Returning for its third year, Social Justice Shorts 2026 features new social justice-focused short plays and monologues, running from June 5-7 at the Jefferson Avenue Mission (2241 Jefferson).
The co-production between Bread and Roses Missouri and A Call to Conscience Interactive Theater for Social Change features six new short plays and three monologues from playwrights across the country compiled into a single program. Unlike years past, when the bill was split over multiple days, this year’s program will play in full each at the three performances.
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Festival producers Emily Kohring, executive artistic director at Bread and Roses Missouri, and Fannie Belle Lebby, artistic director at A Call to Conscience, note that the plays highlight some of the most pressing issues on people’s minds.
“It’s one thing to read a newspaper article or scroll through your feed and see the things that are happening in the world and get concerned about them, but it’s a different experience when you’re in the theater, and you feel it viscerally through the actors and the performances,” Kohring says. “We think it’s really important to get these issues on a stage in a way that builds empathy and lets you really feel what real humans are going through.”
For Lebby, she also sees putting on these plays as a way to continue her activism and support protests around these issues from a wide variety of voices.
“I use this as my way of protest, because I am a little too old to be lying in front of Highway 40 or beating the pavement with a sign the way I used to when I was younger,” Lebby says. “Emily and I both use the arts as our way of protesting certain injustices. By having this Social Justice Shorts festival, we get to hear different voices from across the country, including St. Louis, about the issues that are plaguing their community.”
Each submitted work was required to be under 10 minutes in length, feature three or fewer actors, and deal with a relevant social justice issue, whether that’s labor rights, reproductive rights, ageism, censorship, mental health, or immigration, which was a particularly hot topic among this year’s more than 190 submissions. During the selection process, Kohring, Lebby, and their team of readers take great care to make sure they’re covering a variety of different issues and types of theater pieces, as well as being mindful of letting the program get too heavy.
This year’s program features one St. Louis–based playwright, Gregory Carr, and each of the plays and monologues will be performed by local actors. Because these plays deal with specific issues around identity—including race, gender, sexuality and culture—casts need to reflect those experienced. Kohring and Lebby are often using all of their resources to find the right people for each role. For one piece, that meant pulling in some very notable local talentt Pacia Elaine Anderson, the City of St. Louis’ Poet Laureate, will be performing the monologue One Hundred and Seven Pounds by J. Lois Diamond.
Kohring and Lebby both see Social Justice Shorts as a great opportunity, not only for the playwrights and actors, but also to drive important conversations around the issues highlighted at the festival.
“I love to hear the conversations that happen after the play, and I hope that there are great conversations,” Kohring says. “To me, that’s when theater is successful, if in the bar after or on the car ride home, you have a great conversation about what you saw on stage and it challenges you and makes you think differently.”
