Playwrights & Titles Revealed For The 2026 PlayLab Festival
The 2026 PlayLab selections are "Halfs" by Dominic Finnocchiaro, "Tennessee Williams Drank Here" by Kenneth Jones, and more.
Florida Repertory Theatre has announced the five new plays selected for its 2026 PlayLab Festival of New Works, scheduled for April 30 - May 3, 2026.
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.
In addition to the selected works, 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.
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 reading includes a talkback with the audience, where audiences become a part of the development process, and participate in a discussion about each play with its playwright, director and actors.
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 playwright's panel. A VIP all-access package for $185 includes all six admissions and a complimentary concessions item at each reading.
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.
More about the 2026 PlayLab Festival of New Works
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS DRANK HERE by Kenneth Jones
Thursday, April 30 @ 7 PM | Directed by Jason Parrish
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.
HALFS by Dominic Finocchiaro
Friday, May 1 @ 7 PM | Directed by Annette Trossbach
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.
THE LAST GREAT ESCAPE ARTIST by Stephen Spotswood
Saturday, May 2 @ 2 PM | Directed by Stuart Brown
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.
MONARCHS by Kelundra Smith
Saturday, May 2 @ 7 PM | Directed by Karen Stephens
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?
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 | Directed by Celine Rosenthal
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.
PLAYWRIGHTS' PANEL
Sunday, May 5 | 7 PM
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.
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