Best Of Playground 13 New Writers, New Plays Fest 5/7-5/31

PlayGround, San Francisco's incubator for the next generation of playwrights, caps off its 2008-09 season with The Best of PlayGround 13: A Festival of New Writers & New Plays. The festival presents seven 10-minute plays selected from the 36 works developed as part of the season's Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Monday Night PlayGround has engaged and inspired a growing and enthusiastic audience with new plays inspired by a single topic each month, including "The Longest Night", "The Impossible Dream", and, as part of a unique annual collaboration with Berkeley's Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, "One-Sidedness". Tickets are available through the Thick House Box Office at 415-401-8081 or online at www.PlayGround-sf.org.

The seven plays to be presented at this year's festival are:

John Jacob O'Reilly Smitherton's Bid to Save the World by Erin Bregman, directed by Jim Kleinmann

Wednesday by Daniel Heath, directed by Barbara Oliver

All Thumbs by Aaron Loeb, directed by Tracy Ward

Seen by Evelyn Jean Pine, directed by Amy Mueller

Gymnopedie #1 by Kenn Rabin, directed by Molly Noble

Net by Geetha Reddy, directed by Mark Routhier

Truffaldino Says No by Ken Slattery, directed by Chris Smith

The 2009 Festival also features staged readings of five new full-length plays commissioned by PlayGround from writers Brady Lea, Daniel Heath, Evelyn Jean Pine, Lauren Yee, and Trevor Allen.

Event: The Best of PlayGround 13: A Festival of New Writers & New Plays

Date: Thursdays - Sundays, May 7 - 31st (Friday, May 8th, press night)

Time: Thurs. - Sat., 8pm; Sun., 7pm

Location: Thick House, 1695 18th Street, San Francisco

Tickets: Best of PlayGround: $28-$40 (general), discounts available for students, PlayGround subscribers and members, and groups of 10 or more. Thursdays, May 7, May 14 and 21 are Pay-What-You-Can performances; Pay-What-You-Can tickets go on sale one hour before the performance, first-come first-served, subject to availability.
Staged Readings: $10 suggested donation at the door.
For tickets call (415) 401-8081 or on-line at www.PlayGround-sf.org
Information: Jim Kleinmann, Artistic Director; 415.704.3177;
jim@playground-sf.org; www.playground-sf.org

Performance Schedule
• The Best of PlayGround 13 - All seven short plays are presented at each performance, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm and
Sundays at 7pm (Sunday evening shows are followed by post-show discussion with festival playwrights)

• Staged Readings:

Monday, May 11, 7pm: Mushroom Boy by Brady Lea

Sunday, May 17, 2pm: Accidents by Daniel Heath
Monday, May 18,
7pm: Terror, Astonishment, Love by Evelyn Jean Pine

Sunday, May 24, 2pm: Postgrad (or the Odyssey Years) by Lauren Yee

Monday, May 25, 7pm: Lolita Roadtrip by Trevor Allen

PlayGround will celebrate this year's Festival playwrights at the annual PlayGround Benefit & Awards Night on Monday, April 6th at A.C.T., with special guests Octavio Solis and Jasson Minadakis. The even features a talk with Solis and Minadakis, a silent auction, reception and dinner with the special guests and award winners. For more information on the PlayGround Benefit, visit http://playground-sf.org/benefit.shtml

YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS PROJECT: SPOTLIGHT ON NEXT GENERATION

PlayGround spotlights the next generation of talent with the Young Playwrights Project. In March, PlayGround launched the project, and announced a contest to write a new 10-minute play inspired by the topic "Adaptation of a Fairy Tale." The competition is open to Bay Area high school students, who have until April 20th to submit a script. The best four plays will be presented as "curtain raisers" on May 21 - 24 during the the Best of PlayGround Festival.

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