SEEKING SUBMISSIONS FOR THE 2017 PLAYLAB FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS & EMERGING VOICES

FORT MYERS, FLA – Florida Repertory Theatre, an Associate Member of the National New Play Network, is seeking submissions for its 2017 PlayLab Festival slated for April 27 – 30. The fourth annual festival is an intensive weekend of rehearsals, readings, talkbacks, and development that brings playwrights, directors, and actors together to hone five new plays in a laboratory setting.

The 2017 PlayLab Festival deadline for submissions is Monday, November 28, 2016. The theatre’s reading committee will evaluate submitted plays through the month of December and plans to announce the five selected plays in early 2017. Each playwright will be brought in to work on her/his play with a company of actors and a director in preparation for up to two public readings. Each showcase play will be considered for a full production in Florida Rep’s 2017-2018 Season.

Florida Rep will accept the first 75 submissions from playwrights and agents through 5pm on Monday, November 28, 2016. Those interested should submit digital copies of plays that have not yet had a full production to submissions@floridarep.org. Florida Rep will consider plays looking for Rolling World Premiere partners with NNPN member theatres. Submitters will receive a confirmation of their submission. Florida Rep hopes to announce the five showcase plays and playwrights by January 13th or sooner.

The 2016 Play Festival, held in April and May 2016, included four submitted titles, A Pier at the Edge of the World by Nathan Cann, In Vivo by Eric Coble, Echo Location by Carter Lewis, and Doublewide by Stephen Spotswood. Also showcased in 2016 was A Dream within a Dream: The Spirit of Poe by Christopher T. Parks, a play Florida Rep commissioned for its Theatre for Young Audiences series.

Stephen Spotswood’s play, Doublewide, was selected for a world premiere, and the production will be running in Florida Rep’s ArtStage Studio Theatre during the 2017 PlayLab Festival. Additionally, the world premiere production of A Dream within a Dream: The Spirit of Poe – which is now on tour throughout southwest Florida – will have a public performance during the festival weekend.

Florid Rep is proud to note that for three consecutive years it has chosen a play and playwright from its PlayLab Festival for a world premiere production in its mainstage season. In 2016 Mark Shanahan’s Feydeau adaptation, The Dingdong, had its first regional production at Florida Rep (which opened two weeks after the world premiere Off Broadway at The Pearl Theatre Company); in 2015 Daryl Lisa Fazio’s hard-hitting story of sisterhood in uncertain times, Split in Three, became Florida Rep’s first mainstage world premiere production. Stephen Spotswood’s play, Doublewide, will have its world premiere April 24 to May 14, 2016 in Florida Rep’s ArtStage Studio Theatre.

Florida Rep’s 2016-2017 Season is now playing in the Historic Arcade Theatre and the Artstage Studio Theatre.  The remaining season includes Best of Enemies by Mark St. Germain (ArtStage Studio Theatre; Nov. 15 – Dec. 15, 2016), Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap (Historic Arcade Theatre; Nov. 29 – Dec. 18, 2016), The House of Blue Leaves by John Guare (Historic Arcade Theatre; Jan. 3 – 25, 2017), Shear Madness by Paul Portner (ArtStage Studio Theatre; Jan. 17 – Mar. 12, 2017), Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird adapted by Christopher Sergel (Historic Arcade Theatre; Feb. 14 – Mar 8, 2017), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn, Rebecca Feldman, and Rachel Sheinkin (Historic Arcade Theatre; Mar. 21 – Apr. 12, 2017), and Doublewide by Stephen Spotswood (ArtStage Studio Theatre Apr. 11 – May 14, 2017).  Subscriptions and single tickets are available at www.FloridaRep.org or through the box office at 239-332-4488.

Florida Repertory Theatre performs in the Historic Arcade Theatre and the ArtStage Studio Theatre on Bay St. between Jackson & Hendry Streets in the Fort Myers River District. Visit Florida Rep online at www.FloridaRep.org, and by following the company on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.

PLAYLAB PRODUCTION HISTORY

Inaugural PlayLab Festival 2014
The Exceptionals by Robert Clyman
Mr. Perfect by William Missouri Downs
Split in Three by Daryl Lisa Fazio
Rainbow’s Return by Stephen Mo Hanan
Journey to Oz by Christopher T. Parks (commissioned by Florida Rep)

2nd Annual PlayLab Festival 2015
Where I Dwell by Cynthia Babak
The Firestorm by Meridith Friedman
The Dingdong by Mark Shanahan; adapted from Le Dindon by Georges Feydeau.
J’oy Vey by Lojo Simon and Anita Yellin Simons

3rd Annual PlayLab Festival 2016
A Pier at the Edge of the World by Nathan Cann
In Vivo by Eric Coble
Echo Location by Carter Lewis
Doublewide by Stephen Spotswood
A Dream within a Dream: The Spirit of Poe by Christopher T. Parks (commissioned by Florida Rep)