PlayLab Festival of New Works

Announcing Playwrights & Titles for the 2026 PlayLab!

Florida Repertory Theatre, an Associate Member of the National New Play Network, is pleased to announce the five new plays selected for its 2026 PlayLab Festival of New Works, scheduled for April 30 – May 1, 2026.

PlayLab is an intensive weekend of rehearsals, readings, talk-backs, and development that brings professional playwrights, directors, actors, and audiences together to work on up to five new plays in a laboratory setting.

Each year, Florida Rep showcases a wide variety of voices, genres, and stories that mirror it’s mission to produce a wide variety of plays and musicals in its professional season. The PlayLab Festival began in 2014, and has become a popular event for audiences and artists alike.

The 2026 PlayLab selections were chosen from a pool of 99 plays that were submitted and read by a committee of volunteer play readers earlier this year.

The 2026 PlayLab selections are: Halfs by Dominic Finnocchiaro, Tennessee Williams Drank Here by Kenneth Jones, Monarchs by Kelundra Smith, The Last Great Escape Artist by Stephen Spotswood, and Ahoy-hoy by Jenny Stafford.

Florida Rep also congratulates the 2026 PlayLab Finalists: Murder at the Vicarage by Katie Forgette, Special Correspondent by Jacqueline Goldfinger, Neither Snow nor Rain by Erin Mallon, Salvage by Mary Lynn Owen, and Flicker by Graham Ray.

2026 PLAYLAB LINE-UP

Pricing & Tickets

• • • PlayLab Single Tix: $39 (linked below)
    • BUY NOW: All Access Pass: $175 Buy Now
    • BUY NOW: VIP All Access Pass: $185
      • (Includes one beer/wine/soda and one snack item for each performance)

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS DRANK HERE by Kenneth Jones
Thursday, April 30 @ 7 PM | Sponsored by Gail D. McClure

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, members of the Hardy family gather to fix the damage to their world-famous Mississippi restaurant. When progressive niece Samantha blows into town with audacious ideas about the future, she further shakes the foundation of the beloved institution. Buried secrets, dubious family mythology and bad behavior are all on the table, threatening the status quo of three generations of white, Deep South restaurateurs. A toothsome, booze-soaked, three-act drama about heritage, legacy, community and responsibility

• Buy Single Tickets

HALFS by Dominic Finocchiaro
Friday, May 1 @ 7 PM

For a brief moment, Ray was on the verge of music stardom, but then it all went up in flames. Ten years later and struggling just to survive, he’s forced to face his past and wrestle anew with his demons when his teenage half-brother Simon comes to stay with him. A play about family, new beginnings, and how we recover.

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THE LAST GREAT ESCAPE ARTIST by Stephen Spotswood
Saturday, May 2 @ 2 PM | Sponsored by Susan B. Herbel

Sidney Malter was once the world’s premiere escape artist. He broke out of Fort Knox, escaped Alcatraz, and dug his way out of his own grave. These days, he’s happy to pester the cable company from his fifth-floor apartment in the East Village. That is until seventeen-year-old Eleanor comes knocking on his door asking him to teach her the secrets of the trade. Except Eleanor’s got secrets, too. She has more at stake in these lessons than she’d like to admit. Soon Sidney does, too, and together they learn there’s some things you can’t escape.

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MONARCHS by Kelundra Smith
Saturday, May 2 @ 7 PM | Sponsored by Judy Weiner

It’s the fall of 1935 Mae and John Monarch join millions of African Americans who are leaving sharecropping in the South for bigger, brighter horizons in the North just before their second baby is due. However, life in Chicago is not what they thought it would be, and when their teenage son gets in trouble back home in Mississippi, they feel the strain on their marriage and their pocketbooks. However, with the help of some well-meaning nosy neighbors, they might just be okay. An ode to the Great Migration, will John and Mae hold steadfast to their dreams and each other, or will the harsh realities of a changing nation get the best of them?

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AHOY-HOY: A Play About That Relatable Feeling When Someone Else Invents the Telephone Three Hours Before You Do
by Jenny Stafford
Sunday, May 3 @ 4 PM

It’s 1876 and also, right now. Elisha Gray is this close to inventing the telephone. He’s brilliant, anxious, and ready to make history… if Alexander Graham Bell doesn’t beat him to it. Spoiler: He kind of does. Two oversized egos. One telephone. A battle of beards and bell tones. Ahoy-Hoy is a deliriously unhinged, unapologetic sprint through American ambition, innovation, and the absurd quest for legacy.

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PLAYWRIGHT’S PANEL
Sunday, May 3 @ 6:30 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.

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MORE ABOUT PLAYLAB

PlayLab Grand Sponsors
Lee Moore & Dee Whited

Playwright Sponsor
Darlene Arnold

Networking Sponsor
Naomi Bloom

Each year, Florida Repertory Theatre hosts the PlayLab Festival of New Works, a dynamic celebration of storytelling and theatrical innovation. Since its founding in 2014, PlayLab has become a vital part of our commitment to developing new voices and expanding the American theatre canon.

The annual festival features five new plays—a curated mix of works by both emerging talents and established playwrights—that reflect Florida Rep’s mission to produce a wide variety of compelling, thought-provoking theatre. Over four days, these plays are presented in staged readings, followed by talkbacks and audience conversations that help shape the work’s future. PlayLab also features a panel with all of the playwrights, where audience members get to learn more about their process and their work, and sometimes a keynote address.

What makes PlayLab unique is our focus on collaboration. We bring the playwrights to Fort Myers to work alongside professional directors, actors, and stage managers in a supportive, creative environment. These artists share their work, receive feedback, and often make meaningful revisions as part of the development process.

Florida Rep is proud Associate Member of the National New Play Network (NNPN), and the NNPN is a partner in helping nurture these voices and bring powerful new stories to the stage. Many plays and musicals showcased in PlayLab have received fully realized productions at Florida Repertory Theatre and other professional and educational institutions. To date, Florida Rep has given fully realized productions to eight plays featured in PlayLab.

Florida Rep strives to educate and empower our audiences to go out and talk about new plays, how they are created, and why they are important. PlayLabis an engaging and impactful experience for everyone involved, and we hope you join us for it.