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THEATRE/ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact: Jim Kleinmann at
(415) 992-6677 or jim@playground-sf.org.
HELLA LOVE PRODUCTIONS IN ASSOCIATION WITH PLAYGROUND PREMIERE
ROBIN LYNN RODRIGUEZ’S HELLA LOVE OAKLAND
AT 19TH PLAYGROUND FESTIVAL OF NEW WORKS
MAY 11-JUNE 13, 2015 AT THICK HOUSE, SAN FRANCISCO
ALL-FESTIVAL PASSES START AT $60
SAN FRANCISCO, (April 17, 2015) – Can a conscientious mother choose between raising awareness and
raising her kids? Hella Love Productions in association with PlayGround are proud to present the world
premiere of HELLA LOVE OAKLAND by Robin Lynn Rodriguez, May 11-June 13, at Thick House as part of
the 19th annual PlayGround Festival of New Works (http://playground-sf.org/festival). Previews are May
11 & 12 and Opening is May 13. This ninety-minute one-act play uses mixed genres of spoken word
poetry, turf dancing, meta and traditional theater to tell the stories of three women in the city of
Oakland, dealing with issues of equity in education and the experience of gentrification in urban public
schools. Rodriguez’s Hella Love Oakland was commissioned and developed by PlayGround, based on her
popular 2012 Best of PlayGround short (also a 20th Anniversary Celebration finalist). The play was a
2013 PlayGround Festival selection. Directed by Rebecca Novick, the cast features Lisa Morse, Safiya
Fredericks and Lizzie Calogero (an Equity-approved project). Tickets are $25-$55 and All-Festival Passes
start at just $60. For tickets and more information, visit http://playground-sf.org/hellaloveoakland.
Robin Lynn Rodriguez (Playwright) is a PlayGround Resident writer, who received the Emerging
Playwright Award when Hella Love Oakland was presented at the 2012 Best of PlayGround Festival. She
has also won PlayGround's June Anne Baker Award and her commissioned full-length of Hella Love
Oakland received a staged reading at its 2013 Festival. Her full-length play Hedge was a finalist for the
Bay Area Playwrights Festival in 2011 and received a staged reading at the PlayGround Festival in 2014.
She recently began writing for the stage after being a theater teacher.
Rebecca Novick (Director) is the director of the Triangle Lab, a joint program of Intersection for the Arts
and the California Shakespeare Theater which connects artists with communities to help make change.
She was the founder of Crowded Fire Theater Company and served as its artistic director for ten years,
growing the company from an all-volunteer group to one of San Francisco’s most respected small
theaters. Rebecca has developed and directed new plays for many theaters in the Bay Area and
elsewhere, and her directing work has been recognized by the Goldie for outstanding local artists among
other awards. She most recently directed the world premiere of Daylighting for Shotgun Players.
Rebecca has also held a number of arts management and consulting positions including serving as
interim arts program officer for The San Francisco Foundation, project coordinator for the Wallace
Foundation Cultural Participation Initiative in the Bay Area, and director of development and strategic
initiatives for Theatre Bay Area. She regularly writes and speaks on issues relating to the arts sector;
recent publications include contributions to 20under40, the GIA Reader, Counting New Beans, and
Theatre Bay Area Magazine. Rebecca has a BA from the University of Michigan in Drama and
Anthropology.
Release – Hella Love Oakland Premiere, p. 2
Jim Kleinmann (Dramaturg/Co-Producer) co-founded PlayGround in 1994 and has served as Artistic
Director since 1996. For PlayGround, he has provided artistic and administrative leadership for the past
twenty seasons, developing PlayGround’s unique array of new playwright and new play incubator
programs, including Monday Night PlayGround, the Best of PlayGround Festival, the full-length play
Commissioning Initiative, the New Play Production Fund, and most recently the PlayGround Film
Festival. During his tenure, he has directed more than 100 short plays by some of the Bay Area’s best
new playwrights, including Lauren Yee, Geetha Reddy, Aaron Loeb, Trevor Allen, and Garret Jon
Groenveld, among others, and has commissioned and developed over 50 full-length plays by these
writers. Kleinmann is a veteran arts administrator with more than twenty years of experience, including
stints leading Traveling Jewish Theatre, Smuin Ballet and Berkeley Symphony. He is a graduate of the
Yale School of Drama.
PlayGround (Co-Producer), the Bay Area’s leading playwright incubator, provides unique development
opportunities for the Bay Area’s best new playwrights, including the monthly Monday Night PlayGround
staged reading series, PlayGround Festival of New Works, Best of PlayGround, full-length play
commissions and support for the production of new plays by local playwrights through the New Play
Production Fund and, PlayGround’s newest initiative, the PlayGround Film Festival. To date, PlayGround
has supported nearly 200 local playwrights in the development and staging of over 700 original short
plays and 55 new full-length plays, including more than a dozen that have since premiered in the Bay
Area. PlayGround alumni have gone on to win local, national and international honors for their short
and full-length work, including recognition at the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Humana
Festival, Sundance Festival, Source Festival, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Aurora Theatre's Global Age
Project, Internationalists Playwriting Prize, and New York International Fringe Festival, among others.
More information at http://PlayGround-sf.org.
Release – Hella Love Oakland Premiere, p. 3
FOR CALENDAR EDITORS:
WHAT: Hella Love Productions in association with PlayGround present the world premiere of HELLA
LOVE OAKLAND by Robin Lynn Rodriguez, directed by Rebecca Novick, and featuring Lizzie Calogero,
Safiya Fredericks and Lisa Morse.
WHERE: Thick House , 1695 18th Street, San Francisco, CA
WHEN: May 11-June 13, 2015
Monday, May 11, 8pm (First Preview)
Tuesday, May 12, 8pm (Second Preview)
Wednesday, May 13, 8pm (Opening)
Thursday, May 28, 8pm
Friday, May 29, 8pm
Saturday, May 30, 2pm
Saturday, June 6, 8pm
Sunday, June 7, 2pm
Sunday, June 7, 7pm
Friday, June 12, 8pm
Saturday, June 13, 2pm
Saturday, June 13, 8pm (Closing)
TICKETS: $25-$55. All-Festival Passes (including one priority seating ticket to each festival event,
including Hella Love Oakland, Best of PlayGround, The Empty Nesters and more!) start at just $60. For
more information about Hella Love Oakland or to purchase tickets, call (415) 992-6677 or visit
http://playground-sf.org/hellaloveoakland. For more information about the PlayGround Festival of New
Works, visit www.PlayGround-sf.org/festival.
--30-Media Contact: Jim Kleinmann, Artistic Director
PlayGround, 3286 Adeline St #8, Berkeley, CA 94703-2485