Join our writing team to create a new play about Caregivers.
Wonderlust Productions, a Saint Paul based theater ensemble that makes new plays based on the stories of real people, is seeking 1-2 Twin Cities based playwrights to add to our writing team for our next project, about caregivers. Click here to download a PDF of this information.
About our work
For all our projects, we start not with a script or a subject, but a community of people whose stories we think are compelling but misunderstood, unknown, or silenced. Working with community partners embedded in that community, we host story circles to gather material. Then we use that material to develop a fictional script that brings together a wide diversity of experience, and ultimately produce that script with a cast of both professional performers and community members.
About the project
The last three years have magnified for many of us just how fragile the systems of care are in this country. This play will ask the question, “What does a community of care look like?” We are interested in the stories of caregivers whose stories haven’t historically been centered, including nurses and family taking care of family, but also neighborhood caretakers, first responders, body workers, teachers, therapists, bartenders and hair stylists. We are envisioning a La Ronde structure for this play where many isolated stories (each based around a different kind of caretaker) are connected to each other by one character. Larger themes that unite the individual stories may be expressed through movement and song.
About the opportunity
We are forming a multidisciplinary writing team of about seven artists to create the script, and are seeking 1-2 writers to join the team assembled so far. Team members will read content gathered in community story circles, collaboratively develop the dramaturgical structure of the play, and take on individual writing assignments. The process will be led and the final script edited by our co-artistic directors, Alan Berks and Leah Cooper. We estimate the time commitment to be about 25 hours spent in creative meetings, attendance in at least one story circle, and two public readings, plus about 35 hours of reading and writing time, for a total of approximately 60 hours. Compensation is a fee of $1,500.
Timeline of activities
| April – July 2023 | Writer selection process Orientation meeting early May Story circles – attend one or more Stay up to date on digital archival materials as they accumulate Check-in meeting early June to start plotting story arc |
| July – Sept | Team meetings (4) every other week July – Aug for further plotting and writing assignments Individual Scene writing in September |
| October | Rewriting and integration of first draft One-on-one meetings as needed |
| November | Script workshops and reading rehearsals (attendance optional) Public reading |
| December | Debrief meeting |
| Jan – Mar 2024 | Additional story circles and interviews as needed Movement and music workshops as needed Rewriting as needed |
| April | Integration of second draft |
| May | Second public reading |
Intellectual Property
This is a work for hire project in which the writing team’s work will be considered complete after the second public reading and Wonderlust retains exclusive copyright on the script created. Wonderlust will produce this play in Fall 2024, and reserves the right to alter text as needed during the production process. All writers on the writing team will be credited together in promotional materials for any and all productions of the work in any format.
Eligibility
Open to all playwrights of any age, ethnicity, gender, and background who reside in the Twin Cities area enough that they can attend at least one story circle and all creative meetings in Saint Paul in person. We are seeking writers with experience and skill in writing for the theater who are also interested in a highly collaborative creation process grounded in the lived experience of people who share their stories with us.
Application process
To apply please fill out this submission form no later than April 14th. It will ask for contact info, resume and 1-2 writing, audio, or video samples, each no longer than ten pages or ten minutes. Also, please let us know why you are interested in this project. One or two writers will be chosen by the end of April to join the writing team. Still got questions? Contact leah@wlproductions.org.