The Vagrancy Announces Blossoming: A New Play Reading Series

May 19th, May 21st & May 22nd, The Vagrancy announces BLOSSOMING: a new play reading series. The Vagrancy annually selects five playwrights with diverse perspectives to join their playwright's group. Beginning each fall, the writers meet regularly as they craft their plays. The Vagrancy hosts two development workshops wherein the plays are explored with the playwright, actors and a director in a rehearsal setting. BLOSSOMING is the first public reaching of the five original plays. Come be inspired, have a glass of wine, and help the play's development along with post-reading audience talk-backs.

SATURDAY, MAY 19TH

11AM: PLAY #1 HEDDA GABLER by LENA FORD, Directed by Nagham Wehbe. Featuring Dee Dee Stephens, Dani Larson, Jamie Cline, Nathan Nonhof, Gilbert Reynoso, Cathy Diane Tomlin, Gretchen Bonaduce & Alfredo Trueba.

Synopsis: Hedda Gabler keeps her maiden name instead of taking her husband's to separate herself from someone who proudly voted for the current President whom she dislikes. Andy is a white conservative who tends to lack worldly compassion at times, but Black West Indian Hedda knows he is deeply devoted to her. Things are going as well as expected until friends from the past visit dredging up old wounds and new expectations.

1PM: PLAY #2 CELEBRITY TRASH by Nicholas Pilapil, Directed by Miranda Stewart. Featuring Marisela Hughes, Travis Dixon & Sue-Kate Heaney.

Synopsis: Harlow is an "It Girl" famous for her fame. After a sex tape scandal, she tries to rehab her image, but when her father throws a lavish party in their mansion, she's tempted again by Hollywood's excess-and by one her father's social-climbing employees. What follows is a dangerous game of seduction as the two battle each other in a struggle for power and an escape from their trapped existences. An adaptation of Miss Julie, August Strindberg's iconic play about class and sex, Celebrity Trash adds explorations of race, white male privilege, and celebrity culture to the mix by setting the action in 2007-before the social media age and just as Britney Spears had shaved her head.

5PM: PLAY #3 THE SNAKE GOD OF FIJI (A HEDDA GABLER PREQUEL) by KATHERINE VONDY, Directed by Darcie Crager. Featuring Nicky Romaniello, Nicolette Acosta, Cameran Surles, Zoey Bond, Garrett Walters, & Danielle Gonzales.

Synopsis: In Ibsen's play, Hedda Gabler burns the manuscript written by Eilert Lövborg, her former lover. The world never knew what was written in that book.

Until now.

Exploring the roles that memory and desire have in storytelling, The Snake God of Fiji (A Hedda Gabler Prequel) tells the peculiar tale of this mysterious book's creation.

MONDAY, MAY 21ST

7PM: PLAY #4 THE 626 PROJECT by Lisa Dring, Directed by Hannah Chodos, Composed by Shih-Wei Wu, Cultural Navigator Ova Saopeng. Featuring Tane Kawasaki, Brian Sounalath, Phet Mahathongdy, Angelica Rowell, Ova Saopeng, Steve June, Meredith Brown & Allison Andreas.

Synopsis: The 626 Project is inspired by the true story of a mother faced with a brutal decision. Set in Rosemead, CA, a terminal cancer diagnosis forces a first generation Laotian immigrant to confront her son's schizophrenia. Using traditional Asian instruments to create a hybrid of contemporary and classical music, this operetta explores the piercing isolation experienced by single immigrant mothers, the shame around mental illness that often plagues Asian families, and the heft of having to carry your culture with you in a foreign land.

TUESDAY, MAY 22ND

7PM: PLAY #5 THE LAST, BEST SMALL TOWN by John Johnson, Directed by Arthur Keng. Featuring Sara Garcia, Juan Enrique-Carillo, Richard Azurdia, Doug Sutherland, Danielle Gonzales, Johanna McKay, Emilio Garcia-Sanchez, Allison Andreas & Cathy Diane Tomlin.

Synopsis: THE LAST, BEST SMALL TOWN tells the story of two neighboring families--one Latinx and one white--who live in the small southern California town of Fillmore. As the first decade of the 21st century unfolds, the children of these families come of age, fall in love, and suffer loss, as they continually hunt for their place in a world that can no longer promise them a better life than their parents.

Lyric Hyperion Theatre & Cafe - 2106 Hyperion Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027

TICKETS: PAY WHAT YOU WANT. Cash and Credit Card Accepted

STAGE MANAGER: Schuyler Girion

THE VAGRANCY is a bold Los Angeles-based theatre company that creates visceral work that seeks to touch the human spirit. Caitlin Hart, Founder & Artistic Director; Miranda Stewart, Managing Director; Katherine Vondy, Writer's Group Moderator; Nicolette Acosta, Public Relations; Maia Kazin, Assistant to Artistic Director; Cassidy Davis, Social Media; Erica Ibsen, Company Photographer; Andrew Walke, Storage Manager; Alfredo Trueba, Company Videographer; Michal Sinnot, Karina Wolfe, Danielle Gonzales, & Steve Madar; Creative Partners.

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