Lana Palmer News

PlayGround continues its 25th season of its celebrated Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series on Monday, November 26, 8 PM at Berkeley Repertory Theatre's Roda Theatre. The topic for November's round, announced this morning, is "FALL DOWN, GET UP". Members of the 2018-19 PlayGround Writers Company have just four-and-a-half days to generate their original ten-minute plays inspired by the topic. The top six scripts will each receive an hour-and-a-half rehearsal and a professional script-in-hand staged reading at Berkeley Rep on November 26. PlayGround writers in Los Angeles are working simultaneously on the same prompt and their finalists will be presented at Hollywood's Broadwater Mainstage (home of Sacred Fools Theatre Company) on November 12.  Tickets are $15-$30 and 5-admission series subscriptions are just $75 ($50 for 25-and-Unders). For tickets or more information, visit http://playground-sf.org/monday.

"A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears see how yond justice rails upon yon simple thief. Hark, in thine ear change places and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief." - William Shakespeare

Theatre Bay Area, the third-largest regional theatre service organization in North America, announced the finalists for the 2018 TBA Awards. The fifth annual TBA Awards Celebration will be held on Monday, Nov. 5 at the Herbst Theatre (401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco). Tickets for the public go on sale Friday, September 28, 2018, through City Box Office.

Town Hall Theatre 'Lost & Found' Season 2018/19 opens with  the Bay Area Premiere of THE REVOLUTIONISTS, a bold and irreverent new  comedy by Lauren Gunderson.  THE REVOLUTIONISTS will have 12 performances, including two previews, September 27 through October 20, 2018, at Town Hall Theatre Company, 3535 School Street, in Lafayette, CA.  Tickets are $18 - $30, and are available through the Box Office at (925) 283-1557 or online at www.TownHallTheatre.com. 

Unlike many theatre companies, Dragon's theatre season runs January through December. The Main Stage Series is Dragon's traditional programming series - the underrated, overlooked, and rarely performed gems that make Dragon the unique little theatre company that it is. Dragon's 2nd Stages series launched in 2014. It's intended to give other artists the opportunity to fully produce their passion projects with funding and mentorship from the Dragon's staff. This series works to develop new local theatre makers with the support of an established theatre company. For 2019 we've decided to offer three Main Stage Series productions and three 2nd Stages Series productions. All six shows are performed on the stage of the Dragon Theatre in downtown Redwood City. The 2019 season is the final season selected by outgoing founder and Executive Artistic Director Meredith Hagedorn.

Award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and director David Mamet tackles America's most controversial topic in a provocative tale of sex, guilt, and bold accusations. Two lawyers find themselves defending a wealthy white executive charged with raping a black woman. When a female legal assistant gets involved in the case, the opinions that boil beneath explode to the surface. When David Mamet (Pulitzer Prize winning author of Glengarry Glenn Ross), turns the spotlight on what we think but can't say, dangerous truths are revealed, and no punches are pulled.

This season over 75 California Playwrights have been invited by PlayGround to write ten-minute plays in competition for Monday Night PlayGround Readings. In San Francisco and Los Angeles well over 1,000 audience members statewide have seen the winning 26 plays  to date. Play topics have included Reap What You Sow, Probable Future Or Possible Future, Home For The Holidays  and In The Beginning… This February cycle invites playwrights to write ten-minute plays inspired by "TALL TALES" for Monday Night PlayGround Readings on February 12, 8PM at the Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles and on February 19, 8PM at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley.

What does the future look like if we continue to do nothing about climate change? Can the actions of a single person make a difference for the future of our planet? We asked the PlayGround Writers Pool to tackle this question for our annual Planet Earth Arts New Play Festival collaboration.

PlayGround is the only theatre company in California to have Statewide, Northern, and Southern California New Play Competitions. PlayGround's 78 Member Statewide Writers Company, primarily based in San Francisco and Los Angeles, compete to write original plays in four-and-a-half days. The tremendous diversity of California has infused the writers pool with many writers new, not only to California, but to the rest of the country as well. The November plays will be inspired by the topic REAP WHAT YOU SOW . As you sow, so shall you reap. (Galatians VI)

From small beginnings come great things. (American Proverb) PlayGround kicks off its 24th season on Monday, October 16, 8 PM at Berkeley Repertory Theatre's Peet's Stage with an all-new season of the celebrated Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series. The topic for the first round, announced last Friday, is IN THE BEGINNING... .

PlayGround kicks off its 24th season on Monday, October 16, 8 PM at Berkeley Repertory Theatre's Peet's Stage with an all-new season of the celebrated Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series.

PlayGround's 24th season begins October 16, 2017 and runs through June 17, 2018 in Berkeley and San Francisco. The Season opens October 16, 2017 - March 19, 2018 in Berkeley with its acclaimed Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. In the spring, PlayGround's season continues with the PlayGround Festival of New Works from May 10-June 17, 2018 at San Francisco's Potrero Stage, the company's newly-renovated home. A highlight of this year's PlayGround Festival are premieres of two PlayGround commissioned full-length plays: SCAPEGOAT by William Bivins and BRIGHT SHINING SEA by Julianne Jigour, both originally developed at the 2016 Festival.

PlayGround's 24th season begins October 16, 2017 and runs through June 17, 2018 in Berkeley and San Francisco.