Here they are, your first five flippin’ hilarious gladiators of comedy. Each play will be assigned a director and a cast, they have one week of rehearsal time.

Unleash the Kraken of funny.

“Never Ever Land” by Sang S. Kim

***WINNER of Round 1***

Theorizing that one could write legitimate sketch comedy that would never be called “skits” in his own lifetime, Sang S. Kim awoke to find himself in the Bay Area, suffering from periodic writer’s block and facing a mirror image that unfortunately was actually who he really was. Trapped in independent theater, Sang Kim finds himself leaping from theatre to theater, putting things right, that once went wrong and hoping each time, that his next leap will be the leap home.

“Twilight Zone” by Spencer Bainbridge

Spencer Bainbridge is a native of Northern California and believes sandwiches should always be toasted, no question. His work has been featured in Shipwreck, The Mess, SF Sketchfest and SF IndieFest. He does not currently have any pets but is open to suggestions.

Featuring Kyle McReddie and Jayme Catalano. Directed by Jess Thomas

“Holy Toledo” by Susan Jackson

“Spycraft” by Claire Rice

Claire Rice is sitting behind you in the dark somewhere and she is judging your hair cut. Her plays include Sex in the Next Room, Woman Come Down, The Carmine Lie, It Ain’t Me, Water Line, Demeter’s Daughter, Pride and Succubus, Ares and Eris, Cassandra, The Effects of Ultraviolet Light, and Choose Your Own Apocalypse. Her most recent play, Purity, was produced as part of Awesome Theatre’s Terror-Rama 2: Prom Night. She has also been lucky enough to have short plays featured in San Francisco Olympians Festival, Pint-Sized Plays, Shotz SF, and Llama Theater’s Monthly Question series. Claire graduated from Eastern New Mexico University with a BFA in Performance before moving to San Francisco to earn her MFA in Playwriting from SF State.  She is currently working on My Cannibal Summer for Awesome Theatre’s Terror-Rama 3 and an untitled radio active monster play for Quantum Dragon Theatre Company. She lives and works in San Francisco with her wonderful husband.

She also thinks it’s weird she wrote this in the third person.

Featuring Meghan Chambers, Katie Meinholt and Lucas Buckman. Directed by Christian Haines

“I Wanna Be So Dated” by Maury Zeff

 MAURY ZEFF is a playwright and fiction writer whose play COME AND KNOCK ON OUR DOOR premieres May 11 in the Best of PlayGround 2017. As a PlayGround company member, he has received two Emerging Playwright Awards, four People’s Choice Awards, and a 2017 Fellowship. His plays and fiction have been performed and published around the country. He is a SF Writers Grotto Fellow, a co-founder of the Babylon Salon reading series, and has a MFA from the University of San Francisco. He comes from a family in which Scrabble is a bloodsport.

Featuring Kyly McCurdy and Puja Tolton. Directed by Anthony R. Miller