PlayGround-LA presents Season 9

MONDAY NIGHT PLAYGROUND

Topic: “Hero’s Journey”

November 9, 2020 7pm PT
via Zoom Live Stream

The Facilitator
by Starina Johnson
Directed by Jully Lee
Henry.…………………………….…………………….………………Anthony Rutowicz
Randy Dodson………………………………….……………………..Roshan Mathews
Joe…………………………………………………….……………..……….Mark Jacobson

Atonement with Abbu
by Ayesha Siddiqui
Directed by Sylvia Cervantes Blush
Sana……………………………..………………..……………………Roshni Shukla
Armaan……………………………………..……………………………Mueen Jahan

Clash of the Subscribers
by Mercedes Segesvary
Directed by Frieda de Lackner
Cassie….……………………………………..…………………Stephanie T. Keefer
Orisha……………………………….……………….……………….Krystal Mosley

Quest for Self
by Michael P. Adams
Directed by Paris McCarthy
Augie…………………………………….………………..………Rogelio Douglas III
Dr. Hummel…………………………………………………………………..Tony Kim
Carla………………………………..…..………………………Tiana Randall-Quant

Into the Vast Offing
by Susan C. Hunter
Directed by Jim Kleinmann
One……………………………………………………………….Tahmus Rounds
Two…………………………………..………………………………….Josef Bette

Courage
By Scott Mullen
Directed by Ivan Rivas
Reggie……………………………………………………………..Julio Hanson
Kat………………..…………..……………………….………..Jahnavi Alyssa

Sarah Gassher – Stage Manager & Sound Designer
Colin Johnson – Visual Designer

BIOGRAPHIES

PLAYWRIGHTS

MICHAEL P. ADAMS (Playwright, Quest for Self) is a playwright, actor, producer and substitute teacher.. His plays have been produced in Los Angeles, Memphis, Spokane, and Tucson, among other locations. Michael is a member of the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights and a graduate of the MFA program at San Jose State University. He recently made his directorial debut with his Zoom play, “Meetings.”

SUSAN C. HUNTER’s (Playwright, Into the Vast Offing) works include: Caddie Woodlawn published by Concord Theatricals, The Boy Who Ruled the Moon and Sun (San Diego Opera), Karma, The Musical (Write Act Repertory), The Grand Adventures of Jim & Huck (Whittier Center Theatre), Kissinup to Mr. Bliss (Write Act Repertory), In the Shadow of a Lunatic Moon (All Original Playwrights Workshop). The Beauty and The Computer Geek (East Valley Children’s Theatre- National Playwriting Award). PlayGround-LA writer since 2012. See more at susanhuntereiden.com.

STARINA JOHNSON (Playwright, The Facilitator) is a multidisciplinary artist who can be seen in award-winning films such as “West Hollywood Motel” and “Casserole Club.” Theatre projects include Piñata, directed by Stan Zimmerman, and complex[ion] woman, directed by Ebony Gilbert. Starina’s play Border Towns won SLAM Boston’s Diverse Voices in Theatre competition, and her short plays have been produced across the country. StarinaJohnson.com

SCOTT MULLEN (Playwright, Courage) is a playwright and screenwriter, whose thrillers THE SUMMONING and IN BROAD DAYLIGHT aired on TV One.  His short plays have been produced hundreds of times around the world.  An evening of his comic plays, A NIGHT OF S.M., had a two-week run in Hollywood.

MERCEDES SEGESVARY (Playwright, Clash of the Subscribers) is a Playwright, Screenwriter and Fine Art Illustrator. Her plays have been on stage in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Waco, Madison and Wolfsville – Nova Scotia. Her work has been developed through the Athena Playwrights in Progress Series – Denver, the Women Playwrights International Festival – Santiago, Chile, and The Vagrancy’s Blossoming New Play Festival – Los Angeles. She recently received an MFA in Dramatic Writing from CSULA.

AYESHA SIDDIQUI (Playwright, Atonement with Abbu) is a playwright of Pakistani-American descent. Works include: Water Lily (Sundance Institute Playwriting Intensive, 2019) and Baba, Jee (Father, Yes)(Hollywood Fringe Scholarship Winner, 2018). Her newest play, Jaldee/Hurry, is in development with The Vagrancy 2020-21 Writers’ Group.

ACTORS

JAHNAVI ALYSSA (Courage, “Kat”) has sung, danced, acted, fiddled and choreographed on stages across the country. Most recently she was seen in Portland as Reza in Once (Broadway Rose Theatre Company), in Los Angeles reading the lead roles in Seven Bridges Road and Hot Tragic Dead Thing (Living Room Series), and in Salt Lake City playing Qfwfq in The Distance of the Moon (Sackerson Theatre Co.) She also recently produced the first iteration of her dream project, The Secret Player, in which she stars as a badass musician/fighter with a disdain for guns. www.jahnavialyssa.com

JOSEF BETTE, (Into the Vast Offing, “Two”) originally from Chicago, IL, is an LA transplant since 2011. He’s happy to be part of the PlayGround-LA community since 2019. Film credits include Chasing the Blues and Parked on Amazon Prime.

ROGELIO DOUGLAS III (Quest for Self, “Augie”) is an actor and spoken-word poet from Brooklyn, NY. He has a BA in Theater from SUNY New Paltz, and an Acting MFA from UCLA Theater, Film & Television — Class of 2020! The Black & Afro-Latino storyteller most recently performed in The Displaced produced by San Diego Rep Theatre, and in Titus Andronicus as Aaron produced by Shakespeare By The Sea. Next he’ll be performing in a production of Measure for Measure as Claudio. RD3 can be seen in numerous films, new-media works, and co-starring roles on NBC, CBS, and HBO. www.RogelioDouglasiii.com | @RogelioDouglas3

JULIO HANSON (Courage, “Reggie”) (SAG-AFTRA) has been an entertainer and an educator in Los Angeles, California for more than 25 years. Julio has performed with Grammy-recognized artists Toni Braxton, Prince, Kelis, and La Ley to name a few, as well as, appeared in feature films, stage productions, and television. As an assistant principal, Julio seeks to inspire others to focus on the power of diverse and artistic education. Julio obtained a Bachelor of Political Sciences from UCLA, a Masters of Education from California State, Los Angeles, and a Doctorate in Education from Pepperdine University researching the Power of Artistic Activism.

MARK JACOBSON (The Facilitator, “Joe”) can be seen in 3 weeks on NCIS: LA and heard in the new NBA 2K21, dropping this week on PS5 and X-Box X!

MUEEN JAHAN (Atonement with Abbu, “Armaan”) is excited to be playing the role of Armaan in Atonement with Abbu. Other credits include BROADWAY: Bombay Dreams. The Laguna Playhouse: 12 Angry men, The Mark Taper Forum: Homebody/Kabul, Wallis Annenberg Performing Arts Center: Enter Laughing, East West Players: Free Outgoing, 2100 Square Feet: Asylum {LA Ovation Award Nomination for Best Actor}, 3D Theatricals: Into The Woods, Kingsmen Shakespeare: Henry V, Midsummer Night’s Dream REGIONAL: Artists Repertory Theatre: American Hero, North Coast Repertory Theatre: Becky’s New Car, Coachella Valley Repertory Theatre: A Perfect Ganesh {Desert Theatre League Nomination for Best Actor},Curious Theatre Company: Homebody/Kabul.

STEPHANIE T. KEEFER (Clash of the Subscribers, “Cassie”) is a Los Angeles based working in film, television, theater and voice over.  She had the good fortune to study with legendary Polish theatre director Jerzy Grotowski at U.C., Irvine. Her short film, ONE DANCE, was licensed and broadcast nationally on CBS and FOX, and Stephanie has gone on write, direct and produce other short films that have been seen in various film festivals nationally.  Catch her on Amazon Prime in the sci-fi rom com A GIRL, A GUY, A SPACE HELMET.  To find out more visit www.stephanietkeefer.me

TONY KIM (Quest for Self, “Dr. Hummel”) is making the best friggin lemonade outta the lemons, a little sugar and everything is sweet. Follow them on IG @tonykimtime and thank you for watching.

ROSHAN MATHEWS (The Facilitator, “Randy Dodson”) is an Indian origin actor, working in film and theater productions around the world. His debut film was Dry The Days After, for which he won Best Acting Debut awards in multiple international film festivals, and was nominated for Best Actor as well. He also played a principal role in the award winning short film, American Hate, which is a story based on the 2017 Kansas shooting of two Indian IT employees in a racial incident. On stage, he has performed at prestigious venues like Prithvi Theatre and NCPA in Mumbai and the Art Factory in Athens, Greece, among others. He originated the lead role in a play called Given, which was part of the Writer’s Bloc Festival in Mumbai. This play was about the nature of childhood abuse, and how that affects an individual as they grow up. In USA, he was part of the award winning play, Radicals, at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. This play is a Bollywood action drama set in warn-torn Kashmir, that talks of the horrors of terrorism faced by the people who live there. However, you may know him as the slimed dry-cleaner uttering Bill Murray’s iconic line in a recent QuickBooks commercial with Annie Potts, among several other commercials on TV and social media.

KRYSTAL MOSLEY (Clash of the Subscribers, “Orisha”) comes all the way from Chicago, currently residing in LA and is super excited about the production this evening! Some of her credits include: “10 Virgins” with Chicago Dramatist, “Ruined” with Eclipse Theatre and “Blood Wedding” with Pursuit Productions. She would like to thank the PlayGround-LA cast, friends and family for their continued support!

TIANA RANDALL-QUANT (Quest for Self, “Carla”) is a Los Angeles native who wants to challenge the pervasive idea that “LA is not a theatre town”. She loves having the opportunity to read new plays every month with PlayGround LA. She can also be found on YouTube making fun content with The 354 Squad.

TAHMUS ROUNDS (Into the Vast Offing, “One”) has appeared in many television shows, including How I Met Your Mother, Bones, Grey’s Anatomy, Parks and Recreation, Criminal Minds and 911 Lonestar. Among other theatre credits, he is a former Blue Man in Blue Man Group, performing over 1000 shows in Chicago, Boston and New York. He is excited and honored to be a member of PlayGround-LA.

ANTHONY RUTOWICZ (The Facilitator, “Henry”)can be found wearing bell bottoms and a snug-fitted red jersey crossing the street in a deleted scene in the Andy Kaufman biopic, Man on the Moon. Since then Anthony got a degree in Acting, has said a couple lines on TV, ‘stood’-in for Adam Driver on Marriage Story and has been recently putting his ‘well-rounded’ Theatre degree to use by building and fixing things since his last production involvement in The Serpent at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble was cancelled two shows into the pandemic. Thanks PlayGround and you, for being such an awesome virtual audience member.

ROSHNI SHUKLA (Atonement with Abbu, “Sana”) is an interdisciplinary artist who has performed professionally in regional and international theaters and taught at universities including UCLA. Shukla attended the British American Drama Academy (BADA) Shakespeare program at Oxford University. She has also studied with Tadashi Suzuki and the Suzuki Company of Toga in Japan. New York: The Bacchae (SITI Company – Brooklyn Academy of Music). Regional: The Bacchae (SITI Company – The Getty Villa and The Guthrie), Arranged Marriage (Ryerson Theater – Toronto), A Glass Menagerie (A Noise Within), Rabbit/Moon (Boise Contemporary Theater), A Christmas Carol (A Noise Within), Queen of The Remote Control (Sacramento Theatre Company), Queen of Califas (The Los Angeles Theatre Center), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (UCLA). Film/TV: 9-1-1 (FOX). Education: MFA Acting – UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

DIRECTORS 

SYLVIA CERVANTES BLUSH (Director, Atonement with Abbu) has stayed creatively active directing as the world turned upside down in 2020, with Company of Angels, Cerritos College, Tulane University and Join the Jubilee. Currently she is editing a Zoom to video project she produced and directed with 36 actors ranging in age from 4-50+ across 17 households. Catch a recorded live stage performance of “Don Carlos: Prince of Asturias” Nov 14 bit.ly/DonCarlosANW

FRIEDA DE LACKNER (Director, Clash of the Subscribers) is a director, producer, actor, and writer for both film and theatre. She worked for over ten years with Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre Programs. Her short films, By Chance and Meeting Matt Damon, have screened across the country. Meeting Matt Damon originated at PlayGround LA. She co-produced the feature film Hold On, which was released in theaters December 2019. She is grateful to be a company member for PlayGround LA! 

JIM KLEINMANN (Director, Into the Vast Offing; Artistic Director & Co-Founder) co-founded PlayGround in 1994, along with playwright Brighde Mullins and director Denise Shama, and has served as Artistic Director since 1996. For PlayGround, he has provided artistic and administrative leadership for the past twenty-four seasons, developing PlayGround’s unique array of new playwright and new play incubator programs, including Monday Night PlayGround, the PlayGround Festival of New Works, the full-length play Commissioning Initiative, the New Play Production Fund, Potrero Stage: PlayGround Center for New Plays, and most recently the Innovator Incubator.  For PlayGround, he has directed more than one hundred short and full-length plays, including works by Garret Jon Groenveld, Aaron Loeb, Geetha Reddy, Lauren Yee, Katie May, and many others. Recent directing and dramaturgy credits include David Steele’s Vignettes on Love and Ruben Grijalva’s Value Over Replacement. He is a veteran arts administrator with more than thirty years of experience, including stints leading Traveling Jewish Theatre, Smuin Ballet and Berkeley Symphony, and received his MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

JULLY LEE (Director, The Facilitator) is the artistic director of COLD TOFU, the nation’s first and longest running Asian American improv company, as well as resident director for PlayGround-LA. She has also directed with PlayGround-SF, Company of Angels, Exposition Review, hereandnow, Center Theatre Group’s Library Readings Series, East West Players’ David Henry Hwang Writer’s Institute, Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative, The Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights, Artists At Play, EST-LA, Road Theatre and Playwright’s Arena. As an actor, recent TV/film credits include Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Jane the Virgin, Veep, This Is Us, Henry Danger and The Kominsky Method. jullylee.com

PARIS MCCARTHY (Director, Quest for Self) has worked with PlayGround LA for 7 years first as an actor, then director, and now Associate Artistic Director. She freelances as a script reader but her finest achievement of 2020 is her daughter Clover.

IVAN RIVAS (Director, Courage) is resident director at Downtown Repertory Theater / Sierra Madre Shakespeare Festival and company member at Rogue Machine Theatre. A proud company member of PlayGround L.A., he has been directing for the company since it’s inaugural season.

PRODUCTION 

SARAH GASSER (Resident Stage Manager & Sound Designer) joined PlayGround in 2017 and has staged managed for the Monday Night PlayGround series and PlayGround Festival. She stagemanages for companies around the Bay Area, including Brava and Bay Area Children’s Theatre. In her administrative capacities, she assists with PlayGround’s marketing, social media, communications, and website, as well as serving as assistant to the Artistic Director.

COLIN JOHNSON (Visual Designer) is a multi-hyphenate production artist who has sullied the grounds of the Bay Area arts since 2008. His work has been produced or featured at PlayGround, Pianofight, The Circus Center Cabaret, San Diego Comic-Con, Image Comics, Potrero Stage, Pint-Sized Plays, The Olympians Festival, Shotz, Shotgun Players, The Curran, and various theatre, radio and film venues throughout the country. He is the Artistic Director of Awesome Theatre, Chief Creative Officer at Troubleshoot Productions and an Instructor / Director / Designer at Circus Center. He makes movies until he gets too frustrated and makes theatre until he has panic attacks.

PLAYGROUND-LA is the first regional expansion of the celebrated Bay Area playwright incubator and theatre community hub, PlayGround. PlayGround was launched in San Francisco in 1994 by co-founders Jim Kleinmann, Brighde Mullins and Denise Shama. In 1996, Kleinmann became PlayGround’s first Artistic Director. Since its founding, PlayGround has developed and staged over 950 original ten-minute plays by 250 Bay Area and Los Angeles early-career writers and has commissioned/developed more than 80 full-length plays. In the process of staging those works, PlayGround has helped to identify some of the leading emerging writers and, at the same time, has engendered the creation of a true community of theatre artists, bringing together hundreds of local actors, directors and playwrights. Each month, Oct-Mar, PlayGround-LA announces a topic to the thirty-six writers of the PlayGround-LA Writers Pool. Writers have four-and-a-half days to generate their original short plays and the top six are cast with leading local professionals and rehearsed for just 1.5 hours before being presented as script-in-hand staged readings on the second Monday of the month via Zoom live stream. At the end of each season, six of the thirty-six works developed in the Monday night series are selected for a one-night celebration, the Best of PlayGround Gala. The 9th annual Best of PlayGround Gala will take place on Monday, April 12, 2021, via Zoom live stream. PlayGround-LA is a fiscally sponsored project of PlayGround. For more information, visithttp://playground-la.org.

PLAYGROUND-LA CONTRIBUTORS

PlayGround-LA is deeply grateful for the generous contributions of the many individuals whose support makes our playwright incubator programs possible.  The list below reflects gifts made between November 1, 2019 and November 9, 2020.

Patrons ($250 and above)
Ruth & Robert Brayton, Michael Fried/Planet Earth Arts, Les Ostrov, Two Kids with a Camera, Anonymous (3)

Associate Members ($125-$249)
Laverne Agard, Kathleen Cecchin, Dina Fisher, Becky Harris, Mark V. Jones

Supporting Members ($75-$124)
In memory of Dylan Duncan Wright, Michael Borders, Frieda de Lackner, Susan Hunter Eiden, Mr. Jonathan Josephson, Lara Gilman & Jim Kleinmann, Josh Pritchard, Anonymous (2)

Contributing Members ($25-$74)
Daysha’s Big Sister, Miss Erika Agard, Charline Alexandre, Sylvia & Bill Blush, Diane and Steve Ciesinski, Ms. Frieda de Lackner, Angela Edewi, Elayne Heilveil, Ms. Mildred Inez Lewis, Bette Linderman, Anonymous (2)

Friends (Up to $24)
Chase Abrams, Michael Adams, Brandon Baer, Aldo Billingslea, Rachel Borders, Mind Your Own Business, Diana Burbano, Melissa Chalsma, Carolyn Deskin, Rebecca L. Foster, Jun Hee Han, Miss Ariel Jacobson, Julianne Jigour, Ian Kaye, Mrs. Rosette Laursen, Christopher Gary Lawson, Debra Lee, Erika Lewis, Anonymous, Kerri McCanna, Eliza McNitt, Daniel Melling, Laurel Ollstein, Katie Page, Ms. Adrienne Whitney Papp, Vanessa Parish, Tahmus Rounds, Steven Rubio, Richard Ruyle, LA Thomas, Harriet White, Desireé York, Anonymous (3)

Become a PlayGround-LA contributor!

DONATE

PLAYGROUND-LA WRITERS POOL

Michael P. Adams, Amanda Andrei, Evan Baughfman, Rachel Borders*, Diana Burbano*, Kathleen Cecchin*, Bridget Connelly, Allie Costa*, Jerome Joseph Gentes*, Briggs Hatton, Elayne Heilveil, Susan C. Hunter, Uma Incrocci, Julianne Jigour*, Starina Johnson*, Mark V. Jones, Jonathan Josephson*, Ian Kaye, Arthur Keng*, Mildred Inez Lewis, Rhea MacCallum*, Eliza McGowan-Stinski, Misao McGregor*, Scott Mullen*, Nicholas C. Pappas*, Emily Brauer Rogers, Jessica June Rowe*, Richard Ruyle, Joe Samaniego, Mercedes Segesvary*, Mark Sherstinsky*, Ayesha Siddiqui, Nicki Spencer*, Charles Velasquez-Witosky, Daysha Veronica*, and Desiree York
* Best of PlayGround Award recipient

PLAYGROUND-LA COMPANY

Sylvia Cervantes Blush, Jordan Carlson, Frieda de Lackner, Carolyn Deskin, Julio Hanson, Kurt Kanazawa, Stephanie T. Keefer, Christopher Gary Lawson, Jully Lee, Jackie Marriott, Gabi Mayorga, Paris McCarthy, Rondrell McCormick, Krystal Mosley, Tiffany Mualem, Gary Poux, Tiana Randall-Quant, Ivan Rivas, Debba Rofheart, Tahmus Rounds, Mae Ruling, Lamar Usher, Carla Vega, Christina Wren

PLAYGROUND-LA STAFF

James A. Kleinmann
Co-Founder & Artistic Director

Paris McCarthy
Associate Artistic Director

Sarah Gasser
Resident Stage Manager & Sound Designer

Colin Johnson
Resident Visual Designer

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
https://facebook.com/PlayGround.losangeles
https://twitter.com/PlayGround_LA
https://instagram.com/playgroundlatheatre

www.playground-la.org
c/o PlayGround
3286 Adeline St #8
Berkeley, CA 94703-2485