by Jackie Sibblies Drury Jackie Sibblies Drury is one of the seven playwrights in this year's 34th Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival with her play We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South-West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between...
by Clarence Coo A fiction writer asked me recently, “What is it with theatre and gay people?” She had noticed a correlation and was curious. She had meant no malice, as one were casually asking, “What is it with summertime and lightning bugs?” or “What is it...
Australian Amelia Roper on her life as an international playwright and her play, Hong Kong Dinosaur, coming to the Bay Area Playwrights Festival in July. Lately, I noticed, I have been writing plays about houses. Not kitchen sink dramas, necessarily. Naturalism is not my thing. The style and content...
by Dan Dietz I’ve written a number of plays that utilize live music in some way. A Tennessee fairy tale with a Tom Waits-esque singing angel. An American history play featuring a live rockabilly band. An adaptation of AGAMEMNON set in post-Katrina New Orleans, complete with a Chorus that...
by Lauren Gunderson I need to ask Arthur Miller a question. The play I’m working on this summer with Bay Area Playwrights Festival needs his help. The end isn’t working. It hasn’t been working. Why is it not working? The first 2 acts are strong enough to build...
This seasons final reading is upon us. The author of our last piece? One Minnesota-born Massachusetts-based playwright, Kimberly Burke, known for her deeply political plays. We had a chance to get in some interview questions with Ms. Burke about her life, and her play Miss Tibet. PF: According...
NOW FOR A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM LAUREN GUNDERSON: I always wanted to be some kind of explorer – astronaut, marine biologist, Indiana Jones. That last one was literal – after seeing *Indiana Jones and The Whatever It Was* for the 13th time in a row in...
I represented Playwrights Foundation at the New Play Convening last month at Arena Stage’s new Mead Center for American Theatre, and hosted by new play raconteur, the Bay Area’s own David Dower, who was the founder of the Z Space Studio, and is now the Associate Artistic...
Recently I've found myself in a bit of a pickle. The Bay Area is filled with its surprises, and I'm sure many cities I could have chosen would have their own particular pitfalls. Having recently had my laptop burglarized ...
The thing I love about live theatre that you just don't get from film is a pure, unadulterated connection with the piece and the actors. The best thing about a new play like we have at our ROUGH Readings is the ability to have that...