PlayGround

PlayGround supports the development of new voices for theater through by cultivating the craft and careers of emerging and more experienced theater makers. Each year, the organization engages over 400 local playwrights, directors, actors, and designers. It commissions the creation new theater works, provides performance opportunities for performers and playwrights, incubates new theater productions and organizations, and serves as a fiscal sponsor. The organization serves audiences through free performances at its theater in San Francisco and online streaming, all of which contributes to the Performing Arts Program’s Artists Strategy.

Through a well-honed new-play development process, PlayGround links first-time or rising playwrights with established professional actors and directors to generate new work for Bay Area theaters. PlayGround annually selects thirty-six writers who have never had a play produced by a major theater. They then compete to join PlayGround’s pool of playwrights and be one of six whose short plays are produced at a monthly showcase. The best of these "playlets" are then presented in an annual festival, which brings emerging writers to the attention of local directors and producers and results in commissions for new full-length plays.