Carolyn Messina and Jorge Valero in the Florida Rep PlayLab reading of Kenneth Jones’ “Ten Minutes On a Bench” in spring 2024. (Photo courtesy Florida Rep)
Florida Repertory Theatre’s 2025 PlayLab Festival of New Works will feature readings of new scripts by Jesse Corbin, Stacey Isom Campbell, Lindsay Joelle, Kenneth Jones and Samara Siskind. Staged readings will be presented May 1-4, 2025, in the Rep’s Historic Arcade Theatre in downtown Fort Myers, FL. The writers will be on campus for rehearsals with national and regional performers and directors.
The titles and writers reflect Florida Rep’s mission to produce a wide variety of work by emerging and well-established writers. A panel discussion with the entire group of playwrights happens May 4. The Rep’s associate artistic director Jason Parrish announced the titles on April 10.
Florida Rep’s 2025 PlayLab will include:
Why We Go to Florida by Kenneth Jones
In the dead of winter, Henry flies from New York City to Southwest Florida to offer condolences at the funeral of a man he never knew — his late partner’s father. But as the booze flows at the wake, will the widow, Constance, and her grown daughter, Amy, raise a glass to the unexpected guest? Set in 2012, somewhere between the dusk of the worst days of the AIDS crisis and the dawn of marriage equality, Why We Go to Florida is a humor-laced drama exploring guilt and grief, perceptions and prejudices, show tunes, silence and survival. D.J. Salisbury will direct a cast that features Armando Acevedo, Jan Neuberger and Suzanne O’Donnell. Stage manager/reader is Dianne Summers. 7 PM May 1
Kenneth Jones returns to PlayLab after his appearance in the 2024 Festival with his romantic comedy Ten Minutes on a Bench. His play is available to read on New Play Exchange, or ask the playwright for a perusal copy here.
Playwright Samara Siskind
Swiped by Samara Siskind
Are first impressions ever reliable? A young Black man strikes up a conversation with a young white woman in the food court of a suburban shopping mall. What she initially believes to be a random pick-up attempt becomes much more complicated. It turns out they’re not strangers after all. Swiped is a thrilling drama that explores themes of privilege and implicit bias where characters fight to form human connections as they confront their pasts and their own ingrained prejudices. 2 PM May 3
Playwright Stacey Isom Campbell
1999 by Stacey Isom Campbell
Emma is a renowned film producer and college professor. When a student complains about her decision to include a film produced by a #MeToo-outed man in the course curriculum, Emma must interrogate her own guilt for something she did in 1999. The play explores the intersection of three women’s lives in the wake of trauma and grapples with what to do with the films of the 90s in light of recent sexual allegations, posing questions about artistic production, academic freedom/danger, and power. 7 PM May 3
Playwright Lindsay Joelle
Dalloway: Summer at Bourton by Lindsay Joelle
Clarissa, a clever Victorian teen, is on a mission to save her family from financial ruin by auditioning a string of wealthy potential suitors. But when she falls for a daring, free-spirited suffragette, everything she thought she knew about love and life is upended. Dalloway is a fresh, delightfully feminist love story blending humor, heart, and romance in a pop-period prequel to Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.” Sponsored by Judy Weiner. 7 PM May 2
Playwright Jesse Corbin
Lemonade, A Fresh Pressed Musical by Jesse Corbin
Lemonade is a fresh musical adventure about growing up, friendship, grief and communicating with others even when you don’t see eye to eye. Fifteen-year-olds Timmy and Squeeze are best friends and the proud owners of a lemonade stand they’ve been operating since they were young — with help from Timmy’s late father and his secret Lemonade recipe. Now a freshman in high school, Timmy is feeling pressure to move on from such “kid stuff.” And on top of that, their lemonade stand faces new trouble from the city council and Timmy’s self-centered, wealthy neighbor, Katie, who reveals she’s opening a new cookie cart right across the street! Sponsored by Catherine Grega & Douglas Albert. 4 PM May 4
Playwright/actor Jesse Corbin was seen in Florida Rep’s 2024 production of Ken Ludwig’s A Comedy of Tenors.
PLAYWRIGHT’S PANEL 7 PM May 4
Following the final reading of the 2025 PlayLab, audiences will hear from all of the festival playwrights in a roundtable discussion. Moderated by associate artistic director Jason Parrish, 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. The panel includes special guests from the literary world and the National New Play Network.
PlayLab 2025 is made possible by Grand Sponsors Lee Moore & Dee Whited, Playwright Sponsor Darlene Arnold and Networking Sponsor Naomi Bloom.
Get tickets and more information here.
