A longtime Westmont theater professor helped create a process encouraging college students to develop short plays.

In the past 13 years, the Hive has yielded 120 plays by MFA playwrights from various universities, providing eclectic and diverse material for Westmont’s annual Fringe Festival.

Mitchell Thomas, who has taught acting, voice and movement for more than two decades, has now edited a volume featuring 20 of these works titled “The Future is Short” (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2026).

“The plays feel contemporary, alive and accessible to a new generation,” Thomas said. “I hope this collection makes it easier for theater students and their teachers to discover eclectic, diverse and exciting new plays for reading and performance, as well as inspire them to create and develop their own generative work and voices.”

During a recent sabbatical, Thomas narrowed the number of scripts and submitted them to publishers.

“This anthology specifically focuses on high school and college actors and features a delightful mix of comedic, dramatic, thrilling, coming-of-age, political, silly and just plain strange plays,” he said.

Reconnecting with playwrights from the last 13 years proved rewarding for Thomas.

“The anthology seeks to amplify the writers and their work — sharing some of this wonderful material with other theater programs and students across the world,” he said.

“It’s also allowed me to reflect on a generation of Westmont theater students and the remarkable contributions they’ve made to contemporary theater in our annual Fringe Festival,” he said.

In October, Westmont will feature six plays from “The Future is Short,” staged across a variety of locations in and around the theater spaces at the school.

“The evening will highlight the past, present and future of Westmont theater arts and our ongoing commitment to developing bold new work,” Thomas said.