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COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
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Florida Rep\u2019s PlayLab. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI was an actor first. A friend and I were looking for a play to do together, and we couldn\u2019t find one with good roles for two women\u2014and when I say \u2018good,\u2019 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\u00a0behavior,\u201d she said. \u201cShe suggested I should write one\u2014a play,\u00a0that is. To this day, I have no idea how she knew I was a playwright before I knew I was a playwright.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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),\u201d Fazio said. \u201cI 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.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
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Daryl Fazio. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n
\u201cI gave them a play to read, and I felt safe doing that because they\u2019ve 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,\u201d Fazio said. \u201cSo having them be behind my first significant production as a playwright 10 years ago meant my play and I got a real glow-up.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been at five PlayLabs so far\u2014four times with new scripts and once as an actor\/speaker. And every single time, it\u2019s the best kind of family celebration vibe,\u201d Fazio said. \u201cI watch artists who\u2019ve never been to Florida Rep experience it for the first time and marvel at how special it is. We\u2019re welcomed in with so much care and thought devoted to our plays and the experience we\u2019ll have at the festival. We get to meet new actors and directors and other writers and watch each other work.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
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\u2019s the reactions from the crowd and the advice shared through fellow professionals that make this experience so amazing for many.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe audience is the festival. It\u2019s why we\u2019re there\u2014to 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,\u201d Fazio said. \u201cThis is what live art is supposed to be about\u2014that in-person exchange of energy and ideas. It\u2019s invigorating and often emotional. I think all the writers go home from PlayLab completely recharged and on fire to write.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
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PlayLab 2024 \u2013 Minding Miss Mae Mae. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cLive a full life, first of all. We can only learn so much by reading and watching other plays. As writers, we\u2019re reinterpreting life and humanity for a stage or a black box,\u201d Fazio said. \u201cSo, we\u2019ve 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.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
For those wondering what the play looks like firsthand, Fazio gave a description of what audience members can see.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cFive plays, five very different stories\u2013hilarious 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\u2019s just so cool.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
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PlayLab 2024 \u2013 How It Feels Falling From the Sky. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n
Brent Askari, writer of the production \u201cAdvice,\u201d 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.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a young age, I liked coming up with little skits and sketches. I remember doing a fake SNL-style news show in elementary school,\u201d Askari said. \u201cThat 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.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
As he developed his playwriting skills, Florida Rep has been a home where he could shine and grow, working on his storytelling.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a true pleasure working with Florida Rep. Different theaters have a culture and \u201cvibe\u201d that usually comes down from the leadership \u2013 and Greg and Jason have created a creative organization that is very warm, welcoming and supportive,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t really ask for more than that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
As the PlayLab Festival approaches, Askari wants to share his experience despite the challenging conditions he had to adjust to due to COVID.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very positive experience, I worked on my play, \u2018White Party,\u2019 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,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, I missed out on the communal experience that can happen with a new works festival \u2014 and that was a bummer \u2014 but, despite it all being online, I feel like the script very much benefited from the experience.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
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.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important to remember that these are plays-in-process and that\u2019s the fun of the whole enterprise. The audience is seeing work at a certain point along its journey\u2026as opposed to their observing a finished, final product,\u201d he said. \u201cThe audience for a festival like PlayLab therefore serves an important role for the playwright \u2013 in their act of witnessing and reacting to a play, the audience helps the writer discover and identify what\u2019s working and what\u2019s not with a script. It\u2019s 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.\u201d\n<\/p>\n