Florida Rep Announces 2017 PlayLab Titles and Playwrights

Florida Repertory Theatre's 2017 PlayLab Festival of new plays and emerging voices will feature six new play readings, two world premiere productions, including last year's festival winner, "Doublewide", and a keynote address from National New Play Network Executive Director, Nan Barnett.

The PlayLab Festival runs April 27-30 in both of Florida Rep's venues, and includes works by noted playwrights, Mark Brown ("Around the World in 80 Days"), Mark St. Germain ("Best of Enemies"; "Camping with Henry and Tom"), and Daryl Lisa Fazio, whose play, "Split in Three", had its world premiere at Florida Rep in 2015 after winning the inaugural PlayLab Festival.

The 4th Annual PlayLab will feature "Love, the Cracksman" by Mark Brown, "SMOKE" by Gloria Bond Clunie, "The Flower Room" by Daryl Lisa Fazio, "Damascus" by Bennett Fisher, "We Will Not be Silent" by David Meyers, and "George Washington's Teeth" by Mark St. Germain. The selected plays were chosen from an open call for submissions to affiliated artists with the National New Play Network and other literary agencies.

The plays featured in the festival were among 75 submissions read by a committee of 40 Florida Rep staffers, board members, affiliated artists, and volunteers. The finalists were "How to Catch Creation" by Christina Anderson, "Flying" by Sheila Cowley, and "Beggar at the Feast" by Fengar Gael.

Also as part of the 2016 festival, audiences will have the opportunity to see Florida Rep's National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere production of "Doublewide" by Stephen Spotswood, that was read in the 2016 festival. Playing in the ArtStage Studio Theatre April 11 - May 14 "Doublewide" is a heartfelt, honest, and often humorous story of one family's pursuit of the American Dream. The production is the centerpiece of the 2017 PlayLab and a talkback will be held to follow the 8PM performance on Saturday, April 29.

Commissioned by Florida Rep and read as part of last year's PlayLab Festival, the world premiere production of "A Dream within a Dream: the Spirit of Poe" by Christopher T. Parks is currently on tour to schools and venues throughout Southwest Florida. The play will be performed as part of the festival on Sunday, April 30 at 11AM. the haunting look at the life of Edgar Allan Poe is appropriate for grades 6 and up.

PlayLab tickets are $12 per reading or $60 for an All-Access Pass to see all six new works. Admission to the keynote address is $12, and the performance of "A Dream within a Dream: the Spirit of Poe" is $10. Both the keynote address and the "Poe" performance are free with the purchase of an All-Access Pass. Tickets to "Doublewide" are priced at $25-$52, and can be purchased separately.

Each reading will include a talk-back and a discussion with the playwrights, directors, and actors. The audience feedback is instrumental in the development process and helps the playwright perfect each script and helps guide Florida Rep as it decides whether to include one of these plays in its 2017-2018 season.

The festival will feature work from many of Florida Rep's ensemble artists, professionals from across the state of Florida, and a number of local actors familiar to Southwest Florida audiences.

4th ANNUAL PLAYLAB FESTIVAL
The PlayLab Festival is generously sponsored by Lee Moore and Dee Whited.

LOVE, THE CRACKSMAN by Mark Brown
>From the author of the madcap farce, "Around the World in 80 Days", comes this witty and hilarious tale of international intrigue, mystery, romance, and robbery in the roaring 20s. Meet Jimmy Pitts, a wealthy bachelor who's fallen in love with an elusive beauty who keeps slipping through his fingers. In the chaos of trying to find her, he makes a wager that he can be a cracksman - and break into houses like a seasoned pro. Mistaken identity, actors playing multiple roles, and fast-paced hilarity are on parade in this signature Mark Brown comedy.
Thursday, April 27 at 8PM • Historic Arcade Theatre

THE FLOWER ROOM by Daryl Lisa Fazio
Ingrid is an uptight - and cluelessly alluring - anthropologist of primitive sexual behavior, and she has done a terrible job of distinguishing who she is from what she teaches. When some of her students call foul and cry wolf, Ingrid finds herself jobless, paralyzed by embarrassment, and without a direction. All hell breaks loose when her geeky brother and her hunky former student suggest a new career...writing erotica. While Ingrid's sexuality tries to stay hidden, her beating heart is clawing its way out.
Friday, April 28 at 2PM • Historic Arcade Theatre

SMOKE by Gloria Bond Clunie
It's the 1960's: Camels are Kool and tobacco is king in Carolina. When country store owner, Ora Rakestraw, meets a mysterious union organizer Wallace Johnson - love, promises, and secrets collide with small town southern politics in one sizzling, tumultuous summer. This unlikely pair of lovers challenge us to wonder - in both love and politics - "Why do we crave what might destroy us?"
Friday, April 28 at 8PM • Historic Arcade Theatre

DAMASCUS by Bennett Fisher
There's an explosion at the Minneapolis airport, and everyone is on high alert. With all the planes grounded, a stranded teenager pleads with a Somali-American shuttle driver to rush him to Chicago. As the two men cross the Midwest in the dead of winter, they discover that not everything is what it seems. "Damascus" investigates the seductiveness of extremism, the fine line between caution and paranoia, and the assumptions we make about homeland and security.
Saturday, April 29 at 1PM • Historic Arcade Theatre

KEYNOTE ADDRESS & PLAYWRIGHTS' PANEL
New for the 4th Annual Festival, a keynote address on the importance of new play development in regional theatre will be given by the National New Play Network's Executive Director, Nan Barnett. The evening will also feature a panel discussion and Q&A with all six festival playwrights, including Mark St. Germain, who's play "Best of Enemies" took Fort Myers by storm last fall, and Mark Brown, whose farce "Around the World in 80 Days" (Florida Rep 2015) is one of the most produced plays of the last decade-and-a-half.
Saturday, April 29 at 5PM • Historic Arcade Theatre

World Premiere Production
A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM: THE SPIRIT OF POE by Christopher T. Parks
Dance with the macabre in this dark and exciting journey into the mind of Edgar Allan Poe! Experience Poe's work like never before in this play for young audiences from the author of "Journey to Oz" (read in the inaugural PlayLab Festival) and "The Odyssey Experience". Commissioned by Florida Rep, this unique look at the conflicted American poet and writer will bring Poe's work alive through chilling music and unsettling storytelling.
Sunday, April 30 at 11AM • Historic Arcade Theatre

WE WILL NOT BE SILENT by David Meyers
This gripping drama tells the true story of Sophie Scholl, a German college student who led the only act of public resistance to the Nazis. This important and chilling piece examines the role ordinary Germans played in the rise of Hitler. At a time when fascism is resurgent in Europe and across the world, "We Will Not Be Silent" examines the moral strength and courage that led a group of German students to risk their lives for a righteous, but hopeless, cause.
Sunday, April 30 at 2PM • Historic Arcade Theatre

GEORGE WASHINGTON'S TEETH by Mark St. Germain
>From the author of "Best of Enemies" and "Camping with Henry and Tom" comes this outrageous farce where history meets hysterical. The New Bunion Historical Society needs members as desperately as it needs a new attraction to lure visitors. When a set of George Washington's teeth is discovered, the Society goes to war over the Founding Father's decaying dentures. Played out amidst the chaos of the annual reenactment of the Battle of New Bunion, this farce turns history on its head and a small town inside out!
Sunday, April 30 at 5PM • Historic Arcade Theatre

NNPN Rolling World Premiere
DOUBLEWIDE by Stephen Spotswood
Chosen from 2016's PlayLab Festival!
"Doublewide" is a heartfelt, honest, and often humorous story of one family's pursuit of the American Dream. All Jim Starkey wants to do is build a home on his one-acre plot of land and replace his doublewide trailer with something his daughter, Lorelai, can inherit. When a highway expansion project and a freak hunting accident shatter his family's dreams, Jim must decide how far he can be pushed and Lorelai is left to build her own future.
Playing Apr.11 - May 14, 2017 in the ArtStage Studio Theatre
Performances: Tues.-Sat.at 8PM; Thurs., Sat, Sun. at 2PM

Florida Rep is proud to be an Associate Member of the National New Play Network in Washington, DC, 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.

Florida Repertory Theatre performs in the Historic Arcade Theatre and the ArtStage Studio Theatre on Bay St. between Jackson & Hendry with limited free parking in the Fort Myers River District. Visit Florida Rep online at FloridaRep.org, and by following the company on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.