THE 2024 BAY AREA PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL

ILLUMINATING WHAT LIES AHEAD: APRIL 12 – 21

The 46th Bay Area Playwrights festival (BAPF46) will take place in person from April 12–21 at the Magic Theatre in the Young Performers Theater, and released on demand from May 6–12.

We’re thrilled to welcome these powerful new voices and stories to the BAPF46 as they explore courageous acts of belonging and unearth hidden truths, illuminating what lies ahead.

Thrilled to partner with Aejay Mitchell for Jason Tseng’s FEAR & WONDER

“In a forbidden love story, Jabez and Ryan, two boys of color, navigate a Christian summer camp together in the early 2000s. Their friendship quickly grows into a budding romance that they try to keep alive after returning home. Challenged by their parents, the hazards of landline phones, and their faith, they are forced to secrecy. Finding solace in each other and their shared love of music, theology, and Harry Potter; the reality of living in between two worlds threaten to keep them apart as they navigate their blossoming queer identities and teenage angst in their conservative faith communities.“

Click HERE for Tickets.

A world premiere production

The Pride of Lions by Roger Q. Mason

Directed by Ely Sonny Orquiza

In 1928, five female impersonators were imprisoned for indecency after performing in Mae West’s The Pleasure Man. This is what happened on their first night in jail.

The cast features Bay Area actors Kim Larsen, Nic Moore, Michael DeMartini, Brendan Looney, Patrick Chico, Frances Domingos, and Sean Prescott.

The creative team includes Lighting Design by Andrew Schmedake, Sound Design by Lana Palmer, Set Design by Hector Zavala, and Costume Design by Wendell Carmichael with Dramaturg Gaven Trinidad, Fight Choreographer Noah Luce, Movement Choreographer Chris Steele, and Intimacy Director Maya Herbsman. The Production Stage Manager is Rachel Mogan. Photos by Seth Dorsey.

Click HERE to purchase your tickets!

JOIN US AT THE 3RD NEW ROOTS THEATRE FESTIVAL

NRTF is a 3-day arts festival that
🌱 unearths artistic voices in the Bay Area
🎭 celebrates the development of new work
📣 and centers BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ voices

The 2023 festival features 2 SFBATCO original projects and 4 projects by Bay Area legacy companies:
Zaccho Dance Theatre, Campo Santo, Magic Theatre, AfroSolo, SF Recovery Theatre

All six of these dynamic projects are in various stages of development, and the Festival offerings range from staged readings to fully memorized workshop productions.

SHIDAIQU - a new musical workshop development
In the 1920s, Shanghai was simultaneously the birthplace of a new and idealistic Communist party, an incubator of American jazz, and a city with one of the largest wealth gaps in history. Shidaiqu is the fictional story of a peasant from the countryside who travels to the big city to play jazz with the greats, and ends up falling in with a group of musicians and activists who introduce him to the communalism inherent in the creation of art. The musical takes place in a fictionalized world that blends elements of historical Shanghai with modern-day San Francisco, a city with a parallel arc in its art, activism, and socioeconomic scene.

Jord Liu / Playwright
Ely Sonny Orquiza / Director
Diana Lee / Music Director

PlayGround Festival of New Works
STARLIGHT by Christian Wilburn (a Festival Premiere Presentation)
Directed by Ely Sonny Orquiza
May 20 & May 21 7pm PT
Potrero Stage & Simulcast/On-Demand thru May 31
Admission: online simulcast $0-$50 (donations gratefully accepted); in-person $20-$50 or Festival Sponsorship

A rare autoimmune disorder has forced Sasha to live most of her life in books, and in dreams. However, when a mysterious book called Starlight brings her dreams to life, and potentially gives her a destiny, reality and dreams blend into a story that explores the transcendent mystery of chronic illness. Featuring: Sumayyah Green, Tiana Randall-Quant, Jamella Cross, Tony Ortega, and Krystle Piamonte.

The Chikahan Company presents its inaugural production with the world premier of The Act of Care written by Lauren Andrei Garcia and Conrad A. Panganiban.

When an unexplainable virus begins to infect several patients and nurses at a local hospital, a reserved Filipina nurse, Olivia, is visited by creatures who lurk in the shadows of the illness. Are they the cause or the cure? The Act of Care is a horror drama that explores the humanity and inhumanity of the American Healthcare System.

Our project is fiscally sponsored by PlayGround through their Innovators Incubator program and funded by a Ca$h Grant from Theatre Bay Area; however, we are asking our community to help supplement the costs of presenting this story.

The entire company for The Act of Care is a collaboration of artists who are all of Filipinx heritage and local to the Bay Area.

The cast features Rae Yuen, Lynie Abadilla, and Louel Señores.

For more information and to secure your tickets, click heres://www.chikahancompany.com/shows.

With her lover banished and her family torn apart, princess Imogen journeys across Britain to fight to clear her name. Disguised as a man, she befriends a Roman ambassador and two hunters who look all too familiar. As war between Rome and Britain throws the nation into chaos, Imogen must return to court in time to reconcile her family as well as her country. Action-packed and full of twists and turns, Cymbeline is an epic adventure with Shakespeare’s most ambitious plot. Featuring live Foley sound by James Ard, a company of fifteen actors, and some crucial audience participation, this staged reading invites you to share in the theater making process and essential storytelling.

For more information, click here.

Aurora Connects Season 3 Episode 2: Confronting and Dismantling Oppression (CDO) in Bay Area Theatre

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AURORA CONNECTS Season 3 Episode 2: Confronting and Dismantling Oppression (CDO) in Bay Area Theatre

This week on Aurora Connects, Josh and Dawn are joined by Ely Sonny Orquiza, Director of New Works and Development at Gritty City Repertory and creator of the BIPOC Living Doc; Z Space Patron & Community Engagement Manager Jordan Battle; and Rose Oser, Associate AD at Z Space. We'll learn more about the BIPOC Living Doc from Ely, including what led him to create the document and what has happened with the document since then. We'll also discuss trends in CDO work in the Bay Area theatre community, what people are doing individually and at institutions, what folks want to see, and what lessons are being taught and learned.

You can watch the recorded streaming here.

“Overwhelmed by the world of hook up apps and dating profiles, Jason, who is blind, goes looking for love in person at a gay bar. While smoking outside, he strikes up a conversation with the charming and self-deprecating Robbie. Despite the protestations of his overprotective and anxious sister, Jordan, Jason initiates a whirlwind romance with Robbie that tests whether both men are ready to be fully seen by someone else.”

See GCR’s staged reading of Seeing Eye by Nick Malakhow, 2/19 & 2/20 at 6PM PST.

Directed by Ely Sonny Orquiza
Featuring youth ensemble member Jonathan Mejia-Naveda and Bay Area Artists Jordan Don and Devin Cunningham.

Go to https://www.grittycityrep.org/subscribe for ways to watch!

On a dark and stormy night, Brad and Janet get a flat tire . . . So begins our party at The Geary Theater. Tony Award–nominated director-choreographer Sam Pinkleton (Soft Power and Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812) reimagines this swirling, sci-fi world for 2020 San Francisco.

Before this cross-dressing classic was ever a midnight movie at The Strand, Richard O’Brien’s Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Magenta, and Riff Raff started life as a smash rock musical. Experience The Geary as never before in this outrageous celebration of sex, drag, rock’n’roll, and being who you really are. In a dazzling mix of sequins and fishnet stockings, “Let’s do the Time Warp again!”  

More information to come soon.

A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2016, this scalpel-sharp dark comedy explores how we cope with trauma and the tales we tell each other to escape. In the dog-eat-dog office of a New York magazine, twentysomethings Ani, Dean, and Kendra compete for a book deal to kick-start their careers. But after tragedy strikes, which one of them will write the story?

MacArthur “Genius” winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins(Appropriate, Everybody) reunites with Cal Shakes Artistic Director Eric Ting, who directed the playwright’s An Octoroon(2017) at Berkeley Rep. Shocking, satirical, and viciously funny, Gloria is a thought-provoking work from a powerhouse playwright. 

Using the tragic 2017 Las Vegas shooting as a point of departure, Emmylu explores how Trumpism appeals to many people of color, specifically immigrants of color. At the center of the play is Perla Robles, a dutiful Filipina housewife, who is forced to reconcile her political beliefs with her family loyalty when the President goes after her daughter. 

Danny Araneta is a 34-year-old struggling LA actor who shelves his career and comes back to his hometown of East Palo Alto to help care for his father, Arnel. Danny is concerned about Arnel’s drinking and gambling addictions while Arnel is concerned about Danny not putting enough effort into chasing after his dreams of becoming a tv and film actor. As father and son reunite and fight, Qulie, an old friend from childhood reappears in Danny’s life. Danny navigates through his relationship with his father, Qulie’s sudden appearance in his life, and his acting career in this new play that celebrates Filipino-American, POC, and queer experiences.

Get your tickets here.

PRESS
”'Driven really resonated with me because this Filipino father character is supportive of his son's passion for the arts, and accepts his queerness," says Orquiza. "It's a very particular story, and it shows that there are alternatives to the culture of silence about homosexuality that's often represented as the only attitude in Asian American households." Bay Area Reported, October 22, 2019.

Filipino American playwright Boni Alvarez’s new play “Driven,” to be helmed by director Ely Orquiza, will have its world premiere in a limited three-week engagement by Theatre Rhinoceros in this city. Inquirer, October 25, 2019

Produced by Theatre Rhinoceros | Directed by Ely Sonny Orquiza | Stage Manager Marissa L. Ampon

This fall, A.C.T.’s Young Conservatory presents its first Student One-Minute Play Festival, featuring up to 60 one-minute plays written and performed by young artists from A.C.T.’s YC and Education & Community Programs as well as communities around the Bay Area (ages 14–19).

Under the guidance of Dominic D’Andrea, founder and producing artistic director of the One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF), with additional direction by four local directors, this next generation of theater-makers and change-makers will partake in an intensive community-building experience and create work reflective of the world they want to see.

Get your tickets here.

"The best short plays by the Bay Area's best new writers!" PlayGround's annual ten-minute play fest, featuring a fully-produced evening of the top six short plays drawn from more than 170 submissions and 36 works developed as part of the Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, just completing its 25th season.

Best of PlayGround alumni include Garret Jon Groenveld, Lauren Yee, Aaron Loeb, Geetha Reddy, Patricia Cotter, and Jonathan Spector, among others.

The full lineup for Best of PlayGround 23 will be announced on April 2.

PRESS:

Best of Playground 23 Lineup announcement by PlayGround

In this American premiere, a vulnerable and confused young rent boy sits with a middle-aged client. The older man has blood on his shirt. A lot has happened since the two last met. A site-specific piece about duty, morality and desire.

Media Coverage:

2 Fil-Am directors helm shows for San Francisco’s Theatre Rhinoceros by Walter Ang.

Miles away from the South Bronx where they grew up, two students unexpectedly rediscover each other on the eve of an interview that will determine their entire future. Each are looking to transfer to a prestigious northeast college, on the scholastic and athletic merits that the school has placed on them and deemed worthy. As they prepare to bare their souls and show the faculty what they think they want, Cristofer and Clarence have to decide whether to stick to their personal integrity or choose what they are willing to fake in order to call this beautiful brick-and-ivy bastion of privilege home. A brilliantly written, gut-punch of a play by Lucy Thurber, TRANSFERS strips the veneer off of meritocracy and asks us if we are willing to sacrifice ourselves to embrace a way out.

Reviews:

“Crowded Fire’s ‘Transfers’ demands fairness, and your attention.” by Lily Janiak

“Transfers compellingly asks: Who gets the elite education?” by Jean Schiffman.

Exploring the emotional twists and turns of love and relationships, The Love Edition: Falling Hard is a short play festival that captures the complex nuances of love stories. Through comedy, drama, and mixed media, The Love Edition illustrates a theatrical world that delves deep into the human experience and spectacle of romantic love.

Media Coverage:

“The Love Edition goes onstage on Valentine’s Day in San Francisco.” by Walter Ang.

Bindlestiff Studio is ready for this year’s ‘Love Edition’ tradition.” by David John Chavez