Bay Area Playwrights Festival Showcases Seven Vanguard Playwrights, 7/22-31

The Playwrights Foundation's 34th annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF), a festival celebrating the development of new work which is performed script in hand, is taking place July 22-31 at Thick House in San Francisco. BAPF provides a chance to experience the most exciting up and coming talent in the world of playwriting: between them, the seven playwrights have had work produced at such esteemed venues as the Kennedy Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Soho Rep; they have received extensive accolades including the Sloan Script award, a MacDowell Colony fellowship, and Australia's Monash national playwriting award.

Even with their developing national and international presences, this exceptional group of playwrights is proud to maintain strong connections to the Bay Area. Chinaka Hodge, who contributes a new one-act play to the Bay Area SHorts (BASH!), is a native of Oakland who is proud to have worked with Intersection For the Arts and 826 Valencia, and performed at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Black Box Theatre in Oakland, and La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley. Ms. Hodge continues to turn to her Oakland roots for inspiration with her BASH contribution, 700th & Int'l (the title refers to the longest and roughest street of East Oakland extended into the geography of the afterlife, as the actual Boulevard extends only through the 100s). The fantasy explores the powerful bond of friendship between two talented and determined "'hood chicks" as they train and compete for track titles, navigating life and death on Int'l Boulevard.

The Festival also features new work by two relative newcomers to the Bay Area theater scene, playwrights who have quickly adopted this community as their own. Lauren Gunderson, who brings Rock Creek: Southern Gothic to the Festival, has been a San Francisco resident for the past two years. In that short time, she has developed close working relationships with many cutting-edge area theaters, including Marin Theatre Company, SF Playhouse, and Aurora Theater. The rolling world premiere of her revenge comedy Exit, Pursued by a Bear (which was developed with the support of PF's Rough Reading series) opens this summer at Crowded Fire Theater. Similarly, Kate E. Ryan, the writer of Science is Close, has recently relocated to San Francisco, excited by the artistic opportunities offered here. Ms. Ryan is one of the 13 playwrights who comprise 13P in New York whose members include such luminaries as Sarah Ruhl, Sheila Callaghan, and Young Jean Lee.

Even those playwrights that are not local feel a strong connection to the arts scene here: Dan Dietz (Home Below Zero) has been working closely with TheatreWorks in Palo Alto in preparation for the world premiere of Clementine in the Lower Nine this October. Jackie Sibblies Drury has worked previously with San Francisco's Magic Theatre on her Festival play, We Are Proud to Present a Presentation..., making the Bay Area a powerful pipeline for the future of these two new works. Rounding out the festival, these five playwrights are joined by newly emerging playwrights Clarence Coo, a recent graduate of Columbia University, and Amelia Roper, a Master's student at Yale from Melbourne, Australia. Both playwrights explore formal theatrical genres in work that crosses the boundaries of nation, identity, and time.

The 34th Annual BAPF is a place to discover emerging talented playwrights and support their creative work before they rise to national acclaim. "This is such an exciting time for Playwrights Foundation," says Artistic Director Amy Mueller. "PF alumni are breaking into the mainstream in record numbers. Rajiv Joseph's Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo received its very first reading at PF in 2006 and is now finishing up a Tony-nominated run on Broadway starring Robin Williams. The Mountaintop, by Katori Hall, was first developed in 2008 through our Rough Reading Series and the Festival, and it is now preparing for its Broadway debut with Samuel L. Jackson in the role of Martin Luther King, Jr., co-starring Angela Bassett. Marcus Gardley's every tongue confess, which was supported by PF early in its development in 2008, recently inaugurated Arena Stage's brand new Mead Center for American Theatre in a production starring Phylicia Rashad and directed by Kenny Leon. These are just a few examples of the quality of writers that audiences can learn about and experience firsthand at the annual BAPF."

"It's exciting," Mueller continues, "and perhaps a little daunting to try to imagine which one of this year's plays will be the next Bengal Tiger or Mountaintop...! Of course, when we narrow the hundreds of submissions down to a handful of plays for the Festival, we have no way of knowing where that will lead. But our track record of identifying writers who have singular, exceptional voices speaks for itself."

All 2011 Bay Area Playwrights Festival performances take place at the Thick House, 1695 18th Street. Tickets are $15 each in advance, $20 at the door (multi-use passes start at $40, prices go up on July 10) and are available via www.playwrightsfoundation.org.

The complete Festival Calendar follows.

About the Thick House
Art Space Development Corporation (ArtsDeco) presents contemporary new theater that reflects and engages the San Francisco Bay Area's racially and culturally diverse audience community. We believe that when art is relevant and accessible it can transform the world, so our work rises naturally out of connecting to our local community, to popular culture, and to events of the day. To that end, we operate our venue, the Thick House, as a performing arts/community center -- presenting world-class professional theater, hosting neighborhood events, collaborating on community projects, and partnering with local businesses.

About Playwrights Foundation
Playwrights Foundation is dedicated to discovering and supporting local and national, and international playwrights across a broad spectrum of artistic and career positions, in the inception and development of new plays that speak to and from an increasingly diverse society. Founded on a deeply held belief that the relevance and vitality of American theater depends upon a continual infusion of new work, Playwrights Foundation sustains a commitment to the playwright, who we regard as the creative wellspring of theater.

FESTIVAL CALENDAR
All 2011 Bay Area Playwrights Festival staged readings take place at the Thick House, 1695 18th Street. Tickets are $15 each in advance, $20 at the door (multi-use passes start at $40, prices go up on July 10). Tickets are on sale now via www.playwrightsfoundation.org.

Friday, July 22
8:00 pm: Home Below Zero by Dan Dietz, directed by Meredith McDonough

Saturday, July 23
12:00 pm: We Are Proud to Present a Presentation... by Jackie Sibblies Drury, directed by Eric Ting
4:00 pm: Hong Kong Dinosaur by Amelia Roper, directed by Desdemona Chiang
8:00 pm: Beautiful Province (Belle Province) by Clarence Coo, directed by M. Graham Smith

Sunday, July 24
10:00 am: Playwrights Panel
(free of charge; please rsvp to boxoffice@playwrightsfoundation.org)
12:00 pm: Bay Area SHorts (BASH!)
700th & Int'l by Chinaka Hodge, directed by Edris Cooper Anifowoshe
Science is Close by Kate E. Ryan, directed by Marissa Wolf
4:00 pm: Rock Creek: Southern Gothic by Lauren Gunderson, directed by Ryan Rillette

Thursday, July 28
7:00 pm: Bay Area SHorts (BASH!)
700th & Int'l by Chinaka Hodge, directed by Edris Cooper Anifowoshe
Science is Close by Kate E. Ryan, directed by Marissa Wolf
Friday, July 29
2:00 pm: New Play Symposium
(free of charge; please rsvp to boxoffice@playwrightsfoundation.org)
8:00 pm: Hong Kong Dinosaur by Amelia Roper, directed by Desdemona Chiang

Saturday, July 30
12:00 pm: Beautiful Province (Belle Province) by Clarence Coo, directed by M. Graham Smith
4:00 pm: We Are Proud to Present a Presentation... by Jackie Sibblies Drury, directed by Eric Ting
8:00 pm: Rock Creek: Southern Gothic by Lauren Gunderson, directed by Ryan Rillette

Sunday, July 31
12:00 pm: Young Theater Maker Showcase (Plays and Playwrights TBD)
(free of charge; please rsvp to boxoffice@playwrightsfoundation.org)
4:00 pm: Home Below Zero by Dan Dietz, directed by Meredith McDonough

 

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