Gulfshore Playhouse to Present the Inaugural NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL: A Celebration of New Voices in American Theatre

Gulfshore Playhouse will launch of the Next Wave Festival, a dynamic new play festival showcasing cutting-edge theatrical voices from across the country. Taking place January 31 - February 1, 2026, the festival, sponsored by Moran Wealth Management, will feature three bold new works, conversations with celebrated playwrights and directors, and exclusive events for festival passholders.

Plays selected for the Next Wave Festival include Every Anne Frank by Majkin Holmquist and directed by Kareem Fahmy, The Frozen Ones by Stella Ferra and directed by Amy Marie Seidel, and Fundraiser by Brent Askari and directed by Kristen Coury.  

Beginning in 2012, Gulfshore Playhouse hosted the New Works Festival which saw blind play submissions from playwrights across the country. After the move to the Baker Theatre and Education Center, the reenvisioning of the festival has now shifted to a curated collection of plays. All the readings and events will take place over one weekend while the play Circle Forward by Deb Hiett will have its world premiere. Circle Forward was featured in the 2023 New Works Festival. 

“It is exciting to see what our New Works Festival, which began in 2012 and relied on unsolicited manuscripts, has become,” says Founder, CEO and Producing Artistic Director Kristen Coury. “This rebrand to the Next Wave Festival is concurrent with the curation of well-known playwrights looking for an opportunity to develop their play and the platforming of this festival at the height of season, so more people can participate, including industry professionals."

“I couldn't be more excited about the three brilliant plays we've got lined up for the inaugural year of this new iteration of our Festival. They are unique, thought-provoking, and important pieces that we are honored to play a role in developing,” says Gulfshore Playhouse Line Producer Audrey Zielenbach. “And a huge part of that is inviting you, the audience, into the room to hear them read aloud, some for the very first time. Workshops and staged readings allow us to really hone in on the script without all the bells and whistles of a full production, but you can still expect to experience the same caliber of talent you'd find on our stages. Your reactions and your insight are invaluable to the writers as they continue to shape their play for future productions on stages across America.”

The Next Wave Festival highlights Gulfshore Playhouse's continued commitment to developing new plays and amplifying innovative storytellers whose work challenges, inspires, and reimagines the landscape of American theatre.

Festival Passes which include all three readings, two social events, and a dedicated lounge area with light refreshments and WIFI are available for $175 with options to add on tickets to Circle Forward and The Mousetrap over the weekend. Discounts for passes are available for patrons under 40 and Theatrical Industry professionals. Single tickets for readings will go on sale at a later date pending availability. To purchase passes, visit . For discounted passes, please call 239-261-7529.

World-Class Productions Featuring Bold New Plays

This year's festival presents staged readings and talkbacks for three original works selected for their daring perspectives and resonant themes.

Every Anne Frank
By Majkin Holmquist | Directed by Kareem Fahmy
Performance & Playwright Q&A: Saturday, January 31 at 12:00PM

A powerful exploration of history, identity, and authority, Every Anne Frank follows Majkin, a white public-school teacher struggling to connect her students with Anne Frank's legacy; Destiny, a Latina eighth-grader navigating a world of systemic bias; and Mrs. B, a principal pressured into punitive leadership models. Holmquist's nuanced storytelling reveals how cycles of betrayal and power repeat themselves in everyday American life.

The Frozen Ones
By Stella Ferra | Directed by Amy Marie Seidel
Performance & Playwright Q&A: Saturday, January 31 at 3:00PM

In this haunting and imaginative drama, Robert chooses to unfreeze his wife Marian (cryogenically preserved due to a degenerative disease) on the eve of his 59th birthday. Wrestling with memory, grief, and a startling 30-year age gap, the couple faces a mysterious knocking that forces them to confront what time, illness, and love have left behind. The Frozen Ones blends emotional intensity with speculative intrigue.

Fundraiser
By Brent Askari | Directed by Kristen Coury
Performance & Playwright Talkback: Sunday, February 1 at 12:00PM

A sharply comedic unraveling of relationships and social dynamics, Fundraiser follows two couples from different economic backgrounds who attend a private-school fundraiser only to clash over a silent auction item. The evening spirals as class tensions, personal histories, and long-hidden truths come to light. Askari's wit and insight offer a timely examination of privilege, pride, and the price of appearances.

Festival Events & Community Engagement

The Next Wave Festival pass includes exclusive gatherings designed to bring artists, supporters, and the community together:

- Festival Passholder Cocktail Reception - Saturday, January 31 (5PM)
- Festival Passholder Breakfast - Sunday, February 1 (9AM)
- Festival Passholder Playwright Panel - Sunday, February 1 (10:30AM, Moran Mainstage)

These events offer festival attendees a rare opportunity to engage directly with the creative minds behind the featured works.

About the Artists

Brent Askari is thrilled to return to Gulfshore Playhouse. He received the National New Play Network's Smith Prize for Political Theater for The Refugees, which premiered here in 2024. His play Andy Warhol in Iran premiered at Barrington Stage Company, won the Berkshire Theatre Critics Award for Best New Play, and was later produced at Northlight Theatre in Chicago, City Theatre in Pittsburgh, and Mosaic Theater in Washington, DC. His comedy Advice enjoyed a rolling world premiere at Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, B Street Theatre in Sacramento, and Florida Repertory Theatre in Fort Myers. Brent has written for HBO's New Writers Project and penned screenplays for Paramount Pictures, Marvel Films, and MTV. He is an ensemble member of Mad Horse Theatre Company and an affiliate artist with

the National New Play Network. He also narrated the nationally syndicated television show Animal Science, which received a Daytime Emmy nomination.

Kristen Coury is the Founder, CEO and Producing Artistic Director of Gulfshore Playhouse. She founded the Playhouse in 2004, and shortly thereafter started producing with no staff and virtually no funding. Under her leadership, the Playhouse has grown to a staff of 83 people with an annual budget of $14.5M with no long-term debt.

Kristen led the charge to create the iconic $75M state-of-the-art Baker Theatre and Education Center at the gateway to downtown Naples, which opened on November 1, 2024. As part of this project, Coury ignited one of the largest public/private partnerships in City of Naples history, initiating a land-swap with the Wynn family and, together, donating over an acre of land to the City upon which to build a public parking garage.

While in New York, she worked on Broadway for Walt Disney Theatrical Productions, and for Andrew Lloyd Webber's company, The Really Useful Group, and made her feature film directorial debut with an independent film entitled Friends and Family. Kristen is also a frequent investor in Broadway productions, most recently A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical.

Kristen has directed nearly 50 productions for the Playhouse. Recently, she directed the final professional production in the Norris Center, the musical She Loves Me, the inaugural show in the Baker Theatre and Education Center, Anything Goes, and Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

Kristen was named one of the Men and Women of the Year by Gulfshore Life in 2013 and again in 2024. She also received the Murray Hendel Award for Civic Achievement in 2023. She served two terms on the board of Theatre Communications Group, the national advocacy group for professional theatre and is currently a member of the board of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce. Kristen is very honored to have been appointed to Florida Council for arts and culture by Senate President Kathleen Passidomo. She was named one of the Top 100 Most Influential Business Leaders in Collier County for the last four years.

Kareem Fahmy is an NYC-based director and playwright from Sherbrooke, Quebec. He has directed and developed plays at theatres including MCC, Atlantic Theatre Company, The New Group, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New Dramatists, The Civilians, Writers Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Geva Theatre, Pioneer Theatre, The Magic Theatre, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Berkeley Rep, The Grand Theatre and many more. Upcoming: the world premiere of Habib Yazdi's Ajax at Boise Contemporary Theatre. Kareem's plays A Distinct Society, American Fast (winner of the Woodward/Newman Award) and Dodi & Diana have been produced Off-Broadway and at theatres across the US. Alumnus of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Phil Killian Directing Fellowship, the National Directors Fellowship at The O'Neill, The Old Globe's Classical Directing Fellowship, and more. Kareem was named a Rising Leader of Color by Theater Communications Group. MFA in Theatre Directing from Columbia University. www.kareemfahmy.com 

Stella Ferra (she/her) is an Australian born, New Jersey raised, and New York City based playwright, actor, and dramaturg. Stella graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts' Drama program, where she trained at Playwrights Horizons Theatre School, Stonestreet Studios, and Stella Adler. She received an honors degree for her thesis, "'And Yet I Rage Alone, And Cannot Quit My Rage': A Rumination on the Lives of Madwomen.'" Her play, The Frozen Ones, directed by Amy Marie Seidel and starring Robert Sean Leonard was presented last year in an NYC industry reading. She is currently in production for her short film ball & socket, directed by Ben Cook. In her work, she is passionate about crafting compelling stories of women who challenge the script of gender. 

Majkin Holmquist is a playwright originally from the Smoky Valley region in central Kansas. Her plays include two headed calf (2025 Kilroy's List), Stargazers (2024 Off-Broadway production with Page 73), and Tent Revival (2023 digital production with Paula Vogel's Bard at the Gate at the McCarter Theatre Center). Other plays include Vespers, Every Anne Frank, and Quickmatch. Her work has been developed at New York Stage and Film, Woodshed Collective, Page 73, Ucross, and Roundabout Theatre Company. She has developed a screenplay with Little Lamb Productions and was commissioned by Cleveland Playhouse. Majkin was the 2023 Playwriting Fellow and the 2024 Tow Playwright-in-Residence at Page 73. She is currently a Lecturer in Playwriting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. She holds a BA from Bethany College and an MFA in Playwriting from the Yale School of Drama.

Amy Marie Seidel is a director, dramaturg, and devisor. She is a Company Member at Tectonic Theater Project, where she has traveled the world to research and create new works of theater. She has developed numerous Tectonic productions, including Here There Are Blueberries (La Jolla Playhouse, Summer 2022 and recipient of the Trish Vradenburg Prize), Seven Deadly Sins (Drama Desk), Treatment & Data, Three Hotels, and Laramie: A Legacy. Outside of Tectonic, Amy was Assistant Director on Paradise Square (10 TonyⓇ nominations), and she recently directed Eternal Flamer! at the Fresh Fruit Festival to shining reviews. Her work has also been seen at The Public Theater, Theatre Row, Berkeley Repertory Theater, The James M. Nederlander Theatre in Chicago, Miami New Drama, Theater J, and the Gerald W. Lynch Theater. Other plays in development include A Sacred Song of Thebes, A Clean Slate, and Falling Forward. All humans are artists. www.amymarieseidel.com

About the Next Wave Festival