Each spring, Florida Repertory Theatre hosts an intensive weekend of rehearsals, readings, talkbacks, and development that brings professional playwrights, directors, actors, and audiences to Fort Myers. It’s called the PlayLab Festival of New Works. This year's selected works 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.
The festival runs April 30 to May 3.
MORE INFORMATION:
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 readers earlier this year.
Each reading includes a talkback where audiences discuss the play with its playwright, director and actors, thereby becoming part of the development process.
Tickets are $39 per reading, or patrons may take advantage of an all-access pass for $175 that includes admission to all five readings plus the playwrights' panel. A VIP all-access package for $185 includes all six admissions and a complimentary concessions item at each reading. For more information or to purchase tickets visit floridarep.org or call 239-332-4488 or toll-free at 877-787-8053.
In addition to announcing the works that have been juried into this year’s PlayLab Festival, Florida Rep extended congratulations to 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.
Florida Repertory Theatre is an associate member of the National New Play Network.
More about 'Tennessee Williams Drank Here,' by Kenneth Jones
Plot: 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.
Day and Time: Thursday, April 30 at 7 p.m.
Director: Jason Parrish
More about 'Halfs,' by Dominic Finocchiaro
Plot: 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.
Day and Time: Friday, May 1 at 7 p.m.
Director: Annette Trossbach
More about ‘The Last Great Escape Artist,’ by Stephen Spotswood
Plot: 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 17-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 are some things you can't escape.
Day and Time: Saturday, May 2 at 2 p.m.
Director: Stuart Brown
More about ‘Monarchs,’ by Kelundra Smith
Plot: 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 OK. In 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?
Day and Time: Saturday, May 2 at 7 p.m.
Director: Karen Stephens
More about ‘Ahoy-Hoy, A Play About That Relatable Feeling When Someone Else Invents the Telephone Three Hours Before You Do,’ by Jenny Stafford
Plot: 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.
Day and Time: Sunday, May 3 at 4 p.m.
Director: Celine Rosenthal
About the Playwrights’ Panel on Sunday, May 3 at 7 p.m.
Following the final reading, audiences will hear from all of the festival playwrights in a roundtable discussion. 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.
More about Florida Repertory Theatre
Founded in 1998, Florida Repertory Theatre is a fully professional, live theatre in the Fort Myers River District. Performances are held in the Historic Arcade Theatre and the ArtStage Studio Theatre on Bay Street between Jackson and Hendry.
Florida Rep is an associate member of the National New Play Network in Washington, D.C., the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champion the development, production, and continued life of new plays, and has worked closely with the network to develop relationships with playwrights, other theatre professionals, and theatres that champion new works.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
