Missed Connections is an evening of six one-act plays—including three world premieres by CSUSM Theatre students. From grief and lust to ambition, racial profiling, and found family, these stories amuse, challenge, and surprise—ultimately asking how we find our way back to one another when connection feels lost.

*Denotes Student Written plays

Showtime Blues by France-Luce Benson
A frightening run-in with police forces a charming, breakdancing busker and a guarded commuter to confront their assumptions and fears about each other and discover what it means to truly be seen. 

*Snowed In by Saturn Salama
Separated as infants, two brothers meet for the first time at their family’s remote cabin following their parents’ death. Themes: displacement, identity, isolation. 

*Monster(s) by Bjorn Huff
After encountering a terrifying creature in the woods, a woman struggles to convince her partner—and herself—that the danger she faces is real.

Interviewing Miss Davis by Laura Maria Censabella
Hours before receiving a lifetime achievement award,  and on the eve of her daughter publishing a tell-all book, the illustrious film legend Bette Davis learns that her beloved personal assistant is leaving her, and proposes an ambitious, young hopeful  to take her place.

*Waiting Room by Jacob Mendenhall
Two unnamed figures linger in a liminal space, waiting to be fully realized. Themes: identity, existence, and what it means to become.

The Boor by Anton Chekhov
A histrionic widow clings fiercely to her grief—until a brash stranger arrives to collect a debt left by her late husband. What begins as a heated confrontation erupts into an unexpected reckoning with desire.