Vagrant Writers 2023/2024
Rae Binstock - Writers' Group
Rae Binstock is a playwright and screenwriter from Cambridge, MA. Her work interrogates climate change and social justice through the lens of intersectional reckoning. She earned her B.A. from Columbia University. Her plays include That Heaven’s Vault Should Crack (The New Group, Lark Development Center, T. Schreiber’s Studios), land of no mercy (Landing Theatre Company, Salt Lake Acting Company, Princess Grace finalist), Consequences (Stella Adler’s Playwrights Division, Jane Chambers Award finalist), and WALKERS (The Shelter, O’Neill Conference semifinalist, Jerome Fellowship finalist). Rae served as the Writers’ Assistant on both FX Networks’ FOSSE/VERDON and Apple+’s shows Schmigadoon, IF/THEN, and LIBERTY. She is also one of the authors of the Climate Storytelling Playbook, a writing guide for climate change stories published by the nonprofit Good Energy. Rae has won fellowships with, among others, the Lark Play Development Center, the Dramatists Guild, and New York Foundation of the Arts. She is the 2023 Grand Prize Winner of Creative Screenwriting, Screencraft, and WeScreenplay’s national TV pilot competitions, and a two-time semifinalist for the Sundance Episodic Lab. She lives in Los Angeles with her cats, Lila and Garlic. (Adena Chawke, Greenlight Management; Danny Alexander, Joe Fronk, Beth Blickers, APA) www.raebinstock.com
Play Description: The Deal
Set on Christmas Eve in the White House’s Oval Office, The Deal consists of one long meeting between the President of the United States and the founder/CEO of the largest corporation in the world. The CEO has pioneered technological advances that protect countries all over the world from climate change, warfare, and poverty—all she asks in return is a controlling interest in the national economy and government. Now she wants to convince POTUS that the United States should be the first major power to take her deal. What begins as a sober duel of wits and strategy becomes, inch by inch, a Wagnerian display of force and passion, rhetoric and realism stripped away until the raw materials underneath—violence, fear, greed, hunger, even compassion—are finally exposed.
Rae Binstock is a playwright and screenwriter from Cambridge, MA. Her work interrogates climate change and social justice through the lens of intersectional reckoning. She earned her B.A. from Columbia University. Her plays include That Heaven’s Vault Should Crack (The New Group, Lark Development Center, T. Schreiber’s Studios), land of no mercy (Landing Theatre Company, Salt Lake Acting Company, Princess Grace finalist), Consequences (Stella Adler’s Playwrights Division, Jane Chambers Award finalist), and WALKERS (The Shelter, O’Neill Conference semifinalist, Jerome Fellowship finalist). Rae served as the Writers’ Assistant on both FX Networks’ FOSSE/VERDON and Apple+’s shows Schmigadoon, IF/THEN, and LIBERTY. She is also one of the authors of the Climate Storytelling Playbook, a writing guide for climate change stories published by the nonprofit Good Energy. Rae has won fellowships with, among others, the Lark Play Development Center, the Dramatists Guild, and New York Foundation of the Arts. She is the 2023 Grand Prize Winner of Creative Screenwriting, Screencraft, and WeScreenplay’s national TV pilot competitions, and a two-time semifinalist for the Sundance Episodic Lab. She lives in Los Angeles with her cats, Lila and Garlic. (Adena Chawke, Greenlight Management; Danny Alexander, Joe Fronk, Beth Blickers, APA) www.raebinstock.com
Play Description: The Deal
Set on Christmas Eve in the White House’s Oval Office, The Deal consists of one long meeting between the President of the United States and the founder/CEO of the largest corporation in the world. The CEO has pioneered technological advances that protect countries all over the world from climate change, warfare, and poverty—all she asks in return is a controlling interest in the national economy and government. Now she wants to convince POTUS that the United States should be the first major power to take her deal. What begins as a sober duel of wits and strategy becomes, inch by inch, a Wagnerian display of force and passion, rhetoric and realism stripped away until the raw materials underneath—violence, fear, greed, hunger, even compassion—are finally exposed.
Sarah Cho - Writers' Group
Sarah Cho is a Los Angeles-based comedy writer and playwright. Cho’s plays have been selected for numerous readings and productions. Most recently, her play Stains was selected as a finalist for the 2023 Jane Chambers Award for Feminist Playwriting. Stains was developed as part of Moving Arts’ MADLab New Play Development and selected for Great Plains Theatre Conference. She is a recipient of the Iowa Arts Fellowship, the Richard Maibaum Playwriting Award, Kennedy Center’s Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award. She was also named Associate Artist for Ashland New Plays Festival. In comedy, she has performed at Green Gravel Comedy Festival and Laugh Riot Grrrl Festival, as well as written for house sketch teams at the Pack Theater in Los Angeles. Her work has been featured on ComedyCake, WhoHaHa, and Funny or Die. She currently writes and co-produces the late-night-style podcast The Dump, while also co-hosting the “very interesting” playwriting podcast Beckett’s Babies with fellow playwright Sam Collier. Sarah earned her BA in Film and Theater at UC Santa Barbara, where she excelled at eating tons of burritos, and holds her MFA from University of Iowa’s Playwrights Workshop, where she excelled at drinking pie shakes. Find more information about Sarah’s current creative work at www.sarahcho.com
Play Description: Screen Time
Mark and Annie always wanted to start a family. Together, they take parenthood head on and have a baby together. What they didn’t realize was just how hard it is to cope with the everyday stressors while raising a child. The couple turn to their screens to escape. Screen Time is a dark comedy about parenting in the digital age and the worst fears that come with it.
Sarah Cho is a Los Angeles-based comedy writer and playwright. Cho’s plays have been selected for numerous readings and productions. Most recently, her play Stains was selected as a finalist for the 2023 Jane Chambers Award for Feminist Playwriting. Stains was developed as part of Moving Arts’ MADLab New Play Development and selected for Great Plains Theatre Conference. She is a recipient of the Iowa Arts Fellowship, the Richard Maibaum Playwriting Award, Kennedy Center’s Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award. She was also named Associate Artist for Ashland New Plays Festival. In comedy, she has performed at Green Gravel Comedy Festival and Laugh Riot Grrrl Festival, as well as written for house sketch teams at the Pack Theater in Los Angeles. Her work has been featured on ComedyCake, WhoHaHa, and Funny or Die. She currently writes and co-produces the late-night-style podcast The Dump, while also co-hosting the “very interesting” playwriting podcast Beckett’s Babies with fellow playwright Sam Collier. Sarah earned her BA in Film and Theater at UC Santa Barbara, where she excelled at eating tons of burritos, and holds her MFA from University of Iowa’s Playwrights Workshop, where she excelled at drinking pie shakes. Find more information about Sarah’s current creative work at www.sarahcho.com
Play Description: Screen Time
Mark and Annie always wanted to start a family. Together, they take parenthood head on and have a baby together. What they didn’t realize was just how hard it is to cope with the everyday stressors while raising a child. The couple turn to their screens to escape. Screen Time is a dark comedy about parenting in the digital age and the worst fears that come with it.
Baylee Shlichtman - Writers' Group
Baylee Shlichtman is a writer based in Santa Ana, CA. She is currently on the board of the Orange County Playwrights Alliance and a part of the Playground-LA 2023-2024 Writers Pool. She has had her work read or developed with AlterTheatre Ensemble, Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble, Curtis Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre/ LA, Long Beach Playhouse, OC-Centric New Play Festival, The Skeleton Rep(resents), South Texas College Latinx New Play Festival, The Wayward Artist, and The Workshop Theatre among others. She graduated from USC with a B.A. in Journalism.
Play Description: In the Mouth of the Beast
A father-daughter caving team enter the treacherous Maw, a cave of unknown origin where the laws of physics and reality bend. Their goal is to retrieve an object theorized to possess properties that could be a game changer in clean energy research and the fight against climate change. The catch: one of them will have to die to retrieve it.
Baylee Shlichtman is a writer based in Santa Ana, CA. She is currently on the board of the Orange County Playwrights Alliance and a part of the Playground-LA 2023-2024 Writers Pool. She has had her work read or developed with AlterTheatre Ensemble, Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble, Curtis Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre/ LA, Long Beach Playhouse, OC-Centric New Play Festival, The Skeleton Rep(resents), South Texas College Latinx New Play Festival, The Wayward Artist, and The Workshop Theatre among others. She graduated from USC with a B.A. in Journalism.
Play Description: In the Mouth of the Beast
A father-daughter caving team enter the treacherous Maw, a cave of unknown origin where the laws of physics and reality bend. Their goal is to retrieve an object theorized to possess properties that could be a game changer in clean energy research and the fight against climate change. The catch: one of them will have to die to retrieve it.