PLAYGROUND-CHICAGO’S 6th SEASON
PlayGround, a leading national playwright incubator and theatre community hub, is pleased to share plans for its 33rd anniversary season. The season announcement coincides with the release of the 2026-27 Writers Pools, 112 early-career playwrights in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, who will participate in PlayGround’s signature incubator program, Monday Night PlayGround, developing more than 600 new short plays this season of which 96 will be staged by the four communities over the course of 16 public events, all performed in-person and simulcast under a first-in-the-nation SAG-AFTRA agreement. New for this year: PlayGround’s first prePLAY New Play Series! Four PlayGround alumni in each PlayGround City will receive a public table read of an evening length play with a paid cast and live broadcast (schedule and details below). PlayGround has also announced the 44 playwright alumni selected for this year’s Resident Playwrights Program, including five playwrights under commission and representing all four regions.
The 2026-27 Season will feature more than 120 public performances of new works by PlayGround playwrights, ranging from fringe-style full productions to a Hitchcock-inspired holiday show, and from new solo performance to developmental staged readings and premieres of bold new full-length plays. Taken altogether, PlayGround’s 33rd Season represents the nation’s largest celebration of new playwrights and new works and stands as a true celebration of the vitality and promise of the American Theatre.
Following the conclusion of the Monday Night series, PlayGround presents Best of PlayGround, a celebration of the top new playwrights and works from the season, in Los Angeles (April 5), New York (April 12), Chicago (April 19) and San Francisco (May 29-30).
2026-2027 PlayGround Chicago Company
PlayGround also recently announced its 2026-27 Company, including the Writers Pool, Resident Playwrights and Artist Company. These 160+ artists will fuel PlayGround’s incubator programs over the next season, fostering the development of more than 150 original short and full-length plays.
The PlayGround-Chicago 2026-27 Writers Pool includes: Daniel Arzola, Siah Berlatsky, Andrea Berting, Jessie Bond, Anne Brady, Rachel Chin, Mikayla De Guzman, Kimberly Dixon-Mays, Betsy Dudak, Liz Haas, Dana Hall, James Hayakawa, Toby Inoue, Arti Ishak, Tanuja Devi Jagernauth, Jerluane Jenkins, Jessica Johnson, alfonzo kahlil, Juliet Kang Huneke, Alex Kingsley, Alan Maass, Sydney MacGilvray, Shail Modi, J.S. Puller, Shannon Pritchard, Jay Rehak, Matt Schutz, Katherine Swan.
2026-27 Resident Playwrights: Anne Brady*, Jessie Bond, alfonzo kahlil, Juliet Kang Huneke, Karissa Murrell Myers, Katherine Swan.
* Playwrights under commission for the 2026-27 season
** June Anne Baker Award Winner
In addition, PlayGround is pleased to welcome new and returning members of the PlayGround-Chicago Artist Company: Manny Buckley, Valerie Butler-Newbern, Devin Christor, Andrea Conway-Diaz, Yvette Corrine, Lynda Cortez, Vivian Delgadillo, Spencer Diedrick, Eileen Dixon, Sheri Flanders, Skylar Frishman, Ashley Graham, Scott Gryder, Charlotte Harris, Carmia Imani, Hannah Lynn Kato, Benjamin Kelly, Charlie Levinson, Beau Malone, Kaeli Meno, Paige Mesina, Ilsa Morales, Alka Nayyar, Leanna Oliveira, Dakota Pariset, Kendall Phillips, Shariba Rivers, Diana Simonzadeh, Brooke-Erin Smith, Peter Stielstra, Tyler Struble, William C. Thompson, Kezia Waters, Karla Wren, Braedyn Youngberg, Jordan Zelvin.
About PlayGround-Chicago
The mission of PlayGround-Chicago is to support the development of new local voices for the theatre, with a core commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. PlayGround-Chicago is Chicago’s newest playwright incubator, providing unique opportunities for the cultivation and development of early-career local playwrights and partnerships with leading professional directors, actors and theatres. Through the development of original short and full-length plays, PlayGround creates a microcosm of the greater theatre scene, supporting emerging playwrights’ experimentation and risk-taking, while helping them to hone their style and technique.
PlayGround-Chicago is the third regional expansion of the celebrated Bay Area playwright incubator and theatre community hub, 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 33 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 375 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.
2026-27 PlayGround-Chicago Season
Monday Night PlayGround
Round 1: October 12 (LA), October 19 (SF), October 26 (NY), November 2 (Chicago)
Round 2: November 23 (LA), November 30 (NY), December 7 (SF), December 14 (Chicago)
Round 3: January 11 (LA), January 18 (SF), January 25 (NY), February 1 (Chicago)
Round 4: March 1 (LA), March 8 (SF), March 15 (Chicago), March 22 (NY)
Best of PlayGround
April 5, 2026 (LA)
April 12, 2026 (NY)
April 19, 2026 (Chicago)
May 29-30, 2026 (SF)
prePLAY New Play Series
11/1/26 2pm CT: Katherine Swan’s Blue Eyes
12/13/26 2pm CT: Shail Modi’s Monkey
1/31/27 2pm CT: alfonzo kahlil’s Bruxomania: Zombie Play
3/14/27 2pm CT: Dana Hall’s What the Bones Remember
All programs will be offered both in-person and online this year and are all admission free.
Tickets and Monday Night PlayGround memberships go on sale September 1, 2026.
Monday Night PlayGround-Chicago performances
Theater Wit: 1229 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL 60657 (Dec 14, 2026, Mar 15, 2027, Apr 19, 2027)
Chicago Dramatists: 1105 W Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60642 (Feb 1, 2027)
The Den Theatre: 1331 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622 (Nov 2, 2026)
prePlay Table Reading Series
The Den Theatre: 1331 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
For more information, visit playground-ch.org
For information on our sister programs, visit PlayGround-SF, PlayGround-LA and
PlayGround-NY.