LOS ANGELES — “It’s not like straight couples are setting a good example,” actor Benjamin Cain read, a line from a new short play titled “Just One Person.”
It was the first time this script had been read out loud and the first time Cain had seen it. In fact, the ink is barely dry on the pages that Michael P. Adams wrote.
“They call it a play incubator, and I think that's such an apt way to describe it, because we're starting with just the theme," the playwright said of Monday Night PlayGround.
He’s referring to an ongoing series hosted by the theater company PlayGround — an exercise that keeps his fingers flying. Each month of the program, 36 writers receive a prompt via email on Friday morning, and they’re off.
“We have four and a half days to write the piece,” Adams said. “And almost every time I see the prompt, I have a little bit of a panic attack because I think I there's no possible way that I can come up with a story that's going to go with this theme.”
The plays have to be 10 minutes in length and of the submissions, six are chosen to be presented in front of an audience — both in person at the Broadwater Theatre in Hollywood and live streamed. It’s a program primarily for writers, but actors like Cain get plenty out of it as well. In fact, he enjoys it so much, he recently became a board member. He got involved with the group 10 years ago because he wanted to spend as much in a theatre as possible.
“It was something to just do to like stay sharp and be present and be part of a community of people,” Cain said. “I mean, it's called PlayGround so I wanted to play.”
He said he’s gotten to play every type of character imaginable through this process and, though created quickly, he says the plays really show promise.
“Every single one of them,” he insisted. “Even if it is weird, it's something that sparks imagination. It sparks good feelings and we always just have fun with it.”
Jim Kleinmann is the artistic director of PlayGround, which he helped cofound 30 years ago. This Monday night series is their oldest program and is now running in four major cities. So far, they estimate they’ve held readings for over 1,500 new works. In his mind, the 10-minute plays are always a success in that audiences are introduced to new writers, but sometimes PlayGround wants the writer to keep going. To that end, he said the company has commissioned about a hundred new full-length plays over the past few decades.
"Our goal was to create more opportunities for early career writers and help them break through into an industry that can be often sort of very difficult to get started in, particularly for new storytellers," Kleinmann said.
It’s working. Alumni Lauren Yee has had plays produced across the country, including King of the Yees, The Great Leap and Cambodian Rock Opera. Eureka Day by playwright Jonathan Spector, another alum, will open on Broadway next month.
Kleinmann says PlayGround tries to choose prompts that are timely and it doesn’t get more timely than this month’s theme, “The American Experiment,” which he said inspired a diverse range of submissions.
“To look back at our history, to look at what it means to be part of this American experiment, where we've succeeded, where we failed, and really, what's at stake,” he explained, adding, “Without necessarily telling anyone how they might vote, we just want to make sure they do vote.”
The same way they just want to make sure writers, like Adams, keep writing. This is the Glendora native’s sixth year in the program and he’s already had a few plays selected to be read on Monday nights. He’s even been commissioned to develop one of his shorts into a full length show.
“They put the playwright first,” Adamas said of PlayGround. “It really is all about encouraging and supporting writers to get to that next level.”