Monday Night PlayGround Celebrates the Season of Love with Topic, “What the World Needs Now…”

Posted by on January 28, 2022

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love. No not just for some, but for everyone.” – Songwriters: Hal David, Burt Bacharach. Original Recording Artists: Jackie DeShannon.

PlayGround-LA has announced the topic for its next round of Monday Night PlayGround live at The Broadwater Second Stage, as well as simulcast online on Monday, February 14th at 7pm PT. The evening will feature six original short plays inspired by the prompt “What the World Needs Now…”, drawn from Hal David and Burt Bacharach’s 1965 hit song—recorded and made famous by Jackie DeShannon. PlayGround-LA’s sister companies, PlayGround(SF) and PlayGround NY, will present their own interpretations of the opening theme on February 21st and February 28th, respectively. And, new this year, all PlayGround programs in all three regions are being performed under SAG-AFTRA New Media agreements, providing union wages and protections for all performers. Monday Night PlayGround is admission-free (donations gratefully accepted) and advance reservations are required. For the complete schedule or to reserve tickets, visit https://playground-la.org/monday/

The 10th season of PlayGround-LA’s celebrated Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series on second Mondays, Oct-Mar, will be once again held in-person this year, at LA’s Broadwater Second Stage and live simulcast (October 11, 2021-March 14, 2022). Each month, PlayGround-LA announces a topic and writers have just four-and-a-half days to generate their original ten-page script. Recent topics have included: “Fearless”, “Reunification”, and “Lore.” The top six scripts are matched with directors and a cast of leading local professionals and rehearsed for just ninety minutes on the day of the performance. Following a brief technical rehearsal to add sound and other design elements, the six short plays are performed as script-in-hand staged readings for an in-person and live-stream viewing audience on second Mondays, October through March. Audience members can also experience the thrill of being a producer through the monthly People’s Choice Awards, helping to determine which plays and playwrights go on for consideration in PlayGround-LA’s annual short play showcase, Best of PlayGround. Advance reservations are required. Admission is free but donations are gratefully accepted. Proof of vaccination and masks are required for in-person performance at The Broadwater Second Stage.

Earlier this season, PlayGround-LA announced its 2021-22 Writers Pool, the thirty-six Los Angeles-based writers competitively selected to participate in the monthly series. These writers are: Michael P. Adams, Brianna Barrett, Evan Baughfman, Rachel Borders, Emily Brauer Rogers, Diana Burbano+, Malick Ceesay, Sarah Congress, Bridgette Connelly, Allie Costa+, Lauren Gorski+, Briggs Hatton, Elayne Heilveil, Aaron Higareda, Susan Hunter, Uma Incrocci, Julianne Jigour+, Starina Johnson+, M.J. Kang, Arthur Keng+, Ken Levine, Mildred Lewis+, Rhea MacCallum+, Liza McGowan, Tahirih Moeller, Scott Mullen+, Nicholas C. Pappas+, Peter Pasco, Joni Ravenna, Eric Reid, Jessica June Rowe+, Richard Ruyle, Mark Sherstinsky+, Ayesha Siddiqui, Nicki Spencer+, and Daysha Veronica+.
+ Past Best of PlayGround playwright.

Supporting PlayGround playwrights and the Monday Night series are the members of the PlayGround-LA Company, representing some of Los Angeles’ leading directors, actors, designers, and stage managers. The 2021-22 PlayGround-LA Company includes: Jahnavi Alyssa, Josef Bette, Sylvia Cervantes Blush, Jordan Carlson, Jordan Covington, Frieda de Lackner, Carolyn Deskin, Rogelio Douglas III, Julio Hanson, Mark Jacobson, Kurt Kanazawa, Stephanie T. Keefer, Christopher Gary Lawson, Jully Lee, Christine Liao, Jackie Marriott, Gabi Mayorga, Paris McCarthy, Rondrell McCormick, Krystal Mosley, Tiffany Mualem, Gary Poux, Tiana Randall-Quant, Maiya Reaves, Jesus Reyes, Ivan Rivas, Debba Rofheart, Tahmus Rounds, Mae Ruling, Collette Rutherford, Anthony Rutowicz, Lamar Usher, Carla Vega, William Warren, Charlotte Williams, Christina Wren, Demetrius Wren

PlayGround-LA is the first regional expansion of the celebrated Bay Area playwright incubator and theatre community hub, PlayGround(SF). PlayGround, California’s leading playwright incubator, provides unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s, Los Angeles’ and now New York’s best new playwrights, including the monthly Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, annual PlayGround Festival of New Works, full-length play commissions and support for the production of new plays by local playwrights through the New Play Production Fund. To date, PlayGround has supported over 250 early career playwrights, developing and staging more than 1,000 of their original short plays through the Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series and the PlayGround Festival. PlayGround has also commissioned 90 new full-length plays by 60 of these writers through its Commissioning Initiative and, through the innovative New Play Production Fund, has directly facilitated the premiere of 34 plays at theatres of every size, including three that have gone on to NYC and other major theater communities. Most recently, PlayGround renovated and relaunched the former Thick House Theater in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill as Potrero Stage, a state-of-the-art center for new plays, home to PlayGround’s expanding artistic programs and some of the Bay Area’s most distinguished new play developers and producers. Over the past twenty-seven years, PlayGround has served to identify some of the most important new local voices for the 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 Humana Festival, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, The Lark’s Playwrights’ Week, New York International Fringe Festival, and others. PlayGround received the 2009 Paine Knickerbocker Award for outstanding contributions to Bay Area theatre, 3 BATCC Awards for Best Original Script for PlayGround commissions, a 2014 National Theatre Company Grant from the American Theatre Wing (founder of the Tony Awards®), and a 2016 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award.

2021-22 Monday Night PlayGround Season Calendar

October 11th, 2021 7pm PT at The Broadwater Second Stage & simulcast
November 8th, 2021 7pm PT at The Broadwater Second Stage & simulcast
December 13th, 2021 7pm PT at The Broadwater Second Stage & simulcast
January 10th, 2022 7pm PT at The Broadwater Second Stage & simulcast
February 14th, 2022 7pm PT at The Broadwater Second Stage & simulcast
March 14th, 2022 7pm PT at The Broadwater Second Stage & simulcast

For tickets and more information, visit https://playground-la.org/monday/.