VIGNETTES ON LOVE- A Bold New Multi-Media Play Opens 7/6-30, 2017

"You wave at the sky with wild lovely eyes / Waves and waves of love goodbye." - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. PlayGround, the Bay Area's leading playwright incubator, has joined forces with San Francisco music festival promoter Noise Pop and entrepreneur David Steele to launch a July 6-30 run of the bold new multi-media play, VIGNETTES ON LOVE, based on original writings by David Steele, with the play co-written by Steele, Victoria Chong Der and Davern Wright.

This world premiere of VIGNETTES ON LOVE follows development and readings with PlayGround and opens in the newly-renovated Potrero Stage: PlayGround Center for New Plays (formerly Thick House) for PlayGround's record fifth world premiere of the season. VIGNETTES ON LOVE is La Ronde-style comi-drama that examines the intersecting lives of six San Franciscans as they struggle with love, betrayal, and their own self-destructive tendencies. Finding love is hard, making it last is harder, and doing it in San Francisco while trying to get ahead in your career... well, let's just say you'll have a better chance of finding a rent-controlled apartment with easy street parking!

The joining of PlayGround with Noise Pop (Treasure Island Music Festival, 20th Street Block Party, Swedish American Hall) and entrepreneur David Steele (Ne Timeas Group, One Wealth Advisors) brings a dynasim unique in SF Theater. A soundtrack of the best contemporary up-and-coming bands and 80s rock is curated by Noise Pop with original filmscapes by Barry Stone and Dances With Lights (PlayGround Film Festival). VIGNETTES ... is helmed by PlayGround Artistic Director Jim Kleinmann featuring performances by Kunal Prasad, Heather Gordon*, Ayelet Firstenberg, Emma Onasch, Colin Johnson, and Rebecca Pingree. Performances are Thu-Sat at 8pm and Sun at 7pm, and tickets are $25-$55. Press Night is Saturday, July 8. For more information or to purchase tickets online, visit http://playground-sf.org/vignettes.

David Steele (Playwright/Co-Producer) is an active contributor to San Francisco with several business ventures influencing the lifestyle, health and wellness of individuals in the community. His primary role is as founder and CEO of One Wealth Advisors where he helps people achieve their financial goals through financial planning and investment management. His other involvements include creating and owning the yoga studios Moxie Yoga & Fitness and as founder and Managing Partner of Ne Timeas Restaurant Group which operates bars and restaurants including flour + water, Central Kitchen, Salumeria, Trick Dog, Aatxe, and Cafe Du Nord, that focus on creating atmospheres of spectacularly high standards while maintaining a sense of their humble beginnings. The arts and entertainment worlds are particularly important to David, primarily though his work as a Managing Partner of Noise Pop, which promotes music events such as the Treasure Island Music Festival, culturally significant events such as the San Francisco Street Food Festival, and operates the music venue The Swedish American Hall. He is also a mixed media/collage artist, a producer of several plays, and an aspiring playwright. He currently serves on the board of two local non-profit arts organizations.

Victoria Chong Der (Co-Wrter) has written for several Bay Area companies. She is a resident playwright of the Playwrights Foundation, received a 2014 PlayGround Fellowship, and has a BA in Creative Writing from Oberlin College. She co-wrote for The Potrero Nuevo Project, the inaugural production of Potrero Stage, and her new full-length play, Balancing, is a 2017 PlayGround Festival of New Works selection.

Davern Wright's (Co-Writer) works include Cratchit (Best of Playground 19; PlayGround People's Choice Award), Would You Like the Can, Sir?" (PlayGround People's Choice Award), and Twisted (2015 Writer's Digest's Annual Competition: 4th Place). He is a winner of the PlayGround 2015 Emerging Playwright Award. Acting credits include San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Marin Shakespeare Company, 42nd St. Moon, Douglas Morrison, among others. He currently teaches Motion Picture and Television Editing at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

Noise Pop (Co-curate/co-producer) is a San Francisco-based music promoter and curator, with a commitment to cultivating revitalizing experiences and supporting the broad scope of Bay Area culture. Paying homage to the greats and focusing on the best of up-and-coming artists, Noise Pop produces the Noise Pop Festival, Treasure Island Music Festival, 20th Street Block Party, and operates the Swedish American Hall.

PlayGround, the Bay Area's leading playwright incubator, provides unique development opportunities for the Bay Area's best new playwrights, including the monthly Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, annual PlayGround Festival of New Works, full-length play commissions and support for the production of new plays by local playwrights through the New Play Production Fund. To date, PlayGround has supported over 200 local playwrights in the development and staging of more than 850 original short plays and 71 new full-length plays, with 8 more commissions currently in development. PlayGround recently completed major renovations on its new San Francisco home theatre and reopened the black box performance space as Potrero Stage: The PlayGround Center for New Plays in February with The Potrero Nuevo Project. The theatre serves as home for some of the Bay Area's leading new play developers and producers, including PlayGround, Crowded Fire, Golden Thread, 3Girls Theatre, and Virago Theatre Company, among others. For more information, visit http://playground-sf.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.