We INVEST in the next generation of Playwrights WRITING today’s stories that TRANSFORM the world of tomorrow!
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We are excited to announce our new 46th Bay Area Playwrights Festival Cohort
with public readings April 12-21, 2024:
Nan by Noa Gardner
Water Spirits by Alicia Kester
Children of the Wise by Aidaa Peerzada
The Great Privation: How to flip ten cents into a dollar by Nia Akilah Robinson
Fear & Wonder by Jason Tseng
You can read more about the selected playwrights and plays in our press release.
Check out our full list of semifinalist and finalist playwrights here.
We’ve reimagined our core programs to provide deeper support for playwrights. Our new purpose to support and empower playwrights artistic growth and careers shifts organizational focus from new play development to a greater emphasis on playwrights’ overall artistic growth and career advancement.
The Bay Area Playwrights Festival will change to a biennial hybrid festival in order to expand the pre-festival program from 4 to 12 months, and the Resident Playwrights program will shift from a 4-year to a 2-year residency with dedicated public readings to heighten the visibility of the local resident playwrights. These changes will allow staff to dedicate more time, care, and resources to each program. Read more details here in our press release.
If you want to learn more, San Francisco Chronicle and American Theatre also reported on these changes. And you can watch our Town Hall discussions about these changes on our YouTube.
We are deeply grateful to YOU, our dedicated community, for your support of Playwrights Foundation and for believing that playwrights matter.
Please consider making a gift to invest in the future voices of the American Theatre.
Sam says…
“I had an amazing experience at BAPF and feel like I’m in a different place as a writer.”
-Sam Hamashima (them+), BAPF2021
Noelle says…
“One of the first orgs in San Francisco to invest and believe in me as a writer.
I ask you to support them because they helped me get to where I am today.”
-Noelle Viñas (she/her), RPI 2017-19, BAPF2020
Miyoko says…
“Consider supporting this amazing organization if you can!
Working with Playwrights Foundation was one of the best experiences of my playwriting life.”
– Miyoko Conley (she/her), BAPF2021
What’s new with our Alumni:
Congrats BAPF and RPI alum Jonathan Spector on his upcoming play at the Old Vic in London!
Oscar-winning actor Helen Hunt just joined the European premiere of EUREKA DAY by Jonathan Spector (a multi-year alum of BAPF and former PF Resident Playwright), announced for September at the Old Vic in London. Congrats, Jon! Info.
Michael Gene Sullivan wins a Guggenheim Fellowship to support his playwrighting!
Congratulations to Michael Gene Sullivan (RPI member 2017-20, Rough Reading 2021) who has said he plans to use his Guggenheim fellowship to write a play about Ida B. Wells and her husband, Ferdinand Lee Barnett, who were both journalists and activists.
Congrats to RPI member Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko, joining the Core Writers at Playwrights’ Center!
The Playwrights’ Center Core Writer program gives a group of the most exciting playwrights from across the country the time and tools to develop new work for the stage. Congrats to Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko (RPI member 2019-22), joining the 2023 cohort!
Check out Behind the Scenes: Writing a New Musical
Join The Kilbanes, Lyricist Kait Kerrigan along with PF Alums Min Kahng and Lauren Gunderson for a recent talk at Marin Theatre Company about writing musicals in celebration of the opening of Kait and Lauren’s musical (along with Bree Loudermilk) JUSTICE about women on the Supreme Court! Moderated by Executive Artistic Director Jessica Bird Beza.