Crish Barth * has written over 30 short plays and has had several of those produced in the last few years. He is a company member of PlayGround, San Francisco, where he received PlayGround's 2008 Emerging Playwright Award. Locally, his work has appeared in the 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 Bay Area One Act Festivals (BOA), the 2008 Best of PlayGround Festival, the 2008 and 2009 San Francisco Theatre Festivals, the 2010 and 2011 One Minute Play Festivals, and the 2011 8 Tens @ 8 Festival in Santa Cruz. In New York City, his works have been seen in both the 2009 Strawberry One Act Festival (Riant Theater) and the 2009 Salute UR Shorts Festival (Rapscallion Theatre Collective). Additionally, he's been produced by the 2010 Midway Festival of Plays in Midway, Kentucky (Kentucky Playwrights Workshop). He was a finalist for the 2008 Ensemble Studio Theatre One Act Marathon Festival in New York. He is a graduate of the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting.

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* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Cass Brayton * is also known as Sister Mary Media, original member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, San Francisco's radical drag street theater-political-spiritual-charitable troupe. His plays The Boy Who Did Not Listen to His Mother and I’d Like to Buy a Vowel were selected for Best of PlayGround Festivals. Bodhisattva by Lagoon, premiered by Actors Theatre of Santa Rosa, has been published by Dramatic Publishing in 35 in 10: Thirty-Five Ten-Minute Plays. He played Chesty LaBoom in Bound + Gagged (2005 SF Fringe Festival), and most recently directed Broadway With a Twist. His website for playwrights (and shameless self-promotion) is www.standingpoem.com.

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Plays

Stiff Competition

* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Erin Bregman * is currently a resident playwright at the Playwrights Foundation, and company member of Just Theater. She is the winner of the 2009 June Anne Baker Prize and has been a finalist for the Princess Grace Award, the Jerome Fellowship, Aurora's Global Age Project, and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Erin has had work produced or developed with Just Theater, The Lark, the Playwrights Foundation, FuryFactory, Actors Theatre of Santa Cruz, UCSB New Plays Festival, and PlayGround, and has received commissions from the Magic Theatre/Sloan Foundation (2006), Just Theater (2008), and PlayGround (2009, 2010). Her short work has been published in Best of PlayGround 2009 and 2010, Spectrum Literary Journal, and Muse(d) Magazine. During the day she works as a teaching artist for the San Francisco Opera, and runs Little Opera, an all-kids opera company.

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Plays

Nightmare Play

John Jacob O'Reilly Smitherton's Bid to Save the World (ten-minute)**

A Bid to Save the World

**Ten Minute Play

* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Robyn Brooks received her M.F.A. in English and Creative Writing, with a focus in Poetry, from Mills College, in Oakland, California. She received her B.A. in English from the University of California at Berkeley. A poet and playwright, she teaches English and Creative Writing courses at Berkeley City College. She is in her fifth year as a member of the PlayGround Writers Pool. Her plays, Surprise and Door Number Four were staged for Monday Night PlayGround in 2008 and 2011 respectively. Her other plays have been staged in San Francisco, Oakland, Palm Springs, and Nashville, Tennessee. While studying at UC Berkeley, Brooks also received an Emily Chamberlain Cook Prize in Poetry and was a Student-Teacher-Poet for June Jordan’s Poetry for the People Collective. Her poetry has been published in several journals and anthologies including Berkeley Poetry Review, Penumbra, The Walrus, The Womanist, Milvia Street, and What I Want from You.

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Christopher Chen is currently a Resident Playwright at the Playwrights Foundation. He is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley, and holds an MFA in Playwriting from SFSU. Chen’s plays have been produced and developed by Central Works Theatre Ensemble, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Crowded Fire, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Beijing Fringe Fringe Festival, American Conservatory Theater, The Lark Play Development Center, hotINK Festival, Theatre Mu, Silk Road Theatre Project, Fluid Motion, and Asian American Theater Company.

Victoria Chong Der has a BA in Creative Writing from Oberlin College and an MA in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management from SIT Graduate Institute. Her career in the nonprofits has focused on work in low-income communities. Two of her plays have been staged. She carries in her imaginary pocket two quotes: "It is therefore our task, as creative participants in the universe, to redream our world," (Ben Okri) and "Love one another" (Jesus).

Emily Esner was a stand up comedian. She imitated zebras panicking about stripes and ostriches trained as feather dusters. After two years performing in hamburger joints, she quit to write a full-length play about humans. And a rat. She gets paid to enter data. She is glad her desk is by a window. Emily’s short play about the friendship between a plum and a fruit fly is a finalist for the 2012 Heideman Award.

Ruben Grijalva is a playwright, director, and filmmaker. His technically innovative play, Foresight (2010), premiered at Fort Mason Center. His short film, Shadow Ball (2007), was recognized by Kodak for excellence in the craft of filmmaking, and premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival. Additional credits include numerous plays and five award-winning short films. Ruben earned his BA in Cinema from SFSU, and serves as Creative Director at dynamic San Francisco media company, Virtual Active.

Garret Jon Groenveld * is among the founding writers of PlayGround, a six-time winner of the Emerging Playwrights Award and delighted to return this season. Among his full-length plays include: The Empty Nesters, The Grand Divorce, The Hummingbirds, Missives and The Serving Class. His play Missives, originally commissioned by PlayGround, appeared in the Bay Area Playwrights Festival in 2004, premiered in San Francisco in 2005 at Theatre Rhino and in New York in 2008 at 59E59 Theatres. His play, "The Serving Class" also commissioned by PlayGround, won the Global Age Project from the Aurora Theatre in 2010. He was an inaugural Resident Playwright of the Playwrights Foundation and a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.

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Plays

The Grand Divorce

The Serving Class

* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Leah Halper has been a member of the PlayGround Writers Pool for five seasons. Her short PlayGround-developed play Ready was a finalist in 2008 for the Louisville Actors Theatre Heideman Award. She is grateful to PlayGround, Arts Council Silicon Valley, the Pear Theatre Writers Guild, Ross Valley Players, City Lights Theatre Company, and other Bay Area companies for encouraging her playwriting. Her longer works reflect her interest in the interplay between historical forces and individual agency, especially for women. Her day job is in Gilroy, so she has a well-traveled car and a good mechanic.

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Daniel Heath * is a three-time recipient of commissions from PlayGround (2009, 2010, and 2011) and winner of the PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award (2007, 2008, 2009, 2011). His recent productions of full-length plays include Man of Rock (New York Musical Theatre Festival 2011, and the Climate Theatre, San Francisco, 2010) Seven Days (SF Playhouse Sandbox, San Francisco, 2010) and A Merry Forking Christmas (PianoFight, San Francisco, 2010 and 2009). His short plays have been performed across the country from San Francisco to NYC.

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Plays

Fifty Years Hungry

Seven Days

Wednesday**

Siren

**Ten Minute Play

* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Lucia Jacobs began writing plays in 2005, studying with John O’Keefe, Marcus Gardley and others. Her plays have earned national semi-finalist status (Night Lab 2007 O’Neill Playwright’s Conference) and were produced in the 2010-11 PlayGround season (5 Bear Poker, People’s Choice Award Winner, and Rounds). Trained in biology, Lucia studies the evolution of navigation and the animal mind as an associate professor of psychology at UC Berkeley.

Genevieve Jessee is an actor and playwright based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received a BA degree in Theatre Arts from Dillard University, and an MFA in Playwriting from Boston University. Her work has been presented at the Source Festival, Boston Playwright's Theater, and The Bay Area Playwright's Festival. Most recently, her one-woman show Girl in, but not of, the ‘Hood garnered Best of 2011 San Francisco Fringe Festival, and “Sold Out” awards.

Sang S. Kim has been a writer for his twin homes in New York and San Francisco for the past decade. A graduate of New York University, his work has been seen in the New York Fringe Festival and San Francisco’s Sketchfest. In both cities, his writing has been acclaimed and highlighted by critics in the Village Voice, Time Out: New York, SF Weekly, SF Bay Guardian and the Chronicle. He is currently a company member for Thunderbird Theatre Company and Killing My Lobster as well as a contributor to the Asian American Theater Company.

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Brady Lea * is a playwright, performer and theatre arts educator. She is a three-time PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner and the recipient of the 2006 June Anne Baker Prize. She is a graduate of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College and performed for several years with the vaudeville trio The Kloons. Brady is currently a visiting artist in physical theatre and improvisation at San Francisco School of the Arts. She lives in Bernal Heights with her husband David.

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Plays

Mushroom Boy (full-length)

The Sum of All Parts

Feets Too Big

* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Jonathan Luskin * is a veteran of 7 PlayGround seasons and has received 2 Emerging Playwright Awards. He has worked at the Playwrights Lab, received a commission from the Magic Theatre to write Early Adopter, and his play, n of 1, was selected for the Bay Area Shorts Festival. Jonathan has directed for many Bay Area theater companies, and was recently awarded a Djerassi Artist's Residency, where he developed Ecce Homo. He has animated for leading visual-effects companies and is a co-founder of Flying Moose Pictures, a video production company.

Plays

Ecce Homo

* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Katie May * was a recipient of the PlayGround Emerging Writers Award for 2011. Her recent short play, Rapunzel’s Etymology of Zero, was a 15th Annual Best of PlayGround selection. Her dramatic works have been produced and developed in Arizona, Idaho, California, Philadelphia, and Chicago. She has taught creative writing for Arizona State University, College of Idaho, and the National University of Singapore. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University.

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Plays

Manic Pixie Dream Girl or The Lily Chronicles Issue #1

* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Alex Moggridge * is delighted to be returning to PlayGround. He is a two-time Emerging Playwright Award winner, most recently with his play The Audition in 2009. Alex's full length play The Squirrel was produced in off-Broadway’s Summer Play Festival in 2006. The previous year, his play Manatee was seen in the New York International Fringe Festival. Also an actor, Alex has been seen locally at ACT, Berkeley Rep, Yale Rep, Aurora Theatre, San Jose Rep, SF Playhouse and many others. Alex was born in England, but grew up in the Bay Area before spending time in London, New York and, once again, San Francisco.

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* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Evelyn Jean Pine * is a five-time PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner and a recipient of the June Anne Baker Award. Her short play, Sweet Dreams, launched the Manhattan Shakespeare Project’s Emerging Voices Festival in New York in October 2010. The SF Olympians Festival will stage a reading of her new musical (music by Tom Darter), Walking the Starry Path, on October 13, 2011 at the Exit Theatre. Her short plays are staged around the country. This is her second PlayGround Alumni Commission.

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Plays

Astonishment

Seen**

The Secrets of the World

Altair

**Ten Minute Play

* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Mandy Hodge Rizvi * has been a member of the PlayGround Writers Pool since 2009. Her short play, Escapades, was recently premiered at the 15th Annual Best of PlayGround (2011) Festival. In addition, Mandy is the recipient of the 10th Annual (2011) June Anne Baker Prize. Her full length plays include Burning and Drowning and Literary Biography: Chapter 11. Her newest full lengthplay, Drive Thru—Open till Midnite or Later, currently under commission by PlayGround, will receive a staged reading in May, 2012.

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Plays

Drive Thru-Open till Midnite or Later

* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Robin Lynn Rodriguez is excited to join the PlayGround Writers Pool. She has recently started writing for stage, but has been involved in new play development as an actor and director for many years. She has taken classes at the Playwright’s Foundation, during which time she completed her play Hedge. She is also a high school English and Drama teacher and the mother of two amazing six-year-old girls.

Diane Sampson * is happy to be entering her eighth Writers Pool season. She earned an M.A. in Creative Writings, worked in arts administration, raised two sons, then (finally!) settled down to write. She has penned two musicals, Oh, Progeny! and Writes and Re-writes, and the full-length plays, Charlotte Takes the Plunge and Naked, a 2010 PlayGround commission when Diane received its June Anne Baker Prize. Her short plays have appeared in venues as far afield as Miami and Seattle.

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Plays

Naked

* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Mercedes Segesvary is a playwright, director, fine art illustrator and comedienne. Her accomplishments include the 2011 Musicals month People's Choice Award for her play, “Save A Little Time and Book Online.” She also holds a 2009 Marin Fringe Director’s award, a 2008 Best of the SF Fringe award and has a traveling fine art exhibition titled “Colors of Emotions.” Mercedes is also a teaching artist with “Art For City Youth” serving children in need. Mercedes ♥’s PlayGround!

Kirk Shimano studied fiction writing and computer science at Stanford University. His short plays have been produced by multiple San Francisco theater companies including Inner Dialogue (PianoFight) , Billy’s Got Issues (Wily West Productions), Proposition Ate (Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco), and Leda and the Pr0n (No Nude Men). He is a Technical Director at Industrial Light & Magic where he occasionally works with robots, sometimes rides in spaceships, but never gets to hang out with Johnny Depp.

Ken Slattery * studied Drama & Theatre Studies at Trinity College Dublin. Since moving to the US from Ireland, Ken produced his full-length play American Irish in 2005, and has been a member of the PlayGround Writers pool since 2003. He was awarded the PlayGround Fellowship and commissioned to write Truffaldino Says No for the 2009-10 season. Truffaldino Says No was a recipient of PlayGround’s New Play Production Fund, and will be produced by Shotgun Players in 2012. Ken is a company member of Killing My Lobster.

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Plays

Truffaldino Says No (full-length)

Truffaldino Says No (ten-minute)**

The Shakespeare Bug

**Ten Minute Play

* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Cleavon Smith teaches English Composition and Creative Writing at Berkeley City College. He graduated from the US Naval Academy and Mills College's Creative Writing MFA program. He's published fiction and poetry and is participating in the PlayGround pool of playwrights for the second year.

Martha Soukup * is a two-time PlayGround Emerging Playwright and winner of the 2003 June Anne Baker Prize. Her June Anne Baker Prize commission, Manumission, was mounted at San Francisco's Exit Theatre by Cassandra's Call Productions. She is an alum of the Clarion Writer's Workshop and the Players Workshop of Second City. Her Hugo- and Nebula Award-winning and -nominated short fiction is collected in her book, The Arbitrary Placement of Walls.

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* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Jonathan Spector is the Co-Artistic Director of Just Theater, where he’s directed I Have Loved Strangers, Current Nobody, 1001 and The Internationalist. He is a former Associate Artistic Director of Playwrights Foundation and has directed and developed dozens of new plays with writers including Marcus Gardley, Sheila Callaghan, Anne Washburn, Thomas Bradshaw, Jason Grote, Geetha Reddy, Brian Thorstenson, Julia Jarcho and Rachel Axler. He is in his second year in PlayGround Writers Pool and is currently pursuing his MFA in playwriting at SFSU.

Tom Swift * is a four-time PlayGround Emerging Playwrights Award winner and a PlayGround Fellowship recipient. Most recently his short play My Name Is Yin was one of six winners of the 2011 Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival, the oldest short-play festival in the United States. Mr. Swift recently founded a production company, serving as producer of his own work at the Samuel French Festival, and as Associate Producer of Aaron Loeb’s Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party off Broadway. He is currently seeking producing partners for his gay marriage play, A Marriage.

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Plays

A Seminar!

A Marriage

* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Nicholas Turner is excited to be returning to PlayGround for another year. His plays have been performed in San Francisco, Chicago, San Diego and Washington, D.C., and his screenplay, Fissure, came out on DVD in 2009. He and his wife Kelly, both editors, live in Berkeley with their 3-year-old son Elliot and baby Alice.

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Frannie Ucciferri is a sophomore at UC Berkeley studying Cognitive Science with a minor in Creative Writing. She grew up in Walnut Creek, where she has written pieces for Northgate High School’s Production Workshop and Center REP’s Young REP New Works Writing Workshop. Most of her experience is yet to come.

Malachy Walsh * is a past winner of The Excellence In Writing Award at the New York International Fringe Festival, The Patricia Neal Emerging Writer Award, the John Golden Playwright Prize and the Hangar Theatre's SummerLab Award. His work has been produced or workshopped at Playwright's Horizons in NY by Clubbed Thumb, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Chicago Dramatists, The Playwrights Center and the Red Eye Theatre (both Minneapolis) and elsewhere.

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Plays

Christina Walters

* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Arisa White * received a PlayGround Emerging Playwrights Award for her 2011 Best of PlayGround Festival selection Frigidare. She is a Cave Canem fellow and holds an M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Author of the poetry chapbooks Disposition for Shininess and Post Pardon, she was selected by the San Francisco Bay Guardian for the 2010 Hot Pink List. Recipient of the inaugural Rose O’Neill Literary House summer residency at Washington College, she has also received residencies from Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Hedgebrook, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Prague Summer Program, Fine Arts Work Center, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2005, her poetry has appeared in numerous journals and is featured on the recording WORD with the Jessica Jones Quartet and in the anthology and staged production of Fingernails Across a Chalkboard: Poetry and Prose on HIV/AIDS from the Black Diaspora.

* PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award winner.

Rachel Yong recently graduated from Stanford with degrees in Comparative Literature and Symbolic Systems. As a student, she was an active member of the Stanford Drama Department and the Asian American Theater Project, where she served as actor, writer, or producer for over ten productions. She’s fortunate to have worked as a fellow for both the Institute for Diversity in the Arts and the Public Theater in New York. Her most recent staged work For the Scrapbook was produced through STAMP’s Aids & Activism festival.

Maury Zeff has an MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco, a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a fellowship recipient from the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. He was a 2011 American Fiction Prize finalist and co-produces the Babylon Salon reading series. He previously worked in the consumer Internet industry in both California and Asia. He is currently seeking representation for his first novel, Love in the Time of Stock Options.

Ignacio Zulueta was born in Manila, studied in Providence, and writes in Oakland. His plays have been seen and heard throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as in Ashland, New York, Minneapolis, Kalamazoo(!), and on KUSF 90.3FM and KPFA 94.1FM. He’s a 2011 AlterLAB writer at AlterTheatre and part of the NewWorks Incubator at Asian-American Theatre Company. He was a semifinalist for the Global Age Project at Aurora Theatre, and his works have been supported by three Theatre Bay Area Ca$hgrants – the latest for THE FELLOWSHIP’s premiere stage reading this Spring 2012 at AlterTheatre in San Rafael.

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Molly Aaronson-Gelb is the Founder of Just Theater for whom she directed Take Me To The Bridge, Far Away and Three Plays About Your Mom. Other directing credits include the premiere of Blastosphere by Aaron Loeb and Geetha Reddy for CentralWorks, Aaron Loeb’s Brown for Crowded Fire Matchbook, First Person Shooter at Capitol Stage in Sacramento and Oliver! for Berkeley Playhouse. She has also directed for Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire, the San Francisco Fringe Festival, and the Hangar Theater in Ithaca, NY. As an assistant director she has worked with Leigh Silverman, Tony Taccone and Lillian Groag at Berkeley Rep, ACT, and the Women's Project. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab and holds an MA in Performance Studies from Northwestern University. By day she teaches Drama at The Bentley School.

Patrick Alparone ⁺ has worked around the Bay Area in productions such as Octopus at the Magic Theatre;Twelfth Night, Ambition Facing West atTheatreWorks; A Streetcar Named Desire at Marin Theatre Company; The Glass Menagerie at Berkeley Rep; Hamlet at Impact Theatre; The Little Dog Laughed at B Street Theatre;All's Well That Ends Well at Valley Shakespeare Festival; The False Servant at ABYDOS; Karima's City in Egypt for The Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre with Golden Thread Productions. Website: patrickalparone.com.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Rinabeth Apostol ⁺ is incredibly proud to be a PlayGround Company Member! She recently appeared in the Ferocious Lotus Comedy Festival and as Dr. Charlotte in Stir Fry Theatre’s inaugural production of Falsettoland. Other credits include the 2010 Best of PlayGround Festival, the critically acclaimed world premiere of The Kite Runner as Soraya/Mrs. Nguyen at San Jose Rep and work with notable companies such as TheatreWorks, East West Players (Los Angeles), Arizona Theatre Company, Pasadena Armory Center for the Arts, Skirball Theatre (NYC) and The Groundlings improv comedy troupe (Los Angeles).

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Michael Barrett Austin ⁺ is a Bay Area native who returned to San Francisco after earning a theatre degree from Whitman College and spending several years Kerouac-ing around the country, acting, writing and directing. Michael has worked with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks, SF Playhouse, San Jose Stage, 42nd Street Moon, California Conservatory Theatre, The Shawnee Playhouse and others. He is also a member of Just Theater the sketch comedy troupe Funny But Mean.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Bethanie Baeyen ⁺ has worked as a stage manager and production manager for many companies including PlayGround, Livermore Valley Opera, Shotgun Players, Marin Theatre Co., Encore Theatre Co. Sacramento Opera, Ash Lawn Opera Festival, Opera Boston, Le Theatre Mouffetard, Sacramento Theatre Company, Garbeau’s Dinner Theatre, Music Circus. Ms. Baeyen is a proud member of Actor’s Equity. www.bethaniebaeyen.com

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Mary Baird ⁺ was last seen at Pegasus Books in a reading of Glengarry Glenn Ross. At the Mint in NYC she was in What the Public Wants . She created the role of Sister Francis Regis in Gracie and the Atom at Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland, OR. and the role of the mother in Frauline Else at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. She played the title role in Mother Courage in Vermont and now splits her time between California and NYC. Mary has acted on and off Broadway, regionally, and nationally, receiving awards for her performance in Holiday Memories , No Way to Treat a Lady and Blue Plate Special .

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Aldo Billingslea ⁺ Merrrick in Elephant Man, Yank in The Hairy Ape and Frederick Douglas/Nigger Jim in Splittin’ the Raft at Marin Theatre Company; Anna Christie at Center Repertory Theatre, Citizen and Caesar in Gem of the Ocean at ACT. In addition, Billingslea has performed in plays by Shakespeare, August Wilson, Williams, Hellman, Strindberg, Hansberry, Miller and Brecht. Theatres include Portland Repertory, Portland Center Stage, Tacoma Actor's Guild, Old Globe Theatre and Shakespeare Festivals of Dallas, Illinois, Marin, Santa Cruz, Utah and Oregon. Billingslea is also Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Santa Clara University.

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⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Julia Brothers ⁺ recently appeared in Superior Donuts at Theatreworks. In the Bay Area, Julia has worked with TheatreWorks, Marin Theatre Company, Aurora Theatre, Magic Theatre, Brava! for Women In The Arts, and Pacific Repertory Theatre. She has won numerous Bay Area theatre awards and was named MVP for Theatre in 2006 by the San Francicso Chronicle.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Stephanie Buchner is Resident Lighting Designer for PlayGround, having designed for the past several Monday Night PlayGround seasons and the 15th annual Best of PlayGround Festival. Recent designs include: Songs of Dragons Flying Towards Heaven for Asian American Theater and Crowded Fire, A Year with Frog and Toad for Bay Area Children’s Theater, Iph at Brava, The Ten Will Festival at Boxcar Theatre, The Creature for Black Box Theatre, Singing in the Rain and Peter Pan at Berkeley Playhouse, The Bald Soprano and Thom Pain at Cutting Ball, Current Nobody for Just Theater, Midsummer Night’s Dream at Impact Theatre, Love Person at Marin Theatre Company, Mike Daisey’s Great Men of Genius at Berkeley Rep, Fe and the Desert for Campo Santo, Playboy of the Western World, Dear Liar and Fools in the Forest at Shakespeare Santa Cruz.

Anna Bullard ⁺ is a San Francisco native who is delighted to make the Bay Area her professional home. Her recent local credits include CalShakes (Mrs. Warren’s Profession), ACT, San Jose Rep (As You Like It), Theatreworks, the Magic (Goldfish), Marin Theatre Company (Equivocation, Killer Joe), and Porchlight Theatre; regional credits include Arizona Theatre Company (Ten Chimneys), Actors Theatre of Louisville (Humana Festival), Laguna Playhouse (Around the World in 80 Days), and the Dorset Theatre and NYC Fringe Festivals.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Lizzie Calogero ⁺

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Ron Campbell ⁺ became a founding member of the Actor's Gang and Artistic Associate of The Los Angeles Theatre Center, after working as a street performer in Europe. Awards include the London Fringe One Man Show of the Year and both the Los Angeles and Bay Area Critic's Circle Awards for Lead and Solo Performances, The Helen Hayes Award, A Jeff Award Nomination and 4 Backstage West Garland Awards. One man shows: The Thousandth Night, R. Buckminster Fuller, A Tale of Two Cities, The Bone Man of Benares, and Beckett's Eh Joe. He has performed at The Habima, The Mark Taper Forum, The American Conservatory Theatre, The Old Globe and the Old Red Lion in London. An Associate Artist at the California Shakespeare Theatre, Campbell was one of three recipients of The Fox Fellowship for Distinguished Achievement in 2008. More information can be found on his website: http://www.soarfeat.org.

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⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Joy Carlin ⁺ has been a leading actress, director and teacher with the American Conservatory Theater since 1969 and was an Associate Artistic Director there from 1987 until 1992 winning seventeen Bay Area Critics Circle and L.A. Dramalogue Awards for her acting and directing. From 1981-84 she was an Actor and Resident Director at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and served as its Interim Artistic Director from January, 1983 to August, 1984. She has also directed for The San Jose Repertory Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle, the Berkeley Stage Company, Shotgun Players, Aurora Theatre Co., Theatreworks, The San Francisco Playhouse and the Shanghai Youth Drama Troupe where she directed You Can't Take It With You. This season she will direct Body Awareness at Aurora and is working on a new play with Aaron Loeb for JustTheatre.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Nancy Carlin ⁺ is an associate artist of the California Shakespeare Theater, an affiliate artist of the Foothill Theatre Company, a PlayGround company member and a former company member of the American Conservatory Theater. Nancy has directed for the Foothill Theatre Company, Traveling Jewish Theatre, the B St. Theatre, Aurora Theatre, Center Rep, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, and A.C.T.’s MFA program. She is the writer of a new musical, Max Understood, which was developed at the O’Neill National Music Theater Conference in July. Nancy holds a BA in comparative literature from Brown University and an MFA in acting from A.C.T.

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⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

David Cramer ⁺ has a BFA from the University of New Mexico, studied at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, H.B. Studios in NYC., and Harvey Lembeck’s Comedy Improv in L.A. Film. TV credits include A Piano For Mrs. Cimino with Bette Davis, The Waltons, M*A*S*H*, among others. Local theatre credits include Magic Theatre, Word For Word, Shotgun Players, Marin Theatre Company, and recently the SF Playhouse co-production (developed by PlayGround) of Seven Days.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Sally Dana ⁺ has worked in the Bay Area as an actor, singer, drummer and voiceover artist. Favorite stage credits include: Julie Taymor and Elliot Goldenthal’s Juan Darien, world premiere of Campo Santo’s The Language of Angels, Something in the Air at the B Street, the world premiere of A Common Vision at The Magic and Iphigenia and Other Daughters with Mettle Theatre. Sally has performed with many rock/pop bands as a singer and a drummer…currently, drummer for the all-girl LA band, The Reform School Girls. She is a graduate of the professional actors training program from Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts. Sally is proud to be a part of the talented PlayGround family.

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⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Dodds Delzell ⁺ has appeared in more shows than he cares to remember throughout the Bay Area over the last 25 years. He recently completed the world premiere of The Ultimate Christmas Show (Abridged), The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) and Much Ado About Nothing for Shakespeare Napa Valley and last appeared in The Peoples Temple and Art. He has a BFA from University of North Carolina School of the Arts and is a Proud Member of Actors' Equity Association.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Carolyn Doyle ⁺ is a company member of PlayGround and is thrilled to return for another season of great writing! Locally, she has worked with Marin Theatre Co., Encore Theatre Co., San Jose Rep's Red Ladder, Willows Theatre, Theatre Rhino, Signal Theatre, Kaliyuga Arts, Eastenders Rep, Western Stage, Shotgun Players, Woman’s Will and Cal Shakes. Additionally, she is a company member of Rough and Tumble (where she most recently performed in A History of Human Stupidity). As a solo performer she has been seen at the SF Fringe Festival, CounterPULSE, the Tell It on Tuesday! series, EXIT Theatre and the SF Solo & SF Theater Festivals. Her full length piece, Confessions of a Refrigerator Mother enjoyed a highly successful 4-week run at The Marsh, playing to sold-out crowds.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Amy Glazer has directed world, American and West Coast premieres at Magic Theatre including Sam Shepard’s , Rebecca Gilman’s The Sweetest Swing in Baseball, Blue Surge and The American in Me, Steven Belber’s Drifting Elegant and Tape, and Barry Gifford’s Wyoming. For Marin Theatre Company she has directed Frozen, Displaced, Life X 3, My Old Lady, The Music Lesson, Misalliance, Candida, and Indiscretions. For Eureka Theatre, Stonewall Jackson’s House and Trust, and for TheatreWorks, Spinning Into Butter, Pride’s Crossing, An American Daughter, Conversations With My Father, Marvin's Room and Mrs. Klein. The recipient of Dean Goodman, Drama-Logue, and Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards and finalist for TCG’s 2003 Alan Schneider Director Award, Amy is an associate artist at Magic Theatre and is a theatre and film professor at San Jose State University. Her short film, Ball Lightning, premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival, and her feature film, Drifting Elegant, premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival.

Cindy Goldfield ⁺ is a two-time recipient of both the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award and the Dean Goodman Choice Award. Regional theatre credits include work at A.C.T., San Jose Rep, Center Rep, TheatreWorks, Playhouse West, The Willows Theatre, Broadway by the Bay, Marin Theatre Company, 42nd Street Moon, and Golden Thread Productions. Ms. Goldfield has extensive directing and choreography credits in several Bay Area theatres, in addition to numerous corporate shows throughout the country and abroad. She also enjoys a successful voice-over career and the cabaret collaboration of Goldfield and Koldewyn with the inimitable Scrumbly Koldewyn.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

BW Gonzalez ⁺ appeared in the 2008 Best of PlayGround Festival and has worked locally with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Oakland Ensemble Theatre and the San Diego Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater and PlayGround. As a nine-year company member with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, she performed Ariel in The Tempest, Masha in The Three Sisters, Shen The/Shui Ta in The Good Person of Szechuan, Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cassandra in The Trojan Women, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth and Mattie Campbell in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, among many others. She created the role of Phoebe in Darker Face of the Earth by former poet laureate Rita Dove, which she performed at The Kennedy Center. Recent television credits include three seasons as Lupe on the Emmy Award winning show, Arrested Development. Gonzalez is a recipient of a Citation of Excellence in Theatre from the Massachusetts House of Representatives and has taught Theatre Arts workshops and master classes to men, women and children in prisons and juvenile detention centers and has also worked with at-risk youth for over 30 years.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Gabriel Grilli ⁺ is thrilled to be a part of the PlayGround Company after participating in many PlayGround events last season. New to the Bay Area in 2007 after 14 years as a New York-based actor, director, & teacher, he has performed locally with 42nd St. Moon (The Student Gypsy & Girl Crazy), Custom Made (The Old Neighborhood), The Media Factory and the SF Fringe Festival (RM3). Regional: HERE, Ensemble Studio Theatre, ASCAP, NY Fringe, The Old Globe, Syracuse Stage, Geva Theatre & Texas Shakespeare Festival. Proud Equity member. Training: Penn State (MFA Directing), Hofstra (BFA Acting). www.gabrielgrilli.com.

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⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Eric Fraisher Hayes ⁺ is a director/actor/educator. He is currently a resident director at Solano College. Bay Area directing credits include the Eugene O'Neill Festival, St. Mary's College, New Conservatory Theatre, and Playground. He has directed numerous shows for the Cal Shakes and SF Shakes educational outreach programs. Chicago acting credits include: Steppenwolf, the Goodman, Next, Circle, Northlight, Apple Tree, Stage Left and Shattered Globe. Local acting credits include: the Magic, Alternative Theater Ensemble and PlayGround. He has performed with the Colorado and Wisconsin Shakespeare Festivals. Recently, Eric directed the West Coast premiere of Eugene O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings. He is currently working on a romantic comedy entitled Anthony Pepys is Moving Out, which is dedicated to his 9/11 hero Rob Hurst.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Jessica Heidt

Brian Herndon ⁺ is thrilled to join the PlayGround Company and find himself in such good company. He has been performing in PlayGround's Monday Night Series since 2000, and was seen in the Best of PlayGround 2007. He spent last fall playing Mr. Elton in Jane Austen's Emma at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, after originating the role at TheatreWorks in Mountain View in 2007. Other shows at TheatreWorks include A Little Princess, The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue and Arcadia. He has appeared all over the San Francisco Bay area, at Marin Theatre Company, Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Playhouse, Encore Theatre Company and the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. His favorite roles include Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors, Braun in The Good German and Richard II. He received his MFA in Acting from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and studied at the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Holli Hornlien ⁺ is a professional actress, director, and educator, and last appeared on the Aurora Theatre Company stage as Jan Clark in Speech and Debate. Other Bay Area theatre credits include: Mrs. Stephen Haines in The Women (Center Rep), Belinda in Noises Off (Willows Theatre) Mary in Dublin Carol, (Aurora) and Dorcas in Love Play (Theatrefirst). Regional theatre credits include roles with Chicago Shakespeare Company, Lyric Opera of Chicago, interPLAYERS ensemble, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, and Cherry Lane Theatre in NYC.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Christen Karle ⁺ proudly calls the Bay Area home, having grown up in both the Midwest and East Coast. Local acting credits include the Marin Theatre Company, Center Repertory Company, TheatreWorks, CalShakes, Berkeley Rep, Valley Shakespeare Festival, Antenna Theater, Mendocino Theatre Co., The Playwrights Foundation, and more. She is an eager player in the Monday Night PlayGround Series and was seen in The Best of PlayGround Festivals 9 and 12. Christen earned her B.A. in Theatre from the College of the Holy Cross, MA, studied Shakespeare at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, UK, and completed an apprenticeship at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, MA. Christen currently lives in San Francisco with her husband, Seth, and son, Silas.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Tim Kniffin ⁺ is a Bay Area actor, director, and proud member of PlayGround. Credits include: Aurora Theatre (Permanent Collection, The Best Man, Trouble In Mind), as well as The Magic, Marin Theatre Company, Porchlight, Cinnabar, 6th Street Playhouse, Pacific Alliance, Center Rep, Z-Space, Dallas Theatre Center, ACT (Seattle), Book-It, Tacoma Actors Guild, Spokane Interplayers, Drugie Studio (Poland) and Theater Schmeater. Tim is represented commercially by Look Talent.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Danielle Levin ⁺ is proud to be a member of the PlayGround Company. Recent rolls include Current Nobody with Just Theater at the Exit, Vera Wilde with Shotgun Players and A Short History of Nearly Everything at Marin Theatre Company. Other Bay Area Credits include The 2008 Re-Orient Festival – Golden Thread Productions; Emma, and Unlock’d (New Works Festival) - TheatreWorks; Anna Bella Eema - Crowded Fire Theatre Company; Urinetown - Contra Costa Musical Theater; Laughter on the 23rd Floor - Center Repertory Company; and Our Lady of 121st St. - SF Playhouse.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Gwen Loeb ⁺ is delighted to be returning for her 8th season with PlayGround. Gwen has most recently been seen in Geetha Reddy’s play Safehouse at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Trojan Women at the Aurora Theatre Company, Lovers & Executioners at Marin Theatre Company, and in Tanya Schaffer’s new musical Sid Arthur. Gwen has also worked locally with such theatres as Center REP and foolsFury, and nationally with the Missouri Shakespeare Company, Arizona Jewish Theatre Company, Southwest Shakespeare Company, and the Blackhills Playhouse.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

George Maguire ⁺ celebrates 45 years as a member of Actors Equity Association. He is the Artistic Director of the award winning Solano College Theater, and co-fouder of the renown Actor Training Program, whose graduates include company member Jon Tracy. He has acted both on and Off-Broadway and regionally with Actors Theater of Louisville,the Hartman Theater, the Clarence Brown Theater, the Barter Theater, the Riverside, Northshore and Great Lakes Shakespeare Festivals, in over 35 film and TV roles, and locally with A.C.T., Berkeley Rep, CenterRep, Marin Theater Company, the Magic Theater, Shotgun Players, and 5 seasons as a resident actor with Marin Shakespeare Festival. Along with the 40+ productions he has directed for Solano College/Harbor Theater, he has directed for Broadway By The Bay, CenterRep, the Willows Theater, PCPA Theaterfest and projects for A.C.T., The Oregon and Great Lakes Shakespeare Festivals.

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⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Gabriel Marin ⁺

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Julia McNeal ⁺ Bay Area: Three Sisters (Porchlight Theatre); Old Times (TheatreFIRST); Roulette (SF Playhouse), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Actors’ Theatre of SF), A Streetcar Named Desire (Pacific Alliance Stage Company); Summer and Smoke (Center Repertory Theatre: Dean Goodman Choice Award, BACC & Shellie nominations); Visions of Kerouac (Marin Theatre Company); Best of PlayGround, ’03, ’04 & ‘07 (PlayGround). Film and TV: Pictures of You; The Unbelievable Truth, Flesh and Bone; Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Sam Misner ⁺ has performed in the Bay Area at Center Rep (Hank Williams’ Lost Highway), California Shakespeare Theater (A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Seagull), Pacific Alliance (The Sunshine Boys), Abydos Theatre (The False Servant) and The Willows Theatre (Woody Guthrie’s American Song). Regional credits include Syracuse Stage, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York , Foothill Theatre Company in Nevada City, California, and four seasons with Shakespeare Santa Cruz. Sam balances his theatre work with a regular schedule performing original music as part of an Americana/Bluegrass duet, Misner & Smith, and is an award-winning songwriter.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Lisa Morse ⁺ is delighted to be a new resident of the Bay Area, and a new member of PlayGround. She has performed around the country at such venues as Marin Theatre Company, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Missouri Rep, The Kennedy Center, and Boston Playwrights Theatre. Off-Broadway credits include Lincoln Center, CSC, and P.S. 122 . Favorite roles: Lala in The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Tess in The Sisters Rosensweig, Mollie in The Mousetrap and Anna in Syncopation. Lisa also writes her own material, and has performed her one-woman shows, The Clown Bride and Five Times, in NYC and in Boston.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Anthony Nemirovsky ⁺ has performed in productions throughout the Bay Area, including More Stories by Tobias Wolff with Word for Word, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby and The Tempest with California Shakespeare Theater, The Government Inspector with ACT, Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Laughter on the 23rd Floor with Center REP, A Christmas Carol with Napa Valley Rep, and has also worked with the Magic Theatre, GEVA Theatre in New York and the Playwrights Foundation. Anthony is a proud member of PlayGround, Just Theater and the sketch comedy troupe Funny But Mean.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Molly Noble ⁺ has directed for several Best of PlayGrounds, most recently Jonathon Luskin's Ecce Homo in 2011. She is the founder of Porchlight Theatre Company. Recent directing projects include Mary Zimmerman's Arabian Nights and Charles Mee's BIG LOVE at the College of Marin. Molly has directed for Word for Word, The Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and the American School London. As an actress, Molly has performed with Porchlight Theatre Company, Word for Word, Boston Shakespeare Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and New Dramatists in NYC. She received a Dean Goodman Choice for her portrayal of Lady Utterword in Porchlight's production of Heartbreak House. www.mollynoble.com.

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⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Barbara Oliver ⁺

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Soren Oliver ⁺

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

June Palladino ⁺ has been involved in Bay Area theatre since 1993. Some of her favorite productions include the critically-acclaimed First Person Shooter, Killer Joe and Our Lady of 121st Street. Other favorites: Devil’s Disciple, Burn This, Brainpeople, A Doll’s House, Arms and the Man, Assassins, Symphonie Fantastique and The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. She has staged managed numerous Best of PlayGround Festivals and is a proud PlayGround Company member.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Carla Pantoja ⁺ is happy to be included in PlayGround’s Company. She has participated in many Monday Night PlayGrounds and several Best of PlayGround Festivals over the years. A Bay Area actor, she has worked with Shotgun Players, TeatroVisión, TheatreWorks, Woman’s Will, and City Lights, to name a few. Carla is also a member of Theatre Bay Area and does fight choreography as well for Bay Area theatres.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Louis Parnell ⁺ has worked extensively as an actor and director with numerous companies in the Bay Area including American Conservatory Theater, Campo Santo, Center Repertory, CentralWorks, The Magic, Marin Theatre Company, SF Playhouse, TheatreWorks, Thick Description and Traveling Jewish Theatre, as well as with many smaller nomadic companies. He most recently appeared in TJT's productions of DEAD MOTHER and DEATH OF A SALESMAN followed by CABARET, CORONADO, THE FANTASTICKS , MAN OF LA MANCHA and ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST all at the SF Playhouse, where he also directed RECKLESS. Other favorite acting performances include leading roles in ART, AFTER THE FALL, ANGELS IN AMERICA, THE BOYS IN THE BAND, IT HAD TO BE YOU, SPEED-THE-PLOW and TALLEY'S FOLLY. Favorite directing gigs include AMERICAN BUFFALO, DEATHTRAP, FOUR DOGS AND A BONE, HURLYBURLY, PRIVATE EYES and RECKLESS. He has accumulated 10 BATCC nominations for acting or directing (4 wins) and 5 DramaLogue and Dean Goodman Choice Awards. He has also performed in numerous film, television and commercial roles including TRAUMA, NASH BRIDGES, AMERICA'S MOST WANTED and the PBS documentary RALPH ELLSION: AN AMERICAN LIFE which was an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006. He is on the Board of Directors of the SF Playhouse, was a founding member of Genesius Theatre Company and the Actors Theatre of SF, and is a proud member of PlayGround, SAG, AFTRA and AEA.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Michael Phillis ⁺ is an award-winning actor, solo performer, and playwright. His Bay Area theatre credits include The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (California Shakespeare Theater), The Dying Gaul (New Conservatory Theatre Center), and Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party (SF Playhouse). He has written and performed several original plays, including Finding Mrs. Miller, D*Face, Dolls, and Wish We Were Here, which premiered at the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival (Time Out New York Critic's Pick, Backstage Critic's Pick). He is also the creator/writer/artist of inFlux, an ongoing graphic e-novel series. For more information please visit www.michaelphillis.com.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Virginia Reed has collaborated with: Aurora Theatre; Brava; Cinnabar (Playboy of the Western World); Danse Lumiere, Lunatique Fantastique; Magic (Festivals: Irish Women Playwrights; Playwrights in Danger); Mark Taper Forum; McCarter Theater; Pear Avenue Theater; PlayGround; The Playwrights Foundation; San Jose Repertory; Shakespeare’s Associates (Proof; Copenhagen); 6th St. Playhouse (Boy Gets Girl; The Real Thing); Woman’s Will (Importance of Being Earnest); The Shee Theatre Company (Augustine (Big Hysteria); Becca & Heidi; Ladies & Gentlemen). Ginny has taught and directed in the Bay Area at The Branson School, Evergreen Valley College, University of San Francisco and University of the Pacific.

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Cathleen Riddley ⁺

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Katja Rivera ⁺ , a director and actor, hails from Los Angeles and studied theater at the venerable Los Angeles City College Theatre Academy and the Drama Studio London at Berkeley. She is a proud member of Shotgun Players and Actor’s Equity. She has two daughters and lives in the East Bay. And she loves to participate in PlayGround.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Adrian Roberts ⁺ is a graduate of the American Conservatory Theater. He has worked Off-Broadway and in many regional theatres including Lincoln Center Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Huntington Theatre Company, Dallas Theatre Center and Willows Theatre Company and most recently at the San Francisco Playhouse where he played Daniel Jamison in Aaron Loeb’s First Person Shooter. Mr. Roberts’ television credits include: Brothers and Sisters, Scrubs, Criminal Minds and the film: Vampyres, Out for Blood for the Sci-Fi Channel.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Stacy Ross ⁺

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Mark Rucker

Lee Sankowich

Brian Yates Sharber ⁺

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Kerri Shawn

Robert Sicular ⁺ , a Bay Area native, has performed with ACT, the Berkeley, San Jose, St Louis, South Coast, and Seattle Repertory Theatres, Marin Theatre Company, Denver Center Theatre Company, Sacramento Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Oregon, California, Berkeley, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, and Santa Fe Shakespeare Festivals, the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, and, of course, PlayGround. His on-screen credits include General Hospital; The Young and the Restless; Bollywood potboiler, Dil Pardesi Ho Gaya (My Heart Has Become a Foreigner); and the sci-fi action comedy thriller, Never Die Twice.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Chris Smith

M. Graham Smith is proud member of the PlayGround Company. He is producer of The GAP festival at Aurora Theatre and the Artistic Director of Precarious Theatre. In San Francisco he's directed for Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, A.C.T.’s Masters program, Aurora Theatre, EXIT Theatre, Asian American Theatre Company, BRAVA, Berkeley Playhouse, Golden Thread, and New Conservatory Theatre. Most recently he directed the West Coast Premiere of Jerry Springer: The Opera. He teaches physical theatre, movement, and mask classes at A.C.T and in Barcelona, Spain. He is directing Truffaldino Says No at Shotgun Players next summer through PlayGround's Commissioning Initiative.

Ken Sonkin ⁺ has acted and directed with such companies as American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Rep, Sonoma Rep (Assoc. Artist), Center Rep, Marin Shakespeare Festival, The B Street Theatre, Sacramento Theater Company, SF Playhouse, San Jose Stage Company, Pennsylvania Centre Stage, and The Denver Center Theatre Company. He holds a BFA from Ohio State University and an MFA from A.C.T. Acting: Trinculo in The Tempest, Magnus in The Real Inspector Hound, Kissinger in Nixon’s Nixon, Tom, Phyllis and Leslie in Sylvia, Max in Max & Maxie, and Teach in American Buffalo. Directing: Angels in America, Metamorphoses, Golf With Alan Shepard, The Subject Was Roses, Twelfth Night, Tape, A Southern Christmas, Humble Boy, and The Last Five Years. Ken performed in The Best of PlayGround 2008. He currently teaches acting at USF.

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⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Jomar Tagatac ⁺ has been a PlayGround Company member since 2010 and was featured in the 2010 and 2011 Best of PlayGround Festivals. He’s been seen in Holes (Orpheum/SHN), First Person Shooter (SF Playhouse). He has also been involved in projects with Word for Word and a collaboration of a new play, What’s a Little Death, performed at the Source Festival and The Baltimore Theater Project in Maryland. Jomar holds a B.A. Degree in theater from San Diego State University and an M.F.A. from the American Conservatory Theater. He teaches Hip-Hop Dance and has been a teaching artist for the past six years at the New Conservatory Theatre Center.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Cat Thompson ⁺ is a proud PlayGround company member. Her credits include work with the Magic, MTC, SF Playhouse, Theatreworks, Golden Thread, Center Rep, The Orpheum, & the Marin, California, San Francisco, and Carmel Shakespeare Festival/Companies. Please refer to her website for further details: www.catthompson.com.

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⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Danielle Thys ⁺ received critical acclaim in Scotland at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as producer/actor in a reprisal of her roles (Carson McCullers, Sylvia Plath, Joan Didion) for the SF Fringe Festival “Best Of” winner “The Way Light Strikes...”  As a producer, writer & lead in the film “Open House”, Ms. Thys’ production company Pixotic, won Best Comedy at the National Film Challenge. Theatre credits include: Lane in Sarah Ruhl’s, “The Clean House” Cinnabar Theatre; Sharon in Octavio Solis’ “Gibraltar”, Thick House/San Jose Stage; “; Woman 2 “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” Nederlander SF Company; Bertha in Tennessee Williams’ “Fugitive Kind” MTC & Center Rep; She in Albee’s “Counting the Ways”. Ms. Thys is a vocalist and songwriter with Soul/Funk/R&B band Wicked Mercies. She also regularly sings jazz with the Randy Craig Trio and has been a Top 5 Download.com Audience Favorite for her vocals, both on The Ruby Moon and on Zeroine. She is a licensed pilot, a Bondurant high performance driving graduate and a proud member of Actors Equity.

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⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Jon Tracy

Mark Rafael Truitt ⁺

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Liam Vincent ⁺

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Tracy Ward works as a freelance director in the San Francisco Bay Area, focusing on New Works for the American Theater. Recent productions include: National Tours of , and Strega Nona with Bay Area Children’s Theatre/Maximum Entertainment (09-11 tours), The Horses by Brian Thorstenson at AlterTheatre, The Shaker Chair by Adam Bock at Shotgun Players/Encore Theater, Juana, a new opera by Carla Lucero at Theatre Artaud, and the critically acclaimed, award-winning production of Hunter Gatherers by Peter Nachtrieb. Other directing credits include work with: Theatre Rhinoceros, Abydos Theater, Stephen Pelton Dance Theater, PlayGround, Z Space, and the Summer Plays Festival New York City.

Reggie D. White is thrilled to join the PlayGround family and counts himself honored to be in the company of such talented artists. Reggie is also a company member at Impact Theatre and BATCC nominee whose Bay Area credits include: TheatreWorks, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Crowded Fire Theatre Company, Berkeley Playhosue, California Conservatory Theatre, and others. For more info, check out www.ReggieDWhite.com

Aaron Wilton ⁺ is honored to join the incredible talent within the PlayGround Company. NYC stage: Greenwich Street Theatre (co-created/performed Happy Mundanes for NYC Fringe Festival), Beckmann Theatre, Shakespeare in the Wild, Riant Theatre. Regional stage: George Street Playhouse (worked with Oscar nom. Amy Irving & TV’s Dan Lauria), Hudson Stage Co (worked with Broadway’s Walter Charles & Susan Pellegrino), Montclair Operetta Club (Perry Nomination – Best Featured Actor for Willard in Footloose), San Jose Rep, Sacramento Theatre Company, B Street Theatre. In 2009, he won a Shellie Award for Best Supporting Actor in Willows Theatre’s Brighton Beach Memoirs as Stanley. AaronWilton.wikidot.com.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association

Elena Wright ⁺ is a proud playground member! Credits include: Blackbird (Aluminous Collective), Patience Worth (Symmetry Theatre Co.),The Verona Project (California Shakespeare Theatre), The Salt Plays: Part I, Part II (Shotgun Players), Best of Playground ’10 (Playground), Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Sonoma County Rep), The Good News, (Darkroom Productions), The Scene (Capital Stage), The Little Dog Laughed (B Street Theatre), The Winter’s Tale (Seattle Shakespeare), Doubt: A Parable, Hamlet, Evermore (Foothill Theatre). MFA University of Washington.

⁺Member, Actors' Equity Association