PLAYGROUND-LA’S BEST OF 13TH SEASON ANNOUNCED

Posted by on March 19, 2025

LOS ANGELES – PlayGround, a leading national playwright incubator and theatre community hub, is pleased to share the lineup for Best of PlayGround(LA) ‘25. Originally developed among thirty-six new short plays through PlayGround-LA’s Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, these plays will receive a special one-night encore performance on April 14, 2025 at 7pm PT at The Broadwater Second Stage and simulcast under a unique new media agreement with SAG-AFTRA. Free to stream, watch on-demand, and at the door on show nights (donations gratefully accepted), advanced in-person reservations start at $10. For tickets and more information, visit https://playground-la.org/bestof.

The Best of PlayGround(LA) ‘25 selected plays/playwrights are:

Friendly Fire by Damian Alejandro Arteaga
Every Blow by Summer Broyhill
I Don’t Eat Pie by Amy Ellenberger
Hello in There by Paris Herbert-Taylor
Son of a Kaiju by Mikee Loria
Good Romans by Baylee Shlichtman

Plays & Playwrights

Friendly Fire by Damian Alejandro Arteaga
Arturo Gomez used to be a member of the Minutemen Project, a volunteer group dedicated to “protecting” the U.S – Mexico border, and now recounts his story and the day that changed the course of his life for the better.

Damian Arteaga, he/him, is an accomplished playwright, actor and director in Southern California. This is his second year as part of the Writer’s Pool. During his first year his plays Reefer Girl and Land Amongst Sky were performed and his play The Family with a Short Fuse was chosen as Best of Playground-LA. His plays have seen staged readings at CSUF’s One Act Play Festival (S.D.H.I.F.L and Izzy), The Larking House Playwright Intensive (The Hole) and The Redlands Theatre Festival (Smiling for Non-Smilers) He hopes to inspire the next generation of playwrights.

Every Blow by Summer Broyhill
In the early hours of the morning, when night shift workers briefly overlap with their children, a father and daughter reckon with survival, loss, and endurance.

Summer Broyhill, she/her, is an actor, dancer, singer, musician, educator, and writer. She has performed on Broadway (Hairspray), National tours (Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Hairspray), Off-Broadway (Killer Therapy, The Day Before Spring, and The Independents), and in numerous regional productions, short films, and web series. Her solo play DREAM Lover debuted at the Playground-SF Solo Play Festival in 2022. She is a proud third-year member of the Playground-LA Writers Pool, where six of her short plays have been produced with two, Glue and Thirteenth Night, winning the People’s Choice Award. MFA: Old Globe/ University of San Diego Graduate Acting Program. summerbroyhill.com, @summerbroyhill on Instagram.

I Don’t Eat Pie by Amy Ellenberger
When the children of feuding families find love together, they attempt to break the cycle of revenge by confronting generational trauma and eating pie.

Amy Ellenberger, she/her, is a Los Angeles based playwright, producer, and actor. She is a founding member and current Artistic Producing Director of the site-specific theatre company Chalk Rep. With a passion for sustainability, she volunteers at Cottonwood Urban Farm and is a member of the San Fernando Valley Climate Reality Project. She holds a B.F.A from Otterbein College and an M.F.A. from UC San Diego.

Hello in There by Paris Herbert-Taylor
Linda and Joe prepare their father John to leave his nursing home.

Paris Herbert-Taylor, she/her, is a writer and producer developing for film, television, and stage. Her Christmas movie 12 Dares Of Christmas is available to stream on Peacock.

Son of a Kaiju by Mikee Loria
The gargantuan kaiju undertakes his greatest challenge: teaching his angsty teen son how to become the next ruler of the monsters!

Mikee Loria, he/him, is a Fil-Am storyteller/actor based in SoCal. Mikee earned a double B.A. in Theatre and Film from UC Berkeley, and is an alumnus of A.C.T’s Summer Training Congress. He is writing a feature-length screenplay in collaboration with World Builders Incubator. He looks forward to co-leading in the World Premiere of A Driving Beat at Flint Repertory Theatre in March of this year. IG: @mikeeloria

Good Romans by Baylee Shlichtman
After the events of Antony and Cleopatra, Octavia just wants to turn into a tree for a bit.

Baylee Shlichtman, she/her, writes weird and magical plays about navigating relationships and autonomy. She has had her work produced or developed with AlterTheatre Ensemble, Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble, Curtis Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre/ LA, The Larking House, Long Beach Shakespeare Company, New Relic Theatre, Playground-LA, Secondary Location Productions, South Texas College Latinx New Play Festival, UC Irvine, Urbanite Theatre, The Vagrancy Theatre, The Wayward Artist, and The Workshop Theatre among others.

About PlayGround

PlayGround was founded in 1994 by Jim Kleinmann, Brighde Mullins, and Denise Shama, beginning as a professional-academic partnership in residence at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and with initial sponsorship from SFSU’s Creative Writing Program. Early participating artists included Prince Gomolvilas, Garret Jon Groenveld, Daniele Nathanson, Sandra Hunter, Colman Domingo, Kent Nicholson, Antigone Trimis, Mary Coleman, and Rhonnie Washington. The fledgling organization moved to Project Artaud and A Traveling Jewish Theatre’s new 80-seat black box theatre in 1996, at which time Kleinmann took on sole leadership as PlayGround’s founding artistic director.

The company was in residence at Berkeley Repertory Theatre from 2003 until the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and has also presented at the San Francisco Main Library, Freight & Salvage, Zeum, A.C.T.’s Costume Shop, and Thick House, as well as co-producing with such notable Bay Area theatres as San Francisco Playhouse, Shotgun Players, Impact Theatre, San Jose Stage, and Magic Theatre, among others. PlayGround first brought its work to New York City with the 2008 co-production of Garret Jon Groenveld’s Missives, followed by the 2009 NY International Fringe Festival hit co-production of Aaron Loeb’s Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party, 2013 NY International Fringe Festival co-production of Katie May’s Manic Pixie Dream Girl. PlayGround celebrated its 25th anniversary with a one-night program of original short musicals at NYC’s Theatre Row in 2019.

PlayGround’s first ongoing regional expansion came in 2012 with the launch of PlayGround-LA at West Hollywood’s Zephyr Theatre. In 2018, PlayGround-LA relocated to Hollywood’s Broadwater Theaters (home of Sacred Fools Theater Company), where the company continues to present its Monday Night series. PlayGround expanded to NYC in 2021 and Chicago in 2022, with in-person performances (and simulcasts) beginning in the Spring of 2023, at NYC’s Producers Club and Chicago’s Theater Wit, respectively.

Over its 30 year history, PlayGround has grown into a leading national playwright incubator and theatre community hub, providing unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s and, more recently, Los Angeles’, New York’s, and Chicago’s best new playwrights through innovative programs such as the monthly Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, annual PlayGround Festival of New Works, full-length play commissions, playwright residencies and production support through the New Play Production Fund.

To date, PlayGround has developed and staged more than 1,500 original short plays through Monday Night PlayGround and the PlayGround Festival. PlayGround has also commissioned and/or developed several hundred new full-length plays by PlayGround alumni through its Commissioning Initiative, Playwrights Residency and Alumni Programs and, through the innovative New Play Production Fund, has directly facilitated the premiere of 40 full-length plays at theatres of every size, including many that have gone on to NYC and other major theater communities across the country.

In 2017, PlayGround launched Potrero Stage: PlayGround Center for New Plays, a 99-seat state-of-the-art performance venue to serve as a shared community resource for dozens of local companies and hundreds of artists. New programs in residence at Potrero Stage like the Free-Play Festival, Solo Performance Festival, and Innovator Incubator provide opportunities for local and national artists to self-determine and showcase their work in San Francisco at little to no cost.

More than 350 early-career playwrights have gotten their start at PlayGround, including Lauren Yee, Jonathan Spector, Geetha Reddy, and Cleavon Smith, helping to expand and deepen the canon of American 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 Steinberg Awards, Glickman Awards, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and New York International Fringe Festival, among others. PlayGround serves one of the largest theatre artist networks in the nation, connecting hundreds of Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York artists in support of a common vision: the development of bold and diverse new voices and new works.

This work has not gone unnoticed. PlayGround has received numerous awards, including Playwrights Foundation’s Inaugural New Play Champion Award, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle’s Paine Knickerbocker Award for ongoing contributions to Bay Area theatre, and American Theater Wing’s National Theater Grant. In 2016, Artistic Director Jim Kleinmann was recognized by Theatre Bay Area as one of the Bay Area’s top 40 leaders. Three of PlayGround’s commissioned plays have won the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle award for Best New Play, and three have had subsequent productions in NYC. Four of the past five Will Glickman Award winners for best new play are PlayGround alumni. When other theatre companies think of producing new work, PlayGround artists are often their first call. As a result of PlayGround’s strong leadership, planning, and a willingness to take bold risks with high payoff, the new play ecosystem has been utterly transformed by PlayGround. For more information, visit PlayGround-LA.org.

2024-25 PlayGround-LA Company

PlayGround also recently announced its 2024-25 Company, including the Writers Pool, Resident Playwrights and Artist Company. These 160+ artists will fuel PlayGround’s incubator programs over the next season, fostering the development of more than 150 original short and full-length plays.

The PlayGround-LA 2024-25 Writers Pool includes: Michael Adams, Tamadhur Al-Aqeel, Damian Arteaga,Suzan Averitt, Esther Banegas Gatica, Blaire Battle, Evan Baughfman, Emily Brauer Rogers, Summer Broyhill, Timothy Bryant, Jackie Cloud, Allie Costa, Paris Crayton III, Sandra Cruze, Isabella Dionne, Amy Ellenberger, Lauren Gorski, Rachel Harner, Aaron Higareda, Michael Kaplan,Mildred Lewis, Mikee Loria, Rhea MacCallum, Abel Marquez, Samah Meghjee, Scott Mullen, Peter Pasco, Margo Rofé, Carolina Rojas Moretti, Cara Sanchez, Mark Sherstinsky, Baylee Shlichtman, Maria Smith, Lisa Sutton, Adrian A Babatunde Thomas, Evelyn Wu-Coffey.

2024-25 Resident Playwrights are Michael Adams, Anthony Anello, Robyn Brooks, Bailey Jordan Garcia, Garret Groenveld,Juliet Kang Huneke, Karissa Murrell Myers, Lyra Nalan, Jacob Marx Rice, Kimberly Ridgeway, Louel Señores, and Christian Wilburn,
* 2024-25 Commission recipients

PlayGround-LA Artist Company Tanvi Agrawal, Jahnavi Alyssa, Tamiah Bantum, Brianna Barrett, Jerome Beck, Julia Belanova, Josef Bette, Summer Broyhill, Ben Cain, Hugo Carbajal, Jordan Carlson, Sylvia Cervantes Blush, Jordan Covington, Paris Crayton III, Greg Cuellar, Tom Dang, Friedade Lackner, Hillary DeMartino, Carrie Deskin, Rogelio Douglas, Angel Dumapias, Eliza Frakes, Eric Geller, Jon Joseph Gentry, Danny Gomez, Cassie Grilley, Christian Haines, Julio Hanson, Matthew Henerson, Mark Jacobson, Alejandra Jaime, Alexia Jasmene, Cybelle Kaehler, Kurt Kanazawa, Stephanie Keefer, Tony Kim, Jim Kleinmann, Dean Koya, Emily Kuroda, Chris Lawson, Christine Liao, Lea Madda, Jackie Marriott, Gabi Mayorga, Paris McCarthy, Sherry Michaels, Krystal Mosley, Rachel Needleman, Melissa Ortiz, Peter Pasco, Andrew Perez, Kevin Phan, Tansu Philip, Gary Poux, Tiana Randall-Quant, Maiya Reaves, Scarlett Redmond, Jesus Reyes, Ivan Rivas, Debba Rofheart, Tahmus Rounds, Mae Ruling, Collette Rutherford, Anthony Rutowicz, Richard Ruyle, Isabel Siragusa, Janet Song, Angela Sonner, Mark Anthony Vallejo, Carla Vega, William Warren.Charlotte Williams, Jonathan Wray.

For more information, visit https://PlayGround-LA.org or follow PlayGround on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/playground.la/) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/playgroundlatheatre/). For information on our sister programs, visit PlayGround-SF, PlayGround-NY and PlayGround-Chicago.

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