New Works Festival
Featuring Catholic Playwrights
September 18-20, 2025
Twin Cities, MN - Location TBA
Missed the Boat Theatre’s inaugural New Works Festival will take place with staged readings in September 2025 at a Twin Cities, MN, venue to be determined.
This festival is an opportunity designed to support and encourage the development of new plays and musicals from a Catholic Christian worldview. Our 4 finalists will receive a rehearsal workshop with a director and performers culminating in a public staged reading followed by a moderator-led talkback.
Will you join us in performing these plays?
Missed the Boat Theatre is holding open call auditions on August 2-3 from 1:00-5:00pm for our inaugural New Works Festival. Each show will rehearse 20-25 hours between September 1 and their Festival reading. Learn more and by visiting our audition listing!
Home - Thursday, September 18 at 7 PM
this year’s lineup
Written by Fleur Alys Dobbins
Directed by Elizabeth Teefy-MacGregor
It’s 2018 in Texas where five siblings traverse a rocky landscape: the caretaking of their elderly mother, Maryrose, who is fighting tooth and nail against the onslaught of Alzheimer’s. Maryrose, a southern matriarch, must now relinquish her long and coveted control as the children make the difficult decision to move her to a memory care facility - and she flatly does not want to go.
Home, a dramedy, spans the six months before the passing of Maryrose from summer through Christmastime. Act one occurs in Maryrose’s own home as negotiations are managed, decisions are made, and realities are intensified. Act two takes place in an altogether foreign place, the Home; another paradigm with new helpers, much needed wisdom, unexpected arrivals… and one conversion no one saw coming. Before the passing of Maryrose, what has long been in the dark will explode into a miracle of light. Home contemplates where, and what, “home” really is and if it is ever too late to find it.
Long Shot - Friday, September 19 at 7 PM
Book by Fr. Kyle Kowalczyk
Music by Chad Berg
Directed by Michael Conroy
Adapted from a screenplay by Haynes Brooke
Melvin had his whole life planned out, and used all of his actuarial skills to avoid every risk that could derail that plan. It was working great, until he met Christa. Then it was like someone tampered with the odds of probability and nothing added up anymore. First, he is diagnosed with a very rare and deadly disease, then his childhood friend convinces him to spend the rest of his short and meaningless life doing all the things he’s missed out on, like asking out a girl––the first girl he sees––which of course happens to be Christa. Then, because, of course he can’t tell her he’s in love with her when he’s dying, he does something dumb instead like playing the slot machines, and wouldn’t you know it he wins a trip to the moon! (You can’t make this stuff up!) So, now he really can fulfill his lifelong dream––that he had stuffed down to the bottom of his soul when his parents died––of flying to the moon, which really will be awesome and a very sweet ending to a very crazy story, except… she won’t be on the moon. So, what should he do now?
The Martin Sisters - Saturday, September 20 at 7 PM
Written by Samantha Vargo and Olivia Baum
Directed by Jaclyn Mack
In The Martin Sisters, a family of five sisters and their father wrestle with their family ties, faith in God, and–above all–what to do with the rest of their lives. Inspired by classic sisterhood stories like Little Women and Sense and Sensibility, this play tells the true story of a band of sisters coming of age in a Catholic way. Set in late 19th-century France, their family includes three members (Thérèse, Louis, and Zélie) who went on to be officially canonized as saints in the Catholic Church. What was it about their family life that led to such holy outcomes? What were the sisters like who haven’t been declared saints? And what does it mean to hear the voice of God? Follow along with Marie, Pauline, and the whole Martin family to find out–and be inspired by sisters who learned that “the good Lord does not do things by halves; He always gives what we need. Let us then carry on bravely.” –St. Zélie Martin
How to Supervise Women - Saturday, September 20 at 2 PM
Written by Lou Clyde
Directed by Christina Malloy
It’s 1942 and the Consolidated Electronics leadership team is faced with hiring women for factory jobs ordinarily held by men. But women in factories scare the hell out of them. The newly hired female assembly team on line 3C breaks all stereotypes and delivers excellence with comedy and heart. How to Supervise Women is a poignant and touching historical comedy with a topical social message.
Special acknowledgement to our runners-up: The Lost Art of the Private Eye by Hannah Reller and Questions for My Mother by Kiley Lawrence.
If the stories of any of these shows speak to you in a particular way, help us bring them from page to stage! If you're interested in being an investor in any of these plays, or the development of new work as a whole, reach out to Natalia Foley at natalia@missedtheboattheatre.com
Festival Timeline