FAU’s Theatre Lab and Department of Theatre and Dance Present 2026 ‘Owl New Play Festival’

Theatre Lab, the professional resident company of Florida Atlantic University, is pleased to announce the second annual “Owl New Play Festival,” presented in partnership with the FAU Department of Theatre and Dance. Events run from Saturday, April 11 through Sunday, April 26, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton campus.

“Building on the success of last year’s inaugural festival, the 2026 festival has expanded to include more than 30 new play events over three weeks,” said Matt Stabile, producing artistic director of Theatre Lab. “The events are divided among three series and feature something for everyone.”

The “Reading and Development” series offers four readings of new plays by professional playwrights; two free readings of student-created work; and a book-in-hand, partially staged and designed presentation of a portion of a play commissioned through the Fair Play Initiative, made possible by Our Fund Foundation. New this year is the “Themes and Threads” series, which offers lectures, discussions and workshops designed to provide a deeper exploration into the ideas behind the work being presented on stage.

The MainStage Series features two full productions running concurrently: the world premiere of “INFERNA,” a production by Joanna Castle Miller and directed by Margaret M. Ledford, artistic director of City Theatre Miami, on Saturday, April 11, produced by Theatre Lab; and a new musical, “By Any Other Name” by Deborah Zoe Laufer and Daniel Green on Friday, April 17, presented by the Department of Theatre and Dance and directed by Stabile.

As with past festivals, the selected MainStage productions are intended to be in conversation with one another, both using different approaches to examine a common theme.

“This year’s festival centers on the stories made popular by much of the classic theatrical canon, what ‘lessons’ those stories are imparting to young women, and where the artform might go from here,” said Stabile.  

“INFERNA” is the second autobiographical piece by playwright/performer Castle Miller in a planned trilogy and follows Theatre Lab’s February successful world premiere of the first, “CONVERSA.” It tracks Castle Miller’s upbringing in the evangelical church, her early training in theater, and themes of punishment and forgiveness found in texts from both. 

Laufer’s “By Any Other Name,” a new musical comedy, begins when the witches from “Macbeth” pull some of Shakespeare’s most famous characters, mostly young heroines destined for a tragic end, out of their stories and transport them to a new forest to chart their own destiny.

“Deborah Zoe Laufer, winner of the 2025 Carbonell Award for Outstanding New Work for her play ‘The Last Yiddish Speaker,’ is back in Boca with a new musical, and this show has deep roots at Theatre Lab and FAU,” said Stabile.

During the summer of 2018, Laufer spent a week in residency at Theatre Lab where she worked with students in the MFA Acting program to develop a short one act, originally written for the O’Neill Center, into a full-length play. A few years later, with the addition of composer and lyricist Green, a new musical was ready for further development with the Department of Theatre and Dance.

“The final two weekends of the festival, April 17-19 and April 24-26, are jampacked with both productions and the events from the other two series,” said Stabile. “It’s the perfect time to spend a full weekend in Boca Raton and be immersed in the world of new plays.”

Individual tickets range from $15 to $60, depending on date, event and seat selection, and are on sale now. A discounted “Readings and Development Series” package, for all five ticketed events in that series is available for $70.

For descriptions and a complete listing of events, visit www.fau.edu/theatrelab. For tickets, visit www.fauevents.com or call 561-297-6124.