PlayGround-LA’s 2020-21 Writers Pool, Season & Auditions
PlayGround-LA, Los Angeles’s leading incubator for a new generation of playwrights, has selected this year’s Writers Pool for the 2020-21 Season, competitively selected from open applications of short plays. Over the course of the upcoming season (PlayGround-LA’s 9th!), these writers will generate over 150 original short plays, of which 36 will be developed as part of Monday Night PlayGround, a celebrated monthly script-in-hand staged reading series that is at the core of PlayGround’s multi-tiered writer development process. Each month, PlayGround-LA announces a topic and invites members of the yearly Writers Pool to submit original ten-minute plays inspired by the topic and written in just four-and-a-half days. The top six scripts, selected by a panel of PlayGround Company members, are staged by leading local directors and actors and presented before an audience on second Mondays, October-March. The season kicks off on Monday, October 12 and, in response to the COVID-19 crisis, the entire 2020-21 season will be performed online and digitally broadcast via Zoom live stream. PlayGround-LA concludes its ninth season with the annual Best of PlayGround-LA Gala, Monday, April 12, 2021, featuring a curated selection with input from audiences and Company members alike of the top six short works from the current season. Tickets for the 2020-21 season go on sale September 14. For more information, visit https://PlayGround-LA.org/Monday.
PlayGround is dedicated to the development of new and revolutionary voices for the stage, and considers long-term development strategies and building multi-year relationships a key part of that process. Yearly submissions for the Writers Pool are open to all local writers, and an intentional eye towards cultivating a continuing class of writers from the year’s prior Pool in balance with recruiting new talent keeps each yearly Pool a dynamic entity.
2020-21 Writers Pool & Company
The 2020-21 PlayGround-LA Writers Pool includes: returning writers Michael P. Adams, Amanda Andrei, Rachel Borders, Diana Burbano, Kathleen Cecchin, Allie Costa, 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, Nicki Spencer, Daysha Veronica (2020 PlayGround-LA Commission recipient), and Desiree York, as well as new members Evan Baughfman, Bridget Connelly, Jerome Joseph Gentes, Briggs Hatton, Ayesha Siddiqui, and Charles Velasquez-Witosky.
In addition, PlayGround-LA is pleased to welcome back the 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.
Auditions & Directing Apprenticeships
PlayGround will be holding open auditions for this season of performances via online video appointment (reservation required) on Sunday September 13th. For more information and to schedule an audition slot, visit https://playground-la.org/audition. Additionally, applications for this year’s Directing Apprenticeship program are being accepted through September 25.
About PlayGround-LA
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 nearly 300 Bay Area and Los Angeles early-career writers and has commissioned/developed 80 full-length plays by distinguished PlayGround alumni, premiering 30 of these through PlayGround’s innovative New Play Production Fund. In the process of staging those works, PlayGround has helped to identify some of the leading emerging writers and, at the same time, has effectuated 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 are among some of the most distinguished theatre professionals, regularly working on leading local stages.
2020-21 Season
All performances will take online place via Zoom live stream. Tickets for the 2020-21 season will go on sale on September 14.
Monday Night PlayGround
October 12, 2020 @ 8PM
November 9, 2020 @ 8PM
December 14, 2020 @ 8PM
January 11, 2021 @ 8PM
February 8, 2021 @ 8PM
March 8, 2021 @ 8PM
Best of PlayGround-LA Gala
April 12, 2021 @ 8PM
For more information, visit http://PlayGround-LA.org or follow PlayGround on Facebook (http://facebook.com/PlayGround.LosAngeles) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/PlayGround_LA).