Artistic Teams For Bay Area Playwrights Festival Named: Directors & Dramaturgs

Playwrights Foundation, the West Coast's premiere launchpad for exceptional emerging playwrights has named the artistic teams and daily schedule for the 40th Anniversary Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF). The 40th Anniversary Bay Area Playwrights Festival runs July 13 - 23, 2017 at Custom Made Theatre, 533 Sutter Street in the heart of San Francisco's Theater District. In addition to twelve staged readings, the Festival will offer a Theater Professionals weekend 7/21-23, special events, and an anniversary celebration 7/13. Tickets at bayareaplaywrightsfestival.org.

This 40th anniversary BAPF incubates and showcases six newly written, unfinished works by an extraordinary group of culturally diverse, rising American Playwrights who were selected from nearly 500 submissions. Playwrights Clarence Coo, Lauren Gunderson, Mona Mansour, Nilan Johnson, Hilary Bettis and Bennett Fisher will each develop new works, to be performed twice over the two week festival, and are paired with special events to be announced. Each weekend's daily schedule follows at end.

Confirmed directors for the festival are Desdemona Chiang, Susannah Martin, Evren Odcikin, Ken Savage, Tracy Ward, and Becca Wolff. Anthony Clarvoe, Nakissa Etemad, Sonia Fernandez, Regina Fields, Allie Moss, and Karen Piemme will serve as dramaturgs. Each are seasoned, acclaimed theater artists, deeply connected within the Bay Area community. Ms. Chiang most recently directed As You Like It at Cal Shakes, Evren Odickin of Golden Thread Productions recently directed Autobiography of a Terrorist and HeLa, Susannah Martin recently directed The Events at Shotgun Players,and Becca Wolff directed BAPF alumnae Jen Silverman's The Roommate at the Playhouse. Ken Savage is the lead new play producer at A.C.T.'s Strand Theatre, recently launching its New Strands Festival, and Sonia Fernandez is the Magic Theater's Associate Artistic Director.

Special Event:

The Festival kick-offs with an Anniversary Celebration Thursday, July 13th at 6:30PM on the exclusive Rooftop Terrace at 343 Sansome St, San Francisco. The event, a benefit for Playwrights Foundation, features a sneak peek at the festival, special guests, including Obie Award-winning local playwright Chris Chen, this year's playwrights, and alumni; cocktails; music; and lively conversation. Tickets are $20 - 100 and are available at bayareaplaywrightsfestival.org. Mechanics Bank is the event sponsor and host.

Artistic Teams and Schedule:

Clarence Coo: The Birds of Empathy Friday July 14 at 8PM and Sunday, July 23 at 1:30PM

Director: Ken Savage Dramaturg: Allie Moss

Audubon's Birds America becomes a gay man's guide to relationships and casual sex, opens and closes the Festival.

Lauren Gunderson: The Fatales Saturday 7/15 at 12PM and Saturday 7/22 at 8PM
Director: Tracy Ward Dramaturg Karen Piemme

An epic feminist pop crusade for a knowing justice, via musical defiance.

Nilan Johnson: Endangered Species Saturday 7/15 at 4PM and Saturday 7/22 at 4PM

Director Desdemona Chiang Dramaturg Regina Fields

An afro-surrealist futuristic legend in which blackness ceases to exist.

Hilary Bettis: Magic City Saturday 7/15 at 8PM and Saturday 7/22 at 12PM

Director: Susannah Martin Dramaturg: Anthony Clarvoe

An explosive elixir of power, class, and immigration status in a Spanish infused adaptation of Strindberg's Miss Julie.

Bennett Fisher: Damascus Sunday, 7/16 at 1:30PM and Friday, 7/21 at 4PM

Director: Becca Wolff Dramaturg: Nakissa Etemad

A high-stakes, road-rage thriller that delves full-force into the misguided politics of terrorism.

Mona Mansour: We Swim, We Talk, We Go To War Sunday, 7/16 at 5:30PM and Friday, 7/21 at 8PM

Director: Evren Odcikin Dramaturg: Sonia Fernandez

An Arab-American woman and her nephew dip into treacherous waters, presented in partnership with Golden Thread Productions.

Single ticket prices for the Festival range from $15 - $25. Also available the VIP Pass, an all-access ticket to all 12 readings and 3-play Flex Passes. Early Bird Pricing is in effect until June 20. For additional information on ticket offerings, please visit bayareaplaywrightsfestival.org.

ABOUT THE BAY AREA PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL

The BAPF is the oldest and most successful new play festival for new works in their developmental stages in the US, celebrating 40 years of excellence this year. Established in 1976 by RoBert Woodruff, the festival has continuously discovered original and distinctive new voices in the theater, invested in the development of their work, and launched their careers. Among the first crop of writers at the inaugural BAPF was the young Sam Shepard - little did Woodruff know at that time how Shepard's work would shape the landscape of American theatre. Since then over 500 prize-winning, nationally significant playwrights got their first professional experiences at the BAPF. Examples include Pulitzer Prize winners Nilo Cruz and Annie Baker, MacArthur Award winners Anna Deveare Smith and Sam Hunter, recent Glickman award winners Peter Nachtrieb, Liz Duffy Adams, Aaron Loeb, Chris Chen, Lauren Yee, and Marcus Gardley, as well as the early development of works by David Henry Hwang, Paula Vogel, Claire Chafee, Anne Washburn, as well as Katori Hall and Rajiv Joseph prior to their Broadway debuts, as well as many others. The BAPF's ongoing success in discovering and supporting exceptional, newly emerging writers, and launching their groundbreaking new work is its enduring legacy.

Festival sponsors include Mechanics Bank

ABOUT PLAYWRIGHTS FOUNDATION

Founded in 1976, Playwrights Foundation is today widely recognized as one of the top new play incubators in the U.S., dedicated to the creative development and career acceleration of contemporary playwrights. We serve emerging and mid-career playwrights, primarily from the San Francisco Bay Area, but not exclusively. We seek to identify exceptional writers and give them space, time and professional artistic collaborators to explore new theatrical ideas, allowing them to experiment and take risks with structure, form and/or content in an environment that is free from the pressures of the marketplace. Playwrights we have worked with have won every award in the theater including the Pulitzer, the Obie, the National Critics Circle Award, and many more.

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