PlayGround-Chicago Announces Best of 4th Season

PlayGround-Chicago, a leading national playwright incubator and theatre community hub, is pleased to share the lineup for Best of PlayGround(Chicago) ‘26. Originally developed among 24 new short plays through PlayGround-Chicago’s Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, these plays will receive a special one-night encore performance on April 27, 2026 at 7pm PT at Theater Wit and simulcast under a unique new media agreement with SAG-AFTRA. Free to stream, watch on-demand, and at the door on show nights (donations gratefully accepted), advanced in-person reservations start at $10. For tickets and more information, visit playground-ch.org/bestof.

PlayGround-CH presents Season 4
BEST OF PLAYGROUND(CHICAGO) ’26
April 27, 2026 at 7pm ET at Theater Wit & Simulcast
Admission: Free (donations gratefully accepted)

The Best of PlayGround(Chicago) ‘26 selected plays/playwrights are:

A Whale Called Grief by alfonzo solomon kahlil
Date Night by James Hayakawa
Dibs by Betsy Dudak
GNATS! by Shail Modi
Mukashi Mukashi by Toby Inoue
Second City, First Draft by Dana Hall

Honorable Mention Finalists:
Ms. Poppins Has a Way! by Daniel Arzola
Mission Improbable by Arti Ishak

About the Plays & Playwrights

A Whale Called Grief by alfonzo solomon kahlil
Everything great comes from Chicago. Even Fire.

    ALFONZO SOLOMON KAHLIL, they/he, is a poet, playwright, and performance artist, raised on the Westside of Chicago, who believes whatever doesn’t kill you, makes for great art. Awarded Best Actor by New York Film Awards for their portrayal of Peter in The Waiting Room and Dramatist of SCORPIO & THE NEW / NEW TESTAMENT, alfonzo’s art utilizes the spoken word as a medium to explore the realm of the interpersonal. alfonzo holds a BFA in theatre from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and is represented by Stewart Talent. They were previously seen in Measure of a Man (Perceptions) The Island (Court u/s John), HOLD UP , and CHICAGO FIRE.

Date Night by James Hayakawa
They make murder look so easy on TV.

JAMES HAYAKAWA, he/him, is a graduate of Ball State University in Muncie, IN. He is originally from Northern California and moved to Chicago in 2023. James is a theatre artist and is excited to use his background in advocating for racial justice within the arts in this new position at Forefront. In his spare time, James loves board games, history, and music. jamesthayakawa.com

Dibs by Betsy Dudak
Two neighbors, sit on lawn chairs in the freezing winter of Chicago, to guard a shoveled parking spot on the city’s southside. Their casual conversations reveals about food give an intimate glimpse into friendship, race, class and fear. DIBS is a play about the importance of holding space for one another.

BETSY DUDAK, she/her, is a Chicago area playwright/writer. Reading and productions of her short plays include GOODBYE, MY GIRLS (performed in Scottsdale, AZ, Brentwood, CA, Austin, TX & Chicago, IL throughout 2024): SAME (Lindenhurst, NY, Dec, 2024); CHRISTMAS DISBELIEF (United Kingdom, Dec, 2024); and GLORIA AND HER DRAGONS (Los Angeles, CA, July, 2022); Betsy’s published books are WHAT THE HECK, DEC?!, WANNA BET, and under E.A. Tobolski, SEE ME GRIEVE: A WIDOW’S JOURNEY. She attended University of Chicago’s Graham School of Writing and is a member of the Dramatist Guild. Betsy is beyond thrilled to be a newbie to Playground-Chicago Writers Pool.

GNATS! by Shail Modi
The dogs investigate a mysterious disease. The gnats experience an apocalypse.

SHAIL MODI, he/him, is a Chicago-based playwright and actor. His dream is to star in a Bollywood movie without knowing Hindi or how to sing or dance.

Mukashi Mukashi by Toby Inoue
A Zen story about a Japanese farmer brings three generations together.

TOBY INUE, she/her, has loved being a part of PlayGround-Chicago for three seasons, where she has met so many talented artists. Her full length play SORA AND KELLER had a staged reading at Chicago Dramatists (Naked Angels T@9 Chicago, Dec 2025). Toby’s short plays include OWL CALLS AN EMERGENCY MEETING (Break A Leg’s Annual Slam 2025, NYC, Sep 2025; DePaul University’s Climate Action New Play Collective, 2026); POWER PLAY (Troy Foundry Theatre’s Half Baked Festival, NY, Sep 2025); and FRIENDSHIP BREW (ONS Theater, CO, Oct 2025). Toby is a founding member of the Evanston Playwrights Group and a member of the Playwrights Circle @ Speranza Theatre Company. https://wabi-sa.com; @toby.inoue

Second City, First Draft by Dana Hall
During rehearsal, a local theater troupe’s well-intentioned effort to create a kid-friendly historical play about Chicago spirals delightfully out of control.

DANA HALL, she/her, is a Chicago-based, award-winning playwright, actor, and mental health therapist whose work often explores trauma, resilience, and healing. Her plays have received recognition both nationally and internationally. She has been a semifinalist for the O’Neill National Playwriting Conference, a multi-time finalist for the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, a top finalist for AACT NewPlayFest, and a finalist for the Morecambe Fringe John Clarke Memorial Prize, and the Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellows Program. A winner of the New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest, Dana is currently in residency with the Dramatists Guild Institute’s Certificate in Dramatic Writing program. Her plays have been published by Next Stage Press, Heuer Publishing, Smith & Kraus, Tiny Scripted, and Stage Plays.

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 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 30 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-CH.org.