Finalists And Semi Finalists Revealed For 2021 Bay Area Playwrights Festival

Playwrights Foundation, the West Coast's premier launchpad for plays and playwrights, has announced the semi finalists and finalists for the 44th annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) scheduled to stream online July 16-25, 2021.

The Playwrights Foundation artistic team reviewed more than 755 applications, in partnership with its National Reading Committee of over 177 readers from across the United States, with 130 semi finalists selected. That group of vibrant new works was then curated in partnership with a Literary Council composed of 20 Bay Area theater professionals, narrowing the list to 35 finalists that offer an exciting array of diverse narratives, voices, forms, and experience levels.

The five works ultimately selected for workshops and public readings for this year's Festival will be unveiled 5-6pm PDT Sunday, May 16, 2021 at a Virtual Launch Party via Facebook Live. For more information the public may visit playwrightsfoundation.org or call 415-626-2176.

Bay Area Playwrights Festival is one of the nation's oldest and most successful new play development programs. Established in 1976 by acclaimed director Robert Woodruff, the festival has built a stellar reputation for discovering original and distinctive new voices in the theater, investing in the development of their work, and launching storied careers. Among the first writers developed at the inaugural BAPF was the young Sam Shepard. Since then, more than 500 prize-winning, nationally significant playwrights have received their first professional experience at the BAPF.

Among the American theater's brightest voices who are alumni of the festival are Pulitzer Prize winners Sam Shepard, Nilo Cruz, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Paula Vogel, and Annie Baker; MacArthur Award winner Anna Deavere Smith; Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang; and acclaimed playwrights Lauren Gunderson, Rajiv Joseph, Katori Hall, Christopher Chen, Lauren Yee, and Marcus Gardley. The BAPF's ongoing success in discovering and supporting exceptional, newly emerging writers and launching their groundbreaking new work is its enduring legacy.

"We are excited to shine a light on the talented playwrights whose plays reached the semi finalist and finalist stages of our competitive play selection process for Playwrights Foundation's 2021 Bay Area Playwrights Festival," says Playwrights Foundation Executive Artistic Director Jessica Bird Beza, "Each of these plays has tremendous merit, and offer an exciting and forward-looking perspective on the future of playwriting. These writers are the future of the American theater and we are proud to help uplift their work."

This year, Playwrights Foundation furthered its commitment to creating an inclusive and equitable selection process by continuing to develop playwright-centric processes, reaching out to underrepresented communities prior to the application process, implementing a community-centered reader process, and analyzing demographic data. "Playwrights Foundation is devoted to focusing on the playwright as the heart of the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, fostering practices that more deeply serve them," notes Playwrights Foundation Literary Manager Heather Helinsky, "A community-centered reading process offers more transparency and allows us to come together with shared values. We are finding new ways to deepen the conversation about plays, and invite more diverse voices to the table."

Below is the list of finalists and semi finalists for the 44th annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival.

35 Finalists For The 44th Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival

• Ink'dWell by E.E. Adams
• The Rainbow Concept by Larry Americ Allen
• Seven Words: An Exercise in Friendship by Sowmya Ashokkumar
• When We Breathe by Jaisey Bates
• Rapture by Benjamin Benne
• Human Museum by Miyoko Conley
• The Great Jheri Curl Debate by Inda Craig-Galván
• Maiden Voyage by Cayenne Douglass
• Carroll County Fix by Val Dunn
• All My Mothers Dream in Spanish by Alexandra Espinoza
• Mountain Mamas by Daryl Lisa Fazio
• Manny Pacquiao Punches the World but the Earth Doesn't Even Flinch by Mark Galarrita
• Rust by Nancy García Loza
• (trans)formada by lily Gonzales
• Supposed Home by Sam Hamashima
• Three Antarcticas by Kristin Idaszak
• M-Theory: a play told in 11 dimensions by Jami Brandli
• Last Ship to Proxima Centauri by Greg Lam
• Pixie Dream by A. Emmanuel Leadon
• The Problem with Magic, Is: by Johnny G. Lloyd
• The Re-Education of Fernando Morales by Justin P. Lopez
• Black Mexican by Rachel Lynett
• Uhuru by Gloria Majule
• Tiger Beat by Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin
• The Pre-Med Math Club by Megan Meinero
• My Mother the Sun by Massi Monfiletto
• that drive thru monterey by Matthew Paul Olmos
• Light Switch by Dave Osmundsen
• the bottoming process by Nicholas Pilapil
• Young Men & Recovery by Brian Scanlan
• Learning How to Read by Moonlight, a children's play for Adults by Gaven Trinidad
• Half of Chopsticks by Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters
• Madeleines by Bess Welden
• Mediocre Heterosexual Sex by Madison Wetzell
• The Devils Between Us by Sharifa Yasmin

130 Semi Finalists For The 44th Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival:

Good Years by Ada A.; fresno by augusto amador; Theodosia Redux by Claudia Barnett; CANE by Mardee Bennett; Sons of Liberty by Cris Black; Why Are You Like This? by Sharai Bohannon; The First Sister Trip by Shoshannah Boray; The Kingdom of Ghosts by Darcy Parker Bruce; Nick & the Prizefighter by Kamilah Bush; The Forgotten Language of the Handshake or the Torso Play by Rachel Bykowski; Our Black Death by Lindsay Carpenter; sad girl hours by Libby Carr; LOT 110 by Nora Carroll; And Certain Women by Shualee Cook; en-DANGER!-ed by A.R. Corwin; Sandcastles by Lauren Davenport; Aztec Pirates and the Insignificance of Life on Mars by David Davila; 30 Seconds by Jayne Deely; From the Perspective of a Canoe by Amy Dellagiarino; The Winterguard Play by Avery Deutsch; MetaMorphic by Dolores Diaz; Eggshell; or Va?? Tra??ng by Anthony Doan; Wonderland by Kate Douglas; Courtship by Ryan Drake; SUMO by Lisa Sanaye Dring; Breakfast by Pam Dudley; Wild + Free by dr candi dugas; Memorial by Adam Elsayigh; Species:Human by Georgina Escobar; STAFF RETREAT by Gina Femia; Speak Freely by Andrea Fiest; Men Accumulate by PK George; Adolsy by Taylor Geu; If nobody does remarkable things by Emma Gibson; HiTouch by Amy Gijsbers van Wijk; The Get Back by Jeremy Gillett; The Red and the Black by Keelay Gipson; Go Down, Moses by Dana Leslie Goldstein; The Puerto Rican Society Club by Ed Gonzalez Moreno; Gang Sines by Malique Guinn; Funny, Like HAHA. (or, A Play About A Rape Joke) by Katherine Gwynn; Off-White; Or the Arab House Party Play by Alyssa Haddad; Peeling Oranges by Patty Kim Hamilton; Verdant Lawns by Jean Hartley Sidden; Long Layover by Michelle Tyrene Johnson; A Medusa Thread by Candrice Jones; Tracy Jones by Stephen Kaplan; The Night the Ocean Met the Bay by Elisabeth Karlin; Body and Blood by Shannon TL Kearns; Are You There Truman? It's Me, Just Another Guy Who Grew Up Secretly Worshipping Your Chiseled Porn Star Body Online, And Now I Think I Love You by Garrett David Kim; The Targeted by Hanna Kime; Ten Days of the Monster by Jack Knutson; see in the dark by Heidi Kraay; The Painted Handgun by James La Bella; Birdie and Cait and the Book of Life by Audrey Lang; Retreat by Tracey Conyer Lee; The Gift by Mildred Lewis; Friends and Lovers and Others by Matthew Macca; brunch by Maya Macdonald; Household Name by Josh MacNeal; Third Person by Jennifer Maisel; The Defectors by Nick Malakhow; Layla in Lala by Rohina Malik; Denial by Eric Marlin; The Firebird by Amanda Martin; Tim's Last Words by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb; Them What Brung You by Tanya O'Debra; If you have to go there by Erin Marie Panttaja; The Innkeepers by Novid Parsi; The Killing Fields by Anya Pearson; Essential Starlite by Zack Peercy; Black Girl Joy by Phanésia Pharel; Bite Me by Eliana Pipes; the salt women by Audley Puglisi; rgb by Julius Rea; Top by Jackson Reddy; Madame Anastasia's Crystal Ball by Iraisa Ann Reilly; Ebony Eagles by Crystal Rhodes; Lorelei by Tlaloc Rivas; And I Saw His Hands Open to Reveal the Flaming Fires of Heaven by Tyler Rivenbark; Confirmation by Madeline Rouverol; Tansu by Andrew Saito; The Care and Feeding of Small Animals by Brooke-Erin Smith; Who's Gonna Love You! by Lane Stanley; Tell Me What I Want by Gina Stevensen; Future Wife by Ruth Tang; Dinner by Lisa B. Thompson; Dried Fruit by Mehrnaz Tiv; Cardboard Castles Hung on Walls by Amy Tofte; The Adventures of N***a Jim (Free Jim) by Josiah Turner; Alamar by David Valdes; The Empty Crusade by Leela Velautham; The Write Choice by Daysha Veronica; Things I Never Told The Stars by Isabella Waldron; Deer Island by Brian Walker.

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