By Aaron Krause
Theater lovers in South Florida are about to experience double the pleasure with two festivals of new work this month. The Second Annual Owl New Play Festival in Boca Raton kicks off on April 11 and runs for two weeks, while Short Plays: Lauder Made Volume II in Ft. Lauderdale begins at the end of the month and runs for four days.
The Owl event “is not just a reading festival,” said Matt Stabile, Producing Artistic Director of Theatre Lab, the festival’s organizer. “We’ve got more than 30 events of new work at each and every stage of development: full productions, readings, academic lectures, workshops — it’s a ‘holistic’ approach designed to immerse folks in the world of new plays for a day, a weekend, or even weeks.”
Theatre Lab, the professional resident company of Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and host of all Owl events, organized 10 reading-only festivals in its first decade before shifting to its current model last year. “This year’s festival already has triple the number of reading and development events as last year’s,” Stabile said. He added that a lecture/workshop series called Themes & Threads is also new this year. “The wrap-around programming has grown, and we plan for that to continue.”
The festival opens April 11 with the world premiere production of INFERNA by Joanna Castle Miller. The play, the second autobiographical piece by Castle Miller, who stars in her show, traces her upbringing in the evangelical church, her early theater training, and themes of punishment and forgiveness found in texts from both worlds.
On Friday, April 17, festival offerings expand with the opening of By Any Other Name, a new musical with book and lyrics by Deborah Zoe Laufer and music and lyrics by Daniel Green. Presented by FAU’s Department of Theatre and Dance, the show follows the witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth as they pull some of the Bard’s most famous characters — mostly young heroines destined for tragic ends — into a new forest to chart their own destiny.
The final two weekends of the festival, April 17–19 and April 24–26, are “jam packed with both productions and events from the other two series,” Stabile said. “It’s the perfect time to spend a full weekend in Boca Raton, stay in our partner hotel [The Wyndham Boca], enjoy local restaurants and beaches, and be completely immersed in the world of new plays. Get your out-of-town friends to fly in — the weather is still pretty great in Boca in April.”
As with past festivals, Theatre Lab intends the mainstage productions to be in conversation with one another, exploring a common theme through different approaches. “This year’s festival centers on stories made popular by much of the classic theatrical canon, what ‘lessons’ those stories impart to young women, and where the art form might go from here,” Stabile said. He added that a “good portion” of both shows’ development feels “uniquely rooted” in Theatre Lab and FAU.
By Any Other Name began as a 40-page one-act play in 2018 and, after a week-long workshop with FAU MFA candidates, evolved into a two-act play. The piece’s further development into a musical followed, and an online reading in 2020 contributed to the show’s growth. Now, it returns to FAU for a full production.
INFERNA is the second in a planned trilogy by Castle Miller, following Theatre Lab’s February world premiere of her show CONVERSA. Stabile met Castle Miller through Laufer at a 2024 new plays conference, “and it was that connection which led to both of her world premieres at Theatre Lab last season,” he said.
While Theatre Lab’s mounting of INFERNA is a world premiere, the Department of Theatre and Dance’s production of By Any Other Name is a developmental production featuring student performers. “Musicals often need a ‘developmental production’ to see the show on its feet before a professional premiere, and the college is uniquely positioned to offer that opportunity,” Stabile said. “The lessons learned from this production will absolutely inform the next steps.”
Meanwhile, the festival’s 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. The new Themes & Threads series offers lectures, discussions, and workshops designed to provide a deeper exploration into the ideas behind the work presented on stage.
Stabile emphasized the sense of community that events such as the Owl Festival foster. “At past festivals, I’ve seen audience members become familiar with one another, connect in the lobby before or after a show, and discuss how all the events relate. Our community gets a deeper engagement with us and with each other.”
Audience members aren’t just spectators. “Their feedback and experience are essential to the further development and future of all the shows,” Stabile said.
For more information about The Second Annual Owl New Play Festival, visit www.fau.edu/theatrelab. Individual tickets range from $15–$60, depending on the date, event, and seat selection. A discounted “Readings & Development Series” Package, for all five ticketed events in that series, is available for $70. Tickets are available at www.fauevents.com, or by calling (561) 297-6124. All events will take place on the Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road. The mainstage venue is at Parliament Hall, and the reading venue is The Marleen Forkas Studio One Theatre. The venue offers an intimate atmosphere and is wheelchair accessible. Free garage parking and shuttle service to the theater door are typically available.
In Short Plays: Lauder Made Volume II in Fort Lauderdale, audiences may recognize the playwrights as people who live near them. That’s because they do.
“These stories are written by your neighbors,” said Tim Davis, Producing Artistic Director of Lauder Made’s organizer, New City Players (NCP). “They represent what our community is wrestling with and questioning, they acknowledge our pain and our joy, and they remind us that while the world is a huge place — and we know too much about it — at the end of the day it’s those people we meet in our day-to-day lives, those people who we can actually see, hear, and touch, that have the most impact on us.”
Short Plays: Lauder Made Volume II features five brand-new plays, written by five local playwrights, performed for the very first time. These short plays were born from NCPLab, NCP’s monthly playwright workshop that began as a pandemic-era Zoom gathering. It currently meets monthly in person at LauderAle Brewery.
“Since its pandemic-era origins as a twice-monthly Zoom gathering, NCPLab has grown into one of Ft. Lauderdale’s most vibrant incubators for new theatrical work,” Davis said. “Each month, local playwrights respond to a prompt, submit new short plays, and gather at LauderAle Brewery to read, discuss, and develop their work together. Lauder Made is where the best of that year rises to the stage.”
Since October 2024 (Lauder Made Volume I took place in September of that year), 75 plays came through NCPLab. “Throughout the cycle, we’re earmarking plays that stand out, that have something to say, that are well written,” Davis said.
Volume II features plays spanning comedy, romance, grief, and raw personal reckoning — “all written by South Florida playwrights, all made right here,” Davis said. “Lauder Made Volume II is local theater at its most essential: honest, surprising, and made by the community it reflects.”
Performances of the plays will take place at General Provision Downtown, 300 Southwest 1st Avenue, 155, Fort Lauderdale, and will last for 75 minutes without intermission. NCP encourages audiences to arrive early, get comfortable, and enjoy a curated menu from The Palm Café before the show begins.
“I think the question these plays are asking and answering at times is this: What does it mean to live here, love here, and reckon with being human here?” Davis said.
Here is the full line-up of this year’s chosen short plays:
Mark of the Beast by Thomas Dane
Two strangers hit it off instantly at a speed-dating event, until one small revelation threatens to end the night before it begins. This play was born from an April 2025 prompt: “Write a short play with invasive species as your theme.”
How to Write a Good Suicide Note by Carlo Feliciani Ojeda
A presenter steps up to the podium with a lesson plan, a hook, and something much harder to say. This play was born from a February 2026 prompt: “Write a short play exploring suicide prevention, hope, and the lifelines we throw each other.”
Adieu by Christopher Notarnicola
A grieving mother and a distracted funeral director sit down to plan a memorial — and end up planning something neither of them expected. This play was born from a May 2025 prompt: “Mayday! Mayday! Did you know the first planes to go missing in the Bermuda Triangle took off from Fort Lauderdale? Our city might mark one of the mysterious shape’s three vertices. Write a short play in which something or someone has gone missing.”
Roger’s Place by Ilana Jael
While sorting through a loved one’s belongings, a young couple uncovers more than just clutter and are forced to confront the future they’ve been avoiding. This play was born from an August 2025 prompt: an open lab.
But, Babe by Samara Siskind
A college couple’s holiday visit to the family home turns into a crash course in culture, compromise, and whether love can survive Christmas Eve in Miami. This play was born from a December 2024 prompt: “Do you want to build a sandman? Write a short play that captures the essence of winter in the tropics.”
Showtimes are 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Visit newcityplayers.org for the full schedule. Tickets are $30–$35 and you can purchase them at newcityplayers.org. General Provision Downtown’s location is 300 S.W. 1st Ave., Suite 155 in Ft. Lauderdale. For questions, email NCP’s box office at boxoffice@newcityplayers.org or call (954) 376-6114.
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