PlayGround

Specialties

Producer of the Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series (in residence at Berkeley Rep, Oct-​Mar) and the annual Best of PlayGround Festival (in residence at San Francisco’s Thick House). Co-​producer of short play podcasts with KQED’s The Writers’ Block.

History

Established in 1994.

Since its founding in 1994, PlayGround has developed and staged more than 570 original ten-​minute plays by 170 early-​development writers through its Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series and Best of PlayGround Festival, and is today the leading Bay Area developer of short works for the stage. The company has also become one of the most important commissioners of full-​length work by new writers, with thirty-​five full-​length commissions since 2002, including two Bay Area Theater Critic Circle Award winners for «best original script». Through the process of staging both the short and full-​length works, PlayGround has helped to identify some of the most promising new writers in our community. During the past sixteen seasons, PlayGround’s alumni have gone on to win both local and national honors for their short and full-​length work, including recognition at the NY International Fringe Festival, Humana Festival, Sundance Festival, and Bay Area Playwrights Festival, among others.

Meet the Manager

Jim K.

Manager

Jim Kleinmann (Artistic Director) co-​founded PlayGround in 1994 with playwright Brighde Mullins and director Denise Shama and became PlayGround’s first Artistic Director in 1996. For PlayGround, Kleinmann has staged more than eighty original short works and produced sixteen consecutive seasons of Monday Night PlayGround and fourteen annual Best of PlayGround Festivals. He has also directed nine audio recordings of short plays as part of PlayGround’s Podcast series, distributed through KQED’s The Writers’ Block. He is a veteran arts administrator with more than 21 years of experience, including the past 18 serving as chief executive for some of the Bay Area’s leading performing arts organizations. He received his MFA from the Yale School of Drama, where he also worked for the Yale Repertory Theatre. While an undergraduate at Brown University, he founded and performed in Brown’s first comedy improvisational theatre troupe, IMPROVidence.

PlayGround also recommends

Berkeley Repertory Theatre

299

reviews

Artes escénicas

Jim K. says,

«Home to Monday Night PlayGround since 2003.»

Thick House

24

reviews

Artes escénicas

,

Cines

Jim K. says,

«Home to the Best of PlayGround Festival since 2008.»