PlayGround-LA Brings to Light New Plays for the Holidays at Dec 14 Monday Night PlayGround

Posted by on November 27, 2020

“Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.” -Anne Frank

PlayGround shines a light on the Holiday Season with a special round of Monday Night PlayGround, on Monday, December 14, at 7pm PT, with six original short plays inspired by this month’s prompt, “ILLUMINATE.” PlayGround Writers have just four-and-a-half days to find their own illumination as they seek to generate original short scripts inspired by the prompt. The top six scripts will be rehearsed and presented live via Zoom on Monday, December 14 (PlayGround’s Bay Area writers will share their own response to the prompt with six new plays on Monday, December 21). Illumination plays a significant role in many religious and pagan traditions celebrated near or on the winter solstice – Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Yule, and Bodhi Day (literally “Day of Enlightenment”), among many others. PlayGround-LA looks forward to the writers’ plays bringing light to this dark time and PlayGround-LA bringing their plays to light. Admission is free though advance reservations are required (1 reservation = 1 zoom link for up to 2 devices; Zoom links will be sent out the day of performance). For the complete schedule or to reserve tickets, visit https://playground-la.org/monday.

PlayGround-LA earlier this year announced its 2020-21 Writers Pool, Los Angeles-based writers competitively selected to participate in the monthly series. Each month, PlayGround-LA announces a topic and PlayGround-LA writers have just four-and-a-half days to generate their original ten-page script. Recent topics have included: “The Shakespeare Prequels,” “Gift Exchange,” “Anthropomorph” and last year’s “Feeding Nine Billion” as part of a six-year collaboration with Planet Earth Arts and Stanford University. 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 a live (albeit online) audience on third 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’s annual showcase, the Best of PlayGround-LA Gala, which this year will be celebrating its 25th iteration.

The 2020-21 Writers Pool is: 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 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.

In addition, PlayGround-LA earlier this year announced the inaugural PlayGround-LA Company, a core group of actors, directors and designers whose commitment, participation, and support make PlayGround-LA possible: 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, Tahmus Rounds, Mae Ruling, Lamar Usher, Carla Vega, and Christina Wren. Together with more than thirty other actors and directors drawn from throughout the greater L.A. theatre community, they help develop and stage the thirty-six original short plays featured in PlayGround-LA’s monthly Monday Night series.

PlayGround-LA is the first regional expansion of the celebrated Bay Area playwright incubator and theatre community hub, PlayGround(SF). 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 75 full-length plays. In the process of staging those works, PlayGround has helped to identify some of California’s 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. PlayGround’s alumni have gone on to win local, national and international honors for their short and full-length work, including recognition at the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, The Lark, Humana Festival, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and New York International Fringe Festival, among others. Directors and actors participating in PlayGround-LA are among some of the most distinguished theatre professionals, regularly working on leading local stages. PlayGround-LA returns to the Broadwater Main Stage, home of Sacred Fools Theatre Company, for its 8^th season (2019-20). For more information, visit http://playground-la.org.

2020-21 Monday Night PlayGround Season Calendar
December 14, 2020 7pm via Zoom live stream (topic announcement: Nov 27)
January 11, 2021 7pm via Zoom live stream (topic announcement: Dec 24)
February 8, 2021 7pm via Zoom live stream (topic announcement: Jan 22)
March 8, 2021 7pm via Zoom live stream (topic announcement: Feb 19)

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