the 2026 brain-based short play festival
Tickets Available Soon!
Our newest collection of original short plays explores the things we see but choose not to see—the uncomfortable truths, convenient fictions, and everyday deceptions we quietly agree to live with.
November 6, at 7:30
November 7, at 3 and 7:30
November 13, at 7:30
November 14, at 3 and 7:30
The 2026 Brain-based short play festival!
How May I Help You?
How May I Help You? is a short comedy set in the OneSource call center, where the promise is simple: "Just ask us. We will steer you in the right direction." Every day, callers turn to the hotline looking for definitive answers to life's biggest dilemmas. But behind the phones are four very different people – an idealistic manager, a rule-following law graduate, a philosophical free spirit, and a skeptical social activist – each convinced they know the best way to help.
Inspired by the personalities of today's leading AI models, How May I Help You? explores our tendency to place unquestioning faith in authority. As conflicting advice, good intentions, and impossible expectations collide, the play asks whether life's most meaningful answers can ever come from someone else – or whether they must ultimately be discovered for ourselves.
Between Colleagues and Confessions
For months, Brooke has been working hard to ignore her colleague’s obvious feelings for her to uphold company policy and professionalism. But when an anonymous letter to the HR manager leads to his sudden confession, she can no longer pretend not to notice the truth behind his caring nature.
*Content warning: brief suggestive comments, brief cursing
Parental Guidance Suggested
Liz and Chris have moved in together after a two-year courtship. They struggle in their relationship partly due to the frequent misbehavior of her teenage son Johnny (from her previous relationship.) Neither one feels they have control over his behavior as it escalates and starts to cause hardship on the family. Liz desperately wants to keep her family together, but feels helpless at times, uncertain of her parenting abilities, and often retreats into a state of denial. When Johnny causes an accident with his ebike, the family is forced to deal with the consequences of his actions and must re-evaluate their family dynamics.
It’s Not You, It’s Me
In this contemporary comedy about the stories people tell themselves about dating, Ryder Bennett – a charming, successful pharmaceutical sales executive – treats romance as a game he knows how to win. After ending his relationship with the hopeful artist, Candice, using his well-rehearsed “it's not you, it's me” routine, Ryder is challenged by his closest friends, Norman and Naomi, to confront the old hurt and fear beneath his pattern. Months later, after committing to therapy and a new relationship with the formidable April, Ryder finds the script flipped on him. When April tries to use his own philosophy against him, both must decide whether love is a game – or a choice to stop playing one.
Bite the Hand
A young woman starts to spiral when she becomes aware of all the issues within our food systems, and feels increasingly trapped by isolating moral dilemmas as her boyfriend and friends continue to live their lives as usual.
*Content warning: contains content relating to eating disorders.
Metathesiophobia
Eli and his mom, Susan, have been fighting over Eli’s sexuality for years. Eli’s chosen to ignore his mother’s homophobia for the sake of peace; but things get heated when Susan meets Eli’s boyfriend, Michael, and she has to face the fact that her son is gay. Meanwhile, Eli has to face the music and confront his mom.
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