PlayGround Unveils Winter/Spring Education Offerings With Jonathan Spector and Steve Yockey

PlayGround has revealed five new offerings as a part of its revamped education program for adults. The workshops and masterclasses will be lead by playwrights Jonathan Spector, (Tony Award-Winner, Eureka Day), Steve Yockey (Emmy Nominee & Multiple NNPN Rolling World Premieres), and PlayGround Best of Alumni Linda Amayo-Hassan, Andrew Crabtree, and Howard Ho.

Stephanie Prentice, PlayGround’s Education Coordinator has assembled these exciting educational offerings. “PlayGround’s education programs are open to the entire community and designed to support artists at every stage,” she said. “Offered in-person and online via Zoom, our Winter/Spring 2026 classes include multi-session workshops and one-night masterclasses led by celebrated PlayGround alumni and accomplished playwrights. We invite you to sharpen your skills, spark new work, and be part of a creative community dedicated to developing bold new voices for the stage.”

Registration for each session is limited to 12-20 participants. All registration fees support PlayGround programs and teaching artists. Masterclass with Tony Award-Winner Jonathan Spector. Visit playground-sf.org/education/ for course descriptions and registration details.

Everything But The Writing

January 21 (Online): 6pm PT/9pm ET

Creating a life as a playwright is a three-legged stool: 1) The Writing (and all that leads up to it); 2) The Making (development, collaboration with directors, actors and designers, rehearsal, institutions ); 3) The Business (career, relationships, contracts, submissions, commissions, agents etc).

The first part gets talked about the most, and for good reason as it's by far the most important. But the other two are also essential (and it's a false separation between them, as business and artistic decisions very often inform each other). So in this session we'll focus on sharing information and strategy around those crucial second two parts. We'll explore questions like: How do you know if a director is going to be a good fit for your work? How do you build relationships with theaters? What should go in a contract? How do I think about my goals in a developmental reading? And the evergreen, How do you get your work produced? What are the specific challenges and opportunities that one faces as a Bay Area (LA, Chicago, etc.) playwright?

Jonathan Spector is a Tony Award-winning playwright and screenwriter based in Oakland whose plays include Eureka Day, This Much I Know, Birthright, Good. Better. Best. Bested., and In From The Cold. Jonathan's work has been produced on and off Broadway, regionally and internationally at theaters including Manhattan Theater Club, The Old Vic, Miami New Drama, Pasadena Playhouse, Syracuse Stage, Colt Coeur, 59E59, Theater J, Asolo Rep, The Huntington, and Hampstead Theater among many others, and has been seen in the Bay Area at Marin Theater, Aurora Theater, Shotgun Players, Custom Made and Just Theater, where he was Co-Artistic Director. In the 25-26 season, he will be TCG's 4th most produced playwright in the country. Jonathan is currently under commission with Manhattan Theater Club, Roundabout Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Trafalgar Theater and a writer/producer on an upcoming Netflix series. He is a PlayGround-SF alumnus playwright. Masterclass with Emmy-Nominee Steve Yockey

A Deep Dive into Story Structure

The Broadwater Studio, Los Angeles
February 22, 2026:, 6pm-8pm PT

Steve will lead an exploration of the use of structural prompts to develop story, focusing on short form and how that can then be applied to full-length plays, TV, and film. We will be writing and then developing participants’ ideas in the session. The session will conclude with a Q&A for participants' questions about the class, the industry, life.

Steve Yockey is a Los Angeles-based writer. His plays Pluto, Mercury, Bellwether, Afterlife, Octopus, Large Animal Games, Cartoon, Very Still & Hard to See, Blackberry Winter, The Thrush & The Woodpecker, The Fisherman’s Wife, Wolves, Disassembly, Niagara Falls, To Tokyo & the Moon, Reykjavík, Sleeping Giant, Subculture, and Curiosities are published and licensed by Concord Theatricals. He holds an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Steve was a Co-Executive Producer on the series Supernatural and is the Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated creator/showrunner of HBO Max’s darkly comedic thriller The Flight Attendant. He is also the creator/showrunner of Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives, adapted from the cult Vertigo/DC comic. Intro to Screenwriting: The Craft, Navigating The

Business, and Surviving The Lifestyle with Andrew Crabtree

Online via Zoom
Six Weekly Sessions, Tuesdays: 1/20-2/24, 6pm-7:30pm PT

Explore the craft of screenwriting, from story structure, character development, and genre to formatting, storytelling techniques, and the business of film. Learn how to craft compelling plots, develop memorable characters, give and receive notes, and navigate the industry with practical tools and insider strategies.

WGA & PGA member Andrew Crabtree is an award-winning filmmaker whose work includes Inherit the Viper, Neon Cowboy (Sundance Fellowship Finalist), and Companion. His films have earned festival awards and industry recognition, he has worked with studios including Lionsgate and Hulu as well as brands like GQ Magazine, Red Bull, and Coca Cola. He is a playwright alum of PlayGround-LA.

Building the Dynamic Short Play with Linda Amayo-Hassan

Six Weekly Sessions, Wednesdays: 2/11-3/18, 6:30pm-8:30pm PT
In person at PlayGround PlaySpace, Berkeley
3286 Adeline St, Berkeley, CA 94703

Join Linda in this fun six week course that is filled with creative writing prompts, storytelling exercises and working on your own short play. We’ll focus on specificity of character, nuanced dialogue and heightened conflict. The class will culminate with an in-class reading with actors!

Linda Amayo-Hassan is a Native & Chicana playwright, actor, and director from the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Theatre Cultura and is a theatre professor at Chabot College. Linda recently had a playwriting residency at Berkeley Reps Ground Floor, a residency with PlayGround-SF and had the honor of participating in The Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive. Her plays have been produced at PlayGround-SF, The Pear Theatre, Native Writers’ Theater, Same Boat Theater Collective and More Más Marami Arts. Linda has an MFA in Acting and Directing from the University of Missouri in Kansas City. She is a PlayGround board member, and an enrolled member of the Spirit Lake Tribe.

Saying a Lot with a Little: Writing a 10-Minute Play with Howard Ho

Online via Zoom
Two Sundays: 3/22 & 3/29, 1pm-3pm ET

Where do you start when you write a 10-minute play? Whether you're confronted with a prompt to write a new piece or you're crafting a piece to enter into a festival or an awards submission, you need a clear idea for the play and a structure for that idea. This class will help students discover methods for coming up with those play ideas and crafting that structure. We will look at past Playground prompts, discuss strategies for dealing with the prompt, and do writing exercises to put those strategies into motion. We will also look at submission opportunities and how to make the most of those experiences.

Howard Ho is a Chinese-American playwright and composer based in New York City. He is a 2024 Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival winner (Beethoven’s Third), a 2017 and 2024 O’Neill National Playwrights Finalist (Various Emporia, Reset), a Bay Area Playwrights Festival Semi-Finalist (MOLL-E), and a Samuel French OOB Finalist (Where I’m From, End Of The Line). His work has been produced or presented by Moving Arts (Reset), Center Theatre Group Library Reading Series (Pretendo: A Musical), Playground (JIE JIE, Best of Playground 2024 Winner), Pan Asian Rep NuWorks Festival (Parity, Where I'm From), and Company of Angels (Taking A Toll, Will Call). He is also an award-nominated sound designer, journalist, and creator of a YouTube channel dissecting musicals ("Howard Ho Music") with 150,000+ subscribers. He is a playwright alumnus of PlayGround-NY. 

San Francisco / Bay Area Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

1. URINETOWN (Ghostlight Theatre Ensemble)

22.9% of votes

2. BEAUTIFUL (Transcendence Theatre Company)

8.1% of votes

3. SWEENEY TODD (Cabrillo Stage)

6.2% of votes

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