FAU's Theatre Lab Presents a New Play Festival

Theatre Lab, the professional resident company of Florida Atlantic University, will present a New Play Festival from Wednesday, May 10 through Sunday, May 14. This jam-packed festival welcomes some of the nation's most prominent playwrights as they present readings of their newest work before it lands on stages across the country. Each reading is accompanied by a post-show discussion, where audience members can interact with the playwrights themselves and learn more about their process, inspiration and plans for future development.

 All shows will be presented in Theatre Lab, in Parliament Hall, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton campus. Tickets are priced separately or there is an all-access Festival Pass available for $95. Discounted half-price tickets are available for students/faculty/staff/industry members for cash only at the door one-hour prior to each event. For tickets, call 561-297-6124 or visit www.fauevents.com. Wyndham Hotel in Boca Raton is offering Play Festival Patrons the preferred rate of $89. To request the FAU rate, call 888-404-6880 or visit www.wyndhamboca.com. Wyndham Boca also offers free shuttle service to and from campus.

The schedule is as follows:

An Evening of Short Plays

Wednesday, May 10, 7:30 p.m.

$10

             

These plays were selected from submissions open to participants in the master classes and workshop with Matt Stabile, associate artistic director, for one month prior to the festival.  The playwrights range from the novice to professional and their work showcases some of the exciting new voices in South Florida.

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'The November Laws,' by Christopher Demos-Brown

Thursday, May 11, 7:30 p.m.

$20

 

A parable about how the most venerated constitutional democracy in the history of human events, unwittingly entrusted to men and women of limited character and ability, collapses not with a bang, but with a series of tragic whimpers.

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'381 Bleecker,' by Gia Marotta

Friday, May 12, 7:30 p.m.

$20

 

It's 2015, and Meg, an avant-garde choreographer in her early 60s, is losing the West Village apartment where she's spent her entire adult life. When her sister, Ellen, shows up with her son, David, to help Meg pack, the two women must reckon with a complicated snarl of old wounds connected to their brother's battle with AIDS in the 1980s.

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'The Prey,' by Gina Montet

Saturday, May 13, 3 p.m.

$20

 

A Miami playwright brings us a tale of beauty, love and murder in the heart of the Everglades.  Set deep within the wild Florida frontier of 1912 and inspired by actual events, "The Prey" is a chilling interpretation of one of Florida's most notorious killings.

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'Hurricane Colleen,' by Tammy Ryan

Saturday, May 13, 7:30 p.m.

$20

 

Six months after their sister, Colleen, has died of cancer, Maggie and Rosemary rent a beach house in Melbourne to have a memorial and scatter Colleen's ashes.   The family reunion is interrupted when a tropical depression forming in the Caribbean suddenly turns into a hurricane and is heading their way.  Though they fall within the "cone of uncertainty," the sisters and their partners decide not to evacuate. As the strong winds and rain bands begin, strange encounters with wildlife signal something more is going on, both between the sisters and with Mother Nature, as they struggle to ride out the storms outside and inside.

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'Most Wanted,' by Peter Sagal

Sunday, May 14, 3 p.m.

$30

 

Frank and Doris are retired, comfortable and desperate. One day, they snatch their darling baby granddaughter and make a run for Florida, land of eternal sunshine and eternal rest, where they meet a variety of characters living on the fuzzy border between life and death--all of whom look just like the people they left behind. Cornered by an affable detective, they make one last run to President Truman's Little White House in Key West, at the very end of the road. There, their daughter, Isabel, an avenging angel in expensive clothes, corners them and confronts them with every mistake they've ever made. This comedy about parents, children and the fate that awaits us all won a MacArthur Fellowship from the O'Neill Theater Center.

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            Theatre Lab was established on FAU's Boca campus in September 2015 under the direction of  Louis Tyrrell, founding artistic director of Florida Stage and the Theatre at Arts Garage, and current FAU Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Arts. Theatre Lab is generously supported by Edith and Martin Stein, and Marta and Jim Batmasian.

Patrons are encouraged to come early to enjoy beer, wine, drinks and snacks and explore the gallery exhibition space that houses the lobby for Theatre Lab. For a full schedule and more information about the Theatre Lab at FAU, call 561-297-4784, email theatrelab@fau.edu or visit www.fau.edu/theatrelab.