Vagrancy Puts Out A Call For Playwrights

Award-winning theatre company, THE VAGRANCY will begin accepting submissions for its 2018-2019 writers' group on Saturday, August 25, 2018. The theme for this year is True Crime.

The Vagrancy's writing group is a nine month-long development process that supports selected playwrights in the creation of new, original theater. From September to April, the group will meet every other Wednesday evening (allowing for holiday breaks) to read and discuss the plays-in-progress. The first meeting will be on Wednesday, September 26. Selected playwrights are required to bring new work to each session and attend at least 12 of the 14 scheduled meetings. Each playwright will be paired with a director who will lead two developmental sessions with actors during the writing process: a First Read in January, and a Mini-Workshop in April. The process culminates in May with an in-depth workshop and staged readings of each new play as part of Blossoming, The Vagrancy's new play festival. Selected playwrights will receive a $75 stipend after the conclusion of the festival.

All pitches for this year's writers' group should be based on or inspired by any crime from history. Creative interpretations of this theme are welcome! The Vagrancy focuses on making unique, memorable, theater that exposes universal truths, and is particularly interested in highly-theatrical stories with an element of magic. Please visit www.thevagrancy.com to read more about The Vagrancy's mission.

All interested playwrights should submit a 1-page pitch outlining a new play and a brief playwright's bio. Women, LGBTQIA, and POC playwrights are encouraged to apply. Please do not submit ideas for plays that have already been started; the writers' group is designed to support projects starting from inception!

Submissions should be emailed to vagrantwritersgroup@gmail.com by Monday, September 10, 2018.

Not sure what to pitch? Check out the sample pitch for the play that will be written by Katherine Vondy, The Vagrancy's writers' group moderator, during the 2018-2019 session.

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Sample Pitch

In 1943, four boys in Worcestershire, England discovered the skeleton of an unidentified woman inside a large tree. An investigation commenced to determine who the woman was and how she died, but it raised more questions than it answered. Was she a secret agent from the war? Was she a prostitute? Had she been killed by a spy ring? Had she been part of a ritual occult sacrifice? Theories abounded, but nobody was able to provide a definitive identity for the woman. Then, in 1944, she gained a nickname; graffiti began to appear in various places asking "Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?" To this day, nobody can answer this question. And as the police lost both The Remains and autopsy report, it seems likely that the world will never know who Bella really was.

WHO PUT BELLA IN THE WYCH ELM? will use this historical mystery as a framework to explore the ways in which society imposes identities on women, and ultimately ask how much it's possible to truly know another person.

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; Schuyler Girion, Social Media; Erica Ibsen, Company Photographer; Andrew Walke, Storage Manager; Company Videographer, Alfredo Trueba; Allison Andreas, Box Office Manager; Danielle Gonzales, Steve Madar, Michal Sinnott, Karina Wolfe, Arthur Keng, Creative Partners.

For more information about the 2018-2019 Writers' Group contact Nicolette Acosta at pressthevagrant@gmail.com

Photo Credit: Erica Ibsen

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