37th Bay Area Playwrights Festival Runs Now thru 7/27 at Thick House Theater

The Playwrights Foundation has announced the selections for the 37th Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) that will take place today, July 18-27, 2014 at the Thick House Theater in San Francisco.

BAPF 2014 is a diverse and eclectic cycle of work that builds on nearly four decades of discovering and highlighting a range of voices early in their careers who have gone on to become some of the most celebrated playwrights of our times. Chosen from over 500 submissions, the summer festival features new work by playwrights Don Nguyen, T.D. Mitchell, Rob Melrose & Z.O.N.K., Elizabeth Hersh, Phillip Howze and E. Hunter Spreen. The plays range from the whimsical to the terrifying, tackling the most timely and pertinent issues of the day as well as reimagining our world in ways only the theater can accomplish - with poetry and form.

"Every new play is an attempt by its author to address our lives, here and now, but this year's selections seem more timely than usual," remarks Executive Producer Erin Merritt. "These writers have hit the zeitgeist in a particularly exciting way - and through a wide range of styles, from the naturalistic to the poetic, the musical and the screwball comedy, they are examining the hopes, dreams, fears and persistent issues that are on the minds - and in the hearts - of Americans everyday."

BAPF 2014's six full-length works, chosen from over 500 submissions, explore the American experience both historically and in our own generation.

Elizabeth Hersh - "Shelter in Place" is a screwball comedy that examines our (very rightful) fear that private information really isn't private - with a nod to zombie disaster films.

Phillip Howze -"abominable" is a verse riff that explores the ingenuity of the impoverished - when an 'affordable' family vacation turns survivalist camp the night before Dad goes to war.

E. Hunter Spreen's - "Split the Stick" unearths the world landscape of war - the Brits created modern Iraq, and we bombed it, with unintended consequences on the families of surviving veterans.

TD Mitchell's - "Queens for a Year" is a portrait of four generations of military women who have had to tackle another kind of battle -sexual assault-in the way only women of grit can do.

Don Nguyen's - "Sound" takes on the Deaf community's mixed response (from Alexander Graham Bell 130 years ago to modern cochlear implant technology) to outsiders wanting them to hear.

Rob Melrose - "Ozma of Oz" (in a producing partnership with SF's Cutting Ball Theater) is a punk rock musical adaptation with the band Z.O.N.K., and is based on the enchanting novel that followed L. Frank Baum's classic Wizard of Oz.

All 2014 Bay Area Playwrights Festival performances take place today, July 18-20 and 25-27 at the Thick House Theater,1695 18th Street. Tickets go on sale on June 1. For more information, visit www.playwrightsfoundation.org.

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