About Us
"Theatre Lab is one of the best things to ever happen to the Palm Beach County theater scene."
- Palm Beach Illustrated
Theatre Lab, a new play experience second-to-none!
Founded in 2015, Theatre Lab serves as the professional resident company of Florida Atlantic University. Located on the Boca Raton campus in the intimate 99-seat Heckscher Stage, Theatre Lab's mission is to "inspire, develop, and produce new work, audiences, and artists." It engages the South Florida community through world-class professional performances, workshops, and discussions with renowned playwrights and theatre professionals. Committed to making great Theatre accessible to all, Theatre Lab offers affordable ticket prices and fosters a deeper understanding of new play development through its dynamic programming each season.
Our annual Heckscher Theatre for Families production and Mainstage Series offer the highest-quality full professional productions of some of the most exciting and thought-provoking new work in American Theatre. To date, Theatre Lab has produced 25 critically acclaimed world, regional, or US premiere productions. As one of the only companies in Florida that is exclusively dedicated to new work, we are proud to offer our audiences the exciting new plays which will become tomorrow’s classics.
In addition to full productions, Theatre Lab is dedicated to the development of new work and has hosted nearly 100 developmental readings of new plays. In addition to the hundreds of productions these plays have enjoyed across the nation, 16 of the 25 productions at Theatre Lab have come directly out of our reading and development series - demonstrating the depth of our commitment to developing new work from the page to the stage. We are also the proud home of the Fair Play Initiative, a commission and development program for LGBTQ+ plays and stories. Over the first four seasons of this program, we have received more than 200 applications to the program and awarded seven commissions and development sessions for new plays highlighting the LGBTQ+ experience. In 2022, Theatre Lab was awarded the Bill von Maurer Award for Theatrical Excellence by the Carbonell Awards and by the Silver Palm Awards for “Outstanding Community Efforts for Development of New Works.”
Through our robust educational outreach programs and our focus on providing mentorship and employment opportunities for emerging artists, we aim to provide the foundation for what we hope will be the theatre industry and audiences of tomorrow. These programs provide more than 1,200 local students in grades 4-12 writing workshops, live-theatrical performances, and the opportunity to share their original writing with audiences all at NO COST to students or schools. We are also proud to serve as a bridge between the educational and professional world of theatre and have provided more than 100 paid positions on professional projects to college students or early career professionals.
With a focus on community engagement and by providing an artistic laboratory and a home for playwrights, Theatre Lab has established itself and FAU as a force in the national new play movement!
Get Involved
Auditions
Auditions for 27/28 will be posted in the Spring of 2027
Opportunities for Playwrights
Coming soon!
Jobs
Designers
We are always seeking to expand our network of artists, performers, designers, and technicians. Feel free to send a resume with information to theatrelab@fau.edu
Theatre Lab Play Submission Policy
Theatre Lab regrets it cannot accept open submissions of plays and musicals. Unfortunately, the cost of reading and processing hundreds of scripts is beyond our modest staff capabilities. We only accept play submissions electronically in the following circumstances:
- You are a writer who in the past has had a play developed in some phase of a Theatre Lab New Play Development Program.
- You are an agent at a recognized literary agency.
- You are either a writer who has had a play developed/presented at one of the theatres of the National New Play Network or are an Artistic/Literary head of an NNPN Theatre.
- You either work as, or were suggested to submit by, the Artistic Director, Associate Artistic Director, or Literary Manager (or equivalent position) at a Professional Theatre. In the case of a recommendation, a note from that person must accompany the submission, as well as their e-mail address.
For information on obtaining literary and theatrical representation, other theaters interested in new plays and script submission procedures, please consult the excellent publication Dramatists Sourcebook, published by Theatre Communications Group, a service organization for the not-for-profit professional theater, available through your local bookstore, online through vendors such as Amazon.com, or directly from TCG Publications at tcg.org. The Sourcebook is published biannually, so you may want to confirm that policies have not changed since the latest publication date.
Awards
2024/2025 Carbonell Award Winner for Outstanding Performance by a Actor In A Lead Male Role, Play - Iain Batchelor in The Impossible Task Of Today
2024/2025 Carbonell Award Winner for Outstanding New Work - The Last Yiddish Speaker by Deborah Zoe Laufer
2023 South Florida Theatre League Remy Award for Outstanding Behind the Scenes Contribution Awarded to Joanna Orrego, Rose Figueroa, Cassie Kris, and Jill Carr.
Sliver Palm Award for Outstanding Contribution for the 2022-2023 Season for his Direction of Red Riding Hood, Dorothy's Dictionary, and Last Night in Inwood. Awarded to Matt Stabile.
2022 Bill Von Maurer Carbonell Award, for excellence in all areas of programming
2022 Sliver Palm Award for Outstanding Community Efforts for Development of New Works: Heckscher Theatre for Families productions, Future PAGES Project and LabRATS educational programs, the New Play Festival, and the Fair Play Initiative Awarded to Theatre Lab.
2020 South Florida Theatre League Remy "Pioneer Award" Awarded to Matt Stabile & Theatre Lab for the creation and implementation of The Online Original Monologue Festivals 1 & 2 in support of the South Florida Theatre Community
Best Creative Incubator, 2015 PBI Awards Palm Beach Illustrated