"Girlfails" February
featuring author spotlight with liv shoup
Good mid-morning, one and all, and welcome to this month’s edition of the 1319 Press newsletter. There was a mix up with last month’s edition and it never got shared out, so my apologies, and also: new year new plays!
announcements
Pre-orders are now available for Joan of Arc in a Supermarket in California by Chloe Xtina !!!
Frances odysseys down California’s freeways in search of a supermarket where she once received a prophecy. As the supermarket waits for her, its teen girl employees are watched by an unseen force. Frances inches closer, California burns, and the supermarket transforms monstrously. “Eerie” and “enrapturing,” Joan of Arc in a Supermarket in California is an epic daydream of a play that probes intuition in the wake of sexualized surveillance.
Also very exciting: we will also be offering a 8x10 “coffee table” edition / artist collectible, which includes production photos, original drawings from scenic and costume designer Cat Pfingst, and music by composers Caroline Strickland and MJ Upstairs from the 2023 Tank production, in addition to the script.
For the foreseeable future, 80% of sales from Joan of Arc in a Supermarket in California will go towards mutual aid efforts against ICE occupation. Until February 28th, profits will support critical rent assistance for families in Minneapolis. (Donations may change each month based on need and will be updated on our website.)
Chloe Xtina is a filmmaker and playwright based in Brooklyn and originally from Oakland, California. Her play JOAN OF ARC IN A SUPERMARKET IN CALIFORNIA dubbed “the sold-out, site specific sensation” debuted with The Tank in a Brooklyn bodega to critical acclaim in 2023. The play has received additional support from New Georges and Bechdel Project. Her latest play UFO has received support from En Garde Arts. Chloe’s short films include OF A SEXUAL NATURE, commissioned by Modern Silent Shorts with support from Isabella Rossellini; ARCADIA, made with support from the Sundance Institute; GHOST OF YOU, which screened at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival; and THE FIRST TASTE, named a 2020 NoBudge Film of the Year. Chloe and her work have been featured in New York Magazine, Variety, Vulture, and TimeOut. She is a 2023 Sundance Ignite x Adobe fellow. Chloe completed a BA in playwriting from UCLA in 2021.
upcoming events
A production of Bloom Bloom Pow by Genevieve Simon is opening at Skidmore College later this month. The show will be running February 27th - March 4th. Tickets here.
Also, one of our new plays, The Exhibit, written by returning author Mackenzie Raine Kirkman, is opening at LakehouseRanchDotPng beginning in March in Florida.
new titles
We have THREE (3) new titles to share this month: Magnificent Masked Hearing Aid written by Sarah Bowden, The Z.U.M written by Jaden Alvaro Gines, and Girlfails written by Liv Shoup — all brilliant authors, all fantastic plays. ZUM and Girlfails are both collabs with The Lemonade Stand in Philly.
Magnificent Masked Hearing Aid written by Sarah Bowden
Ask Tess if the real guy is Superman or Clark Kent; she’ll say glasses make the man. But when she learns she’ll lose her hearing by age thirty, her confidence falls. How she feels about the Man of Steel, which art school to go to, whether to get a risky surgical implant to restore her hearing — everything’s up in the air, unless Tess decides what defines her identity: her abilities, or how she masks them.
Sarah Bowden is a playwright and dramaturg, whose plays have been produced in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Stockholm. Her work has been developed by the National Theatre of the Deaf and Tellin’ Tales Theatre. Her solo show Helen Keller and Me was produced as part of Chicago’s 2019 Rhinofest. Her full-length Lively Stones was produced as part of 20% Theatre Chicago’s ReFocus 20/20 season. Her full-length The Magnificent Masked Hearing Aid received Honorable Mention in the American Blues Theater Blue Ink Playwriting Award, and her full-length Tin Noses was a finalist in the Route 66 Theatre Test Drive Workshop.
The Z.U.M written by Jaden Alvaro Gines
Following a financial emergency back at home, Ash, a genderqueer 18 year old with an affinity for makeup, is sleeping in their car and starting work at some Zumiez in some mall in some middle-class middle of nowhere. Here they meet Ez, the assistant manager of the Zumiez and an aspiring rave musician, who also knows a thing or two about makeup. As they grow closer and learn that their store is under threat of closing, Ez and Ash hatch a scheme to throw a rave in the store and save both of their jobs. But, as the two grow closer and tensions rise, they must grapple with their dreams, living versus survival, and how much one is willing to give in order to see their dreams come true — even at the expense of themselves and the ones they love. Jaden Alvaro Gines’s THE Z.U.M explores queer identity in a world where it pays to assimilate, asking the question: how can we truly survive if we aren’t really living?
Jaden Alvaro Gines (they/them) is a Genderqueer, Latino playwright, author, and musician from working class New Jersey. Their work focuses heavily on the issues plaguing middle class America, touching on topics such as economic strife, the American dream, Trans and Queer bodies, and the attempt at life as an everyday working person. They attempt to reflect the people from their communities that would otherwise be forgotten in the theater world, and produce work that has been put to the side in the craft in recent years. Most recently, their play The Z.U.M. was presented in Philadelphia through The Lemonade Stand in December, after being named a semi-finalist for the 2025 Eugene O’Neill Center National Playwrights Conference. Their work has been produced by the Elif Collective, The Strides Collective, Kitchen Sink Theatre Company, Theatermania.com, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Temple University. Honors: 2024 BroadwayWorld Off-Broadway award nominee. jadenalvarogines.org
Girlfails and Liv Shoup are highlighted in our author spotlight section – keep scrolling, you’re almost there!
deals
No deals at the moment, BUT we just announced our next round of to-be-published playwrights. That means the number of authors we support is about to DOUBLE and we need your help to share the work of these amazing emerging artists! If you want to support new plays this new year, please donate to 1319 Press!
author spotlight
This month we are spotlighting playwright Liv Shoup, author of Girlfails, one of our newest title arrivals! You can order your copy of the script here.
Liv Shoup (she/her) is a playwright, screenwriter, and educator based in the one and only Philadelphia, PA. She grew up on the opposite side of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh, where she was raised by her wickedly funny and incredibly loving parents who instilled in her the love of comedy that made her who she is today. Liv then relocated to Philadelphia in 2016 to pursue a degree in Screenwriting and Playwriting from Drexel University, where she later spent time as an adjunct and the General Manager of the Drexel Theatre Program. Comedy is Liv’s first love, and she uses it to reflect real life in very heightened situations that still make the audience go “wow, that’s just like me for real.” In the past, Liv has written about difficult subjects such as fatphobia, misogyny, and grief, but always balances it out with themes of unstoppable female friendship, love, and the occasional puppet!
Liv’s other written work includes the plays Skinny Legend (Philadelphia Women’s Theatre Festival, 2023) and Trauma Queen (coming to Spokane Playwrights Lab in 2026!), as well as the pilot edition of Girlfails (Finalist: New Your Script Awards) and her pilot Me and My Great Great Great Grandad’s Gay Skeleton (Semi-finalist, Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices Competition). This play, Girlfails, is a celebration of the rich tapestry of friendships and platonic love she has experienced over the years. She hopes you enjoy reading it, and that it makes you want to tell your friends how much you love them!
Liv became involved with 1319 Press through one of our partners, The Lemonade Stand, in Philly. She had been following 1319 for a while and appreciated the devotion to uplifting emerging writers. Liv notes, “It feels like a lot of theatre is ‘paywalled,’ and their [1319’s] effort to remove that barrier is huge.” Then her play Girlfails went up with The Lemonade Stand and the play has since been published by 1319 Press!
Girlfails written by Liv Shoup
Everybody loves Joy – especially Frankie. Nobody likes Frankie… except Joy. These two unlikely best friends and roommates are stuck in the post-graduation, pre-real life part of their twenties. You know, the making horrible dating decisions, trying to get a “real job”, drinking open beers off the sidewalk part. But at least they have each other! Joy and Frankie’s adventures in attempted adulthood lead them places most wouldn’t dare go, but they find themselves at a fork in the road when Frankie faces a 23 year old’s worst enemy: graduate school. With one mailed-in application, their lives are turned upside down. What do you do when your other half might leave? Can you still be best friends with someone who’s everything you’re not? How likely are you to get arrested for stealing a live lab rat? Girlfails is the ultimate tale of platonic love and the type of chaos you can only get into with your best friend.
Liv describes her writing style as episodic and borderline sitcom. She’s been writing since she was seven years old typing up Sonic the Hedgehog fanfiction on the family computer, but writing as a career really clicked with her when she was in high school watching 30 Rock every day. She wanted to be Liz Lemon! She wanted to be Tina Fey! Liv thinks this love definitely affected her writing style.
As for her audience, Liv says she really only considered this the other day. But she describes her writing as aimed towards young women, especially messy, bad young women. After her play Skinny Legend, she had girls telling her they felt seen for the first time onstage, or that they had never felt represented or acknowledged in theatre before. Then, after Girlfails, many of her female students told her it was their first time seeing relatable, three-dimensional women onstage. Liv had a moment of questioning, “When I was their age, was I seeing that? Or am I trying to fill a gap?” In a way, she is writing what she wanted to see onstage.
Tell us about a play you love.
“Not to be bandwagon-y but Oh, Mary! is probably my favorite play I’ve ever seen. I just saw it in October with Jane Krakowski (second 30 Rock reference in this post). My takeaway was “Oh wow. You can really just write anything.” In a good way -- in the best way. But my favorite playwright is probably Christopher Durang because that man was crazy. I like plays that are funny and absolutely baffling, and he mastered that. Reading his play Beyond Therapy at age 20 definitely altered my brain chemistry.”
Give us a fun lil fact about you.
“I love Sonic the Hedgehog. I already mentioned him once, I know. But I LOVE Sonic the Hedgehog -- I’ve got two Sonic tattoos and I almost got a third literally this month. I’m a firm believer in not doing anything halfway, and honoring your inner child. And for me, Sonic is the ultimate way to connect with younger me, and the person I’ve always been. In the words of the hedgehog himself, ‘What you see is what you get -- just a guy who loves adventure.’”
That’s all for today. Thanks for reading. See you next month.