The Lost Girls by C. Meaker

2008. Before the recession truly begins and Obama was elected for the first time. Five recent college grads are charged with keeping a slew of hormonal teenagers alive at an all-girls summer camp. Saddled with crippling student loans and terror over what they’ll do next in life, the counselors forego their actual work to have one last hurrah before adulthood kicks in. But the camp has many mysteries around its...
2008. Before the recession truly begins and Obama was elected for the first time. Five recent college grads are charged with keeping a slew of hormonal teenagers alive at an all-girls summer camp. Saddled with crippling student loans and terror over what they’ll do next in life, the counselors forego their actual work to have one last hurrah before adulthood kicks in. But the camp has many mysteries around its history and there are more monsters here than their looming debts. What starts as a substance-fueled party, soon becomes a battle for the soul. The Lost Girls is a horror-comedy about privilege and purpose, feminism and fear that’s part ghost story and part history play about elections and that specific time of life between college and the real world before we realized how bad things could get.

***A previous version of this script was produced and performed at Annex Theater (Seattle, WA) in 2016 directed by the talented Kaytlin McIntyre. The previous production was nominated for a Gregory Award for Best New Play. This production was fantastic, but overlapped with the 2016 election, which meant some of the moments didn’t feel right anymore, in particular the previous draft’s neat ending. Motivated by the challenges of this time and wanting to wrestle with further complexities these characters might face, I re-wrote the piece.

This draft has undergone significant revision since the 2016 production. It includes an entirely new character (Shannon), several new scenes, and a drastically different tone and plot.
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The Lost Girls

Recommended by

  • Rachel Greene:
    5 Jun. 2023
    “ Where was this play when I was in college????? The Lost Girls is bursting at the seams with honesty, vulnerability, fear, excitement, and very relatable uncertainty. It will make you laugh and scream in equal measure. Making all too real the horror of transitioning from college to "the real world," this is a story that any young person will understand immediately. I cannot WAIT for the chance to see it fully staged!!! ”
  • Jessica Moss:
    3 Jun. 2023
    “ I am absolutely furious. I wish I had written this play. I wish I could be in this play. I wish this play had been an option for me to see (or better yet, be in) when I was younger. What do you want? Scary? Funny? Sexy? Horny? Angry? Mysterious? Wild? Emotional? Real? Fantastical? This has it. You have to do it. You just have to do it. Why are we doing other plays when plays as good as this are just out here? Stop wasting time. Give a talented group of young actors and your audience this gift. ”
  • Jordan Elizabeth Henry:
    4 Feb. 2020
    “ Such an awesome riff on a classic horror trope, THE LOST GIRLS was so much fun to read. If Lovecraft and Scooby Doo had a child, this would be it. While the plot is fun and engaging, it's the deep, rich characters that really propel this play forward and make it such a joy to experience. I would love to see a production of this play. ”
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DONNY — counselor.
CLAIRE — counselor.
MISTI — counselor.
ROSA — counselor.
NASHUA — counselor.
PAT — camper. sixteen. possibly a ghost.
SHANNON — the Camp Director, maybe Pat’s mother, white.

All the counselors are recent college graduates. Pat does not need to be played by an actual sixteen-year-old.

All roles are open to any race/ethnicity. To some extent this play deals with exploitation of childcare workers and the increasing problem of exorbitant student loans. These problems disproportionately affect women of color. Casting should lean away from whiteness, not toward it, for all roles except Shannon. Please cast across a wide body size spectrum. Queer fat women young women exist and also get horny and make out with people.

All roles are open to gender non-conforming, trans, and nonbinary actors. Pronouns can be changed as needed.

Development History

Production History

  • Workshop
    ,
    Annex Theatre
    ,
    2016

Awards

Gregory Award Nominee Outstanding New Play
,
Gregory Awards from Theatre Puget Sound
,
2017