Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2021

Playwrights Foundation, July 2021

streaming producer, leanna keyes smiling inside a green bordered circle

Leanna
Says .... ....

My second digital BAPF and my sixth ever, this was uniquely challenging because we did virtual production with in-person audiences. Essentially, digital theater projected into a theater like a live movie, plus we did live pre-show conversations and speeches from the theater itself. It’s a unique twist on hybrid theater that I can’t wait to do more of!

Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2021

Five new plays, each performed twice, with digital bells and whistles to elevate them as staged readings. Plus, the audience was in-theater with the performers all digital!

The 44th Bay Area Playwrights Festival continued online with two weekends of virtual readings, while also adding innovative in-person community building. Five playwrights who told stories of family, spirituality, self-discovery, healing, and legacy.

Playwrights Foundation supports and empowers playwrights’ artistic growth and careers while championing their voices on a national level. They imagine a future where playwrights are radically centered as visionary leaders who transform the world through storytelling. www.playwrightsfoundation.org. 

Playwrights Foundation’s Values

  • Playwright Centered: We center our decisions around the specific needs of the playwrights we serve and empower them to have artistic agency. 
  • Community: We strive to create a meaningful community amongst playwrights and cultivate a constellation of creative relationships between playwrights and artists, organizations, advocates, and audiences.
  • Equity: We seek to build flexible and adaptable systems in order to create equitable opportunities for people across differences to participate, contribute and succeed.
  • Inclusion:  We create a culture of access, well-being, and a sense of belonging across a diversity of intersectional identities and voices. 
  • Innovation:   We value artistic experimentation, risk-taking, and innovative systems that support playwrights through a mindset of creativity and abundance.
  • Transparency: We strive to practice clear, open, and honest communication at every level both internally and externally.
  • Local Commitment:  We invest in relationships with Bay Area playwrights, artists, organizations, and communities.

BAPF 2021 Creative Team:

Kieran Beccia – Associate Literary Manager and Rough Readings Associate Producer

Jessica Bird Beza – Executive Artistic Director

Andrew Custer – Technical Director

Lauren English – Casting Director

Laura Espino – Casting Director

Nailah Harper-Malveaux – Community Relationships Manager

Heather Helinsky – Literary Manager

Tessa Saito King – Operations Manager

Den Legaspi – Graphic Designer

Jordan Ramirez Puckett – Festival Producer

 

Real Time Remix

Jaisey Bates – Playwright

Nailah Harper-Malveaux – Director

Jeanette Harrison – Director

David Geary – Dramaturg

 

Human Museum

Miyoko Conley – Playwright

Bob Shryock – Director

Divina Shorter – Dramaturg

Micah Carroll – Content Expert

 

Tiger Beat

Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin – Playwright

Jessica Holt – Director

Wei Ming Dariotis – Content Expert

 

Supposed Home

Sam Hamashima – Playwright

May Liang – Director

Clint Ramos – Content Expert

 

The Problem With Magic, Is:

Johnny G. Lloyd – Playwright

Leigh Rondon-Davis – Director

Adrena Williams – Dramaturg

 

BAPF 2021 featured performers include: 

Kaili Turner, Jenny Marlowe, Tierra Allen, AeJay Mitchell, Natalia Duong, Cassie Grilley, Indiia Willmot, Greg Ayers, Joyce Domanico-Huh, Cathleen Riddley, Sarah Traisman, Chris Stevens, Michael Ray Wisely, Kimberly Hollkamp-Dinon, Katie Lee Hill, Erin Mei-Ling Stuart, Lisa Hori-Garcia, Futaba Shioda, Emily Kuroda, Keiko Carreiro, Tasi Alabastro, Sango Tajima, Kenny Scott, Anna Marie Sharpe, Dorian Lockett, Summer Brown, Halili Knox.