FronteraFest 2025 Short Fringe Four to five short pieces of 25 minutes or less Shows are listed in performance order.  PLEASE NOTE: Several of tonight’s pieces cover sensitive mental health issues including childhood abuse and attempted suicide. The psych ward and other misadventures, by Brian Dryer. An exploration of how a diagnosis can change the trajectory of your life, and how a sense of humor can save you. An at times poignant and funny look at what it takes to get through our most difficult periods while still feeling like ourselves. The Skinny, written and performed by Holly Hart Raiborn. Through four vignettes, Hart Raiborn’s story unfolds, blending both humor and the bittersweet realities of weight loss. The Skinny, revolving around Hart Raiborn’s lived experience with obesity and weight loss of over 80 pounds, reveals a universal human experience—once you change some­thing about your­self, you assume every­thing about you will be fixed, only to real­ize, you either learn to accept your­self, or have to con­tin­ue chas­ing changes. Augusta Stops the Show, by Helen Sneed. The third one-act play in a series written and performed by Helen Sneed. It’s the story of an accomplished woman with mental illness fighting to survive in New York City. Ma Heart, by Jack Darling. This is a story about how creative love can transform terror into wonder. When force and pain threaten to break a child's spirit, a grandmother's patient wisdom finds unexpected ways to keep their heart whole. It's about the small acts of imaginative kindness that help us survive—and how sometimes the most profound healing comes not through power, but through play.  A Thief Among Us. We're an improv troupe and we create a unique play for each performance. This play is a crime mystery. Five wealthy friends arrive at an island mansion for a lively weekend, but soon discover that one of them has stolen a priceless artifact from the mansion. The actors and audience don’t know who the thief is until the end, when they all guess before it is revealed. Clues are given throughout the play.