The Season

Grand Sponsors: Lee Moore & Dee Whited
Playwright Sponsor Darlene Arnold
Networking Sponsor Naomi Bloom

Florida Repertory Theatre’s PlayLab Festival of New Works takes place May 1– 4 in the Historic Arcade Theatre. The 2025 PlayLab lineup includes five plays reflecting Florida Rep’s mission to produce a wide variety of work by emerging and well-established writers.

Tickets are $35 per reading and $25 for panel session, or $170 for an all-access pass that includes admission to all five readings plus the playwright’s panel. Upgrade your all-access with our VIP package which includes all readings/panel PLUS complimentary concessions at each reading for $185.

2025 PlayLab Festival Line-up

WHY WE GO TO FLORIDA
by Kenneth Jones
Thursday, May 1 | 7 PM

In the dead of winter, Henry flies from New York City to Southwest Florida to offer condolences at the funeral of a man he never knew — his late partner’s father. But as the booze flows at the wake, will the widow, Constance, and her grown daughter, Amy, raise a glass to the unexpected guest? Set in 2012, somewhere between the dusk of the worst days of the AIDS crisis and the dawn of marriage equality, Why We Go to Florida is a humor-laced drama exploring guilt and grief, perceptions and prejudices, show tunes, silence and survival.

Kenneth Jones returns to PlayLab after his appearance in the 2024 Festival with the romantic comedy, Ten Minutes on a Bench.

DALLOWAY: Summer at Bourton
by Lindsay Joelle
Friday, May 2 | 7 PM | Sponsored by Judy Weiner

Clarissa, a clever Victorian teen, is on a mission to save her family from financial ruin by auditioning a string of wealthy potential suitors. But when she falls for a daring, free-spirited suffragette, everything she thought she knew about love and life is upended. Dalloway is a fresh, delightfully feminist love story blending humor, heart, and romance in a pop-period prequel to Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.

SWIPED
by Samara Siskind
Saturday, May 3 | 2 PM

Are first impressions ever reliable? A young black man strikes up a conversation with a young white woman in the food court of a suburban shopping mall. What she initially believes to be a random pick-up attempt becomes much more complicated. It turns out they’re not strangers after all. Swiped is a thrilling drama that explores themes of privilege and implicit bias where characters fight to form human connections as they confront their pasts and their own ingrained prejudices.

1999
by Stacey Isom Campbell
Saturday, May 3 | 7 PM

Emma is a renowned film producer and college professor. When a student complains about her decision to include a film produced by a #MeToo-outed man in the course curriculum, Emma must interrogate her own guilt for something she did in 1999. The play explores the intersection of three women’s lives in the wake of trauma and grapples with what to do with the films of the 90s in light of recent sexual allegations, posing questions about artistic production, academic freedom/danger, and power.

LEMONADE
A Fresh Pressed Musical by Jesse Corbin
Sunday, May 4 | 4 PM | Sponsored by Catherine Grega & Douglas Albert

Lemonade is a zesty coming-of-age musical about friendship, loss, and self-acceptance. Fifteen-year-old Timmy and his best friend Squeeze are gearing up for another summer of running their beloved lemonade stand—a tradition they began with Timmy’s dad before he passed. But with high school on the horizon, Timmy starts to feel pressure to move on from what some see as “kid stuff.” When a local contest for young entrepreneurs is announced, the duo is reinvigorated—until they face unexpected competition from Katie, a wealthy neighbor and the school’s reigning “it” girl. Determined to win, Katie launches a flashy Kookie Kart directly across the street, sparking a fierce rivalry that threatens the stand, their friendships, and their futures. As secrets come to light and tensions rise, each teen must confront their insecurities—soon discovering they may not be as different as they once believed.

PLAYWRIGHT’S PANEL
Sunday, May 4 | 7 PM

Following the final reading of the 2025 PlayLab, audiences will hear from all of the festival playwrights in a roundtable discussion. Moderated by Associate Artistic Director, Jason Parrish, the playwrights will talk about their plays, their work as writers, and what it takes to make a living as a playwright in the American Theatre. The panel includes special guests from the literary world and the National New Play Network! Join us for this one-of-a-kind gathering of professional, working playwrights.