Mission
The mission of PlayGround is to support the development of significant new local voices for the theatre. More than just a play development program, PlayGround focuses on the creation of a true theatre community by nurturing the collaborative process between first-time or early development playwrights, and established professional actors and directors. With a particular focus on the ten-minute form, PlayGround creates a microcosm of the greater theatre scene, allowing for experimentation and risk-taking as well as the honing of style and technique.
History
PlayGround was launched in 1994 by co-founders James Kleinmann, Brighde Mullins and Denise Shama. In 1996, Kleinmann assumed the position of Artistic Director. Since its founding, PlayGround has developed and staged more than 400 original ten-minute plays by 137 early-development writers. In the process of staging those works, PlayGround has helped to identify some of the leading emerging writers in our community and, at the same time, has engendered the creation of a true community of theatre artists, bringing together more than a hundred Bay Area actors, directors and playwrights. For most if not all of the participating writers, PlayGround is the first professional staging their work has received and serves as their introduction into the professional theatre community.
During the past ten seasons, PlayGround has produced sixty-two monthly staged readings of original ten-minute plays and completed each season with a fully produced festival celebrating the top emerging writers of the past year. PlayGround’s alumni have gone on to win both local and national honors for their short and full-length work, including recognition at the Humana Festival, Sundance Festival, Kennedy Center Am erican College Theatre Festival, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Love Creek/Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, and The Drama League’s New Directors-New Works series. Directors and actors participating in PlayGround are among some of the most distinguished local theatre professionals, regularly working on leading Bay Area stages such as ACT, Berkeley Rep, Magic Theatre, San Jose Rep, and California Shakespeare Theater, among others.