Four staged readings of two brand new shows.

September 24-26, 2026
Art House North, St. Paul, MN

Missed the Boat Theatre is proud to host its 2026 New Works Lab on September 24-26 at Art House North in Saint Paul, MN. These two plays, originally submitted for our 2025 New Works Festival, will be workshopped to help the playwrights edit their scripts. These plays were chosen to be read dramatically onstage, in front of the playwright, director, and an audience. This is a key stage of development before these shows are ready to be produced fully. This lab is dedicated to the development of shows written from a Catholic Christian worldview.

The Lost Art of the Private Eye by Hannah Reller
The Women of Cheboksary by Emily Schoenbeck

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The Lost Art of the Private Eye

Written by Hannah Reller
Directed by Samantha Wend Vargo

It’s 1950 in the bustling metropolis of Capitol City. Eustace Wonderly, Private Eye, takes on a case to search for the Alabaster Child, a priceless figurine stolen from the Capitol City Art Museum. But something about this case is different. Eustace has taken on a new partner—his younger, starry-eyed brother Ned. As they dive into the eccentric world of art idolizers, corrupt art dealers, and genuine lovers of beauty, the Wonderly brothers must navigate hidden doors, a fist fight, a car chase, and more in order to solve the case of the Alabaster Child.

  • Hannah Reller studied screenwriting through the Act One Hollywood Writer’s program and earned a BS in media production from the University of Mary. Upon returning home to Central MN, she shifted her focus to the stage, publishing her first one act play in 2022. In 2023, she wrote The Lost Art of the Private Eye with grant support from the Five Wings Arts Council. Hannah works as a marketing and design specialist and, in her free time, enjoys developing creative projects and living the adventure of life with her wonderful husband Jeremy.

  • Playwright: Hannah Reller
    Director: Samantha Wend Vargo
    Dramaturg: Fr. Kyle Kowalczyk

    Other roles to be announced.

The Women of Cheboksary

Written by Emily Schoenbeck
Directed by Dr. Jimmy Bickerstaff

As the Russian village of Cheboksary prepares to celebrate their annual Kupala festival, a messenger sent on behalf of Ivan the Terrible arrives and announces that the tsar has decided to take a Russian bride and is having all of the virtuous maidens of Russia rounded up to compete for his hand in marriage at the palace. When a young woman of the town does not want to be taken, she and a recently betrothed couple decide to create a fake scandal to let her stay. But how far are they willing to go to keep her in Cheboksary?

  • Emily Schoenbeck is a playwright and theater scholar with a PhD from the University of Minnesota, where she studied Early Modern Theater. She has worked as a freelance playwright for several years, including writing multiple fairytale adaptions for Once Upon a Stage, a children’s theater camp. The Women of Cheboksary is her first full length play. It received Top Honors Thesis at The College of Saint Benedict, Honorable Mention in The American College Theater Festival’s Playwriting Contest, and was the 2017 Full Length Play Winner in The Chameleon Theater Circle’s New Play Festival, where it received a stage reading. When not writing plays, Emily can be found performing on stage, working in costume shops, and studying stage combat.

  • Playwright: Emily Schoenbeck
    Director: Dr. Jimmy Bickerstaff
    Dramaturg: Eleonore Wagner

    Other roles to be announced.