PlayGround Launches 30th Anniversary Campaign to Secure the Future!
In the face of extraordinarily difficult times for theatres nationwide, PlayGround is expanding its programming in four major American cities and expanding career-launching opportunities for theatre artists from across the nation. In support of these efforts and the 500+ actors, writers, directors, and technicians who are supported by PlayGround (and paid union wages), the company has announced the launch of a 30th Anniversary Campaign, a special time-limited fundraising drive celebrating PlayGround’s 30th anniversary, with the goal of securing the funds necessary to guarantee and advance PlayGround’s most critical incubator and accelerator programs over the next two years.
To date, PlayGround has secured more than 40 gifts and pledges from the Artist Company, Playwright Alumni, and other supporters totaling $150,000 or half of the $300,000 goal, including 100% participation from the PlayGround Board of Directors. To contribute to the campaign, supporters can visit playgroundsf.vbotickets.com/donation/6626 or contact PlayGround Director of Development Lana Richards at lana@playground-sf.org or call (415) 992-6677.
The need for the campaign came out of conversations as part of PlayGround’s ongoing strategic planning process where the company forecast that the next two seasons would be among the most difficult PlayGround had ever faced. PlayGround Co-Founder & Artistic Director Jim Kleinmann shared, “It’s a ‘perfect storm’ of hits to governmental funding (not just the NEA, but also state, county and even local funding), grant elimination or reductions from other key institutional funders, and a generational shift that’s affecting individual giving even as PlayGround has increased services to the field and individual artists, raised artist compensation, and developed new audiences.”
PlayGround’s response, led by the PlayGround Board (the majority of whom are working artists directly involved in PlayGround’s programs across the country), was to launch a 30th Anniversary Campaign with a goal of raising $300,000 in support of PlayGround’s most essential programs and increased artist compensation for the next two seasons (PlayGround has built in increases across the board, ranging from 7% to 20%). PlayGround is additionally expanding opportunities for its alumni playwrights, with expanded playwright residencies and play developmental readings, and for the broader artistic community, with a new performance festival (in addition to the existing Free-Play, Solo, Innovators Showcase, and One PlayGround Festivals), to be announced shortly.
PlayGround initially secured pledges from 100% of the board and one of the company’s longest continuous funders, The Negley Flinn Charitable Foundation, with additional individual contributions bringing the giving total to $150,000 as of August 1, 2025. To ensure PlayGround can not only survive but thrive during this time and continue for another thirty years, the company is publicly launching the campaign to help raise the next $150,000 in support of PlayGround’s investment in artists and programs. As a California 501c3 nonprofit corporation, all donations and pledges are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Donors of $1,500 or more will receive access to all PlayGround programs (in-person and simulcast) over the next two seasons, including the annual One PlayGround Gala, taking place this year on September 15, with simultaneous parties in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Contribute to the 30th Anniversary Campaign Today!
For more than three decades, PlayGround has served a growing community of the nation’s most promising new playwrights and their artistic collaborators, helping to launch these storytellers onto the local, regional and national scene. With programs now in four major urban centers – the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago – PlayGround has supported over 350 early-career playwrights supported in the development of over 1500 short and full-length plays since 1994. Distinguished PlayGround alumni include Tony Award winner Jonathan Spector (Eureka Day), Steinberg Award winner Lauren Yee (Cambodian Rock Band, The Great Leap), and Best of the Fringe winner Aaron Loeb (Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party, Ideation), among others.
About PlayGround
PlayGround was founded in 1994 by Jim Kleinmann, Brighde Mullins, and Denise Shama, beginning as a professional-academic partnership in residence at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and with initial sponsorship from SFSU’s Creative Writing Program. Early participating artists included Prince Gomolvilas, Garret Jon Groenveld, Daniele Nathanson, Sandra Hunter, Colman Domingo, Kent Nicholson, Antigone Trimis, Mary Coleman, and Rhonnie Washington. The fledgling organization moved to Project Artaud and A Traveling Jewish Theatre’s new 80-seat black box theatre in 1996, at which time Kleinmann took on sole leadership as PlayGround’s founding artistic director.
The company was in residence at Berkeley Repertory Theatre from 2003 until the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and has also presented at the David Brower Center, the San Francisco Main Library, Freight & Salvage, Zeum, A.C.T.’s Costume Shop, and Thick House, as well as co-producing with such notable Bay Area theatres as San Francisco Playhouse, Shotgun Players, Impact Theatre, San Jose Stage, and Magic Theatre, among others. PlayGround first brought its work to New York City with the 2008 co-production of Garret Jon Groenveld’s Missives, followed by the 2009 NY International Fringe Festival hit co-production of Aaron Loeb’s Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party, 2013 NY International Fringe Festival co-production of Katie May’s Manic Pixie Dream Girl. PlayGround celebrated its 25th anniversary with a one-night program of original short musicals at NYC’s Theatre Row in 2019.
PlayGround’s first ongoing regional expansion came in 2012 with the launch of PlayGround-LA at West Hollywood’s Zephyr Theatre. In 2018, PlayGround-LA relocated to Hollywood’s Broadwater Theaters (home of Sacred Fools Theater Company), where the company continues to present its Monday Night series. PlayGround expanded to NYC in 2021 and Chicago in 2022, with in-person performances (and simulcasts) beginning in the Spring of 2023, at NYC’s Producers Club and Chicago’s Theater Wit, respectively.
Over its 32 year history, PlayGround has grown into a leading national playwright incubator and theatre community hub, providing unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s and, more recently, Los Angeles’, New York’s, and Chicago’s best new playwrights through innovative programs such as the monthly Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, annual PlayGround Festival of New Works, full-length play commissions, playwright residencies and production support through the New Play Production Fund.
To date, PlayGround has developed and staged more than 1,500 original short plays through Monday Night PlayGround and the PlayGround Festival. PlayGround has also commissioned and/or developed several hundred new full-length plays by PlayGround alumni through its Commissioning Initiative, Playwrights Residency and Alumni Programs and, through the innovative New Play Production Fund, has directly facilitated the premiere of 40 full-length plays at theatres of every size, including many that have gone on to NYC and other major theater communities across the country.
In 2017, PlayGround launched Potrero Stage: PlayGround Center for New Plays, a 99-seat state-of-the-art performance venue to serve as a shared community resource for dozens of local companies and hundreds of artists. New programs in residence at Potrero Stage like the Free-Play Festival, Solo Performance Festival, and Innovator Incubator provide opportunities for local and national artists to self-determine and showcase their work in San Francisco at little to no cost.
More than 350 early-career playwrights have gotten their start at PlayGround, including Lauren Yee, Jonathan Spector, Geetha Reddy, and Cleavon Smith, helping to expand and deepen the canon of American Theatre. PlayGround’s alumni have gone on to win local, national, and international honors for their short and full-length work, including recognition at the Steinberg Awards, Glickman Awards, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and New York International Fringe Festival, among others. PlayGround serves one of the largest theatre artist networks in the nation, connecting hundreds of Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York artists in support of a common vision: the development of bold and diverse new voices and new works.
This work has not gone unnoticed. PlayGround has received numerous awards, including Playwrights Foundation’s Inaugural New Play Champion Award, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle’s Paine Knickerbocker Award for ongoing contributions to Bay Area theatre, and American Theater Wing’s National Theater Grant. In 2016, Artistic Director Jim Kleinmann was recognized by Theatre Bay Area as one of the Bay Area’s top 40 leaders. Three of PlayGround’s commissioned plays have won the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle award for Best New Play, and three have had subsequent productions in NYC. Four of the past five Will Glickman Award winners for best new play are PlayGround alumni. When other theatre companies think of producing new work, PlayGround artists are often their first call. As a result of PlayGround’s strong leadership, planning, and a willingness to take bold risks with high payoff, the new play ecosystem has been utterly transformed by PlayGround. For more information, visit playground-sf.org.
For more information, visit https://PlayGround-SF.org or follow PlayGround on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/playground.sf/) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/playgroundsftheatre/). For information on our sister programs, visit PlayGround-LA, PlayGround-NY and PlayGround-Chicago.