Ashland New Plays Festival to Take Place in October
Performances will run from October 15 to 19.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Oct. 10, 2025
The annual Fall Festival presented by the Ashland New Plays Festival is just around the corner, opening Wednesday, October 15. Join us for an unforgettable week of theatre filled with creativity, connection, and the magic of new plays! This year's four winning plays, chosen from 350 submissions, will be performed at SOU's Main Stage Theater.
Festival Passes & Tickets for ANPF's 2025 Fall Festival, October 15-19, are available now. Get a discount when you purchase tickets to all 4 plays with our Fall Festival Pass. Tickets will also be available at the door.
Playwriting Workshop:
ANPF will also be hosting a playwriting workshop open to the community, led by this year's Host Playwrights E.M. Lewis and Victor Lesniewski. Attendees will gain insights, enjoy in-class writing time, and learn tips and tricks from esteemed playwrights. The workshop takes place Saturday October 18th 10:00 am - 12:00 pm at the Hay-Patton Rehearsal Center, 200-298 Enders Alley, Ashland. You can register online at ashlandnewplays.org/tickets/playing-with-words-playwriting-workshop/ or in person.
Learn about the winning plays & meet the directors:
Tipping Point by Naya James Sonnad- Director Minita Gandhi
Synopsis: In the not-too-distant future, sea levels have reached uninhabitable heights-resulting in mass relocation efforts throughout the country. Just one week before the evacuation of their own town, a serendipitous event brings Sam and Amil together. They form a delightfully unlikely bond...but their connection is overshadowed by something greater. With little hope for the future, Sam has a well-thought-out plan to end her life. When optimist Amil attempts to intervene, they clash, love, fight, and feast, all while defending their positions on what ultimately makes life worth living-or saving.
Director: Minita Gandhi (she/they) Minita returns to ANPF, having previously been a winning playwright for ANPF (2024) and directed and acted for ANPF (2022). Minita is a member of The Kilroys and a 2022 New York Stage and Film Pfaelzer Award finalist; they are currently working on an opera commission as a member of Minnesota Opera Company's New Works cohort. Gandhi's work has been Jeff Recommended for best new work and solo-performance and was an official selection of the Ignition Festival, NNPN's National Conference, and The Anne Frank Social Justice Festival. Their work has been featured on NBC News and in The Atlantic. They can be seen as Latika on Hulu's Deli Boys and Shandra on CBS' The Bold and the Beautiful. @minitagandhi and www.minitagandhi.com
In Case of Bruising by Kamila Boga
Synopsis: Triplets Milo, Otis, and Della's lives are very different from those of other kids. They're too big for first grade, they don't know when they'll have food for lunch, and they don't go home if their father is in a bad mood. They know their Mama spends more time in the hospital than other mothers. They know she is sad again. One afternoon, the triplets meet Calico, an odd boy with an odd name. They accept him quickly. As Daddy and Mama get worse, each child finds new ways to cope...some safer than others.
Director: Melory Mirashrafi** (they/she) is an Iranian-American theater artist for live performance, music, and cultural works. As a director, dramaturg, and performer, Melory has developed or presented work with Artists Repertory Theatre (Racecar Racecar Racecar; Sapience); SpeakEasy Stage Company (English); Third Rail Repertory Theatre (Sanctuary City); Portland Opera (La Cenerentola); National Queer Theatre (Layalina); Gloucester Stage (Wish You Were Here) and more, praised by the Boston Globe for drawing "fine-tuned performances" that "land with the impact of emotional truth." Melory is a Stage Directors & Choreographers Fellow (Pittsburgh Public Theater/Portland Center Stage; Young Americans), and has been recognized by Opera America (Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize; Glück's Orfeo) and SpeakEasy Stage (Thomas Derrah Emerging Artist Award; English). Currently, Melory serves as Artistic & Producing Associate at Artists Rep in Portland. IG: @meloryjasmin
**SDC Associate Member
Pretend It's Pretend by Emma Watkins
Synopsis: Playgrounds are designed to be dangerous enough for experimentation, yet safe enough to allow experiments to fail without serious injury. This play is a playground. When Arthur is asked to design a bulletproof playscape for his daughter's old school, he confronts an unsettling reality: that the world does not operate by the same rules as playgrounds. At a time when dangers beyond the playground are overwhelmingly present, this is a story about the endurance of care. It is a play about learning, growing up, and grown-ups learning to play.
Director: Domenique Lozano* (she/her) is delighted to be working with ANPF. She's a West Coast-based director, actress and educator. She's worked as a Resident Artist with The American Conservatory Theatre and Associate Artist with California Shakespeare for 15 seasons. Directing credits include The Merry Wives of Windsor and The Wolves (SOU); Much Ado About Nothing (Marin Shakespeare); The Comedy of Errors and The Importance of Being Earnest (SPARC Theatre); The Caucasian Chalk Circle (St. Mary's College); A One Man Show, Orlando, Drawer Boy and Welcome Home Jenny Sutter (TheatreFirst); A Christmas Carol (ACT); Tartuffe, Curly Fries, a webisode series, and Men on Boats (UC Berkeley). Acting credits include work with Cal Shakes, A.C.T., Berkeley Repertory Theatre, CenterRep, Rogue Theater Company, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Translation work includes Schiller's Don Carlos (premiere New Strands Festival at ACT) and Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, (ACT).
*SDC Member
Better by Vince Gatton
Synopsis: In a high-security meat-processing plant in the Ozarks, middle-aged line workers Ruth and Donna have long since settled into a routine based on decades of shared resentments. But when a new figure shows up in town, cracks start to break wide open-between Ruth and Donna, and in the world high above their workstation. And what's up with all these Security alerts lately? Better is a darkly comic drama about the personal and systemic forces that conspire to resist change-often and especially change for the better.
Director: Jackie Apodaca (she/her) is professor and Chair of Theatre at Southern Oregon University, who has worked as an actor, director, and producer in theatre, film, and media, with companies such as Roundabout Theatre Company, Denver Center Theatre Company, National Geographic, Bag&Baggage, Island Shakespeare Festival, Modern Media (Head of Production), Venice Theatre Works (Associate Artistic Director), and Shakespeare Santa Barbara (Producing Director). Jackie is the author of the book Answers from the Working Actor (Routledge), and spent more than a decade at Backstage Newspaper, where she was a Contributing Editor. She earned her MFA from The National Theatre Conservatory under the guidance of RSC Founding Member Tony Church, and her BFA from UC Santa Barbara. Jackie joined ANPF in 2016 as Associate Artistic Director. For ANPF she has directed Our Utopia, Remains and Returns, The Night Climber, Go. Please. Go., Constellations, and The Bottle Tree, and played roles such as Viv in You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World, the title role in Sofonisba, and Beth in Cold Spring. Learn more about Jackie.
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