Play Ball to Playbill

Bill Kernen is settling quite comfortably into his new role as a New York City playwright.

The former Cal State Northridge baseball coach gave up college athletics two years ago and moved to the East Coast in what amounted to a radical lifestyle change. He has been working in a real estate office while trying to break into the theater world.

“It takes time to establish yourself,” he said.

Earlier this month, Kernen finished a three-week run of “A Graveyard Symphony,” his second off-off-Broadway production.

The play revolves around an ensemble of barflies who are dealing with a range of emotional issues.

“I felt much more comfortable with the whole process because of having been through it before,” said Kernen, whose first play ran on the upper Eastside last March. “I’ve been in town a couple of years and I feel like I definitely belong in the community of writers.”

Though Kernen rarely reads the box scores anymore, he has not put baseball entirely out of mind. One of the main characters in “A Graveyard Symphony” is a former minor league pitcher.

And Kernen, who played the role of an alcoholic drifter in his play, wore a Baltimore Orioles’ cap as part of his costume.