Monday Night PlayGround is Back October 31 “In Disguise”!

“Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.” – Tennessee Williams

Playwright incubator PlayGround-Chicago has announced the prompt for the first Monday Night PlayGround staged reading event of season one. Thirty-six Chicago writers have just four-and-a-half days to generate their original scripts inspired by the prompt “IN DISGUISE” as they vie for one of six slots in the first round of this year’s Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, presented via live stream on Monday on October 31st at 7pm CT. PlayGround-Chicago’s sister companies, PlayGround SF, PlayGround LA and PlayGround-NY will present their own interpretations of the opening theme on October 10, October 17, and October 24, respectively. All PlayGround programs in all four regions are being performed under SAG-AFTRA New Media agreements, providing union wages and protections for all performers. Monday Night PlayGround is admission-free (donations gratefully accepted) and advance reservations are required. For the complete schedule or to reserve tickets, visit https://playground-ch.org/monday.

PlayGround-Chicago’s celebrated Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series on first Mondays will be simulcast live (October 31, 2022 – April 3, 2023). Each month, PlayGround-Chicago announces a topic and writers have just four-and-a-half days to generate their original ten-page script. The top six scripts are matched with directors and a cast of leading local professionals and rehearsed for just ninety minutes on the day of the performance. Following a brief technical rehearsal to add sound and other design elements, the six short plays are performed as script-in-hand staged readings for an in-person and live-stream viewing audience. Audience members can also experience the thrill of being a producer through the monthly People’s Choice Awards, helping to determine which plays and playwrights go on for consideration in PlayGround-Chicago’s annual short play showcase, Best of PlayGround-Chicago. Advance reservations are required. Admission is free but donations are gratefully accepted and directly support artist compensation.

PlayGround-Chicago’s 2022-23 Writers Pool, the thirty-six Chicago-based writers competitively selected to participate in the monthly series, are: Austin Adams, Leah Barsanti, Alica Benning, Gabriella Bonamici, Sarah Bowden, McKennzie Boyd, DC Cathro, Rammel Chan, Ada  Cheng, Richard Lyons Conlon, Scott Cooper, Sunny da Silva , Emma Durbin, Lisa Feriend, Kym Fraher, John Frank, Jay Greve, Dana Hall, Tanuja Jagernauth, Kerri Killeen, Samuel Levit, David Lipschutz, Marjorie Muller, Karissa  Murrell Myers, Ryan Oliveira, Taylor Owen, Susan Pak, Kendall Phillips, Edward Pinkowski, Emma Rund, Matt Schutz, Justin Sikes, RJ Silva, Ryan Stevens, Wai Yim, Desiree York

PlayGround-Chicago is the first Midwest expansion of the celebrated California-based playwright incubator and theatre community hub, PlayGround(SF). PlayGround, California’s leading playwright incubator, provides unique development opportunities for the Bay Area’s, Los Angeles’, New York’s and now 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 250 early career playwrights, developing and staging more than 1,000 of their original short plays through the Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series and the PlayGround Festival. PlayGround has also commissioned 90 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 34 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 twenty-seven 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 Humana Festival, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, The Lark’s Playwrights’ Week, New York International Fringe Festival, and 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.

WHAT: PlayGround-Chicago Opens Season 1 of the Celebrated Monday Night PlayGround Series with six original short plays inspired by the prompt “In Disguise”.

WHERE:   Simulcast and On-Demand

WHEN:     Monday, October 31st, 2022 at 7pm CT               

Additional Season Dates:

December 5, 2022
January 2, 2022
February 6, 2022
March 6, 2022
April 3, 2022

TICKETS: Admission is free (donations gratefully accepted) but advance reservations are required. To reserve tickets for in-person or online viewing, visit https://tickets.playground-sf.org.