Schreiber Shorts: IN THE END | Auditions

This year's theme is "In The End". After receiving an overwhelming number of submissions, we've chosen seven short plays, which reflect that all good things (and bad) must come to an end, or do they?!

2026 Schreiber Shorts Festival will take place August 20–23 at A.R.T./New York Theatre.

For your audition. Please bring a hard copy of your headshot and resume to auditions at T. Schreiber Studio, 151 W. 26th Street, 10th floor.

Synopsis
Jan, a consummately capable mother, wife, and daughter, is running out of patience waiting for her older, single lawyer sister Mary to collect herself before leaving the funeral home after their mother’s service. With family and other attendees all waiting for them in the parking lot, the two sisters confront unresolved feelings of guilt, resentment, fear, and grief surrounding their mother’s decline . . . and challenge each other’s right to retain the last record of her life: the funeral guestbook.

Roles
Mary: female, 40s-50s, any (all) ethnicity
Jan: female, 40s-50s, any (all) ethnicity

Synopsis
Joshua’s rough-edged heart skips a beat when his best friend Camden’s contact info flashes onto his phone screen. He was sure that sensitive, passionate Camden had blocked him after that drunken mistake he made with his girlfriend, Lizzy. But when he answers and Camden declares an “ice break”—their code for pausing an argument if there’s something serious to discuss—Joshua braces himself for the revelation Camden’s about to make. And when the conversation turns to the incident with Lizzy, Joshua confesses a secret of his own that brings the two friends even closer together.

Roles
Camden: Male, early 20s, any (all) ethnicity. quick to feel and prone to pacing.
Joshua: Male, early 20s, any (all) ethnicity. rough-edged, slow to speak.

Synopsis
Madison and Sam, former small town childhood friends, haven’t seen each other since high school graduation . . . until, that is, self-involved Madison rear-ends Sam one evening in a rush to get home after work. Madison begs Sam not to call the cops, desperate to avoid another encounter with the officer who just minutes earlier had ticketed her for reckless driving. When Sam takes pity on her, the two begin discussing their equally crappy jobs and shared feelings of frustration at still living with their parents. Yet the conversation takes a turn when Sam, bitter about the current state of the world, brings up politics. As Sam discloses their recent experience as a victim of a hate crime, and Madison reopens old wounds, clear lines of division between them emerge.

Roles
Madison: female, 20s, any (all) ethnicity. 23-year-old marketing assistant just trying to start the next phase of her life.
Sam: non-binary, 20s, any (all) ethnicity. 23-year-old waiter. They want change.
Elyse: female voiceover, any (all) age, any (all) ethnicity

Synopsis
The narrator recounts the intertwined moments in the evolution of her relationship with masturbation over the last decades. At 17 she describes feelings of discomfort and violent impulse while discussing sex with her skinny, hair flowing, fits easily on a child’s chair, more sexually mature best friend; later recalls her first encounter at 23 with a vibrator that could please her better than her boyfriend and her stoner roommate totally gets it; narrates her contention with sadomasochism, queer theory, and the language of bodily desire as a graduate student at 30; and wrestles with feeling like 40 is the end while confronting—and coming to terms with—her own enactment of self-love involving her mirror.  

Roles
Actor #1: ROLE IS CAST.
Actor #2: Multiple Roles: female, teens-40, any (all) ethnicity.

Synopsis
3.1 and 3.2—earlier and newer versions of each other—inhabit bodies for a conversation. As wise, playful 3.1 guides eager, naive 3.2 through the experience of this conversation, they discuss time as a function of a finite life span; the value of non-linear thinking; the nature of knock knock jokes; the appeal of lying; the impossibility of reconstituting that which is lost; and the benefit of slowness. And as 3.2 prepares to carry out their purpose of reassigning 3.1’s computing power, each learns more about what it means to be able to experience.

Roles
3.1: any (all) gender, appears older, any (all) ethnicity
3.2: any (all) gender, appears younger, any (all) ethnicity

Synopsis
It’s a bit perplexing that Judy, a serial dater, and Bob, a staunch detester of dating, find themselves on a date one evening. But even more confounding is that Judy has confused the Bob in front of her with a different Bob from an upcoming date . . . a Bob she matched with on a fetish website. As Judy and non-fetish Bob sort through the mix-up, they discover common ground: a shared love of referring to themselves in the third person and mutual levels of emotional intelligence. Perhaps, in the end, Judy and Bob will meet a happy ending…

Roles
Bob: male, mid-30s to late 50s, any (all) ethnicity.
Judy: female, mid-30s to late 50s, any (all) ethnicity.

Synopsis
Thomas, the ambassador of the waiting room, has been waiting a long time. So it falls to him to help Jacob adjust to the truth of the waiting room: that it is where the soul leaves the body after trauma, so it has time to recalibrate before going through one of two doors . . . one where the soul reenters the body or one where it transitions to the next phase of its journey. Sara, with only the latter door available to her, has been waiting for two years for her family to give up their misplaced hope for a miraculous coma recovery. And now, after a deadly car accident, Jacob waits with both doors available, traumatized by more than just the crash. As hidden truths come to light, Thomas’ extended wait may soon be over, and each soul moves toward their next chapter.

Roles
Sara: female, early 40s, any (all) ethnicity
Thomas: male, 50s to 70s, any (all) ethnicity
Jacob: male, late 20s to mid-30s, any (all) ethnicity