PlayGround-LA’s Season 12 Writers Pool, Season & Auditions

PlayGround-LA, Los Angeles’s leading incubator for a new generation of playwrights, is pleased to announce the Season 12 Writer Pool, competitively chosen from open applications of short plays, and its plans for the 2023-24 Season. Over the course of the upcoming 2023-24 season, 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-LA 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 9, 2023 and, to ensure maximum audience accessibility and safety, the entire 2023-24 season will have both in-person and digital live stream viewing options. 

PlayGround-LA concludes its twelfth season with the annual Best of PlayGround-LA, Monday, April 8, 2024, featuring a curated selection with input from audiences and Company members alike of the top six short works from the current season. 

PlayGround now operates programs and companies in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago. In recognition of PlayGround’s national presence, PlayGround will host an integrated hybrid in-person/online fundraising gala, the One PlayGround Gala, on Monday, September 18, 2023 at the Broadwater Plunge in Los Angeles, Potrero Stage in San Francisco, The Producers Club in NYC, and Theater Wit in Chicago. 

In addition to PlayGround-LA, we are also offering streaming access to this year’s PlayGround (SF), PlayGround-NY and PlayGround-Chicago seasons, with single ticket reservations and Monday Night PlayGround memberships going on sale beginning September 1, 2023. 

2023-24 Writers Pool & Company

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.

The 2023-24 PlayGround-LA Writers Pool includes: returning writers Michael P. Adams, Evan Baughfman, Jaisey Bates, Emily Bauer Rogers, Summer Broyhill, Joe Luis Cedillo, Allie Costa, Esther Banegas Gatica, Lauren Gorski, Briggs Hatton, Susan C. Hunter, M.J. Kang, Michael B. Kaplan, Mildred Inez Lewis, Rhea MacCallum, Scott Mullen, Peter Pasco, Lina Patel, Jessica June Rowe, Mark Sherstinsky, Ayesha Siddiqui, as well as new members Tamadhur Al-Aqeel, Damian Alejandro Arteaga, Sandra Cruze, Stacy Davies, Adi Eshman, Grant Gottschall, Shoshanna Green, Rachel Harner, Margo Wade Rofé, Cara Sanchez, Baylee Schlichtman, Maria D. Smith, Adrian Thomas, Evelyn Wu-Coffey, and Carolina Pilar Xique.

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: Jahnavi Alyssa, Jerome Beck, Josef Bette, Sylvia Cervantes Blush, Summer Broyhill, Ben Cain, Hugo Carbajal, Jordan Carlson, Jordan Covington, Frieda de Lackner, Hillary DeMartino, Carolyn Deskin, Rogelio Douglas III, Angel Dumapias, Eliza Frakes, Eric Geller, Danny Gomez, Cassie Grilley, Christian Haines, Julio Hanson, Matthew Henerson, Mark Jacobson, Alejandra Jaime, Alexia Jasmene, Kurt Kanazawa, Stephanie T. Keefer, Tony Kim, Emily Kuroda, Christopher Gary Lawson, Jully Lee, Christine Liao, Lea Madda, Jackie Marriott, Gabi Mayorga, Paris McCarthy, Rondrell McCormick, Sherry Michaels, Krystal Mosley, Rachel Berney Needleman, Melissa Ortiz, Andrew Perez, Tansu Philip, Gary Poux, Tiana Randall-Quant, Maiya Reaves, Jesus Reyes, Ivan Rivas, Debba Rofheart, Tahmus Rounds, Mae Ruling, Collette Rutherford, Anthony Rutowicz, Richard Ruyle, Janet Song, Angela Sonner, Lamar Usher, Carla Vega, William Warren, Charlotte Williams, Jonathan Wray. 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 

PlayGround-LA will be holding open auditions for this season of performances on Sunday, September 10, 1pm-4pm PT at the Broadwater Black Box. For more information and to schedule an audition slot, visit https://playground-la.org/audition.

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 1,500 original ten-minute plays more than 300 Bay Area and Los Angeles early-career writers and has commissioned/developed 100 full-length plays by distinguished PlayGround alumni, premiering 34 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, the Glickman Awards, 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.

2023-24 Season

All performances will take place live at the Broadwater Second Stage, 6320 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, and will be simulcast via Vimeo live stream. Single reservation tickets and Monday Night PlayGround memberships go on sale starting Friday  September 1, 2023.  To ensure maximum accessibility, admission is free (donations gratefully accepted).

One PlayGround Gala

  • September 18, 2023 @ 5:30-8PM PT

Monday Night PlayGround

  • October 9, 2023 @ 7PM PT
  • November 13, 2023 @ 7PM PT
  • December 11, 2023 @ 7PM PT
  • January 8, 2024 @ 7PM PT
  • February 12, 2024 @ 7PM PT
  • March 11, 2024 @ 7PM PT

Best of PlayGround-LA

  • April 8, 2024 @ 7PM PT

For more information, visit http://PlayGround-LA.org or follow PlayGround on Facebook (https://facebook.com/PlayGround.LosAngeles), Twitter (https://twitter.com/PlayGround_LA) and Instagram (https://instagram.com/playgroundlatheatre). For information on our sister programs, visit PlayGround, PlayGround-NY and PlayGround-Chicago.