Board of Directors and Programs

All members are welcome at Board meetings, which are announced in the weekly newsletter.

We welcome your comments and suggestions! (All e-mail addresses are firstname@playwrightscentersf.org.)

	Laylah Muran: Board Chair* Laylah has twenty years experience in process efficiency and project management within a diverse set of industries with return on investment in the millions. Throughout her career she has contributed to and edited company newsletters. She has also been writing short fiction and acting since she was a child. Laylah has directed a radio play, "The Saying of Her Names," and several staged readings. She was the co-host for a play reading series for the Noh Oratorio Society in the mid-90's. Laylah joined PCSF as one of the regular actors in January of 2005 and became a board member in March of that year. She brings with her a valuable combination of business savvy, creative problem solving, and passion for the theatre.
	Pat Milton: President* Patricia Milton is co-author with Andrew Black of Porn Yesterday, Strange Bedfellows, and It's Murder, Mary! They have been commissioned by the New Conservatory Theater Center. Porn Yesterday has been seen in Phoenix, AZ, San Diego, and New York City. Strange Bedfellows won the 2005 Absolute Time Play Festival, and received a reading at City Lights Theater of San Jose. Patricia's one-act plays include Real/Not Real (2007 BOA Festival) Emerald Kitty, and The Only Virgin in Jubilee County. Her short plays have been seen at the 2004 Marin Fringe (2nd Prize), Short Leaps!, Boston Play Slam, Woman's Will 24-Hour PlayFest, Lakeshore Players Ten-Minute Play Festival, Sheherezade, North Park Playwrights Festival, SF Fringe 2006, and PlayGround SF. She is the President of PCSF, and a member of Play Café, Theatre Bay Area, and The Dramatists Guild.
	Brian Tognotti: Treasurer* Brian J. Tognotti has a BA with honors in Theatre from UCLA. His short play Make Love Not War will be produced at New Conservatory Theatre in June 2008. His play Louella's Burden was selected for the Lakeshore Players, The Playwrights' Center of San Francisco's Sheherezade and Three Wise Monkeys Short Leaps competitions. Sense Memory and Self-Animations were finalists for the Bay One Acts Festival. He is Chair of The Playwrights' Center of San Francisco and a member of The Dramatists' Guild of America.
	Bob Hayden: Membership Director* Hayden is an active playwright, a member of the Birimisa Playwrights Group, involved with the San Francisco Fringe, and is a volunteer in the San Francisco theater community. His plays have been produced nationally and in Australia.
	Alina Trowbridge: Development Director* Alina Trowbridge studied creative writing at San Francisco State and the art of the 10-minute play with Erin Blackwell. Alina's 10-minute plays have been produced on both coasts (and in New Hampshire) by PlayGround, the Playwrights' Center, Pan Theater, Ross Valley Players, Theaters Against War, Three Wise Monkeys, Yellow Taxi, Woman's Will, the Mae West Fest, and Another Country Productions. She was part of the Cruel & Unusual team writing about torture at the 2006 San Francisco Fringe Festival. Her full-length play Seismic Surprises Enliven Our Lives received honorable mention at Stage 3's Festival of New Plays 2005 (Sonora). Alina serves as Development Manager at St. Anthony Foundation.
	Andy Black: Member at Large* Andrew's plays with co-author Patricia Milton include P*orn Yesterday, Strange Bedfellows, and It's Murder, Mary! Andrew and Pat won the SF Stage and Film Absolute Time Play Festival 2005 (Strange Bedfellows), and have had plays produced in New York, Phoenix and San Diego (P*orn Yesterday). Andrew and Patricia have been commissioned by the New Conservatory Theater for a commissioned world premier comedy for the 2007-2008 season. Andrew is the author of the ten-minute play Ark Types which was featured in Outfest, sponsored by the LSU Department of Theatre in Baton Rouge. Ark Types will be presented in a Festival of Short Plays produced by StageQ in Madison, Wisconsin. Andrew was a member of the 2004/2005 PlayGround Writers Pool. He is a member of Theatre Bay Area and The Dramatists Guild.
	Jason Jeremy: Member at Large* Jason is a local actor who got his start doing radio theatre as a kid, corrupted by such lovable kooks as the Firesign Theatre troupe and NPR’s Dr. Science.  He went on to play numerous roles for stage at the University of Illinois, including Jake in A Girl’s Guide to Chaos and Jonathan Harker in a surreal anarchist twist on Dracula.  Jason now lives in San Francisco, where he works as a computer programmer and enjoys the many acting opportunities the city has to offer.  He has recently appeared on stage as Reese in The War at Home and in the Sheherezade 2007 ensemble and in the short films IT Help Desk as Eugene and Climate Change as Manny.
	Soumyaa Kapil: Member at Large* Soumyaa is a theatre practitioner, filmmaker and educator.  She is currently finishing her M.F.A. in filmmaking at San Francisco State University.  She most recently participated as a lecturer in the Forum on Gender Education at Sun Yat-Sen University in southern China.  She is also directing Widow West, a new play by Morgan Ludlow, this fall at StageWerx Theatre in San Francisco as well as fundraising for her next film, Hanging HANC.  Soumyaa’s last film, Climate Change will screen this September at the Rome International Film Festival.  She has participated in PCSF’s annual fundraiser, Sheherezade, for the last four years and is excited to join the board this year.
	Michael Behrens: Member at Large* Michael is pleased to join the board at PCSF this year.  He is a director, cinematographer and arts administrator.  He has acted and directed professionally in the U.S., Europe and Asia.  Some of the theatres he has worked at include Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Chicago Dramatists, Tampere Theatre, Seinajoki City Theatre, San Diego Repertory as well as appearing in several tv shows and commercials.  Currently he is earning his Masters degree in Non-profit Management at the University of San Francisco and is developing an educational exchange program in China.  His latest work as director of photography on the film, Climate Change, will be screened this September at the Rome International Film Festival.
	Literary Committee: Rotating Members of the Board
PROGRAMS
	Meg O’Connor: Administrative Director Meg O'Connor is a playwright, singer, actor, and theater enthusiast. She graduated from USF, where she studied creative writing with an emphasis in playwriting. Several of her one acts have been produced by USF's College Players, including a staged reading of her full length, In the Wings. She was the Activities Director for the College Players in their 143rd season, and she has acted in many of their performances. She is currently the Literary Manager for The Cutting Ball Theater, and singing for San Francisco Renaissance Voices.
	Sara Staley: Producing Director - Staged Readings Sara is originally from Southern California where she got her BA in Theater from UCLA. After working briefly in production and media planning/promotions for NBC and Disney, she relocated to the Bay Area to pursue theater full time. Since the fall of 2001, Sara has been the Director of the YouthAware Educational Theatre program at the New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) in San Francisco, where she produces and directs a season of educational/social issue plays, staged with professional actors, that tour to student audiences all over Northern California. Sara also facilitates discussions with large young audiences on the tough topics that YouthAware plays tackle, including HIV prevention, diversity, homophobia, body image, personal choices & responsibility. She is most interested in pursuing & developing her directing for the theater. She has directing credits with YouthAware, PCSF, FRESH New Works, and the SF Young Playwright's Festival, and she also designs sound for the stage. Sara is happy to serve on the Board for the Playwright's Center of San Francisco because of her strong belief in the need to encourage and develop new plays and new voices in the theater.
	Jan Carty Marsh: Producing Director - Developmental Readings Jan has a B.A. in Theatre and is a SAG member and EMC. She acts, directs, and teaches, and has served internships with Shakespeare Santa Cruz and The S.F. Mime Troupe. She collaborated on and marketed screenplays in L.A., and was a producer at Bindlestiff Studios, funding and publicizing productions.
	Suze Allen: Dramaturg Suze Allen is a playwright, actor, teacher, dramaturge and director with credits on both coasts. Her work has been on stage at Brava! For Women in the Arts, The Marsh, Noh Space, Intersection for the Arts, The Climate, The Phoenix, Portland Stage Company, Out North Alaska, Mad Horse Theatre and the SF and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. Suze co-produces the Marsh Cafe Second Sundays; a breeding and reading ground for new short works and is creator of the Maine Playwrights' Lab and Short Works Festival. She is Artistic Director for the SF Writers and Actors Lab in Bernal Heights. Her new solo show The Manic Mama Dance premiered at the Marsh Cafe in June 2006. Suze was the Developmental Readings Producing Director for the 06/07 season before changing roles to be the new Dramaturge at the Playwrights' Center of San Francisco.
	Andy Black: Scene Night Director* See biography above.
ADVISORY BOARD
	Jody Handley Christopher Jenkins Dawson Moore Laura Ellen Smith Aoise Stratford Mike Ward

We also have a newly appointed team of grant writers working to fund PCSF's future.

* Board of Directors position.

Updated 7/23/08