The Vagrancy to Present BLOSSOMING: A NEW PLAY READING SERIES This Month

The Vagrancy will present BLOSSOMING: a new play reading series. The Vagrancy annually selects four playwrights with diverse perspectives to join their playwrights' 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. This year's theme is "Exile/Embrace"

BLOSSOMING is the world premiere readings of these four original plays, followed by post-reading talkbacks moderated by June Carryl and Brittney S. Wheeler.

FRIDAY, MAY 19th

5 PM PST: ORTA by Katherine Vondy; directed by Jessie Lee Mills

Moderator: June Carryl

Synopsis: In Northern Italy there is a small town. Next to the town is a lake. On the lake is a tiny island. And on this island, there are absolutely no snakes, dragons, or monsters-thanks to St. Julius, who, according to legend, sailed across the lake on his cloak in the 4th century and banished them.

These days, Orta is known to be a romantic destination for couples in love, but when Kasper and Tajana go there on their honeymoon, some of the banished serpents decide it's the perfect time to return home. The thing is, the serpents may not be what they seem. And, as it turns out, neither are the newlyweds...

SUNDAY, MAY 21ST

10AM PST: THE HOLE IN THE SKY by Jennifer Bobiwash; directed by Pastiche Queen

Moderator: Brittney S. Wheeler

Synopsis: The year is 2491, 1000 years after Columbus has discovered America. Humanity is now searching for a new home after destroying the earth. Exiled from the Earth because of its uninhabitability, 10 ships have been launched from different cities around the globe in the hopes of rendezvousing on Planet B-6-12. But now, instead of a boat full of Europeans, this intergalactic ship is carrying the leader of an ancient religious order and one special passenger, someone who is believed to be the last Native American in the Universe. How will this ancient society and once conquered people come together once they land on this new world? Or will they even make it there...

1PM PST: TAKING THE EDGE OFF by Natalie Camunas; directed by Rebecca Louisell

Moderator: Brittney S. Wheeler

Synopsis: Taking the Edge Off is the story of Sara, an alcoholic Latinx woman in her 30s, who has a night of binge drinking after learning that her partner has cheated on her. In her drunken stupor, she runs a red light and wakes up in heaven. Well, almost. She is greeted by three intermediary angels who inform her that if she'd like to return to her life, she's got to take a hard look at how she arrived at this point. Along with their help, Sara must finally deal with a generation's worth of familial grief, figure out who she is without alcohol, and learn what loving yourself truly feels like.

TUESDAY, MAY 23

7 PM PST: THE SARAHS (Сари) by Anna Fox; directed by Dean Grosbard

Moderator: June Carryl

Synopsis: In the year 1919, Sara, a young Jewish woman, works at her family's bakery in Kyiv, but when the Pogroms happen, the bakery is vandalized and she must flee to New York City where her family establishes a new bakery on the Lower East Side. A little over a hundred years later in 2022, her great granddaughter Sarah is running that very same family bakery, when the landlord raising the rent, pandemic struggles, and someone spray-painting a swastika on the door, force her family to close its doors forever. As Sarah cleans out the bakery, she discovers her great grandmother's old diary in the wall, and suddenly a new world is unlocked. Feeling determined to embrace her ancestry, and visit the land her great grandmother was once exiled from, she books a plane ticket to Kyiv, when Putin invades and she is no longer able to go. Now she must grapple with her painful family history and identity as a young Jewish Ukrainian woman living in an antisemitic world in ways she never has before. Inspired stylistically by Alice Birch and Caryl Churchill, this play is a time-bendy poetic meditation on ancestry, violence, womanhood, and Jews who've been cast out.

TICKETS: PAY WHAT YOU WANT tickets are available at the links below. Cash and Card accepted at the door.

ORTA: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/orta-by-katherine-vondy-tickets-626495975327

THE HOLE IN THE SKY: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-hole-in-the-sky-by-jennifer-bobiwash-tickets-626520107507

TAKING THE EDGE OFF: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/taking-the-edge-off-by-natalie-camunas-tickets-626523116507

THE SARAHS (Сари): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-sarahs-by-anna-fox-tickets-626523999147

AUDIENCE TALKBACK MODERATORS:

MAY 19TH & MAY 23RD: June Carryl: June Carryl is a playwright, actor and director originally from Denver and currently lives in Los Angeles. Her plays include LA BÊTE - A One Act (Encore! Producers Award, Spirit of the Fringe Award, org*smico Most org*smic Writing Award) 2014 Hollywood Fringe Festival; STONE ANGELS (BLACK SWAN Lab 2013; nomination the Kilroys 2014), BLOWFLY (produced for Fresh Produced LA); MOURNING STORY and BABY TOES (Los Angeles Playwrights Lab Presents), SEDUCER (Summerfest 2009, Black Box Theater), THE RINGS OF SATURN (The Living Room Series, Blank Theatre), GOD'S WIFE (reading, Zephyr Theatre), and THE ART OF YES (reading, Playbrokers). June has received commissions from the Magic and Visual Artists Theater in New York. Her screenplay HARARE, HARARE was a semi-finalist in the 2008 Page Screenwriting Awards. Her directing credits include SUSPENDED (2015 Blank Theatre's Young Playwrights Festival); RESTORE (2015 2Cents' InkFest); ONION CREEK (Son of Semele), THE POSITION (Piano Fight), and the Blank's Living Room Series. Recent acting credits include CASTLE, MAD DOGS, Coeurage Theatre's FAILURE: A LOVE STORY directed by Michael Matthews; Oregon Shakespeare Festival's production of Naomi Wallace's THE LIQUID PLAIN directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah, and City Garage Theatre (THE TROJAN WOMEN).

MAY 21ST: Brittney S. Wheeler Brittney S. Wheeler is an Ovation Award winner and two-time nominee, born and bred in LA. A classically trained singer, seasoned actor and budding director, Brittney has been fortunate enough to perform in the Orange, Ventura and LA Counties. Co-Associate Artistic Director of Celebration Theatre. Proud member of AEA. BA in Theatre Arts from Concordia University, Irvine and will be finishing her MA in Theatre Arts at CSUN in 2021. Endless amounts of love, appreciation and thanks to her parents.

These readings were made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs & is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

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; Dean Grosbard, Associate Artistic Director; Katherine Vondy, Writer's Group Moderator; Jessie Lee Mills, Director's Group Moderator; Arthur Keng, Schuyler Girion, Allison Andreas, Danielle Gonzales, Michal Sinnott, Karina Wolfe, Arthur Keng, Andrew Walke, Nicky Romaniello, Creative Partners.

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