Cast and Creative Team Set For World Premiere of CIRCLE FORWARD at  Gulfshore Playhouse

The cast and creative team has been announced for the World Premiere of Circle Forward, a new play by Deb Hiett, directed by Neel Keller. Featured in Gulfshore Playhouse's 2023 New Works Festival, this comedic, surprising, and uplifting new work takes audiences on a twist-filled journey where grief, hope, and the unexpected collide. 

Previews for Circle Forward will be January 27 and 28, 2026, with Opening Night on Thursday, January 29, 2026. The production will run through Sunday, March 1, 2026. 

Seventeen years after her husband's tragic death, Mia has built a life devoted to helping others cope with loss—traveling the country to share her story. But her hard-won stability is shaken when a teenager insists he is her late husband reincarnated. Expecting a hoax, Mia is stunned when the teen reveals details no stranger could possibly know. As the past pushes its way into the present, Circle Forward explores what happens when life refuses to follow the rules we've learned to rely on—and when healing arrives in the most unexpected form. 

The cast are all making their Gulfshore Playhouse debuts. Meeghan Holaway (Off-Broadway's Dinner With Friends, Broadway's Baby It's You) as Mia, Anthony Zambito (Off-Broadway's production Ghost of John McCain, Maltz Jupiter's Brighton Beach Memoirs) as Ethan, Anne Troup (Hartford Stage's The Engagement Party, Classic Stage Company) as Lexi, and Bekah Zornosa (Shakespeare Theatre's King Lear, Arena Stage's Sanctuary City) as Calista.

The production is led by an accomplished creative team, including playwright Deb Hiett who's play Miss Keller Has No Second Book had its world premiere at Gulfshore Playhouse in 2018. Her full-length plays include The Super Variety Match Bonus Round! and The Escape Thingy. As an actor, Deb can be seen in many TV shows and films, including “Barbie,” “The Office,” “Young Sheldon,” “Parks and Recreation,” “The Good Place. 

Director Neel Keller  is a champion of new works with directing credits including the world premieres of Dael Orlandersmith's Until The Flood and Spiritus, Kimber Lee's to the yellow house, Eliza Clark's Quack, Julia Cho's Office Hour, and Jennifer Haley's The Nether. Neel has directed at many theaters including The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Goodman Theatre, South Coast Repertory, and Williamstown Theatre Festival.

The creative team also includes scenic design by Baron E. Pugh (Gulfshore Playhouse The Lehman Trilogy, Off-Broadway's shadow/land), costume design by Kirche Leigh Zeile (Gulfshore Playhouse, Weston Theatre Company, AMAS, Syracuse Stage), lighting design by Graham Zellers (SoHo Rep, Theater for a New Audience, National Black Theater / Apollo Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theater (DC), Yale Repertory Theater), sound design by Christopher Colucci (Gulfshore Playhouse The Lady Demands Satisfaction, Skylight, An Enemy of the People, In The Next Room, and Moon Over Buffalo), casting by Michael Cassara, CSA, and stage management by Danny Kuenzel (White Christmas, Sweet Charity, Anything Goes).