Distressed or Drowning

An idealistic teenager takes on her first job as a lifeguard at a waterpark. Between chaotic coworkers and the looming threat of death, she must reconcile her fantasies of heroism with the realities of the workforce.

Mia is an overachieving 16-year-old girl with a big imagination and a warm heart. So what better way to make a difference than getting a quintessentially teenage job: being a lifeguard at a waterpark. The thing is, nobody seems to take the job seriously. Parents have meltdowns over menial rules. The managers get stoned while the guards have pool noodle fights. Except for Mia, who’s running around looking for someone to save, just to prove that she can do it. While Mia tries to do the most, the other lifeguards try to do the least. But at the end of the day, the stakes really are life-or-death. While a teen barista might be responsible for your latte order, a teen lifeguard is responsible for making sure your 5-year-old doesn’t drown during swim lessons. Mia’s story is one of teenage disillusionment—it begs the question; what do you do when you have a high-stakes job that nobody respects? While there are many workplace comedies out there, and several teen comedies, we’ve never quite had a teen workplace comedy like this before. Our characters will be confronted with the realities of the workforce as they’re still growing up.

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Distressed or Drowning has the imaginative optimism of Scrubs with the characters of Freaks and Geeks and the workplace malaise of Superstore. It tells the story of being a teen working your first job with playfulness and heart. 

For script inquiries, contact Lora directly.

Coming Soon:  Craft House

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​A group of intergenerational women crafters move in together into an infamous L.A. “content house.” They band together to navigate the hellscape that is social media marketing, push back against patriarchy in the art world, and challenge who gets to define “what is art?”