Playwrights Foundation

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Playwrights Foundation

We support, empower, and center playwrights. Playwrights are the center of our universe. Pure and simple. We seek to identify exceptional emerging writers.

We value diverse, complex, and experimental new works.

> Playwrights Foundation has been a new play launch pad and home for playwrights to explore, create, and collaborate for 45 years

> We discover exceptional, groundbreaking playwrights early in their careers, nurture their talent, and connect them to theater producers

> Over 80% of the plays we develop have gone on to successful

productions, winning awards and accolades

Founded in 1976, Playwrights Foundation is widely recognized today as one of the top playwright development organizations in the United States. Dedicated to the creative development and career acceleration of contemporary playwrights, we serve emerging and mid-career playwrights. We give them space, time and professional artistic collaborators to explore new theatrical ideas. This helps them to experiment and take risks with structure, form and/or content in an environment that is free from the pressures of the marketplace. Many alumni have gone on to become the most important voices in theater, television, and film, shaping the landscape of American culture, and include visionary artists such as Sam Shepard, David Henry Hwang, Paula Vogel, Anna Deavere Smith, Philip Kan Gotanda, Paula Vogel, Rajiv Joseph, Marcus Gardley, and Peter Nachtrieb – to name just a few. Playwrights we have worked with have won every award in the theater including the Pulitzer, the Obie, the National Critics Circle Award, and many more.

06/02/2026

Join us for "Paseo with Playwrights: An East Bay Walk and Picnic" on Sunday June 14, 2026, 2-5pm.

Leading up to the Bay Area Playwrights Festival in September, Playwrights Foundation is hosting a series of events to bring us all together to build & strengthen community and bring to life our theme for this year’s Festival: REVIVE - RESIST - RENEW!

Share a walk and a BYO picnic in Joaquin Miller Park while learning more about Playwrights Foundation from staff, board, and playwrights. Kids and dogs (on a leash) are welcome. Also, folks have the option to stay at the picnic site and not join the walk, if desired.

This event is FREE but we encourage donations to help us raise $30,000 for the festival in September. RSVP for exact location details.

The beautiful setting of Joaquin Miller park will allow us to REVIVE ourselves in fresh air and natural surroundings, RESIST oppression by supporting a park that recently returned 5 acres of land to permanent Indigenous control, and RENEW community connections and strengthen support for writers and the creation of new work.

For more info and to RSVP: https://bit.ly/436XPRl

We look forward to seeing you there! 🌲☀️

05/29/2026

We are thrilled to introduce the cohort for the 2026–2027 Resident Playwrights Program, our two-year residency which offers up- and-coming Bay Area playwrights an artistic home and holistic support to personally grow and advance their career within a nurturing community – receiving financial investment, tailored career support from staff, cohort meetings and retreats, internal and public workshops as well as local and national networking opportunities and more.

Our 2026-2027 Resident Playwrights are: Linda Amayo-Hassan, Megan Calfas, Aidaa Peerzada, and Julius Ernesto Rea.

An intimate group of 10 artists made up of alumni and theatre-makers partnered with staff on the selection process including: Cat Brooks, victor cervantes jr., Wynne Chan, LeeAnn Dowd, Scott Horstein, Ely Sonny Orquiza, Leigh Rondon-Davis, Austin Riffelmacher, Elizabeth Spreen, and Dan Wolf.

We kicked off at the beginning of the year with a productive and inspiring weekend retreat diving deep into artistic purpose, vision, and values while building trust and camaraderie within the cohort and with PF staff. They are now focusing on their individual goals and creative processes while meeting regularly with the cohort.

Learn more about our new Resident Playwrights on our website! https://playwrightsfoundation.org/2026-27-resident-playwright-cohort/

05/28/2026

We are excited to introduce our new Literary and Producing Director, Leigh Rondon-Davis!

Leigh is a performer, dramaturg, director, and producer. While Leigh wears many hats as a theater-maker, much of their work and personal passion has been to shift the industry and its culture to be more equitable, inclusive, accessible, and sustainable as an anti-racist educator and facilitator. Beyond theater, Leigh enjoys swimming, reading, concerts, crafting cocktails, and cuddling their dog Langston.

In the newly created position of Literary and Producing Director, Leigh will lead artistic producing activities, casting, and application processes for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF), Resident Playwrights (RPP) programs, and any other future artistic programming.

Leigh is a highly respected member of the Bay Area community and is intimately connected to our purpose, values, and programs at Playwrights Foundation, having served on our selection committees for both BAPF and RPP as well as been a director and dramaturg for BAPF. We are ecstatic to have them join our team and can't wait for you all to get to know them as well!

Learn more about Leigh on our website: https://playwrightsfoundation.org/about/staff/

05/01/2026

We are thrilled to announce the 47th Bay Area Playwrights Festival Cohort and Plays!

Mark your calendars for September 18–27, 2026 at The Rueff at A.C.T.’s Strand Theater, and stay tuned for tickets on sale in June.

The hybrid 47th Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF47) welcomes these four transformative playwrights who take us on a journey through inner and outer worlds, traversing time and space to REVIVE long-silenced voices, RESIST the forces that seek to oppress, and RENEW strength, healing, connection, and the power to create change:

HOWLING: A FAIRY TALE by Jordan Bird
THE NEGROES HAVE RISEN by Maxine Dillon
SU***DE COWBOYS by Greg T. Nanni
BY THE BANKS by christina michelle watkins

We are also excited to highlight 10 honorable mention writers whose plays captivated our readers during the selection process:

Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel, Rebs Chan, Sarah Galante, Katherine Gwynn, DJ Hills, Sepehr Jafari Jozani, Daria Miyeko Marinelli, Sam Mueller, Audley Puglisi, and A Yourd. Swipe to see their plays.

To learn more about the festival, visit our website (link in bio).

04/29/2026

There’s still time to join us for a Playwrights Foundation night tomorrow, Thursday, April 30 at 7pm �to see FLEX by Candrice Jones� at the San Francisco Playhouse ✨🏀✨

FLEX was developed in the 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and went on to its co-produced world premiere at TheatreSquared and Theatrical Outfit, before making its off-Broadway debut at Lincoln Center Theater. We are excited to welcome this play back to the Bay with SF Playhouse's production!

We will gather informally in the lobby at 6:15 pm before the 7:00pm performance to connect with fellow Playwrights Foundation community members.

As a member of the Playwrights Foundation community, you can receive a 40% discount on tickets for this performance. Just email us at the address in our bio to get your discount code, and purchase your tickets here: https://bit.ly/4w0TxIm

We look forward to seeing you there!

02/27/2026

Are you passionate about working directly with artists?

Do you love reading new plays?

The Literary Manager is a year round, part time position that will collaborate closely with the Executive Artistic Director and Artistic Producer to manage the application processes and support programming for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) and Resident Playwright Program (RPP), provide dramaturgical and producing support as needed as well as advocate for Playwrights Foundation and alumni within the local and national community.

If this sounds like you, we encourage you to apply! And if you know someone who would excel in this role, please help us spread the word by sharing the job description.

Please submit application by Monday, March 16 for consideration. Interviews will be held on a rolling basis through April 2026 or until the position is filled.

Visit this link for more information and to apply: http://bit.ly/4rHhBxv

02/14/2026

We remain steadfastly in support of Lauren Gunderson, a valued member of our community, in the wake of the recent attacks against her character.

Playwrights Foundation has worked closely with Lauren for over 16 years – as a playwright in the Bay Area Playwrights Festival and Resident Playwright program, followed by 8 years of service on our Board of Directors. Her unwavering commitment to writing feminist narratives has existed for decades. Her generosity has extended in countless ways to many women, nonbinary, and trans writers as she strives to dismantle the patriarchal theater industry. Lauren was also the recipient of our inaugural Impact Award in 2023, recognizing her deep contribution to the field for both uplifting the next generation and writing strong female-centered plays fulfilling a void in the traditional theatrical canon.

We believe her. Anything otherwise would go against her core values and what she stands for. We invite others to show their support for Lauren and encourage the conversation to move on to finding justice for the victims and accountability for those who committed the heinous crimes.

-Executive Artistic Director Jessica Bird Beza and Board of Directors

01/31/2026

Celebrating the Life of Nilan

We’re devastated to learn of the recent passing of Playwrights Foundation Alumn Nilan on January 4, 2026, due to a sudden illness involving complications from the flu.

Nilan was an award-winning writer, director, educator, producer, actor, and arts leader whose play ENDANGERED SPECIES appeared in the Bay Area Playwrights Festival in 2017.

Nilan most recently served as Associate Artistic Director of the Drama League in New York and was co-founder of the producing company A Certain Something. His other work includes the plays HEAVEN, HELL, OR CAROLINA, A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE, FOLKtales: STORIES OF THE BLACK DIASPORA, SHADOW IN THE CORNER, OUR PRECEDENT, WILLIE RICHARD JOHNSON, WE LIKE TO PARTY, and THE ALPHABETS, along with adaptations of August Strindberg’s MISS JULIE and Henrik Ibsen’s AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE.

In the words of former Playwrights Foundation Artistic Director Amy Mueller, “Nilan was a bright star among a stunning firmament of writers for Playwrights Foundation's 40th Anniversary Bay Area Playwrights Festival – he was funny, deeply intelligent, and had a big, audacious laugh. I am grateful that his play and person were an indelible part of that particular milestone for us. His wonderfully playful use of language, wild dystopian imagination, and generous spirit were evident to the entire creative company – I will never forget his grace. May his prolific words continue to enlighten us and lead us to understanding how our past and present become our future. May he rest in power.”

01/08/2026

A big thank you to our community!

Through your generosity, we were able to raise $26,000 of our $30,000 goal during our end-of-year fundraising campaign to support ongoing programming.

We are so grateful for every gift, large and small, and for your belief in the importance of the work we do and in the power of playwrights and new plays.

If you missed the December 31 deadline, it’s never too late! You can still support our work in the Resident Playwrights Program and the 2026 Bay Area Playwrights Festival this year with a donation at any time. Every gift makes a substantial difference in our ability to deeply and holistically invest in the artists we support.

Visit the link to donate: https://bit.ly/4pQ7rJD

12/31/2025

There are only a few more hours left to make our goal, and we're halfway there!

Nothing we do would be possible without you, our community.

Your support allows us to invest in the playwrights who have the ability to shape our world, to inspire transformation and hope.

At Playwrights Foundation, we believe storytelling is a communal act. To create inspirational work, playwrights need nurturing – the time and space to reimagine, rethink, and explore possibilities - within a community that supports them to innovate and take risks.

We do more than just develop stories, we cultivate spaces that foster connection, spark conversation, and create opportunities for empathy where all participants feel they have a place in the narrative, offering a powerful antidote to the growing polarization within our country.

This work is only possible thanks to your generosity.

And with the decrease in funding from the federal and state government, we have lost over $50,000 in funding.

We need to raise $15,000 by midnight tonight to keep these creative spaces alive, to continue our programming, to uplift playwrights and the stories they tell.

With your support, we can continue to be a lifeline for those powerful voices who shape not only the future of theater, but transform the world in which we live.

Will you be a spark for artists by giving a gift today?

Click on the link to get us across the finish line! 🎉✨ https://bit.ly/4pQ7rJD

Address

1616 16th Street, Ste 350
San Francisco, CA
94103

Telephone

+14156262176

Website

http://www.playwrightsfoundation.org/

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