PlayGround Education’s Spring/Summer Workshops & Masterclasses

PlayGround, a leading national playwright incubator, has announced three new offerings as a part of its revamped education program for adults. The workshops and masterclasses will be lead by acclaimed playwrights Steve Yockey (Emmy Nominee & Multiple NNPN Rolling World Premieres), Rachel Bublitz (NNPN Rolling World Premiere, Funny Like An Abortion) and Bay Area producer/dramaturg Melissa Hillman. Visit playground-sf.org/education/ for course descriptions and registration details.

Stephanie Prentice, PlayGround’s Education Coordinator has assembled these exciting educational offerings. “PlayGround’s education programs are open to the entire community and designed to support artists at every stage,” she said. “Offered in-person and online via Zoom, our Spring/Summer 2026 classes include one-night masterclasses and workshops led by distinguished theatremakers, including playwright alumna Rachel Bublitz whose Funny Like An Abortion premiered at the 2022 PlayGround Festival of New Works. We invite playwrights from across the country to sharpen their skills, spark new work, and be part of a creative community dedicated to developing bold new voices for the stage.”

Registration for each session is limited to 12-20 participants. All registration fees support PlayGround programs and teaching artists.

Masterclass with Emmy-Nominee Steve Yockey: A Deep Dive into Story Structure
Potrero Stage, San Francisco
May 11, 2026: 7pm-9pm PT

Steve will lead an exploration of the use of structural prompts to develop story, focusing on short form and how that can then be applied to full-length plays, TV, and film. We will be writing and then developing participants’ ideas in the session. The session will conclude with a Q&A for participants’ questions about the class, the industry, and life.

Steve Yockey is a Los Angeles-based writer. His plays Pluto, Mercury, Bellwether, Afterlife, Octopus, Large Animal Games, Cartoon, Very Still & Hard to See, Blackberry Winter, The Thrush & The Woodpecker, The Fisherman’s Wife, Wolves, Disassembly, Niagara Falls, To Tokyo & the Moon, Reykjavík, Sleeping Giant, Subculture, and Curiosities are published and licensed by Concord Theatricals. He holds an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Steve was a Co-Executive Producer on the series Supernatural and is the Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated creator/showrunner of HBO Max’s darkly comedic thriller The Flight Attendant. He is also the creator/showrunner of Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives, adapted from the cult Vertigo/DC comic.

Worldbuilding: Your Secret Weapon with Melissa Hillman
Online via Zoom
June 15, 2026: 6pm-8pm PT

Think worldbuilding is just for sci-fi and fantasy? Think again. In this engaging masterclass, Melissa Hillman uncovers how worldbuilding can transform your playwriting—strengthening your characters, clarifying your story, and grounding your work in authenticity. Learn how to use worldbuilding intentionally, sidestep common traps, and unlock a powerful tool hiding in plain sight. Taught by dramaturg, educator, and former Artistic Director of Impact Theatre, Melissa brings decades of experience working with playwrights across the Bay Area, along with a PhD in Dramatic Art from UC Berkeley and a deep commitment to thoughtful, inclusive storytelling.

East Bay-born Melissa Hillman has been part of the Bay Area theatre community for most of her life. She was the Artistic Director of Impact Theatre and served for a decade on TBA’s Theatre Services Committee. She holds a PhD in Dramatic Art from UC Berkeley, and has taught all over the Bay Area, including Cal, CSU East Bay, and the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre. She writes the blog Bitter Gertrude, and has been published by Methuen, HuffPo, TCG, and many others. As a dramaturg, she’s worked for a number of companies and playwrights, most recently as PlayCafe’s resident dramaturg. As a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant, she specializes in white allyship, cis allyship, and disability.

How to Build a Playwright in Three Acts with Rachel Bublitz
Online via Zoom
June 30, 6pm-8pm PT

In this hands-on masterclass, acclaimed playwright Rachel Bublitz shares exercises, prompts, and creative strategies from her new book How to Build a Playwright in Three Acts, designed to help writers at any stage develop their voice, strengthen their craft, and move their work forward.ters, give and receive notes, and navigate the industry with practical tools and insider strategies.

Rachel Bublitz is an award winning and internationally produced playwright known for telling stories about women, and creating exciting new work for young performers. Her play Funny, Like An Abortion received a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere by Mile Square Theatre, Cleveland Public Theatre, and The VORTEX. She received the prestigious Will Glickman Award for the best premiere play in the San Francisco Bay Area for her full-length Ripped. Her play The Night Witches has received over fifty productions worldwide. Rachel was recognized as a top emerging female playwright in the Bay Area, receiving the June Anne Baker Prize. Her work has been produced at theaters and schools across the country, as well as Canada, England, Ireland, and Australia. Rachel moved to Salt Lake City in 2016. Since her move she’s been produced by Good Company Theatre (Ripped), and was named the resident playwright of the Egyptian YouTheatre. She has developed her plays with Salt Lake Acting Company (Ripped, Burst, and Let’s Fix Andy), Plan-B Theatre (Mommy Dances With The Devil and Tip Top Triangle), The University of Utah (Hear Us Roar), Utah Shakespeare Festival (Burst), as well as multiple commissions from the Egyptian YouTheatre (Cheerleaders VS. Aliens, The Night Witches, and The Summer I Howled). Nationally Rachel has been produced by Alleyway Theatre (Burst), Adjusted Realists (Red Days), Alchemy Theatre (The Book Women and Cheerleaders VS. Aliens), Relative Theatrics (Burst), Loud Fridge Theatre Group (Ripped), American Lives Theatre (Funny, Like An Abortion), Barrington Stage Company (My Body), Fat Theatre Project (Funny, Like An Abortion), as well as many other theaters. She’s also had two commissions from publisher Stage Partners; The Book Women and The Hardy Girls. Her work is published with Dramatic Publishing (The Night Witches and Burst), Playscripts (Biz Town, Ghost House, and Operation Chicken Takeover), Stage Partners (The Book Women, The Hardy Girls, Of Serpents & Sea Spray, and The Red House Monster), Pioneer Drama Service (Cheerleaders VS. Aliens), YouthPLAYS (The Summer I Howled), Brooklyn Publishers (Blood & Sequins), as well as others.

PlayGround, a leading national playwright incubator, provides unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s, Los Angeles’, New York’s, and Chicago’s best new playwrights, including the monthly Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, annual PlayGround Festival of New Works, full-length play commissions and support for the production of new plays by local playwrights through the New Play Production Fund. To date, PlayGround has supported over 350 early career playwrights, developing and staging more than 1,500 of their original short plays through the Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series and the PlayGround Festival. PlayGround has also commissioned 100 new full-length plays by 60 of these writers through its Commissioning Initiative and, through the innovative New Play Production Fund, has directly facilitated the premiere of 36 plays at theatres of every size, including three that have gone on to NYC and other major theater communities. Most recently, PlayGround renovated and relaunched the former Thick House Theater in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill as Potrero Stage, a state-of-the-art center for new plays, home to PlayGround’s expanding artistic programs and some of the Bay Area’s most distinguished new play developers and producers. Over the past thirty-two years, PlayGround has served to identify some of the most important new local voices for the 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 (including 4 of the last 10), O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and New York International Fringe Festival, among others. PlayGround received the 2009 Paine Knickerbocker Award for outstanding contributions to Bay Area theatre, 3 BATCC Awards for Best Original Script for PlayGround commissions, a 2014 National Theatre Company Grant from the American Theatre Wing (founder of the Tony Awards®), and a 2016 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Visit https://playground-sf.org for more information.