I’m thrilled to share some news. The Playground, my one-woman play starring Anna Botsford, sold out its New York debut at the United Solo Theatre Festival before we’ve even loaded in. Because of the demand, United Solo has added a second performance:
Tuesday, November 10, 2026 · 8:30 PM
Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, New York
If you couldn’t get a seat for November 6, this is your chance.
A play that started on a park bench
The Playground was born in New York. Years ago, when I was working in the city, I spent my lunch hours walking through Central Park past the 72nd Street Playground. I couldn’t stop watching the clear hierarchy among the mothers, the nannies, and the children who shared those benches. They were sitting a few feet apart, but they lived in very different New Yorks.
Anna has her own connection to that spot. She once worked as a nanny for a wealthy New York family and took the children in her care to the same playground. So bringing the play to Theatre Row feels like bringing it home, for both of us.
What the play is about
Anna plays Joan, a former Berkeley ethnography professor and new mother. She’s uprooted to the Upper East Side when her husband, a mathematician, takes a job at a hedge fund. Joan was trained to observe, and she finds herself studying a world of extraordinary wealth from the inside.
Woven through her story are the undocumented people who keep that world running, and the fear spreading through their lives as ICE enforcement intensifies. It’s a play about ambition, class, conscience, and who gets to feel safe in America. New York audiences won’t be watching something far away. They’ll be watching their own city.
One performer, a city of voices
Anna is the only person on stage. Everyone Joan meets appears around her as a company of “voices,” which I filmed and edited as projections. Eli Woods composed and performs the original music. I’m deeply grateful to the seventeen actors who gave their faces and voices to Joan’s world.
How we got here
The Playground premiered to a sold-out house at Cotuit Center for the Arts. This fall, Helltown Players brought it back in a remount anchored by Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster. Then it played to a sold-out house at the Barnstable Comedy Club and came back to Helltown’s home in Provincetown for performances at The Art House. United Solo selected it from openly submitted applications, and now it’s heading to 42nd Street.
What critics have said
“Ms. Botsford earned a well-deserved standing ovation on opening night. Mr. Dalglish’s play will leave you thinking well after the theater lights come back up.” — The Enterprise
“Botsford really carries the play... and she does so spectacularly.” — Provincetown Magazine
“Botsford is one of the most incredible actors I have ever seen and I found myself in awe of her… It is a must watch…” — Cape Cod Times
Get tickets
Friday, November 6 · 7:00 PM — Sold out
Tuesday, November 10 · 8:30 PM — Added performance
Get tickets for November 10 → https://theatrerow.ludus.com/select.php?time_id=334161
If you’re in New York, or know someone who is, I’d love for you to come or to pass this along. Thank you to everyone on Cape Cod who filled these houses this fall and sent us to New York with so much support.