Screenwriter Chelsea Barron uncovers a world where paper and plastic is not a joke, it’s a competition (with jokes)

Paper or Plastic? Who would imagine such a trivial question would be such a big deal? Welcome to the world of competitive grocery bagging.

“Baggers,” written by Chelsea Barron, 21 and a theater major, is the story of a young ambitious woman named Jamie Zelinger who is a maintenance worker at a dingy market named “Shopwell,” but dreams of being promoted and bagging groceries as fast as she can.

Jamie is a grocery enthusiast and ultimately her passion is to win the National Grocers Association Bagging Championship.

“I knew I wanted a female lead who would be the dorky, unconventional type,” Barron said.

In the play, Jamie approaches Liz, her lazy store manager, about signing Shopwell up for the competition, only to be fired for doing so without her permission. Liz proceeds to claim that Shopwell is her store and she knows what’s best for it.

Jamie disagrees and storms out, shouting back Liz, “You’ve never even touched a tomato in your entire life!”

Jamie knows she has what it takes to be a legendary bagger. Through her determined efforts to be rehired and a competitive food fight, Shopwell is entered in the competition, ready to defeat its chainstore rival “Produce Palace.”

Barron started writing her comedy in 2015, after she stumbled upon an actual YouTube video of the National Grocers Association Bagging Competition.

“I watched this girl win this competition, and everything in my head became much more clear,” Barron said.

Noticing the pride exuded by the winner of the actual NGA competition as she excitedly held up her trophy, Barron knew she had her comedy.

Emerging American Voices screenwriter Chelsea Barron. Use the Aurasma app (Free on Google Play / iTunes) and follow: LogosMagazine to unlock a bonus video by scanning this photo. Photo by: Vidal Espina / Logos

“From there, I just started writing, and it kind of grew into this thing!” she said.

To Barron’s surprise, act one of “Baggers” was chosen for the Emerging American Voices production this fall, which is a showcase of stories written by Citrus students in Professor Neil Weiss’s stage and screenwriting class.

But what really gave her a shock was Weiss’s insistence that she play the protagonist herself.

“I was so overwhelmed by the fact that he even brought that up,” Barron said. “I was very nervous, but everyone was so nice to me and so supportive.”

Playing Jamie on stage helped Barron understand the character she had created by interpreting Jamie through her own quirky sense of humor.

“If I’m gonna get up there and embarrass myself with my own comedy script, hopefully other people in writing will see that one of my professors thought I was cool enough to get up there and be an idiot on stage for an hour,” Barron said jokingly.

This is a huge moment for Barron, who thinks of herself as an actress first and a writer second.

“This opportunity is great for me to actually get on stage and act out what I have written,” she said.

Barron strives to be the comedian who writes and act in her own material. If there is one thing she got out of her EAV performance, it’s the idea that a career like that is a possibility for her.

“I’d like to be a whirlwind, doing as much as I can,” Barron said.

Act one of “Baggers” was successful and provoked lots of laughter from the audience.

“After your performance, you give a little shout out to the director and the tech people in the booth, and some people after their performance gave a shout out to me during bows, and I completely lost it,” Barron recalled.

With the support of her professors and peers, Barron is now moving forward with the second half of her comedy, in hopes to finish it and present to Emerging American Voices again in the spring.

“I’m really excited to finish it,” Barron said. “It means a lot to me to be able to create things for myself, and it meant a lot to me to actually become Jamie.”