PlayGround is the Bay Area’s largest incubator for the next generation of playwrights and their work.  The mission of PlayGround is to support the development of significant new local voices for the theatre.  More than just another play development program, PlayGround focuses on the creation of a true theatre community by nurturing the collaborative process between first-time or early career playwrights, and established, professional actors and directors.  With an emphasis on the ten-minute form and increasingly on new full-lengths through PlayGround’s commissioning program, PlayGround creates a microcosm of the greater theatre scene, supporting emerging playwrights’ experimentation and risk-taking, while helping them to hone their styles and techniques.

History

PlayGround was launched in 1994 by co-founders James Kleinmann, Brighde Mullins and Denise Shama. In 1996, Kleinmann assumed the position of Artistic Director. Since its founding, PlayGround has staged nearly 550 original ten-minute plays by 160+ early-development writers through our celebrated “Monday Night PlayGround” series, and is today the leading Bay Area developer of short works for the stage.  In the process of staging those works, PlayGround has helped to identify some of the leading emerging writers in our community and, at the same time, has engendered the creation of a true community of theatre artists, bringing together more than a hundred Bay Area actors, directors and playwrights. For most if not all of the participating writers, PlayGround is the first professional staging their work has received and serves as their introduction into the professional theatre community.

Each season, PlayGround produces six monthly staged readings of original ten-minute plays and completes each season with a fully produced festival celebrating the top emerging writers of the past year. In addition, PlayGround commissions and develops new full-length plays by PlayGround writers and, through the New Play Production Fund, helps support the premiere of these works.  To date, PlayGround has commissioned and developed twenty-eight full-length plays.  PlayGround’s alumni have gone on to win both local and national honors for their short and full-length work, including recognition at the Humana Festival, Sundance Festival, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Love Creek/Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, and The Drama League’s New Directors-New Works series. Directors and actors participating in PlayGround are among some of the most distinguished local theatre professionals, regularly working on leading Bay Area stages such as ACT, Berkeley Rep, Magic Theatre, San Jose Rep, and California Shakespeare Theater, among others.

GRANTS AWARDED

In 2009, the Foundation supported the PlayGround Commissioning Initiative, the development of 6 new full-length plays by the Bay Area’s leading emerging playwrights.

In 2010, the Foundation supported the Commissioning Initiative and the New Play Production Fund to develop six new full-length works by PlayGround alumni in partnership with Bay Area professional theaters.