Announcing PlayGround’s 2026-27 Producing Fellows
PlayGround has announced the 2026-27 Producing Fellows, a vibrant and diverse class of four next-gen theatre leaders drawn from across the country and who will work with PlayGround’s artistic staff and national producing teams over the next year in the SF Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. Fellows gain hands-on experience in the fields of literary management, casting, fundraising, grant writing, theatre management, human resources, contracts, marketing, and communications, with all fellows getting the opportunity to work in each department. There were over 100 applicants for this prestigious program.
Blaire Battle (LA), she/they, a UCLA graduate, actor/writer/comedian, and experienced PlayGrounder; Ben Chau-Chiu (SF), they/them, is a Bay Area-based director and producer who has worked with ACT, SF Playhouse, and many other Bay Area companies; Bryanna Cuthill (NY), she/her, a performer, artistic producer, coach, and theatre administrator based in New York City; and Myah Jackson (CH), she/her, a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and administrator from Chicago’s South Side with a BA and MBA from Tennessee State University.
This cohort of up-and-coming producer-artists was curated to reflect the diverse artistic community that PlayGround serves, with a focus on parity and diversity of gender-identity and ethnicity. Together these four fellows will work part-time with PlayGround under the leadership of Jim Kleinmann (Artistic Director), Lana Richards (Director of Development), Jonathan Josephson (Director of Marketing and Communications), and the full artistic staff to learn and develop their skill set in the process of theatre production, from inception to execution. As part of the company’s ongoing commitment to equity, PlayGround has established a base compensation level of $21 per hour and is continually working toward increasing support for artists and artist-administrators.
The Producing Fellowship program was launched during the 2019-20 season, just two weeks before California shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. PlayGround maintained its commitment to the new staff members, shifting the entire program online and extending the initial term through July 2021 to help the Fellows weather the challenging economic climate. The inaugural Fellowship class included: Donny Goglio, Edna Mira Raia, Lana Richards, and Chris Steele. Other fellows have included: River Bermudez, Katie Brown, Zoe Chien, Devin Cunningham, Emlyn Doolittle, Jordan Maria Don,Donnalesly Fondjo, Savannah Greene, Xinyuan Pu, Christy Spence, Sanders, Carmia Imani, Julie Lippert-Pasco, Justin P. Lopez, Bacilio Mendez II, Juliana Morgado Brito, Caroline Portante, and Emily Zhou.
The 2026-27 Producing Fellows
Blaire Battle (LA), they/she, is an actor, writer, and comedian based out of Los Angeles CA. She is a UCLA graduate with a BA in theater and a certificate in writing for television. Blaire recently debuted their new play Rebis at Celebration Theater, and their musical, Dreamverse at Musi-Cal. Blaire has written and co-written a number of works with their production company, The Stranger Kind: space fantasy webcomic Song of the Rainbow Sea, queer sci-fi rock opera Dreamverse, and post apocalyptic transgender radio play The Transient Bliss of Death by Fallout. @blaire.battle on ig and @thestrangerkind on all platforms.
Ben Chau-Chiu (SF), they/them, is a Bay Area based director and producer. They’ve produced events with Teatro de las Tías, The Director’s Collective, and the Bay-API Newsletter. As a director and assistant director, they’ve worked with A.C.T., Cal Shakes, SF Playhouse, Plethos Productions/Chanticleers Theatre, Marin Shakes Teen Touring Company, and Teatro de las Tías. They’re a company member and ambassador for PlayGround-SF, and excited to now be one of the Producing Fellows. Get to know their work at benchauchiu.com
Bryanna Cuthill (NY), she/her, is a performer, artistic producer, coach, theatre administrator, writer, and a proud Afro-Latina Canadian currently based in Zohran Mamdani’s New York City. A 2024 magna cum laude graduate from Baldwin Wallace University, Bryanna recently produced a reading of Chris Gabo’s new play Hollywood & Gower, starring Anthony Ramos and Kara Young, directed by Felix Solis. She also founded The Dot with Renée Salewski, a Toronto based producing company. Select acting credits include Once on This Island and West Side Story (Genesius Theatre) and Little Princess (Conrad Centre).
Myah Jackson (CH), she/her, is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and administrator from Chicago’s South Side. A performer since age three, she began dancing at the historic Mayfair Dance Academy before discovering theatre in high school. She earned bachelor’s degrees in English (History minor) and Communications (Theatre Performance focus), along with an MBA, from Tennessee State University. After building the foundation of her multifaceted arts career in Nashville’s theatre community, she returned to Chicago to continue creating, educating, and leading with a mission to “work with love not against hate.” She is excited & grateful to join The Playground Theater production team.
About PlayGround
PlayGround was founded in 1994 by Jim Kleinmann, Brighde Mullins and Denise Shama, beginning as a professional-academic partnership in residence at San Francisco State University and with initial sponsorship from SFSU’s Creative Writing Program. Early participating artists included Prince Gomolvilas, Garret Jon Groenveld, Daniele Nathanson, Sandra Rodgers, Colman Domingo, Kent Nicholson, Antigone Trimis, Mary Coleman and Rhonnie Washington. The fledgling organization moved to Project Artaud and A Traveling Jewish Theatre’s new 80-seat black box theatre in 1996, at which time Kleinmann took on sole leadership as PlayGround’s founding Artistic Director.
The company was in residence at Berkeley Repertory Theatre from 2003 until the COVID pandemic of 2020 and has also presented at the San Francisco Main Library, Freight & Salvage, Zeum, ACT’s Costume Shop, and Thick House, as well as co-producing with such notable Bay Area theatres as SF Playhouse, Shotgun Players, Impact Theatre, San Jose Stage, and Magic Theatre, among others. PlayGround first brought its work to NYC with the 2008 co-production of Garret Jon Groenveld’s Missives, followed by the 2009 NY International Fringe Festival hit co-production of Aaron Loeb’s Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party, 2013 NY International Fringe Festival co-production of Katie May’s Manic Pixie Dream Girl. PlayGround celebrated its 25th anniversary with a one-night program of original short musicals at NYC’s Theatre Row in 2019.
PlayGround’s first ongoing regional expansion came in 2012 with the launch of PlayGround-LA at West Hollywood’s Zephyr Theatre. In 2018, PlayGround-LA relocated to Hollywood’s Broadwater Theaters (home of Sacred Fools Theater Company), where the company continues to present its Monday Night series. PlayGround expanded to NYC in 2021 and Chicago in 2022, with in-person performances (and simulcasts) beginning in the Spring of 2023, at NYC’s Producers Club and Chicago’s Theater Wit, respectively.
Over its 30 year history, PlayGround has grown into a leading national playwright incubator and theatre community hub, providing unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s and, more recently, Los Angeles’, New York’s, and Chicago’s best new playwrights through innovative programs such as the monthly Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, annual PlayGround Festival of New Works, full-length play commissions, playwright residencies and production support through the New Play Production Fund.
To date, PlayGround has developed and staged more than 1,500 original short plays through Monday Night PlayGround and the PlayGround Festival. PlayGround has also commissioned and/or developed several hundred new full-length plays by PlayGround alumni through its Commissioning Initiative, Playwrights Residency and Alumni Programs and, through the innovative New Play Production Fund, has directly facilitated the premiere of 40 full-length plays at theatres of every size, including many that have gone on to NYC and other major theater communities across the country.
In 2017, PlayGround launched Potrero Stage: PlayGround Center for New Plays, a 99-seat state-of-the-art performance venue to serve as a shared community resource for dozens of local companies and hundreds of artists. New programs in residence at Potrero Stage like the Free-Play Festival, Solo Performance Festival, and Innovator Incubator provide opportunities for local and national artists to self-determine and showcase their work in San Francisco at little to no cost.
Over 350 early-career playwrights have gotten their start at PlayGround, including Lauren Yee, Jonathan Spector, Geetha Reddy, and Cleavon Smith, helping to expand and deepen the canon of American 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, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and New York International Fringe Festival, among others. PlayGround serves one of the largest theater artist networks in the nation, connecting hundreds of Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York artists in support of a common vision: the development of bold and diverse new voices and new works.
This work has not gone unnoticed. PlayGround has received numerous awards, including: Playwrights Foundation’s Inaugural New Play Champion Award, BATCC’s Paine Knickerbocker Award for ongoing contributions to Bay Area theater, and American Theater Wing’s National Theater Grant. In 2016, Artistic Director Jim Kleinmann was recognized by Theatre Bay Area as one of the Bay Area’s top 40 leaders. Three of PlayGround’s commissioned plays have won the Bay Area Critics Circle award for Best New Play, and three have had subsequent productions in NYC. Four of the past ten Will Glickman Award winners for best new play are PlayGround alumni. When other theater companies think of producing new work, PlayGround artists are often their first call. As a result of PlayGround’s strong leadership, planning, and a willingness to take bold risks with high payoff, the new play ecosystem has been utterly transformed by PlayGround.
For more information, visit playground-sf.org.
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