A SHORT PLAY FESTIVAL BY NEW MANIFEST THEATRE
Festival Dates: Sept 29 & Oct. 1 – Oct 4, 2025
Location: Ground Floor Theatre – Austin, TX
New Manifest Theatre is proud to announce the sixth annual Manifest Minifest Short Play Festival, taking place Sept. 29 and Oct. 1- 4, 2025 at Ground Floor Theatre in Austin, Texas.
This year’s festival pulls inspiration from Gil Scott-Heron’s song and poem, “The Revolution Will Not be Televised.” The event features four fully produced short plays that challenge systems, uplift marginalized voices, and spotlight activism.
In addition to the short play performances, New Manifest will host two theatre workshops and throw a party for the Austin arts community. The festival also marks the re-launch of the New Manifest Theatre Podcast, with a live taping on Oct. 1.
About the Plays
“This Will Change Your Life” by Mia King
Directed by Kathleen McDowell
Fueled by metaphor and laced with futuristic themes, “This Will Change Your Life” follows Sam as his two greatest passions begin to destroy each other.
“Revolution Island” by Christine Hoang
Directed by Andrea Nuñez
Four women from four different generations meet on land, water, and bridge. They discuss what life, peace, and revolution mean to them. In the end, they must make a choice to continue or change.
“Future is F*****” by Adrienne Dawes
Directed by Indiia Wilmott
“Future is F*****” is a dark sci-fi comedy set in a dystopian government office. With women nearly erased from her department, programmer Ronnie spends her lunch breaks secretly developing a device to prevent physical attacks. But when a passive-aggressive male intern accidentally triggers it, their world begins to glitch, exposing a disturbing new reality.
“Famous Last Words” by Kleo James Ryan
Directed by Adam Adolfo
“Famous Last Words” is a podcast hosted by stand up comic, Alan Finnegan, where he converses with traitors of the state and gives them one last chance to get their message out there. So what happens when fellow comedian, Joanie Robbins, becomes the latest in a long line of podcast guests?
About the Workshops
Tiny Revolutions: Reimagining the Stage for Everyone
An Embodied Workshop for Unlearning and Rebuilding Together
Led by Lacey Cannon Gonzales and Carl Gonzales
7 – 8:30 p.m.
Sept. 29
Ground Floor Theatre
This 90-minute workshop is a call to action for theater makers ready to move beyond the traditions and structures of white-centered theater. Through physical, ensemble-driven exercises, we will confront inherited habits, unlearn exclusionary practices, and create space for new ways of making theater that center equity, representation, and belonging.
Participants will leave with not only a renewed vision for the work they put on stage, but also practical, action-based tools to dismantle harmful “norms” in rehearsal rooms, casting calls, and creative processes.
Playwriting Workshop: Storytelling from the Margins
Led by Christine Hoang
4 – 5:30 p.m.
Oct. 4
Ground Floor Theatre
In this workshop, participants will shift the narrative by taking well-known supporting characters who have historically been in the margins and center them as the main characters of a new story. After quick introductions and a group exercise, participants will be given a writing prompt and focused time to write. They will then share their new stories out loud in a compassionate and encouraging room of fellow writers.Please bring pen and paper because we will handwrite our stories. Participants will not write on computers or phones in this workshop.
New Manifest Theatre Company 