PlayGround-NY presents Season 1

MONDAY NIGHT PLAYGROUND

Topic: “REBIRTH”
October 25th 2021 7pm ET
Vimeo Live Simulcast & On Demand

Sunset Living
by Sam Affoumado
Directed by Jim Kleinmann
Michael Schafer……….…………………..……………..………..Andrew Sellon
Olivia Schafer…………………………..…………………………..Roberta Pikser
Justino…………………………………………….….……………..Enormvs Muñoz
Valerie…………………………………………………………………………..Polly Lee

Athbrhreith [rebirth]
by Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin
Directed by Olivia Songer
Siobhan.……………………….……..……………………..…………Julia Brothers
Aoife………………………..…….………………………………………..…Truett Felt

I Have No Confidence Any of This Will Work
by Phanésia Pharel
Directed by Estefania Fadul
Della……………………………..………………………….……Gabby {G} Momah
Dannell…………………….………….………………………………….Tyler Brooks

Six Weeks
by Jacob Marx Rice
Directed by Gabby Farrah
Maddie…………………………………………………..…………….Sarah Guilbault
Dr. Turner……………………………………………..…………………BW Gonzalez

Re: Birth
by Anthony Anello
Directed by Markus Potter
A/Alex……………………………….…..…………………….…….Nikhaar Kishnani
B/Blake………………………………………………………..………Martha Brigham

The Rebirth of Zora Audley Jone
by Bailey Jordan Garcia
Directed by Paris Crayton III
Zora………………………………………………………………………..Colette March
Toby……………………………………………………………………………..Sam Heldt

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,
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-sf.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

ANTHONY ANELLO (Re: Birth), he/him, is a graduate of NYU Tisch where he was awarded the John Golden Playwriting Prize. His work includes A Dog Dies (Goldberg Prize, runner-up), The Carter Play (Dixon Place), and GAY ST./MONTAUK (showcased at the Cherry Lane Theater and Rattlestick). He has recently worked with Out of the Box Theatrics on series such as Off-the-Couch, A New York Holiday Minute (in collaboration with Weathervane Theatre), and is currently the Writing Advisor for the company’s off-Broadway revival of Baby.

SAM AFFOUMANDO (Sunset Living), 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 (The Rebirth of Zora Audley Jone), 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

KAELA MEI-SHING GARVIN (Athbrhreith [rebirth]), they/she, is a writer, producer, performer, and educator. Kaela is a 2021 Bay Area Playwrights Festival selection, a 2021 Kendeda Playwriting Award finalist, and the recipient of six Kennedy Center playwriting awards. Kaela’s plays have been developed at The Alliance Theater, Montana Repertory Theater, and Sewanee Writers Center; they’ve been produced in New York at venues like Dixon Place, the New Ohio, and Ars Nova. They currently teach playwriting at Cornish College of the Arts. MFA, Indiana University; BFA, NYU www.kaelameishinggarvin.com | @kaemeishing on IG, Twitter

PHANÉSIA PHAREL (I Have No Confidence Any of This Will Work), she/her/elle/Ella, writes from a Caribbean feminist perspective on the divine metaphysical dilemma of colored girlhood. Through Afro-futurism her plays span revolutions, islands and combat gendered violence. She explores futures built on love by centering women’s pleasure, safety and joy.
Contact: phanesia@yahoo.com

​​JACOB MARX RICE‘s (Six Weeks), 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.

ACTORS

MARTHA BRIGHAM (Re: Birth, “B/Blake”) she/her, lives in Brooklyn, NY and is currently studying at The New School receiving her BA in Creative Writing. While living in the Bay Area, she was fortunate to work on several world premieres including Miss Bennet: Christmas At Pemberley at Marin Theatre Company, The Resting Place at Magic Theatre and Value Over Replacement with Playground-SF. Other works include Leni and The How and the Why at Aurora Theatre Company. Her last production was Gloria at A.C.T. She’s excited to be a part of the new and exciting Playground-NY!

TYLER BROOKS (I Have No Confidence Any of This Will Work, “Dannell”), he/him, is an actor, writer, musician and producer from Paterson, New Jersey. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from American University in Washington, D.C. He is the author of “To Abide in His Shadow,” and has release several music projects that can be found on all streaming platforms!

JULIA BROTHERS (Athbrhreith [ rebirth], “Siobhan”), she/her, spent the pandemic writing and filming a solo show, I Was Right Here, that was commissioned by commissioned by San Francisco Playhouse. It ran for six weeks this summer on their website. Upcoming shows include Women In Jeopardy at Arizona Theatre Company and Salesman with Gung Ho Productions, Yangtze Rep and Target Margin in Brooklyn.

TRUETT FELT (Athbrhreith [ rebirth], “Aoife”) Central Square Theater: debut; Truett is a NYC based actor and singer. New York: Matthew Amendt’s The Comedian’s Tragedy (Access Theater), Victory Train (New York Musical Festival), F8 or Down with Chads (PlayGround). Regional: Beauty and the Beast, Off the Rails (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), The Bottle Tree (Z Below), The Comedy of Errors (Craterian Theater). Truett is originally from Portland, Oregon. She graduated with a BFA in acting from Southern Oregon University.

BW GONZALEZ (Six Weeks, “Dr. Turner”) , she/her, was last seen in Arrested Development as Lupe for Netflix. Theatre works include: American Conservatory Theatre, LA Women’s Shakespeare, San Francisco Mime Troupe, The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (9 seasons), Denver Theatre Center, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and the Huntington Theatre Company. Gonzalez has played Lady MacBeth, Titania, Hermia, Hermione, Ariel, Masha (The Three Sisters), Sonia (Uncle Vanya) to name a few.

SARAH GUILBAULT (Six Weeks, “Maddie”) , she/they, is a writer and performer currently living in Harlem. She recently completed a Master’s in Performance Studies at NYU with a focus on ghostly traces and touch in postal correspondence. Some favorite roles include Marianne in Constellations, Paulina in Death and the Maiden, and Duchess in the Duchess of Malfi. Their current performance work focuses on uncanny encounters, diffusions of queer intimacies, and grief. Sarah takes inspiration from close friendships, epistolary correspondences, and a healthy dose of buffoonery.

SAM HELDT (The Rebirth of Zora Audley Jones, “Toby”), he/him, has worked with many extraordinary artists and accomplished many beautiful things. He is proud of that. www.samheldt.com

NIKHAAR KISHNANI (Re:Birth, “A/Alex”) ,she/her, Regional Theatre: Queen at Geva Theatre Center; A Doll’s House, Part 2 at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Off-Off Broadway: Veil’d at Astoria Performing Arts Center. Film: Sama, Him&Her&Him. Television: Brown Nation, Code Switched, Geeta’s Guide To Moving On, Nepotism. Other Theatre: Twelfth Night, The Women Eat Chocolate, Prospero’s Storm, The Children’s Hour and The Qualms at DePaul University; The Rimers of Eldritch at Rutgers University. Additional Credits: Kishnani received her M.F.A. from The Theatre School at DePaul University and was an improviser on The F-Bomb at The Second City.

POLLY LEE (Sunset Living, “Valerie”), she/her, is an award winning actress who has dedicated her career to the development of new American plays. She is honored to be in the inaugural New York Playground!

COLETTE MARCH (The Rebirth of Zora Audley Jones, “Zora”), they/she, is a performer, writer and model based in Brooklyn, NY. Recent credits include “Scooby Doo: A Musical Revue” (Daphne) and “The Fools Who Run This Earth” (Marilyn Monroe). They are incredibly grateful to be a part of this PlayGround performance. Keep in touch! IG: @colettemarch

GABBY {G} MOMAH (I Have No Confidence Any of This Will Work, “Della”), they/them, is a Black queer nonbinary storyteller, actor, writer, director, and producer raised on the unceded territories of the Tongva and Ohlone peoples on the west coast. G’s writing, directing and performance work is rooted in showcasing black trans voices and experiences from both comedic and dramatic lenses. They have also performed in various Bay Area theater productions including Schoolgirls; Or the African Mean Girls Play at Berkeley Repertory Theater, Top Girls at American Conservatory Theater and numerous shows with the sketch comedy group Killing My Lobster and the National Queer Arts Festival. Gabby is a Resident Artist of Crowded Fire Theater in the Bay Area, and has trained at Stanford University, San Francisco Mime Troupe, and The Actors Space. They are currently pursuing their MFA in Acting and Directing at Brown / Trinity Repertory Theater on occupied Narragansett and Wampanoag land.

ENORMVS MUÑOZ (Sunset Living, “Justino”), he/him, is a performer currently splitting his time between California, NYC, and Hawaiʻi.

ROBERTA PIKSER (Sunset Living, “Olivia Schafer”),she/her, started performing with Erika Thimey’s Dance Theatre of Washington, D. C. In New York, she worked with Chuck Davis, Eleo Pomare and various children’s theatre groups. She was a recipient of a federal CETA grant and performed a one woman show of poetry and dance in hospitals and nursing homes throughout New York City. Acting credits include the Negro Ensemble Company, the Delaware Theatre Company, the Halfpenny Playhouse of Kearney, New Jersey, and Stage Center and the Fan Theatre Company in Richmond, Virginia.
Ms. Pikser was Assistant Professor of Theatre at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she taught Movement for Actors, and she has taught in Nicaragua, Colombia, and Cuba. She has coached for H. T. Chen and Dancers and worked as a program auditor for the New York State Council on the Arts.

ANDREW SELLON‘s (Sunset Living, “Michael Schafer”), he/him, favorite roles include Polonius in Hamlet, The Fool in King Lear, Vanya in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Bazzard in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Charlie in The Foreigner, and all 35 roles in I Am My Own Wife. He’s best known to TV audiences as Mr. Penn/The Ventriloquist/Scarface in Seasons 4/5 of Fox’s Gotham. Other Film/TV: Begin Again, The Smurfs, The Blacklist, Divorce, The Good Fight, Halston. Audiobooks include: Turncoat, The Kevin Show. Andrew is on the graduate creative writing faculty at Western Colorado University and University College/DU, where he teaches writing and performance. Website: www.andrewsellon.com

DIRECTORS

PARIS CRAYTON III (The Rebirth of Zora Audley Jones), he/him, is an award-winning playwright, actor, and director. He has written over 40 plays, 21 of which have been produced around the country. Critics have called him “a powerful dramatist” and praised him as “One of the most important playwrights of our time.” His plays have been presented and/or work shopped by The Lark, NewYorkRep, KU Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Aurora Theatre, and more. His directing credits include; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Pure Artistry); The Old Settler (New African Grove); Mama Bear (Out of Box Theatre); Brothers of Affliction (Rising Sage Theatre); The Aftermath (Drew University); Chasing Gods (Davidson College); and many others. He is thrilled to work with DeSales University and this INCREDIBLE cast and crew. For more info visit: www.ParisCrayton3.com

ESTEFANÍA FADUL (I Have No Confidence Any of This Will Work), she/her, is a Brooklyn-based Colombian-American director. Recent projects include Carla’s Quince created with The Voting Project (Drama League Award nomination), Noelle Viñas’ Zoom Intervention (Weston Playhouse, NYTimes Critics Pick), Christina Quintana’s Azul (Southern Rep) and Scissoring (INTAR), Stefan Ivanov’s The Same Day (Sfumato Theatre, Bulgaria), and Preston Max Allen and Jessica Kahkoska’s musical Agent 355 (Chautauqua, NYSAF). Estefanía has developed new work off-Broadway and regionally at the Public Theater, Playwrights’ Realm, Long Wharf, Juilliard, Repertorio Español, and more. She is an artist with the Center for Performance and Civic Practice, and a member of the Drama League Directors Council, New Georges Jam, Latinx Theatre Commons advisory committee, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and SDC. B.A. Vassar College. www.estefaniafadul.com.

GABBY FARRAH (Six Weeks), she/her, is a Brooklyn-based theater director and producer, originally from Boston, Massachusetts. She has worked at PlayCo, NYTW Next Door, Page 73, The Kennedy Center, The Huntington, Theater in Quarantine, Playground-NY, The Brick, MAD House, Eggtooth Productions, and Clubbed Thumb, where she is currently the Producing Fellow. She received her BA from Smith College, where she was awarded the Samuel A. Eliot Jr. & Julia Heflin Award for Directing.

JIM KLEINMANN (Sunset Living; 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, the New Play Production Fund, Potrero Stage: PlayGround Center for New Plays, and most recently the Innovator Incubator.  For PlayGround, he has directed 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.

MARKUS POTTER (Re: Birth), he/him, – Off-Broadway: Stalking the Bogeyman at New World Stages (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination, NYTimes Critics’ Pick), Church & State at New World Stages (Off-Broadway Alliance Nominated for best new play), Why You Beasting? (Time Out NY Critics’ Pick), Associate Director for the Donmar Warehouse transfer of Blindness, Daryl Roth Theatre. Founding Artistic Director of NewYorkRep, and former Interim Artistic Director of Theatre Aspen. Currently serves as Assistant Professor of Theatre at the University of Kansas.MFA: Columbia University. MarkusPotter.com

OLIVIA SONGER (Athbrhreith [rebirth]), she/her, holds a BFA with honors in Drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA in Theatre Directing from The Lir Academy at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland’s National Academy of Dramatic Arts. Recent credits include Venus in Fur (Project Arts Centre), We Are Not Well (NYU Tisch), We Can’t Have Monkeys in the House (The Peacock Stage at The Abbey), Disconnected (The New Theatre/Smock Alley Theatre). Assisting credits include Ironbound (The Geffen Playhouse, LA), Tribes (The Gate), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Rough Magic/Kilkenny Arts Festival) Unwoman III, (The Samuel Beckett, Dublin Fringe Festival) R+J: Star Cross’d Death Match (Three Day Hangover/Drunk Shakespeare) She was a Rough Magic SEEDS participant and a Contemporary Artist in Residence at the National Gallery of Ireland.

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.

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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c/o PlayGround
3286 Adeline St #8
Berkeley, CA 94703-2485