The Screenhouse O'Fallon 900 Caledonia Pkwy O'Fallon, MO 63368
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Explore the plays
First Lesson
By DC Cathro
Synopsis
A violin student reveals to his teacher the tragic and touching reason he's learning the instrument.
DC Cathro
DC Cathro is a Chicago-based playwright, actor, and director from the Washington DC metropolitan area. DC's works have been read at theatres and festivals across the U.S. and U.K., including The William Inge Festival in Independence, Kansas, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and St. Luke's Theatre, Off-Broadway in New York City.
A Willingness to Learn
By Dan Mora
Synopsis
A Muslim man and his son experience typical generational conflict while at the airport awaiting the arrival of Mom who has been visiting their daughter who is in college. But that’s nothing compared to the bombshell news she has about the girl’s American boyfriend. Yet even that isn’t as earth shaking as what happens next.
Dan Mora
I write issue-focused drama (and short satires) as an attempt to reveal what is within us: bigotry and bias, kindness and optimism, fear and love. I have found that the “outsider” – whether in the form of a self-actualizing AI, a Muslim girl struggling with the conventions of her upbringing, or a rape victim trying to prevent her past from destroying her future – is a good touchstone.
74’ish
By Franca Miraglia
Synopsis
Maybe because she’s a Virgo and likes to control everything. Maybe because she’s afraid of falling into an agonizing pit of pain, loss of dignity, fear and the most worrisome, being bored or becoming boring. While the world seems obsessed with prolonging life at all costs, 74’ish makes a case for a good ending curated for maximum joy. Borrowing from experiences as an Independent Witness for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), bear with her while she outlines how she picked 74 as the best age to say goodbye. Or at least 74’ish.
Franca Miraglia
Franca Miraglia completed her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree at York University for Theatre, Playwriting (Toronto, 2007). Franca was a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Dramatists Guild of America for ten years and has written nine full-length plays. American Devotion was most recently staged as an independent production at Crow’s Theatre in June 2026. Her plays were produced in Toronto by Theatre Passe Muraille (2008 & 2005) and The Fringe: Toronto’s Theatre Festival (1998); in Illinois by the Bloomington Playwrights Project (2004); and, in New York City by New Perspectives Theater (2005) and The Looking Glass Theatre (2002). Miraglia won the Annual North American Actors Association New Play Festival (London, England 2008) and was a finalist in the Reva Shiner Playwriting Contest (Bloomington, Illinois 2004).
House of Spirits
By Lisa Balderston
Synopsis
In the wake of their father’s death, three estranged sisters reunite inside his dilapidated bar, House of Spirits, to figure out what comes next. As they clash over whether to sell the rundown property or restore its former glory, long-held resentments boil over, compounded by the overwhelming weight of their mother’s rapidly worsening dementia. Forced to navigate grief, identity, and shared responsibility, the sisters must decide if they can repair their fractured bond before losing the last anchor to their family's past.
Lisa Balderston
Lisa Balderston is a San Diego–based playwright, director, and educator whose work has been developed and produced throughout Southern California. Recognized for her blend of dark humor and emotionally grounded storytelling, Lisa’s plays have been presented by Vantage Theatre (Queen of Lucia), Lamplighters Community Theatre (Life by Numbers, Let’s Chat), PowPAC (Transported), Point Loma Playhouse (Death of Ryan), The Roustabouts Theatre (The Devil’s Dish), Scripps Ranch Theatre (Transported), Trinity Theatre Company (The Art of Tolerance and Forgiveness), Loud Fridge Theatre (House of Spirits), and The Scripteasers of San Diego (The Sum of Sisterhood & Celebration of Life). Her work has earned extensive recognition. Recent accolades include The Art of Tolerance and Forgiveness (Winner, Trinity Theatre Company New Works Festival 2025), Queen of Lucia (Lamplighters Theatre New Playwrights Festival 2025), Can I Buy You a Drink? (Semi-finalist, PlayGround Experiment Monologue Competition 2025), and Let’s Chat (Finalist, Loud Fridge New Works Festival 2025). Most recently in 2026, House of Spirits was named a finalist in the Loud Fridge Theatre New Year, New Works Festival, and The Devil’s Dish was selected for The Roustabouts Theatre’s Celebration of New Playwrights. As a playwright and director, Lisa’s credits include serving as Assistant Director for The Butler Did It (PowPAC, 2024) and directing Women in Jeopardy! (2025), which earned her a nomination for Best Director of a Comedy. Current projects for 2026 include writing and directing Still Standing for The What’s Next? Collective’s Who Do You Think You Are? She is directing her own play Let’s Chat at Lamplighters Theatre and preparing Queen of Lucia for its full production in October 2026. Lisa holds a B.A. in English from San Diego State University and an M.A. in Creative Writing and Literature from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She is a retired adjunct professor at Point Loma Nazarene University, where she taught dramatic writing and literature. Deeply committed to her local arts community, she serves on the boards of the Playwrights Project, Trinity Theatre Company, and New Village Arts, and is a member of The What’s Next Collective.
Testimonies
By Owen Brown
Synopsis
Eyewitnesses of a horrific series of violent encounters in early American history wrestle with their views of what happened and what this means, each telling their own heart-wrenching story, and leaving audiences to pick up the pieces.
Wormwood
By Barbara Blatner
Synopsis
A woman at home texts with her husband on the front line of the Ukraine-Russia War, and communicates in a more mysterious way with her Uncle, also in the War. How do we protect and support the ones we love during hard times by what we don’t say?
Barbara Blatner
BARBARA BLATNER’s verse play No Star Shines Sharper, published by Baker’s Plays, was aired repeatedly on Christmas eve on NPR stations and acquired by New York’s Museum of TV and Radio. The award-winning Years of Sky was produced by Scripts Up! at 59E59 Theatres and read at the Great Plains Theatre Conference. Jane, Queen’s Foole has won or placed in eight competitions, including Broad Horizons New Voices, New Plays (winner), 2024 Julie Harris Award (runner up), 2024 ATHE Judith Royer Award for Excellence in Playwriting (Finalist), and was read in Centenary Stage’s 2023 Women Playwrights Series. Hamlet Leaves England appeared on the Pittsburgh New Works Mainstage. Two Sisters was read in the 2022 Inge Play Festival’s New Play Lab, Secret Places was produced by New Circle Theatre Company, and Spell, a riff-in-verse on Shakespeare’s Tempest, appeared in Toronto’s Alumnae Theatre’s New Ideas Festival and as an audio play by Open Door Playhouse. Light was read at the 2020 ATHE Conference and has been produced in Toronto, Hong Kong and California. Barbara considers herself a poet who writes plays. New York Quarterly Books published her poetry collections, The Still Position (2010) and Living with You (2012). Ms. Blatner has been a Fellow at many competitive residencies, including the Tyrone Guthrie Center, Blue Mountain Center, Banff Colony, Ragdale, Virginia Center for the Arts, Jentel Foundation and La MaMa Umbria International Playwright Retreat. She has a B.A. in Music Composition from Vassar College, an M. A. in Creative Writing from Boston University, and a Doctor of Arts in English from SUNY-Albany. Barbara has composed music and lyrics for Heartsong, a musical for all ages she co-wrote with Lin Snider, for Urban Myth, a Boston band, and for many of her own plays.
New Play Exchange (NPX) link: https://newplayexchange.org/users/3713/barbara-blatner
Open Scene
By Christopher Arnold
Synopsis
A sullied theatre director agrees to an interview to clear their name. The director and the journalist come to the meeting with an agenda and baggage. The two engage in a game of verbal chess meets ping-pong working to reveal the truth.
Christopher Arnold
Christopher J. Arnold has nearly 40 years of experience as an actor, director, theatre teacher, and patron of the arts. He holds a BS in Acting from Illinois State University and an MFA in Directing from the University of Memphis. As an undergrad, he directed a student work selected for the Region 3 American College Theatre Festival; this honor led to his being invited to the Kennedy Center as a Student Director for the National Playwriting Contest. As a literary intern at Goodman Theatre (Chicago), he was the script manager for the world premiere of Blue Surge by Rebecca Gilman. For the last twenty years, Christopher has been a teacher and administrator at various schools in Illinois, but his journey began at Chicago Academy for the Arts, where he taught Jake from State Farm. As a new playwright, he wrote The Disruptors, a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference (1600 plays were submitted and 250 made it to the Semi-Final Round). A resident of LaGrange, Illinois, Christopher frequently attends theatre in the Chicago-land area and beyond.
NPC Land
By Drew Larson
Synopsis
A gamer and an iconic streamer meet for a philosophical conversation about society and reality. The streamer expects to change the gamer’s outlook, but the encounter may transform someone else entirely.
Drew Larson
Drew Larson recently moved back to St. Louis after 42 years away, the last 2 decades spent in Tokyo, teaching English and raising a family. Until his daughter relocated him to America, Drew hadn't considered wrighting plays, but he has a lot of pent-up sociopolitical commentary to get out, so he hopes to remain focused enough to actually finish more stories in the future. He is currently working on an adaptation of The Stranger (Albert Camus) for stage and screen.