Local Playwrights' Pieces Receive Multiple Productions for 2013-14 Season

Playwrights Foundation is happy to announce that two productions that were part of the Foundation's Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) 2012 have received awards and multiple productions in the 2013-14 season. Christopher Chen received the Glickman Award for the The Hundred Flowers Project, a co-production of Crowded Fire Theater and the Playwrights Foundation. The Hundred Flowers Project will be mounted by Chicago's Silk Road Rising in the 2013-14 season. George Brant's Grounded will receive three productions through the The NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK (NNPN) Continued Life of New Plays Fund in the 2013/14 season, as well as productions in 5 other cities including two in the UK.* see list below.

The process of the Bay Area Playwrights Festival gives writers a multi-faceted approach over three weeks - starting with an artists retreat without actors, followed by rehearsals, and two public readings separated by another week of rehearsals. This naturally leads to the exploration of new ideas -- playwrights are at the center of the process

"The BAPF experience was truly magical and gave the script the final push it needed...this script has had many angels along the way, and you were certainly one of them." playwright George Brant (Grounded)

"What we do for the development of new plays during the Bay Area Playwrights Festival has proven over and over to be of tremendous value. George Brant is a hugely talented writer. And he still needed a lot of time to hone down on his script by hearing it in rehearsal -- without the added focus on all the production elements. It's amazing to watch a really exceptional actor, and playwright interacting in the room. And, then to note that the work, the audience interaction, the nights talking through each line was all worth it." Amy Muller artistic director Playwrights Foundation.

* George Brant's Grounded 2013-14 Season Productions
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, UK, in a Gate Theatre production, August 1-25
San Francisco Playhouse, SF CA, in an NNPN Rolling World Premiere, August 17-Sept 7
Gate Theatre, London, UK, August 28 - September 21
Borderlands Theater, Tucson, AZ, in an NNPN Rolling World Premiere, October 9-20
Page 73, New York, NY, October 30-November 23
Unicorn Theatre, Kansas City, MO, in an NNPN Rolling World Premiere January 22-February 9, 2014
City Theatre, PIttsburgh, PA, March 29-May 4, 2014
American Blues Theatre, Chicago, IL June-July 2014

The NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK (NNPN), the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, announces its 37th Rolling World Premiere: George Brant's Grounded will receive three productions through the Network's Continued Life of New Plays Fund in the 2013/14 season. Grounded will begin its Rolling World Premiere at the San Francisco Playhouse (San Francisco, CA, August - September, 2013), followed by performances at Borderlands Theater (Tucson, AZ, September - October, 2013) and Unicorn Theatre (January - February, 2014). Grounded won the 2012 Smith Prize for a new play on American political themes.

36th Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF)
The Playwrights Foundation is most pleased to announce the 36th Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) that will take place July 19-28, 2013 at the Thick House Theater in San Francisco. The six selected plays are by playwrights Laura Schellhardt, Prince Gomolvilas, Jiehae Park, Erin Bregman, Kimber Lee, and Joan Holden. The plays range from the unearthing of the current political crisis on the Korean Peninsula to celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Free Speech Movement in 2014.
Laura Schellhardt -The Comparables; A ballsy satire between three women at the top of their game.
Prince Gomolvilas - The Brothers Paranormal; Ghosts, real and imagined, in a Thai style sci-fi mystery.
Jiehae Park- Hannah and the Dread Gazebo; North vs South Korea can't stop the wild beasts of the DMZ.
Erin Bregman - Before & After; Memory, afterlife, metaphysical journey.
Kimber Lee - brownsville song (b-side for tray); Poetic, dreamlike, tragic - the cost of inner city violence.
Joan Holden - FSM; a musical about the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley. A producing partnership with Oakland's Stagebridge Theatre.

All 2013 Bay Area Playwrights Festival performances take place at the Thick House Theater,1695 18th Street. Tickets go on sale on June 1. For more information, visit www.playwrightsfoundation.org.