PlayGround-LA Gala: September 14 at A Noise Within

Join us for the ONE PLAYGROUND GALA (2026)
Celebrating the June Anne Baker Prize 25th Anniversary
September 14, 2026, 5:30pm-7:30pm PT
A Noise Within, 3352 E Foothill Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91107)
Tickets: $150 or review Host levels

PlayGround will honor four theatre luminaries at our annual four-city gala on Monday, September 14th. In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of PlayGround’s June Anne Baker Prize, one of the nation’s longest-running play commissions dedicated to the next generation of promising women/non-binary playwrights, PlayGround will recognize significant theatre artists and producers who have elevated womxn playwrights and stories throughout their careers: Margo Hall, Lorraine Hansbury Theatre (San Francisco), Jessica Kubzansky, Boston Court Pasadena (Los Angeles), Emily Shooltz, Signature Theatre (New York), and Ericka Ratcliff, Chicago Shakespeare Theater (Chicago). The 2026 June Anne Baker Prize winners are Esther Banegas Gatica (PlayGround-Los Angeles), KT Frances Hartline (PlayGround-SF), Uma Incrocci (PlayGround-NY), and Toby Inoue (PlayGround-CH). The Gala honorary committee includes June Anne Baker Prize alumni Lauren Yee and Geetha Reddy (honorary co-chairs), as well as Rachel Bublitz, Patricia Cotter, Laura Domingo, Brady Lea, Alanna McFall, Erin Marie Panttaja, Evelyn Jean Pine, Bridgette Dutta Portman, and Kimberly Ridgeway.

MEET THE PLAYGROUND HERO GALA CO-CHAIRS AND HONOREES

Geetha Reddy (Co-Chair) is a playwright and filmmaker. Her plays include The Employee Dharma Handbook (TheaterWorks Silicon Valley), Mahābhārata (Oakland Theatre Project) Far, Far Better Things (Shotgun Players/ TheatreFirst), Hela (with Lauren Gunderson, TheatreFirst), Safe House (SF Playhouse), Blastosphere (with Aaron Loeb, CentralWorks). Geetha’s plays Me Given You, Girl in a Box, and On a Wonderverse  were part of the Playwright’s Foundation’s ‘In the Rough’ reading series. Safe House and On a Wonderverse were featured in the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. She has been commissioned by TheatreWorks, SFPlayhouse,  Oakland Theatre Project, Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire, the Gerbode Foundation, and PlayGround (3). Her plays have also appeared in the San Francisco Fringe Festival, the Santa Rosa Quickies festival, the Best of PlayGround Festival, the Just Theatre Lab series, the Crowded Fire Matchbox series, and the Theatreworks New Works Festival. Her short film Obit appeared at LA Shorts, NY Indie Fest, Bend Film Festival, the GI Film Festival and many others. Geetha is a member of the Dramatist’s Guild and alumna Resident Playwright at the Playwright’s Foundation.

Lauren Yee (Co-Chair) is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter based in New York. Recent plays include Cambodian Rock Band (South Coast Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Signature Theatre), The Great Leap (Denver Center, Seattle Rep, the Atlantic, Steppenwolf, ACT), King of the Yees (Goodman Theatre, Center Theatre Group), and Mother Russia (Seattle Rep, Signature Theatre). Honors include the Doris Duke Artist Award, Whiting Award, Steinberg/ATCA Award, Horton Foote Prize, and Kesselring Prize. TV:  “Pachinko” (Apple), “Soundtrack” (Netflix), “Interior Chinatown” (Hulu), “Billions” (Showtime), “Clipped” (FX). She’s previously developed pilots for Netflix and Apple, and is currently developing TV and feature projects for Netflix and Universal. BA: Yale, MFA: UCSD. laurenyee.com

Jessica Kubzansky (Los Angeles), she/hers, is the Artistic Director of Boston Court Pasadena, a theatre primarily dedicated to risky, adventurous new works, and an award-winning director working nationally in theatres such as Arena Stage, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, The Cherry Lane, Portland Center Stage, ACT Seattle, Utah Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Rep, the Geffen Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, and many others. Kubzansky joys in directing a great deal of inventive new work, most recently: the world premieres of Beth Kander’s Best Line Wins (Contemporary American Theatre Festival), Weston Gaylord’s Octopus’s Garden (Boston Court Pasadena), Sarah Mantell’s Everything That Never Happened (Baltimore Center Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival [pandemic-paused], Boston Court), Aditi Brennan Kapil’s Orange (South Coast Rep), her own immersive site-specific Measure STILL for Measure, Tira Palmquist’s The Body’s Midnight, Kit Steinkellner’s Ladies (Boston Court), plus the West Coast premiere of Luis Alfaro’s Mojada, A Medea in Los Angeles (Boston Court at the Getty Villa). Other recent directing work includes: Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana (Boston Court), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Utah Shakespeare Festival), Florian Zeller’s The Father with Alfred Molina (Pasadena Playhouse), Othello (A Noise Within), Aaron Posner’s Stupid Fucking Bird (ACT Theatre Seattle), Jeanne Sakata’s Hold These Truths (Arena Stage), and many more. Most recent new play development work with: E.M. Lewis, Jeanne Sakata, Keiko Green, and Julia Lederer. Kubzansky has been blessed to work at a number of new play development festivals, including South Coast Rep’s Pacific Playwrights Festival, Perry Mansfield, Ojai Playwrights Conference, The Fords Theatre First Look, Cygnet Finish Line Festival, Playwrights Center of Minneapolis, Portland Center Stage’s JAW West, and more. Kubzansky has received many awards and honors, among them the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle’s Margaret Harford Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatre.

MEET THE LOS ANGELES JUNE ANNE BAKER AWARD WINNER

Esther Banegas Gatica (PlayGround-LA), she/her, is a Honduran bilingual playwright, actress, director, and translator. She’s a graduate of Teatro Prometeo from Miami Dade College. She’s obtained a BFA from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She’s taught and performed with/at: Miami Hispanic International Theatre Festival, Syracuse Stage, the Gluck Foundation, and Fort Worth Fringe. Esther is a recent graduate from the University of California, Riverside with an MFA in writing for the performing arts. She is a Line Producer for Lime Arts productions and part of PlayGround-LA, as well as part of Black Voice News. Her short play, Waiting for… the Bus, was featured in Best of PlayGround(LA) ’26. Follow her work @esteyg