SAN FRANCISCO: The Playwrights Foundation has announced its lineup for this year’s Bay Area Playwrights Festival, running July 29-Aug. 7 at the Potrero Stage and online for the second weekend.
This year marks the festival’s 45th season and features local actors Nancy Carlin, Anne Darraugh, Catherine Castellano, Jeunée Simon, Jeremy Kahn, Cathleen Riddley, Sharon Omi, and Sam Jackson, and more. Likewise, renowned directors Evren Odcikin, Dawn Monique Williams, Tracy Ward, Susannah Martin, and Karina Gutiérrez will lead readings for this year’s festival.
The lineup includes 10 readings of five new works: A Jumping-Off Point by Inda Craig-Galván, a biting comedy about a Black female screenwriter facing plagiarism claims from a white male author; How to Let Your Lover Die by Elana Dykewomon, billed as a poetic and silence-shattering exploration of love, caregiving, and illness in a community of lesbian elders; An Arab Spring by Denmo Ibrahim, described as an intimate drama about a luminous personal revolution between siblings; Saturday Mourning Cartoons by Iraisa Ann Reilly, a bilingual family drama about a millennial healthcare worker and three generations of unbreakable bonds; and Close to Home by Sharifa Yasmin, a deep dive into resilience, belonging, and the yearning for second chances among a trio of strangers from different cultures in the American South.
The festival is taking a hybrid form, so that patrons may either purchase tickets for in-person performances for both weekends and/or can stream online for only the second weekend. In-person patrons are required to bring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test. Theatre professionals are invited to attend and may purchase hybrid industry passes; they must register for these by July 21.
