Our Story

5 SIRENS: BEWARE OF ROCKS is a collection of short plays united by universal themes. World premiering at the 2015 Hollywood Fringe Festival, this collaboration was created especially for the Fringe by USC Master of Professional Writing grads and playwrights Sarah Dzida, Autumn McAlpin, Kiera Nowacki, Caron Tate, and Laurel Wetzork, and will be directed by Laura Steinroeder. Through the eclectic lenses of alien encounters, terminal nerd-dom, sibling rivalry, sub/dom relationships, and devastating family illness, 5 SIRENS delves into our deep-rooted human desires for connection and communication but recognizes the fact that sometimes, no matter how hard we try, no matter what we're willing to do, those desires may not be met.

WE NEED YOU!!! to support us as we bring our stories to life onstage. Your contribution will help cover the costs of our rehearsal and production space and costs, marketing expenses, and help us feed and pay our amazing professional actors and crew. THANK YOU for donating, liking, and sharing our campaign as we aim to captivate you with our song!

Support female playwrights and support our Sirens' song at the 2015 Hollywood Fringe Festival -- L.A.'s largest celebration of the Performing Arts.

THE STORIES:

DON'T PANIC by Sarah Dzida
When put-together Paige announces she might die, it’s up to her sister to calm her down.

TEN YEARS LEFT by Autumn McAlpin
A woman struggles to find her voice as she interacts with her doctor, family, and agent after being diagnosed with a debilitating disease.

OUT OF HERE by Laurel Wetzork
A bi-sexed Alien and a guy from Missouri have different ideas about inter-species communication, with dire results.

WHATEVER WORKS by Caron Tate
A man with dangerously out of control anger issues knows he needs help, but is he getting it soon enough for the woman he’s involved with?

SPOCK AT BAT by Kiera Nowacki
A man and a woman meet at a company softball championship, but find they have very little in common as they each try to translate jock and nerd speak into terms the other will understand.

THE SIRENS:

SARAH DZIDA started out in the theatre biz as a critic for KXLU's Center Stage with Mark Gordon, but the siren song of writing hooked her out of it. Since then, she's written a lot. Her fiction has appeared on The Huffington Post. Her poetry can be found online and one time in an exhibit at the Architecture + Design Museum in 2012. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in MARY: A Journal of Writing and Sushi and Sake Magazine. She's working on her second novel, and when not writing, she's probably reading.

AUTUMN McALPIN is an award-winning playwright, filmmaker, and author. A soon-to-be graduate of USC’s Master of Professional Writing program, Autumn’s play, IN FRONT OF THE CHILDREN, won first place at this year’s Writing for Stage and Screen competition at USC. She also co-wrote and produced the upcoming feature film WAFFLE STREET, starring James Lafferty, Danny Glover, and Julie Gonzalo, which she adapted for screen from James Adams’ 2010 memoir of the same name. A mother of four, Autumn also runs the non-profit Aspire Higher, which matches families to volunteerism causes.

East coast or west, LAUREL WETZORK's been involved in the stage and screen. She's studied it—a BA from USC's film school in cinema production, and a Master of Professional Writing (USC), with a concentration in stage and screen. She's worked in it—as an award-winning writer, feature-film director, member of the Dramatists Guild, as a volunteer onstage editor for LAFPI (Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative). She also supports writers and playwrights as a member and volunteer of the International Centre for Women Playwrights. She puts sirens in most of her work (the police and female kind).

CARON TATE produced and appeared in her first full-length play BUMPS back in her days as a performer of stage and television in the Washington DC/Baltimore area. More recently, she is a graduate of the USC Master of Professional Writing program. While at USC, her play POWER POINTS won first place for the Writing for Stage and Screen Annual Competition. Her poetry received an Honorable Mention in the Edward W. Moses poetry competition. Caron's published work includes fiction, poetry, and memoir. She is also a Gamma to two perfect grandbabeeze.

KIERA NOWACKI studied theater at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, where she wrote and directed an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's short story, Hills Like White Elephants. She also studied masked theater in Arezzo, Italy at the Academica dell'Arte, an experience which informs her comedic sensibility. She is a recent graduate of USC's Master of Professional Writing program, where her short play, A HUNDRED MAYS, received second runner up in the Writing for Stage and Screen Annual Competition in 2013.

OUR DIRECTOR:

What We Need & What You Get

Quality productions demand quality investment, and while we are keeping our costs to the bare minimum, here is what we can't avoid:

Rehearsal space $340

Performance space and Insurance $880

Fringe fees $250

Advertising and marketing $290

Cast and Crew Fees $1500

Food and Miscellaneous $250

Indiegogo Perks and Expenses $400

Total Needed for Production: $3,910

(You'll see our needs surpass our goal; we're relying on ticket sales to cover the remainder.)

What's in it for you? Besides being noted as a generous patron of the arts and esteemed supporter of a playwright you may know and love (or want to know and love), based on your donation level, you will receive: 

a handwritten thank you on a lovely postcard 

tickets to our show (which you know you're going to buy anyway) and VIP preferred seating

mention in our program

a poster

set of notecards 

a signed limited edition giclee on museum-quality paper, or an original signed painting

*All perks feature the beautiful original print you see here, painted by our multi-talented Siren, Laurel Wetzork.

**Donors of $25 or more will be contacted within one week of donation to select your preferred date(s) to attend the show.

Thank you for helping us reach our goal!

The Impact

By supporting us, you're supporting a team of professional female playwrights whose award-winning work has been performed in locations onstage and onscreen throughout the country. Too often, people overlook the power of story to unite our communities; we appreciate YOU for valuing the power performance art has to convey universal themes that bond us as a society. Thank you for supporting the arts to help bring our stories to life!

Other Ways You Can Help

We appreciate any and all contributions, but if you're all washed up right now, please support us by:

• Sharing our campaign using the Indiegogo share tools
• Link to our campaign on your social media sites
• Follow us at: twitter.com/5sirens
• facebook.com/5sirens
• fivesirens.weebly.com
• COME SEE OUR SHOW, performing live throughout June at the Asylum lab in Hollywood! You can also purchase tickets to the show at the Fringe site: www.hff15.org/2125