ARE YOU A YOUNG WRITER READY TO CHALLENGE THE NARRATIVE?
The Youth Journalism Fellowship is your chance to step into the world of professional theatre journalism and make your voice heard.
In partnership with Stage Raw, The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company offers a paid, four-month fellowship for writers ages 15–25 who are ready to explore theatre through critique, conversation, and cultural analysis.
As a Youth Journalism Fellow, you will:
- Collaborate with professional Stage Raw journalists as your mentors
- Write and publish theatre reviews, essays, and interviews
- Get paid for every article published on Stage Raw
- Build your critical voice and editorial skills
- Be considered for publication in DEVISE Magazine
- Join a small, selective cohort of emerging writers
Applications open each summer for our fall/winter fellowship cohort. Follow us on social media or join our newsletter to stay in the loop when applications drop.
2025 COHORT
is a theatre student at LACHSA who loves doing it all—acting, writing, and directing. She’s spent 13 years on stage and screen, won Dramafest 2024 and was published for her play The Pretty Test, earned an LA Poet Laureate Honorable Mention, and completed LMU’s Screenwriting Summer Program. She co-runs Brunette Productions where she directs, produces and writes plays.
2025 Fellowship Publications:
Mar Mar Hernandez (she/her) is an aspiring dramatic writer/director from Pico Rivera, CA. She is currently studying acting at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Her talents outside the writers’ room include stage management, filmmaking, and directing for the stage in student-led productions. She was previously a Newsroom Writer for TeenTix’s first LA branch and attended the California State Summer School for the Arts (CSSSA) for Creative Writing. Mar Mar wishes to write and produce uplifting narratives centered around the experiences of others to provide a safe space for communities desperately in need.
2025 Fellowship Publications:
Maribelle Hoffa is an emerging actor and writer based in Los Angeles. She is a junior at LACHSA (Los Angeles County High School for the Arts) in the theater department, with a recent emphasis on dramatic writing and directing. When she isn’t doing either of those two things, she is probably reading plays, playing guitar, or watching Dance Moms.
2025 Fellowship Publications:
Hello! My name is Fable Isaacson and I am currently a junior at LACHSA in the Theatre Department. I love all things stage related and am so grateful for this awesome opportunity!
2025 Fellowship Publications:
Katy Kragel just graduated from the University of Southern California’s acting school! While there, she had the privilege of attending the British American Drama Academy in London which highlighted her love for classical theatre – particularly Shakespeare. Acting has always been the love of her life since she did her first musical at five years old, but she discovered a new love at USC while working in the recruiting department for the football team. Whether sports or theatre, you can always find Katy analyzing and deep-diving into live entertainment!
2025 Fellowship Publications:
Keelyn McDermott (she/her) is a Los Angeles-based writer, performer, and director with a passion for contemporary theatre and socially engaged storytelling. A graduate of Occidental College, she has written and staged original plays that blend comedy with critique, most recently at the Mixtape Festival and Occidental New Works Festival. Keelyn is excited to sharpen her critical voice through the Stage Raw/Unusual Suspects Fellowship and explore how writing can amplify underrepresented perspectives in the arts. She currently freelances across mediums and is developing a new theatrical satire.
2025 Fellowship Publications:
Warren D. Riley (he/him) is a writer and a fourth-year student at UCLA, pursuing a BA in English. Riley has a keen interest in seeking truth – whether it be through his work at the Daily Bruin, or in his rigorous practice at UCLA’s Playwright Circle. His playwriting pursuits most often concern grounded, humanizing portrayals of the trans experience. His latest play, Urgent Care, is currently being developed with a group of UCLA collaborators. Riley’s coverage of theatrical productions have appeared in ad campaigns for prominent Los Angeles theaters such as the Latino Theater Company and the Geffen Playhouse.
2025 Fellowship Publications:
Avery Eletto
The Stresses of Aging: Taylor Swift, Alretha Thomas, and The Art of Staying True to Oneself
A Path Forward (As Suggested by a Theater Teacher at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts)
Maribelle Hoffa
Unsaid Words and Unsung Heroes, A Teen Responds to a Play about a School Shooting
Fable Isaacson
Who’s Afraid of Rebecca Woolf?: To Thine Own Self . . . (Notes From a Proud Daughter)
Katy Kragel
Two Peoples Separated by a Common Language: An American studies acting in London
Brothers and Sisters Alretha Franklin’s A Girl’s Guilt Trip and Rudi Goblen’s Littleboy / Littleman
Mar Mar Hernandez
Keelyn McDermott
Warren D. Riley
Making the Code Digital Backdrops in Theater, and How to Create Them
Sophia Audelo
Chavez Ravine: An L.A. Ghost Story
Matthew Beymer
Bridge Over Troubled Water: Crossing the Divide Between Musical Theater and Non-Musical Plays
The Fine Art of Intimacy on Stage
Past, Present, and, Uh Oh: Reflections on “Robbin, from the Hood”
Nola Bowie
A 16-Year-Old Girl from a Stable Family Reflects on a Musical About Divorce
A Young Generation Bored by the Bard?: A Case for Arts Immersion at a Young age
If Music Be the Food of Love: An interview with Dana Martin
Asa Fris
Reflection on “Pacific Overtures” and “Fiddler on the Roof”
Why Theater?: A Young Man Weighs the Promise of Live Performance, and the need for connection
Jack Grotenstein
After the Fall: One Local Stage Union Actor, Bill Salyers, Says “Enough!”
Yazlin Juarez
The Higher Purposes of the 2024 Encuentro Festival
Lucinda Linklater
Metamorphosis: The Child of Theater Parents Finds Her Path
Storied Traditions: A 17-Year-Old’s Epiphany about Walt Disney’s Influence
Ysa Madrigal
A 17-Year-Old’s Foray into Theater and Journalism
A Non-Binary Teen Sees a “Trans Conversation” with Their Dad
How to Be Creative When Your Job Isn’t: Makeup Artist Cellibacello
Missions, Lose Religion: Find God (And Give the Land Back While You’re At It)
Molly McLean
“Duende”: A Case for Actual Theater in a Movie Town
A New Critic Yearns for the Old School: A Case Against Interactive Theater
Heading into Night: A clown show about . . . [forgetting]
The Travails and Triumphs of a Physical Comedy Performer (Courtney Pauroso)
Ella Rodríguez
From Alex to Guillermo: The Evolution of Stage Director Guillermo Cienfuegos
Thatiana Smith
The Arc of Justice: Reflections on Alice Childress’s Play About Race, and the Theater
The Teacher Who Turned a Teenager’s Life Upside Down
Isadora Swann
Heading into Night: A clown show about . . . [forgetting]
Property, Poverty, and “I, Daniel Blake”
The World According to Kaye Voyce
Ursula Youd
Fame and Misfortune: Shem Bitterman’s “The Civil Twilight”
From Being Docile to Having Authority: A Soft Spoken Girl Finds Her Voice