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As we enter the new year, Florida Repertory Theatre is giving lovers of the arts an experience to check out the writers behind the plays that leave viewers filled with laughter or pull at the heartstrings of the audience.

Florida Rep’s PlayLab. -COURTESY PHOTO

The PlayLab Festival of New Works is scheduled for April 30 to May 3 and will feature five new plays written by experienced playwrights as well as newcomers.

Daryl Fazio has been involved with Florida Rep for years. Originally a graphic designer, she went on to join the PlayLab Festival and began playwriting.

“I was an actor first. A friend and I were looking for a play to do together, and we couldn’t find one with good roles for two women—and when I say ‘good,’ I mean complex and multi-faceted and funny and smart and authentic and a little messy and all the things you wish for as an actor interested in human behavior,” she said. “She suggested I should write one—a play, that is. To this day, I have no idea how she knew I was a playwright before I knew I was a playwright.”

That is all it took for Fazio to get involved in playwriting. As a fellow actor, she pushes to give her roles depth and character that people want to audition for and get involved with.

“I found myself setting off on a new creative path (while sticking with the path that paid the bills, of course, which has always been graphic design),” Fazio said. “I will also say I had no idea what I was doing. I did not know how play development worked, how involved and long the process can become, how theatres choose plays and how much that decision is a balance between art and commerce. That was a blessing when I was a newbie playwright, because I could just focus on becoming a better writer and creating interesting characters and stories that inspired.”

Florida Rep provided her with these types of opportunities to receive feedback from a team of individuals involved in the arts who knew what would make an audience laugh or cry or maybe a little bit of both at once.

Daryl Fazio. -COURTESY PHOTO

“I gave them a play to read, and I felt safe doing that because they’ve always treated me like a member of the family. Florida Rep has resources and a large reach into different communities of artists, whether local actors and directors or whether artists from New York and beyond,” Fazio said. “So having them be behind my first significant production as a playwright 10 years ago meant my play and I got a real glow-up.”

Through her experience, the PlayLab Festival has been one of the moments each year that leaves her mystified with the talent that takes the stage.

“I’ve been at five PlayLabs so far—four times with new scripts and once as an actor/speaker. And every single time, it’s the best kind of family celebration vibe,” Fazio said. “I watch artists who’ve never been to Florida Rep experience it for the first time and marvel at how special it is. We’re welcomed in with so much care and thought devoted to our plays and the experience we’ll have at the festival. We get to meet new actors and directors and other writers and watch each other work.”

Audience members get to experience the ideas that come with each play within a matter of minutes that took playwrights sometimes months or even years to develop. With all of this it’s the reactions from the crowd and the advice shared through fellow professionals that make this experience so amazing for many.

“The audience is the festival. It’s why we’re there—to share with them. They get so excited about watching new plays and visiting with writers, and we get to hear from them and what they experienced watching our plays,” Fazio said. “This is what live art is supposed to be about—that in-person exchange of energy and ideas. It’s invigorating and often emotional. I think all the writers go home from PlayLab completely recharged and on fire to write.”

PlayLab 2024 – Minding Miss Mae Mae. -COURTESY PHOTO

Entering a festival with large crowds and experienced writers can be intimidating for newcomers to playwriting. Fazio emphasizes the importance of having confidence, putting yourself out there and continuing to work on your craft.

“Live a full life, first of all. We can only learn so much by reading and watching other plays. As writers, we’re reinterpreting life and humanity for a stage or a black box,” Fazio said. “So, we’ve got to be out there talking to people, observing them, experiencing things that are different from our own backgrounds or perspectives or corners of the world.”

For those wondering what the play looks like firsthand, Fazio gave a description of what audience members can see.

“Five plays, five very different stories–hilarious stories, emotional ones, contemporary settings, period pieces, farces, mysteries, biographies, family dramas, relevant and resonant stories, wildly imaginative flights of fancy, the list goes on. Five play journeys in four days and an electric atmosphere of creation. It’s just so cool.”

PlayLab 2024 – How It Feels Falling From the Sky. -COURTESY PHOTO

Brent Askari, writer of the production “Advice,” which has been featured at Florida Rep since Dec. 9, 2025, has been involved with the PlayLab Festival for years. He reflects back on what got him interested in plays and his experience with Florida Rep.

“From a young age, I liked coming up with little skits and sketches. I remember doing a fake SNL-style news show in elementary school,” Askari said. “That is probably my first example of writing for the stage. In my mind, I remember it going over very well. It was probably terrible, but it played well for the fourth-grade set.”

As he developed his playwriting skills, Florida Rep has been a home where he could shine and grow, working on his storytelling.

“It’s been a true pleasure working with Florida Rep. Different theaters have a culture and “vibe” that usually comes down from the leadership – and Greg and Jason have created a creative organization that is very warm, welcoming and supportive,” he said. “You can’t really ask for more than that.”

As the PlayLab Festival approaches, Askari wants to share his experience despite the challenging conditions he had to adjust to due to COVID.

“It was a very positive experience, I worked on my play, ‘White Party,’ and it was a fruitful and encouraging workshop and reading. We were set to meet in person, but COVID hit that year and PlayLab went online,” he said. “So, I missed out on the communal experience that can happen with a new works festival — and that was a bummer — but, despite it all being online, I feel like the script very much benefited from the experience.”

With each writer working hard to develop their script, Askari wants to remind everyone to keep an open mind and to look at each play with encouragement.

“I think it’s important to remember that these are plays-in-process and that’s the fun of the whole enterprise. The audience is seeing work at a certain point along its journey…as opposed to their observing a finished, final product,” he said. “The audience for a festival like PlayLab therefore serves an important role for the playwright – in their act of witnessing and reacting to a play, the audience helps the writer discover and identify what’s working and what’s not with a script. It’s not always possible for a writer to tell how a script is working just from the page; it needs actors, a director, and most importantly a group of observers.”

Florida Rep plans to announce the five plays that will be performed as the event approaches. For more information, visit floridarep.org/.