Register Now To Stream Five Plays From The 45th Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival

Playwrights Foundation has announced that it will offer on-demand streaming for recordings of the five dynamic plays featured in 45th Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF), following a highly successful festival. Originally performed July 29 - August 7, 2022, hundreds of theatre fans watched BAPF's readings both in-person at San Francisco's Potrero Stage and online from their homes for this hybrid festival, with viewers tuning in from across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and New Zealand. On-demand streaming for BAPF's readings will be available free of cost until 12pm PDT on Thursday, August 25. To register to stream the public may visit playwrightsfoundation.org.

Spotlighting the power of human connection, the 2022 BAPF featured readings five new works, including HBO and Shondaland screenwriter/playwright Inda Craig-Galván's A Jumping-Off Point, a taut, biting comedy about a Black female screenwriter facing plagiarism claims from a White male author; award-winning novelist Elana Dykewomon's first play How to Let Your Lover Die, a poetic and silence-shattering exploration of love, caregiving, and illness in a community of lesbian elders; acclaimed Bay Area performer and playwright Denmo Ibrahim's Arab Spring, an intimate drama of luminous personal revolution between siblings; multitalented writer/director/actor Iraisa Ann Reilly's Saturday Mourning Cartoons, a boldly theatrical bilingual family drama about a millennial healthcare worker and three generations of unbreakable bonds; and award-winning director/playwright Sharifa Yasmin's Close to Home, a witty deep dive into resilience, belonging, and the yearning for second chances among a trio of strangers from different cultures set in the American South.

"The 45th annual BAPF offered a moving demonstration of the power of human connection in action, while staying safe in the middle of a pandemic," said Playwrights Foundation's Executive Artistic Director Jessica Bird Beza. "Denmo, Elana, Inda, Iraisa Ann, and Sharifa's words touched our hearts to the core as we wept, laughed, and experienced deeply moving stories together as a community. The Festival successfully gave each playwright the opportunity to develop their play and create stronger pieces that they were proud to publicly showcase."

During BAPF, festival playwright Elana Dykewomon lost her battle to esophageal cancer and passed away moments before the final reading of her play How to Let Your Lover Die, a deeply moving tribute to her late partner, Susan Levinkind. Almost 200 friends and family received the news while watching her play. "We are honored and privileged to have been able to work with Elana in her final weeks and bring the words of her first play to life onstage, fulfilling her dying wish," said Jessica Bird Beza. "Elana, you were a trailblazer and legend in the lesbian literature world. We celebrate your life and the impact that your words will have long past your last breath. Thank you for entrusting us to tell this story."

Bay Area Playwrights Festival is one of the oldest and most successful new play festivals for new works in their early stages. Established in 1976 by acclaimed director Robert Woodruff and now led by Executive Artistic Director Jessica Bird Beza, the festival has built a stellar reputation for uplifting original and distinctive new voices in the theater, investing in the development of their work, and launching storied careers. Among the first writers developed at the inaugural BAPF was the young Sam Shepard. Since then, more than 500 prize-winning, nationally significant playwrights have received their first professional experience at the BAPF. Among the American theater's brightest voices who are alumni of the festival are Pulitzer Prize winners Sam Shepard, Nilo Cruz, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Paula Vogel, and Annie Baker; MacArthur Award winner Anna Deavere Smith; Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang; and acclaimed playwrights Lauren Gunderson, Rajiv Joseph, Katori Hall, Christopher Chen, Lauren Yee, and Marcus Gardley. BAPF's ongoing success in supporting and amplifying exceptional, newly emerging writers and launching their ground-breaking new work is its enduring legacy.

Photo: Jeremy Kahn, Jeunée Simon, and Samantha Jackson in a reading of Inda Craig-Galván's "A Jumping-Off Point," presented in Playwrights Foundation's 2022 Bay Area Playwrights Festival.

Photo Credit: Kayleigh McCollum

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