\ud83c\udfad NEW! Ft. Myers\/Naples Theatre Newsletter<\/p>\n
Florida Repertory Theatre has announced directors and casts for the five new plays selected for its 2026 PlayLab Festival of New Works, running April 30\u2013May 3 in the Historic Arcade Theatre.<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfad NEW! Ft. Myers\/Naples Theatre Newsletter<\/p>\n
The 2026 PlayLab selections are Halfs by Dominic Finocchiaro, Tennessee Williams<\/a> Drank Here by Kenneth Jones<\/a>, Monarchs by Kelundra Smith, The Last Great Escape Artist by Stephen Spotswood, and Ahoy-hoy by Jenny Stafford<\/a>.<\/p>\n PlayLab is an intensive weekend of rehearsals, readings, talkbacks, and development that brings professional playwrights, directors, actors, and audiences together to work on new plays in a laboratory setting. Each reading includes a talkback, allowing audiences to participate in discussions with the playwright, director, and cast.<\/p>\n Tickets are $39 per reading, or patrons may purchase an all-access pass for $175, which includes admission to all five readings and the playwrights\u2019 panel. A VIP all-access package for $185 includes all six admissions and a concessions item at each reading. Tickets are available at floridarep.org or by calling 239-332-4488.<\/p>\n The 2026 PlayLab selections were chosen from a pool of 99 submitted plays evaluated by a committee of volunteer readers. The festival has been presented annually since 2014 and features a range of voices, genres, and styles.<\/p>\n 2026 PLAYLAB CASTS & DIRECTORS<\/p>\n Thursday, April 30 at 7 PM<\/p>\n Directed by Jason Parrish<\/a> HALFS by Dominic Finocchiaro<\/p>\n Friday, May 1 at 7 PM<\/p>\n Directed by Annette Trossbach THE LAST GREAT ESCAPE ARTIST by Stephen Spotswood<\/p>\n Saturday, May 2 at 2 PM<\/p>\n Directed by Stuart Brown<\/a> MONARCHS by Kelundra Smith<\/p>\n Saturday, May 2 at 7 PM<\/p>\n Directed by Karen Stephens Sunday, May 3 at 4 PM<\/p>\n Directed by Celine Rosenthal<\/a> PLAYWRIGHTS\u2019 PANEL<\/p>\n Sunday, May 3 at 6:30 PM<\/p>\n Following the final reading, audiences can attend a panel discussion with the festival playwrights, who will discuss their work and the process of developing new plays.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83c\udfad NEW! Ft. Myers\/Naples Theatre Newsletter Get all the top news & discounts for Ft. Myers\/Naples & beyond.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":{"0":"post-249122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFeaturing Liz Abbott, Stephen Christopher Anthony<\/a>, Hannah Easton, Greg Longenhagen, Carolyn Messina, and Jan Neuberger<\/a>, with Dianne Summers reading stage directions. Stage manager: Arthur D\u2019Alessio.<\/p>\n
\nFeaturing Patrice Eakman, Ethan Le<\/a>\u00f3n, Matt Lytle<\/a>, Ciar\u00e1n McCarthy, and Skylee Vaughn, with Noah Garcia reading stage directions. Stage manager: Sarah Colatriano.<\/p>\n
\nFeaturing David Breitbarth<\/a> and Jana Denning. Stage manager and stage directions reader: Summer Dawn Wallace.<\/p>\n
\nFeaturing Logan Green, Patricia Idlette<\/a>, Marta Mayada, Cicero McCarter, Sonya McCarter, Robert Richards<\/a>, Jr., and Alia Shakira. Stage manager: Joy Brooks.<\/p>\n
\nFeaturing Veronika Duerr, Gabe Hunyor, Cody Klimek, and Oriana Lada<\/a>, with Gerrie Benzing reading stage directions. Stage manager: Arthur D\u2019Alessio.<\/p>\n