THE WONDER SHOW to Launch GableStage's New Family Theatre Series

Saturdays at GableStage come alive with puppets, music and play beginning October 3, 2026 at noon, when the company launches its new Family Theatre Series with A Dose of Fun: The Wonder Show!.

Featuring five Saturday performances throughout the 2026/27 season (October 3 and December 12, 2026; January 30, March 27 and May 22, 2027), the series invites families to enjoy an interactive theatrical adventure at the Wolfson Family Theatre, located at the historic Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. Immediately following each performance, the cast will lead a puppet-making workshop, giving each child a puppet friend to take home. Tickets are $5 per person and include the performance and workshop.

In the Realm of Wonder, a shy young chef is sent on a quest to make Dragon Soup before nightfall. Along the way, she meets knights, pirates, mermaids and a not-so-scary dragon, discovering that bravery does not mean being fearless, it means trying anyway. Created for the young and young at heart, The Wonder Show! invites audiences to laugh, play and use their imaginations every step of the way.

An original GableStage commission, The Wonder Show! is a devised theatre piece created and directed by Ivan Lopez in collaboration with its cast: Elizabeth Chavez, Luis Diaz and Maleeha Naseer, all FIU Theatre alumni. Together, the three performers bring 13 puppets to life, with original music by Hola*Hi.

Under Lopez’s direction, the ensemble developed the show through improvisation, storytelling and experimentation with puppetry, allowing characters and relationships to emerge in the rehearsal room. Drawing on the anything-can-happen mischief of Pee-wee’s Playhouse, the warmth and curiosity of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and the distinctive puppet personalities of Shari Lewis’s Lamb Chop’s Play-Along, the company created a world that welcomes silliness, takes children’s feelings seriously and includes the audience in the fun.

A Miami-based playwright, performer and Professor of Theatre at Florida International University, Lopez brings more than a decade of experience performing in pediatric healthcare settings through Healthy Humor and the Big Apple Circus hospital clowning program, including extensive work at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.

“Creating The Wonder Show! has been an incredibly joyful and collaborative process,” said Lopez. “We built the play together in the rehearsal room, allowing the personalities of these lovable puppet characters to emerge through improvisation and play, while trusting the process and each other. I think that same spirit of playfulness and discovery is at the heart of the show.”

“There is nothing more rewarding than having a genuinely good time at your job. It is such a blessing to get to have fun, be goofy, and hear the audience laughing right along with us,” said Maleeha Naseer, GableStage company member who brings four distinct puppet characters to life in The Wonder Show!. “There is something magical that happens when people are allowed to get silly and play, and The Wonder Show! brings that out of us performers and the audience alike.”

At GableStage, that spirit of play continues after the performance with the Build-Your-Own-Puppet workshop. Led by the cast, the workshop gives children a chance to explore puppetry themselves, invent a character and keep the storytelling going.

The Wonder Show! is the inaugural production of GableStage’s innovative arts-in-healthcare initiative, A Dose of Fun, and the newest addition to its education and outreach programs. 

“Like a light switched on in a dark room, there is a special magic that is carried throughout this production,” said Laura Guerrero, GableStage Artistic & Education Programming Director. “At the very heart of The Wonder Show! is that anyone can be brave, kind, and creative. Whether you are 8 or 80, there are opportunities for discovery and delight in each and every hand-crafted moment. The fact that we can bring this program not only to local families, but to those in our community with children who are dealing with the unimaginable, it is a unique and special privilege.”

Launched in 2025/26 to bring joyful, interactive theatre to children facing serious illness, long hospital stays and limited access to the arts, the initiative reached more than 1,000 children and family members through hospital residencies, school visits and community performances. This year, it expands through year-round residencies at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital and Holtz Children’s Hospital, the new Family Theatre Series, and BedSide Play!, a specially adapted theatre experience that brings actors, puppets and music directly to children unable to leave their hospital rooms. Together, these offerings aim to reach more than 3,000 children and family members, making theatre a source of joy, connection and relief both within the hospital and beyond it.