The Season

Florida Repertory Theatre
Announcing PlayLab 2024

Grand Sponsors Lee Moore & Dee Whited
Playwright Sponsor Darlene Arnold | Networking Sponsor Naomi Bloom

DUNK CITY
by Stephen Brown
Sponsored by Noreen Raney

Directed by Jason Parrish** | Stage Manager: Jamie Bryant*
Starring: Braydie Aldrich, Natalie Brouwer, Luke Jaconis, Jan Neuberger*, Suzanne O’Donnell*, & Haley Sweat

In this big-hearted and hilarious comedy, Davey is the only 18-year-old he knows with severe erectile dysfunction and he’s feeling very, very insecure about it. Thank God his mother, sister, and grandma are all on the case to help him figure out this horrific affliction. Dunk City takes a look at masculinity, Italian-American families, and slam dunkin‘ that shit in Staten Island.

TEN MINUTES ON A BENCH
by Kenneth Jones
Sponsored by Judy Weiner

Directed by Stuart Brown | Stage Manager: Arthur D’Alessio*
Starring: David Breitbarth*, Rita Cole*, Jaclynn Haughn, Ciaran McCarthy*, Carolyn Messina*, & Jorge Valero

A dating app called “Ten Minutes on a Bench” is the latest match-making craze, placing singles on a park bench to find common ground. The clock is ticking, but there’s no limit to the variety of quirky, heartbreaking, and humane conversations between a couple dozen characters looking for love. A new salty-sweet romantic comedy about first impressions, dogs and cats, drinkers and smokers, impulse and caution, conversation and chemistry — and the universal urge to connect. Sometimes, it only takes ten minutes.

MINDING MISS MAE MAE
by Phillip Christian Smith
Sponsored by Susan B Herbel

Directed by Karen Stephens | Stage Manager: Khalid Rivera*
Starring: Patricia Idlette*, Sonya McCarter, & Robert Richards

Barbara is Miss Mae Mae’s home health aide. When Barbara’s son Jordan, a TV star, comes home ravaged by drug addiction, the women form their own unconventional rehab to detox him – so he can be ready for the next season of his TV show. Barbara believes in tough love; Miss Mae Mae who is a paraplegic pot smoker, believes in the Lord. Minding Miss Mae Mae is a biting comedy that tackles difficult issues with heart and humor.

HOW IT FEELS TO FALL FROM THE SKY 
by Dominic Finocchiaro
Sponsored by Gail D. McClure

Directed by Greg Longenhagen | Stage Manager: Joy Brooks*
Starring: Barbara Bradshaw*, Noah Garcia, Ashlyn Mullins, Carolann Sanita, & Gerritt VanderMeer*

After witnessing a woman plummet from the sky, five strangers in New York form a support group to process what they saw. How it Feels to Fall from the Sky is a melancholic dramedy about loneliness, loss, and the unending possibility of salvation inside human connection. In this new play, five disparate, emotionally cautious, and fiercely protective people come together to wrestle with the experience of a shared tragedy, and they slowly learn to open up, trust, connect with, and ultimately start to heal. This play is a moving and funny piece about letting go and letting in.

ROOM 1214 
by Michelle Kholos Brooks
Sponsored by Lee Moore & Dee Whited

Directed by Celine Rosenthal | Stage Manager: Jamie Bryant*
Starring: Patti Gardner*, Jaclyn Gossett, Bryce Hagen, & Haley Sweat

On Valentine’s Day 2018, a nineteen-year-old boy walked into his former high school in Florida
with an assault rifle. He killed fourteen students, three teachers, and injured seventeen more.
Some of the worst damage was done when he shot into a Holocaust history class as students were studying hate crimes. Room 1214 is based on interviews with the real-life teacher of that class – who was in the room that fateful day. The play imagines what would happen if she had one more chance to teach in that classroom, and her students got a final say. It begs the question, “Can a history teacher rewrite history?”

Michelle Kholos Brooks returns to the PlayLab after her play Hostage was read in the 2018 Festival.

PLAYWRIGHT’S PANEL 

Following the final reading of the 2024 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 playwrights will be joined by special guests from the literary world and the National New Play Network. Join us for this one-of-a-kind gathering of professional, working playwrights.