{"id":391081,"date":"2026-09-05T05:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T05:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/391081\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T05:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T05:02:12","slug":"playwrights-beginnings-is-opening-in-boca-raton-but-her-start-began-in-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/391081\/","title":{"rendered":"Playwright’s ‘Beginnings’ Is Opening in Boca Raton, But Her Start Began in Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written By\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichelle F. Solomon
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
September 4, 2026 at 3:12 PM\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Jonathan White, Clare Bawarski, and Daniel Llaca in Theatre Lab\u2019s \u201cBaker Street Beginnings\u201d written by Gina Mont\u00e9t and opening Saturday, Sept. 5. (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography, courtesy of Theatre Lab)<\/p>\n

Gina Mont\u00e9t may be opening her newest play in Boca Raton, but \u201cBaker Street Beginnings\u201d grew out of her work and people she met in Miami-Dade County. Theatre Lab premieres the play on Saturday, Sept. 5 at Florida Atlantic University<\/p>\n

Her relationship with Miami started in 1991 when she said she moved from Iowa to study theater and film at the University of Miami. She ended up never leaving after graduating in 1994.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been here ever since. I\u2019ve put down roots. I\u2019ve raised my three kids here. So, yeah, I am very Miami Dade,\u201d Mont\u00e9t, who now lives in Cutler Bay, said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Paige Rogers, Clare Bawarski, Daniel Llaca, and Jonathan White. (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography, courtesy of Theatre Lab)<\/p>\n

She traces her Miami theater roots to the Coconut Grove Playhouse, where she worked in production and began her playwriting career. In 1998, she wrote and directed the educational musical \u201cAdventures With Louie the Lizard: The Quest for Little Fire\u201d for the Playhouse\u2019s school-touring program during Arnold Mittelman\u2019s tenure as producing artistic director.<\/p>\n

Mont\u00e9t continued writing and directing there for eight seasons. \u201cI met my husband there \u2014 he\u2019s a lighting designer (Eric Nelson) and now our oldest son works at Actors\u2019 Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre.\u201d Her son Kairick Nelson-Montet is an audio\/video technician there. \u201cWe\u2019re really a Miami-Dade theater family. South Florida is home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around 2000, she joined Fantasy Theatre Factory, now at the Sandrell Rivers Theater in Liberty City, but then an exclusively touring company rehearsing above a storage facility near Bird Road and the Palmetto Expressway. Mont\u00e9t wrote plays for the company. Matt Stabile, now Theatre Lab\u2019s producing artistic director, was one of her collaborators.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral of the shows I did during my time there were written by Gina, so I\u2019ve been a fan of her writing for decades,\u201d Stabile said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jonathan White and Gustavo Garcia in \u201cBaker Street Beginnings\u201d by Miami Playwright Gina Mont\u00e9t. (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography, courtesy of Theatre Lab)<\/p>\n

The two later became founding members of Mangrove Creative Collective, a company that developed South Florida stories. Theatre Lab presented readings of Mont\u00e9t\u2019s work and premiered her dark comedy \u201cOveractive Letdown\u201d in 2022. Stabile acted in the premiere of her \u201cDangerous Instruments\u201d at Palm Beach Dramaworks.<\/p>\n

That long friendship and artistic partnership led to \u201cBaker Street Beginnings.\u201d It is the second play the Boca Raton company has commissioned from the Miami playwright for its Heckscher Theatre for Families series.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatt and I met doing educational theater over 20 years ago, and one of the things that we always agreed on was that there is a real need for theater that caters to all age groups. We have a lot of theater that works really well for the K through 4,\u201d said the educator. \u201cWe have a lot of really great mature theater for our mature audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, she said what is missing is anything for children in the fifth-grade age group and into early high school.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Miami Playwright Gina Mont\u00e9t imagines Sherlock Holmes\u2019 beginnings in a new play commissioned by Theatre Lab at Florida Atlantic University. (Photo courtesy of Theatre Lab)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere really isn\u2019t a whole lot of quality material. Theaters aren\u2019t really catering to that age group, and as somebody who teaches that age group? Well, Matt knows that I\u2019m always on the lookout, and so when he reached out to me, I said, \u2018I would love create pieces that that work for all generations, not just young person educational theater, which I think we see a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stabile said he had been struggling to find family productions that met the same standards of imagination and quality as Theatre Lab\u2019s other work, and Mont\u00e9t was the first writer he thought of.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s young people are really sophisticated,\u201d Mont\u00e9t said. \u201cThey have access to a lot of different kinds of entertainment, and so we want to meet them where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the playwright, that means creating theater that children, parents and grandparents can experience together, rather than a children\u2019s show with a few jokes thrown in for the adults.<\/p>\n

Theatre Lab commissioned \u201cBaker Street Beginnings\u201d and Mont\u00e9t\u2019s \u201cHeebie Jeebies: Tales from the Midnight Campfire\u201d at the same time in spring 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201d \u2018Heebie Jeebies\u2019 was a play that I had written for my students actually, and then we adapted it for a smaller professional cast.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jonathan White, Clare Bawarski in \u201cBaker Street Beginnings\u201d at Theatre Lab at Florida Atlantic University. (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography, courtesy of Theatre Lab)<\/p>\n

The original play for 30 of her students and then for six professional actors, became Theatre\u2019 Lab\u2019s top-selling family production when it premiered last September, according to Stabile.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea was that we could present the show with six actors and, if our school partners wanted to do it at their schools, they could adjust the cast size to fit their needs,\u201d Stabile said.<\/p>\n

For her second commission, \u201cBaker Street Beginnings\u201d began with an idea Mont\u00e9t had been considering for some time: Sherlock Holmes was partly inspired by Dr. Joseph Bell, one of Arthur Conan Doyle\u2019s (the Scottish writer who created the character of Sherlock Holmes) medical-school professors and a man known for drawing conclusions through close observation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started to imagine what that might have been like, how that inspiration might have taken hold of a young Conan Doyle, and there are a lot of historical figures in the play that were around at the time when he was coming of age, and they are also coming of age. I was excited about this imagined adventure where all these people team up, and their paths intersect before their emergence into greatness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her play travels to 1870s London, where Doyle is still a teenager and Holmes does not yet exist. The aspiring doctor is taken under Bell\u2019s wing, then pulled with his friends into a mystery involving intrigue, danger and deception.<\/p>\n

Centering Doyle instead of Holmes gave Mont\u00e9t something the famous detective audiences never met: a protagonist unsure of himself. She saw in Doyle a character close to the age of the young people in the audience.<\/p>\n

Writing a Sherlock Holmes-style mystery about the beginnings of the detective was, Mont\u00e9t admitted, \u201ca tall order.\u201d She had never written a mystery before, but it was what attracted her to the project.<\/p>\n

The play combines historical and fictional characters and treats London almost like a game board, moving through different locations and introducing figures who might have crossed paths at the time. Six actors portray about 15 characters.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jonathan White, Paige Rogers, and Clare Bawarski in Theatre Lab\u2019s \u201cBaker Street Beginnings.\u201d (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography, courtesy of Theatre Lab)<\/p>\n

There are puzzles audience members can try to solve along with the characters, experiments in an apothecary and humor to keep the danger from becoming too dark. Mont\u00e9t also planted an Easter egg: another writer from the period, one with an affinity for the macabre, crosses Doyle\u2019s path.<\/p>\n

The play was read at Theatre Lab\u2019s Owl New Play Festival in April. Although the festival audience was primarily adults, its response reassured Mont\u00e9t that the story could work across generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if we hadn\u2019t already committed to a second play, we would have immediately gone back to her again. The play was a big hit, again, and underwent relatively few changes over the summer before we got into rehearsals in mid-August,\u201d Stabile, who is directing the play, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaker Street Beginnings\u201d is the first production in Theatre Lab\u2019s Marleen Forkas Studio One Theatre. The larger space allows for a more expansive production than \u201cHeebie Jeebies,\u201d with period costumes, special effects and a set that moves the action through Doyle\u2019s London.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinding something that works for everybody is something that I really want to provide. It isn\u2019t just a\u00a0 mystery. It\u2019s got comedy, said Mont\u00e9t. \u201cIt really does have something for everybody, and Theater Lab is absolutely bringing everything to the table in terms of production value.\u201d<\/p>\n

WHAT: World premiere of \u201cBaker Street Beginnings\u201d by Gina Mont\u00e9t, directed by Matt Stabile<\/p>\n

WHEN: Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m., Sept. 5-20. Detective Science activities begin one hour before public performances.<\/p>\n

WHERE: Theatre Lab, Marleen Forkas Studio One Theatre, Performing Arts Building (PA-51), Room 103, Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton<\/p>\n

COST: $25 for adults; one child admitted free with each adult ticket; additional children\u2019s tickets are $5<\/p>\n

INFO: 561-297-6124 or fauevents.universitytickets.com<\/a><\/p>\n

ArtburstMiami.com<\/a> is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don\u2019t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Written By Michelle F. Solomon September 4, 2026 at 3:12 PM Jonathan White, Clare Bawarski, and Daniel Llaca…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-391081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391081","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=391081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}