PLAYGROUND & EUGENE O’NEILL FOUNDATION
PRESENT O’NEILL-INSPIRED EVENING OF NEW PLAYS
NOVEMBER 19 AT BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE
Six 10-Minute Plays on the Topic: “HAUNTED BY THE PAST”
BERKELEY, (November 09, 2012) – PlayGround announced this morning the topic for its fourth
annual collaboration with the Eugene O’Neill Foundation to develop O’Neill-inspired short plays for
the upcoming Monday Night PlayGround, taking place at 8pm, Monday, November 19 at Berkeley
Repertory Theatre. In preparation for this month’s topic and in search of inspiration, the PlayGround
playwrights took a field trip on November 4 to Tao House, O’Neill’s Danville home from 1937 to 1944
where he wrote some of his most significant plays. That topic, Haunted by the Past, a theme infused
throughout many of his works and particularly A Moon for the Misbegotten, will lead to the creation of
more than thirty original short plays, of which six will be selected for presentation on November 19. For
more background on the topic, visit http://playground-sf.org/topic.shtml. Participating directors this
month include: Joy Carlin, Jessica Heidt, and PlayGround Resident Directors Desdemona Chiang, Mina
Morita, Michael French, and Jon Tracy. Selected plays will be announced via Facebook and
PlayGround’s website on Friday, November 16. For tickets and more information, visit
http://playground-sf.org/monday.shtml.
PlayGround audiences get to enjoy a unique behind-the-scenes perspective, with free pre-performance
discussions every month at 7:10pm, featuring playwrights and other special guests related to that
month’s topic. 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’s annual showcase, the Best of PlayGround Festival.PlayGround – 2
PlayGround, the Bay Area’s leading playwright incubator, provides unique development opportunities
for the Bay Area’s best new playwrights, including the monthly Monday Night PlayGround staged
reading series, annual Best of PlayGround Festival, full-length play commissions and support for the
production of new plays by local playwrights through the New Play Production Fund and, PlayGround’s
newest initiative, the PlayGround Film Festival. To date, PlayGround has supported more than 185 local
playwrights in the development and staging of nearly 650 original short plays and 41 new full-length
plays, with 7 more commissions currently in development. For more information, visit
http://playground-sf.org.
FOR CALENDAR EDITORS:
WHAT: Occurring monthly, October-March, the popular Monday Night PlayGround series
presents staged readings of thematically-connected short works by the Bay Area’s best
new playwrights each month at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, staged by leading local
professional actors and directors. The given topic for the November 19 PlayGround
event is “HAUNTED BY THE PAST ”.
WHERE: Berkeley Repertory Theatre
2025 Addison St
Berkeley, CA
WHEN: Monday, November 19, 2012 at 8pm
Additional Season Dates:
December 17, 2012
January 21, 2013 – Musical Theatre Night
February 25, 2013 – Collaboration with Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
March 18, 2013
TICKETS: $15/$20 (priority seating), available online or at the door. Pay-What-You-Can at the
door beginning one hour before the performance, subject to availability. Introductory
subscriptions are just $60 (50% off priority seating). For more information about the
Monday Night PlayGround series, call (415) 992-6677 or visit http://www.PlayGroundsf.org.
Media Contact: Jim Kleinmann, Artistic Director
PlayGround, 3286 Adeline St #8, Berkeley, CA 94703-2485
Phone 415.992.6677 Fax 415.704.3177 Email: jim@playground-sf.org
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