San Francisco Playhouse Presents '77%' as Part of Sandbox Series, Beginning Tonight

San Francisco Playhouse opens its sixth season of the Sandbox Series of new plays with the world premiere of Rinne Groff's 77% (formerly titled Schooner). Marissa Wolf will direct.

A high-powered businesswoman, her stay-at-home husband and her socialite mother wrestle with the decision to have another child, while her father braves a squall with his schooner in the Chesapeake Bay. What are the odds? The cast includes Arwen Anderson*, Patrick Russell* and Karen Grassle*.

The mission of The Sandbox Series is to promote new works utilizing top-notch directors and actors. Sandbox Series shows, with limited design elements and reduced finanacial risk, bridge the gap between "readings" and "main stage" productions offering increased exposure to the new voices in American Theater.

Rinne Groff (Playwright) plays and musicals include Compulsion, Saved, The Ruby Sunrise, In the Bubble, Moliere Impromptu, Jimmy Carter Was a Democrat, Orange Lemon Egg Canary, What Then, Inky, and The Five Hysterical Girls Theorem, have been produced and commissioned by Yale Rep, Playwrights Horizons, The Public, Manhattan Theatre Club, Berkeley Rep, Trinity Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Women's Project, P.S. 122, Clubbed Thumb, Target Margin, and Andy's Summer Playhouse, among others. Rinne is a recipient of a Whiting Writers Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an OBIE Award grant, and a NYSCA grant. Residencies: the MacDowell Colony, the Orchard Project, the Sundance Theatre Lab, the Australian National Playwrights Conference, the Perry Mansfield New Noises Festival, and the Chautauqua Theater Company. Other affiliations: Elevator Repair Service (founding member), New Dramatists, the Dramatists Guild, and NYU Tisch School of the Arts where she teaches in the Department of Dramatic Writing. Yale B.A., NYU M.F.A.

Marissa Wolf (Director) is currently in her fifth season as the Artistic Director of Crowded Fire Theater. Wolf's recent directing credits include the West Coast Premiere of Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven by Young Jean Lee, The Secretaries by The Five Lesbian Brothers, DRIP by Christina Anderson, Gone by Charles Mee (Crowded Fire), Act II of The Lily's Revenge by Taylor Mac (The Magic Theatre), the Bay Area Premiere of Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno, listed as #1 on Bay Area Critic Sam Hurwitt's 2009 Top Ten list, (Cutting Ball Theater), Truce by Marilee Talkington (Vanguardian Productions), and her experimental adaptations both of Gertrude Stein's long poem, Lifting Belly and Marguerite Duras' story The Malady of Death (FoolsFURY Theater). She has directed workshop productions with Playwrights Foundation, the National New Play Network, Shotgun Players, and Berkeley Playhouse. Marissa previously held the Bret C. Harte Directing Internship at Berkeley Repertory Theatre for two years, where she assisted renowned directors, including Tony Taccone, Les Waters, Lisa Peterson, Annie Dorsen, Frank Galati, and Mary Zimmerman. Marissa has her degree in drama from Vassar College, and received additional training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Founded by Bill English and Susi Damilano in 2003, San Francisco Playhouse has been described in the New York Times as "a company that stages some of the most consistently high-quality work around." Located right in the heart of the Union Square Theater District, San Francisco Playhouse is the city's Off-Broadway company, an intimate alternative to the larger more traditional Union Square theater fare. The San Francisco Playhouse provides audiences the opportunity to experience professional theater with top-notch actors and world-class design in a setting where they are close to the action. The company has received multiple awards for overall productions, acting, and design including the SF Weekly Best Theatre Award and the Bay Guardian's Best Off-Broadway Theatre Award. Presenting a diverse range of plays and musicals, San Francisco Playhouse produces new works as well as re-imagining classics, "making the edgy accessible and the traditional edgy." The company's 2012-2013 season marked its 10th anniversary and as it moved to a newly renovated venue, The San Francisco Chronicle raved: "On the verge of opening its 10th season, the company that lived a hand-to-mouth existence for its first few years has become the little playhouse that could. It quickly established a reputation for attracting some of the Bay Area's best acting and directing talent, as well as for its exciting play choices. And with its bold Sandbox Series, it's become a player in developing new works as well." San Francisco Playhouse is committed to providing a creative home and inspiring environment where actors, directors, writers, designers, and theater lovers converge to create works that celebrate the human spirit.

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