The Vagrancy Playwrights’ Group is a cohort of writers tasked with the goal of developing full-length plays for production. The Vagrancy annually selects a core group of five playwrights representing the diverse perspectives and voices of Los Angeles.
Beginning each fall, the writers meet regularly throughout the year as they craft their plays. The Vagrancy hosts two mid-year development workshops wherein the plays are explored with actors and a director in a rehearsal setting with the playwright. As with the writers, the actors represent the breadth and diversity of Los Angeles. During the workshops, the playwrights are encouraged to take risks and stretch the bounds of theatre in an attempt to continue pushing the art form forward.
The process culminates each summer with BLOSSOMING, a weekend of staged readings of each of the plays performed before an audience. The Vagrancy then selects one of the plays for Play Date, an extended ten day intensive workshop which takes place the following winter.
Vagrant Writers 2018/2019
librecht baker – Writers Group librecht baker is a playwright, poet, and student of the West African drum and dance culture using her platform to homage alternate actualities, affirm what is assembled and reassembled in order to exist, and repel acquiescing to detrimental constructs.
Through the exploration of various themes, such as womanism, celebrating while grieving, reproductive justice, queerness, and ancestral memory for example, baker’s writings are amorous and both alter and altar the personal and communal. Because writing is her medicine, she harnesses it to breathe spirit and space into the collective dialogue(s).
Whether it’s through her book of poetry, vetiver (Finishing Line Pres), one-act play, “Lineage Undone,” or full length play, “Boxes,” baker’s work is intersectional and relevant.
baker holds a MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. She works as an English Instructor, Writing Coach, and Assistant Editor. Artistically, baker is part of the Ragdale artist community and has participated in Lambda Literary Writer’s Retreat and VONA/Voices. Her poetry is in Sinister Wisdom 107 - Black Lesbians: We are the Revolution!, Bone Bouquet (Issue 8.1), Solace: Writing, Refuge, & LGBTQ Women of Color (BLF Press), and other publications. Her one-act play, "Lineage Undone," was awarded Top Performance in the "Top Papers and Performances in Performance Studies" category at the 2018 Western States Communication Association 89th Annual Convention.
Howard Ho - Writers Group Howard Ho is a playwright, composer, and Ovation-nominated sound designer. He holds a Bachelor in Music History from UCLA and a Master of Professional Writing from USC. His play Various Emporia, developed in the Vagrancy Writers Group, was a 2017 O'Neill National Playwrights Finalist. He was a 2016 Center Theatre Group (CTG) Literary Fellow, and his musical Pretendo was featured in CTG’s Library Reading Series. He's been published at Howl Round and the Los Angeles Times. As a musician, he was improv keyboardist at UCB’s Asian AF and Cold Tofu. He also makes Youtube videos explaining the music of Hamilton (Youtube.com/HowardHoMusic). He has designed shows for Center Theatre Group, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, East West Players, Sierra Madre Playhouse, Native Voices at the Autry, Company of Angels, and Playwrights’ Arena.
Kate Mickere - Writers Group Kate Mickere is a writer and cake enthusiast from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Her screenplay Capturing the Stars won the Alfred P. Sloan Screenwriting Award in 2012 and received an Honorable Mention for the Sloan/Tribeca Grand Jury Prize. Her ten-minute play Mod Party was produced by the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville as a part of The Tens festival. Other plays have been seen in basements and warehouses in Pittsburgh, New York and Los Angeles. Kate holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University, where she was the recipient of the Steven Bochco Fellowship. Other writing: The Los Angeles Times, XO Jane, the Awl, Teen Girls’ Comedic Monologues That Are Actually Funny.
Tracy Held Potter – Writers Group Tracy Held Potter is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter committed to understanding the complexity and nuance of being human. She is the Artistic Director of All Terrain Theater and Co-Founder of the 31 Plays in 31 Days Project. Her plays have been produced across the country and her political musical short films and web series are available online. She has a BS in Conservation and Resource Studies from UC, Berkeley and an MFA in Dramatic Writing at Carnegie Mellon University with Rob Handel. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America.
Ilana Turner - Writers Group Playwriting award-nominee Ilana Turner’s first play, the award-winning "O Réjane," premiered in 2014 to critical acclaim. That play also led to Ilana’s first screenwriting job, for an Oscar-nominated Exec. Producer. Her one-hour figure skating pilot “Center” is a PAGE Awards Quarter-finalist and Austin Film Festival Second Rounder. "Choke Point," co-written with Adam Scott Epstein, is a Final Draft Big Break Quarter Finalist. Ilana’s monologue "Sugar Coat It" is included in “LGBT Comedic Monologues That Are Actually Funny,” out now from Applause Theatre and Cinema Books. She has three plays slated for development in 2019. Also an actress, Ilana is currently streaming in Drake Doremus’ feature "Newness," opposite Nicholas Hoult. She has also worked for HBO, SyFy Channel, and Spike TV. In March, she starred in the workshop of Jennifer Maisel’s “Match” in L.A. Ilana holds a BA in theater and dance from Hampshire College. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two daughters.
Katherine Vondy - Writers Group Katherine Vondy is a writer and director whose credits span theater, film, and literature. Kat was awarded the Davey Foundation Theatre Grant for her play The Fermi Paradox, and The Broken Heart of Gnocchi Bolognese, her award-winning short film, has screened at festivals worldwide. The recipient of dramatic writing residencies from the Vermont Studio Center, Starry Night, Wildacres, and the Voice and Vision ENVISION Retreat, Kat's plays been developed with The Vagrancy, the HBMG Foundation, Salt Lake Acting Company, Campfire Theatre Festival, and Paper Wing Theatre Company. As a director, recent credits include Lost Moon Radio's The Complete Human Experience, Fresh Produce'd LA's Friends in Transient Places, and All Terrain Theater's Suddenly Split and Swiping Over. She received her BA from Amherst College and her MFA from the University of Southern California. More information about all her creative work is available at katherinevondy.com.
PLAY DATE is The Vagrancy’s annual month-long intensive workshop of a new play chosen from our BLOSSOMING reading series. Through the workshop we hope to catapult the play to a place of more secure footing as it progresses towards a full production.
