at Rutgers University. Since then she has been performing in the city with her band at cocktail lounges and clubs, and is currently working on original music.

ED MORENO (The Origin of Prince of Denmark, “Old Hamlet”), he/him, is a New York Based Actor. Before NY, Ed worked in California between the Bay Area and Los Angeles in both On Camera and Theatre with Companies such as SF Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Rep, and Aurora Theatre. You can see him on the latest seasons of NBC’s Law and Order: Special Victims Unit as “Eduardo Sosa” and FBI as “Rafael Alvarez”, CBS’s East New York as Ricky Velazquez. You can also catch Ed on Prime Video as “Jake Del Rio” in the Indie hit The Alternate, as “Hector” in Freshman Year, as well as the sequel Senior Year releasing later this year.

AMY HART NYGUEN (Refuge to Planet Mìn, “Chi”), she/her, is a Vietnamese/Chinese Canadian actor who trained in NYC at HB Studio and Stella Adler. Her work was recently featured at the Frieze LA Film Award in a short written and directed by Milky Tran. She also studied jazz piano at Vanier College in Montreal and can juggle conversations in English, French and Vietnamese. Apart from her serious acting studies, Amy practices the art of tarot reading and telling poop jokes to strangers.

CLAUDIA NYUGEN (Refuge to Planet Mìn, “Cathy”), she/her, is delighted to be a part of the Refuge to Planet Mìn cast. Her recent credits include Linh from Brackish at The Wayward Artist and Meghan from End Titus VDM. Claudia has worked on commercials for Dove and San Diego. She is currently learning how to screenwrite.

XHLOE RICE (Thanks for the Mammaries!, “Bailey”), they/he/she, is a performer and writer based in Manhattan interested in absurdism, clown, and physical theatre. Off-Broadway Credits include Comfort Women (Ellen Jansen) at Playwrights Horizons. Recently they became a two time winner of the Fringe First Award for New Writing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for their works And Then The Rodeo Burned Down and What If They Ate The Baby?. Xhloe is represented by A3 Artists Agency. @xhloe_rice

LUCY SARASIN (Do Microbes Dream of Multicellular Sheep, “Microbe 3,146,635”), she/her, was born and raised in Switzerland where she started acting at the age of twelve. There, she was a part of several different theater company’s, performing in both English and German. After high-school she moved to London to study Drama and Theater Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. During the summer of 2019, she starred in a leading role in Brickfox Theater Company’s production of Holy Sh*t at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well as the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival. She moved to New York in 2021 in order to attend the acclaimed Neighborhood Playhouse, School of the Theater from which she graduated this past May. Following this, she starred in her own short film, Heights which she herself wrote, produced and co-directed. Heights is currently on the film festival circuit and will be having it’s World Wide Premiere at The New York Short Film Festival at Cinema Village on November 10th.

WILEY NAMAN STRASSER (King 1, “Ga the Impatient”), he/they, is a biracial Armenian-American actor, dancer, and musician. Most recently Wiley performed in a sold out run of Sarah Kane’s Crave at La MaMa, presented by Stairwell Theatre. Other recent credits include Detour Dance’s We Build Houses Here, Hope Mohr Dance’s Bacchae Before, and workshops with The Civilians, Boise Contemporary Theatre, Chicago Dramatists and Ashland New Plays Festival. Wiley has studied with Pig Iron, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Yuyachkani (Lima), Teatr Zar and the Grotowski Institute (Wrocław) and received his degree from UCLA. ig: @wileywhy, wileynamanstrasser.com

KIMBERLY VAN VO (Refuge to Planet Mìn, “Superhero Chi”), she/her, is a recent graduate of the William Esper Studio Two – Year Professional Actor Training Program. Before trading Toronto for NYC, she studied Theatre at the University of Ottawa, The Dirt Underneath and The Second City Training Center. Outside of performing, she can be found hiking in the woods, road running around the globe, or baking up a storm in the kitchen.

CHRIS WHITE (The Origin of Prince of Denmark, “Ghost”), he/him. As a classical actor, Chris is a former company member with Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, Theater at Monmouth, and others. As a singer, he has performed in NYC and on tour with New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, as well as Voices of Liberty [Walt Disney World] and Hong Kong Disneyland. Regional credits include Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Little Shop of Horrors, Forum, and The Music Man.

DIRECTORS

NEAL GUPTA (Do Microbes Dream of Multicellular Sheep), he/him, is a NYC based director, writer, actor & producer. He is proud to vacillate between each role, across mediums. Neal will make his Broadway debut as Associate Director of Prayer for the French Republic this January. Neal has worked as Associate Director at Manhattan Theatre Club, Geffen Playhouse, The Public, Ars Nova & The BRIC and has taught at Rutgers, NYU-Tisch, & ArtsBridge. Neal is a Creative Executive at Hypokrit Productions & the Artistic Producer at Hypokrit Live Arts, both of which develop and produce stories exclusively by global majority artists, especially those of the South Asian diaspora.

NATHANIEL P. CLARIDAD (Refuge to Planet Mìn), he/him, is an NYC based actor & director. Directing credits include Weathervane Theatre, Southern Rep., TheatreWorksUSA, Imagination Stage, Out of the Box Theatrics, Drama League Resident (2019, 2016), guest director for New York University, Marymount Manhattan, and the University of Maryland, College Park. Numerous acting credits include Here Lies Love (Public Theater), Taylor Mac’s 24 Decade History…(St. Ann’s Warehouse), numerous regional & international credits from the Kennedy Center to the Sydney Opera House. TV: New Amsterdam, Harlem

JIM KLEINMANN (King 1; Co-Founder & 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.

JULLY LEE (Thanks for the Mammaries), she/her, is an Ovation-nominated actor and the Artistic Director of COLD TOFU IMPROV, the nation’s first and longest-running Asian American comedy troupe. Jully made her Broadway debut in KPOP the Musical, and was most recently in HELLO KITTY MUST DIE at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this past summer. Jully has received critical acclaim for her performances in over 30 productions onstage and was nominated for Good Morning America’s Inspiration List: “Who is Making Asian American Pacific Islander History” in 2021. Up next, she will be working on the workshop for STALLED The Musical with LDK Productions. jullylee.com

ABIGAIL ROSEN (The Origin of the Prince of Denmark), she/her, is a New York based director, dramaturg and producer, and she is the Executive Producer of Playground-NY. Abigail has experience with new play workshops on Broadway, off-Broadway, and local levels. Follow her career and pop culture blog on Instagram @abimayrose, and on her website at abigailrosen.me.

NATALIE GLICK SHALOM‘s(Supergirls), she/her, directing credits include: Ichundich – Postlude (Wuppertal); Machinal, and Miss Julie (Tel Aviv University); Nothing Serious, The Realm, The Lonely Unicorn, 12 Angry Women, and Bride & Gloom (AlphaNYC); Quarter Life (All Gone Theatre Company); An Impossible Love (The Complete Theatre Company); Echoes (All Gone Theatre Company); The Delirium of Edgar Allan Poe (Bedlam Ensemble); Insurmountable Simplicities (FringeNYC); Plan B: the Musical (Looking Glass Theater). Natalie is a graduate of Tel Aviv University and Barnard College.

PRODUCTION

SARAH GASSER (Stage Manager) joined PlayGround in 2017 and has staged managed for the Monday Night PlayGround series and PlayGround Festival. In the Bay Area, she has stagemanaged for Brava and Bay Area Children’s Theatre, among others.

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 350 early career playwrights, developing and staging more than 1,500 of their original short plays through the Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series and the PlayGround Festival. PlayGround has also commissioned 100 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 36 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, Glickman Awards (including 6 of the past 10), 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 is deeply grateful for the generous contributions of the many individuals, foundations, gifts of $125 or more committed between October 1, 2022 & October 9, 2023.

GOVERNMENT, CORPORATE, & FOUNDATION DONORS

Alameda County Arts Commission • Amazon • Art Space Development Corporation • Berkeley Civic Arts • The Bernard Osher Foundation • Bill Graham Supporting Foundation of the Jewish Community Federation & Endowment Fund • California Arts Council • California Humanities • California Nonprofit Performing Arts Grant Program • Creative Capacity Fund • The Fleishhacker Foundation • Grants For The Arts • Koret Foundation • Lenore & Howard Klein Foundation • The Leo J. & Celia Carlin Fund • Los Angeles County Arts Commission • Negley Flinn Charitable Foundation • NIAC • Nvidia • Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation • Planet Earth Arts • San Francisco Arts Commission • The Shubert Foundation • The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation • Zellerbach Family Foundation

INDIVIDUAL SUPPORTERS

SEASON SPONSORS ($5000+)

Daniel E. Cohn & Lynn Brinton, Emilie T. & Gordon C. Brooks, Lara Gilman & Jim Kleinmann

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS ($2500–$4,999)

Meriko Borogove, John H. Gilman, Carlie Wilmans, Anonymous

PRODUCERS CIRCLE ($1000-$2499)

Mr. Randy Adams, David Goldman, Eric Craig Moody, Nitin, David Steele, Anonymous (2)

PLAYWRIGHTS CIRCLE ($500-$999)

Ruth & Robert Brayton, Steve & Gretchen Debenham, Keith Goldstein and Donna Warrington, Regina S. Guggenheim, Jennifer & Sean Jeffries, Paul & Pam Kleinmann, Linda Kremer, Gregg & Jennifer Le Blanc, Dr. Gary W. London, Pam MacKinnon, Molly Noble and Bob Guilbault, Pam & John Walker, Janine Wilburn, Mr. Maury Zeff, Anonymous (3)

PATRON ($250-$499)

Mary E. Baird, Wendy Bear, Cindy Gilman Redburn and Chris Redburn, Jerome Solberg, Jon & Susan Sweedler, Jon Tracy, Anonymous

ASSOCIATE MEMBER ($125-$249)

Ms. Lynda H Barber, Gerhard and Kathleen Bette, Jack Codd, Fair & Levit Family, Mr. Eric Garcia, Anirvan Ghosh, Cindy Goldfield, Gina Harris, Mr. Stanley William Hathaway, Abbe S. Kalos & Kitt Saginor, Gregg Le Blanc, Jonathan Luskin, Ms. Lisa A. Mammel, Tobi Marcus, Paris McCarthy, Doug Peckler & Evelyn Jean Pine , Jesus Reyes, Mary Ann and Malcolm Rodgers, Emily Brauer Rogers, Kathryn Ryan, Diane Sampson, Christine Sheppard, Ms. Susan Terris, Bex White, Mr. Christian Edward Wilburn, Susannah Wise & Scott Lebus, Anonymous (2)

To contribute to PlayGround-NY, visit https://playground-ny.org/contribute or contact PlayGround Associate Director of Development Lana Richards at lana@playground-sf.org or by phone at (415) 992-6677.

PLAYGROUND-NY WRITERS POOL

Sam Affoumado, Momo Akashi, Anthony Anello, Andy Boyd, Christin Cato, Todd Cerveris, Jayne Deely, Josh Drimmer, Barry Eitel, Bailey Elis, Jack Feldstein, Ruth Geye, Dana Leslie Goldstein, Stanley Hathaway, Rachel Herron, David Hilder, Rebecca Kane, Elizabeth Lee, Dani Nelson, Matthew Park, Alexander Perez, Jacob Rice, Rachael Richman, Kathryn Ryan, Natalie Sacks, Louise Schwarz, Marcus Scott, Riley Tollen, Gaven Trinidad, Rebbekah Vega-Romero, Charles Velasquez-Witosky, Leela Velautham, Rhys Washington, Maggie Wilson

PRODUCTION & STAFF

Jim Kleinmann, Co-Founder & Artistic Director
Kalina Ko, Associate Producer
Jully Lee, Associate Producer
Abigail Rosen, Associate Producer
Sarah Gasser, Resident Stage Manager
Kelsey Bray, 2022-23 Directing Apprentice
Laith Zuaiter, 2022-23 Directing Apprentice

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