Oct 12 Monday Night PlayGround Lineup Announced: AMERICA 250: The Dreamers, The Builders & The Leaders
PlayGround-LA presents Season 15
MONDAY NIGHT PLAYGROUND
October 12, 2026 – 7pm
Broadwater Black Box in-person & online Simulcast/On-Demand
Topic: AMERICA 250: The Dreamers, The Builders & The Leaders
Admission-Free (Suggested Donation: $10-$30)
The plays and playwrights include:
Ralph Lazo for Class President by Damian Alejandro Arteaga
Ay Dolores! by Esther Banegas Gatica
Private by Blaire Battle
Sugar and Spice by Maya De La Torre
The Woman Rebel by Amy Ellenberger
En la Brega by Baylee Shlichtman
Join us for new first-person solo pieces inspired by historical figures who contributed to the making of America over the past 250 years: those who helped dream it, build it, and/or lead it. Discover previously untold stories that deserve to be shared.
About Monday Night PlayGround-LA
Each month, from October through March, PlayGround-LA announces a topic and invites L.A.’s best new dramatists to write and submit original ten-page plays. The best six of these plays are presented as staged readings at the Broadwater Theaters and simulcast online on the second Monday of the month, featuring some of L.A.’s best directors and actors. To ensure radical accessibility, all performances are admission-free (donations gratefully accepted). NEW: Purchase a tax-deductible Monday Night PlayGround Membership ($50) and guarantee simulcast and extended on-demand access to all Los Angeles performances ($10 per event or just $1.66 per play).
2026-27 Monday Night PlayGround Season Calendar
Monday Night PlayGround-LA
October 12, 2026
November 23, 2026
January 11, 2027
March 1, 27
Best of PlayGround(LA) ’27
April 5, 2027
NOTE: Advance reservations are required. Admission is free but donations are gratefully accepted. Links for online viewing will be sent with reservation confirmation and can also be accessed through your PlayGround account. If you have any questions, please contact the Box Office at boxoffice@playground-sf.org.
About PlayGround
PlayGround was founded in 1994 by Jim Kleinmann, Brighde Mullins, and Denise Shama, beginning as a professional-academic partnership in residence at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and with initial sponsorship from SFSU’s Creative Writing Program. Early participating artists included Prince Gomolvilas, Garret Jon Groenveld, Daniele Nathanson, Sandra Hunter, Colman Domingo, Kent Nicholson, Antigone Trimis, Mary Coleman, and Rhonnie Washington. The fledgling organization moved to Project Artaud and A Traveling Jewish Theatre’s new 80-seat black box theatre in 1996, at which time Kleinmann took on sole leadership as PlayGround’s founding artistic director.
The company was in residence at Berkeley Repertory Theatre from 2003 until the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and has also presented at the David Brower Center, the San Francisco Main Library, Freight & Salvage, Zeum, A.C.T.’s Costume Shop, and Thick House, as well as co-producing with such notable Bay Area theatres as San Francisco Playhouse, Shotgun Players, Impact Theatre, San Jose Stage, and Magic Theatre, among others. PlayGround first brought its work to New York City with the 2008 co-production of Garret Jon Groenveld’s Missives, followed by the 2009 NY International Fringe Festival hit co-production of Aaron Loeb’s Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party, 2013 NY International Fringe Festival co-production of Katie May’s Manic Pixie Dream Girl. PlayGround celebrated its 25th anniversary with a one-night program of original short musicals at NYC’s Theatre Row in 2019.
PlayGround’s first ongoing regional expansion came in 2012 with the launch of PlayGround-LA at West Hollywood’s Zephyr Theatre. In 2018, PlayGround-LA relocated to Hollywood’s Broadwater Theaters (home of Sacred Fools Theater Company), where the company continues to present its Monday Night series. PlayGround expanded to NYC in 2021 and Chicago in 2022, with in-person performances (and simulcasts) beginning in the Spring of 2023, at NYC’s Producers Club and Chicago’s Theater Wit, respectively.
Over its 32 year history, PlayGround has grown into a leading national playwright incubator and theatre community hub, providing unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s and, more recently, Los Angeles’, New York’s, and Chicago’s best new playwrights through innovative programs such as the monthly Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, annual PlayGround Festival of New Works, full-length play commissions, playwright residencies and production support through the New Play Production Fund.
To date, PlayGround has developed and staged more than 1,500 original short plays through Monday Night PlayGround and the PlayGround Festival. PlayGround has also commissioned and/or developed several hundred new full-length plays by PlayGround alumni through its Commissioning Initiative, Playwrights Residency and Alumni Programs and, through the innovative New Play Production Fund, has directly facilitated the premiere of 40 full-length plays at theatres of every size, including many that have gone on to NYC and other major theater communities across the country.
In 2017, PlayGround launched Potrero Stage: PlayGround Center for New Plays, a 99-seat state-of-the-art performance venue to serve as a shared community resource for dozens of local companies and hundreds of artists. New programs in residence at Potrero Stage like the Free-Play Festival, Solo Performance Festival, and Innovator Incubator provide opportunities for local and national artists to self-determine and showcase their work in San Francisco at little to no cost.
More than 350 early-career playwrights have gotten their start at PlayGround, including Lauren Yee, Jonathan Spector, Geetha Reddy, and Cleavon Smith, helping to expand and deepen the canon of American 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 Steinberg Awards, Glickman Awards, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and New York International Fringe Festival, among others. PlayGround serves one of the largest theatre artist networks in the nation, connecting hundreds of Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York artists in support of a common vision: the development of bold and diverse new voices and new works.
This work has not gone unnoticed. PlayGround has received numerous awards, including Playwrights Foundation’s Inaugural New Play Champion Award, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle’s Paine Knickerbocker Award for ongoing contributions to Bay Area theatre, and American Theater Wing’s National Theater Grant. In 2016, Artistic Director Jim Kleinmann was recognized by Theatre Bay Area as one of the Bay Area’s top 40 leaders. Three of PlayGround’s commissioned plays have won the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle award for Best New Play, and three have had subsequent productions in NYC. Four of the past five Will Glickman Award winners for best new play are PlayGround alumni. When other theatre companies think of producing new work, PlayGround artists are often their first call. As a result of PlayGround’s strong leadership, planning, and a willingness to take bold risks with high payoff, the new play ecosystem has been utterly transformed by PlayGround. For more information, visit playground-la.org.
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For information on our sister programs, visit PlayGround-SF, PlayGround-NY and PlayGround-Chicago .