Public Laboratories
Our public labs are a chance for playwrights to interact with an audience in a critical stage of development; when a play is ready for feedback and audience exchange. The purpose of the public labs are to stay in process and discovery with an audience. Playwrights and Directors are afforded the opportunity in these labs to: test new ideas and writing, gather feedback from audiences, experiment with audience interaction and design, and experiment with the audience experience. Each lab will differ in its audience interaction and engagement.
Our public labs for 2025 are…
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A Little Closer
By Michael Ross Albert
Directed/ Dramaturged by Diana Bentley
Starring David Reale with Breanna Dillon, Cameron Laurie and Annie Lujan.7 public labs only!
April 3, 4, 5 and 6, April 10 and 11Performances Nightly at 7:30pm. Saturday Matinee at 2pm
The carefully structured life of a professional cuddler begins to unravel as the strangers he welcomes into his home force him to confront his darkest secrets
AUDIENCE QUESTION: What does it mean to be a good person? We’ll ask the audience to lean into the moral grey ground with us and share their thoughts on character, morality and question the limits of ‘good’ and ‘bad’.
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Discount Dave and the Fix
By Rebecca Auerbach
Starring Rebecca Auerbach
Directed/ Dramaturged by Aviva Armour-Ostroff2 public labs only!
May 29 and 30Performances Nightly at 7:30pm
When a rockstar crashes the backstage party at a Shakespeare Festival, a thrill-seeking young actor is set on a path of self-reckoning. A provocative blend of truth and fiction, Discount Dave and The Fix is a suspenseful, hilarious and harrowing examination of our obsession with celebrity, how addiction can bury our wounds, and what it takes to heal.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: How is a one woman show shaped by the audience experience and interaction? Rebecca and Aviva will investigate how the audience feedback shapes Rebecca’s performance and writing.
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Reproduktion
By Amy Rutherford
Directed/ Dramaturged by Marie Farsi
Live Sound Design by Maddie Bautista4 public labs only!
August 21, 22, 23 and 24Performances Nightly at 7:30pm
Reproduktion is an epic, moving and funny new play by Amy Rutherford about infertility and creation. Directed by Marie Farsi, Reproduktion explores the ancient imperative to procreate and how to find meaning in our lives when this primal call goes unanswered. For this lab experiment, composer Maddie Bautista will be recording and mixing live throughout the show, reproducing the play's soundscore in real time, each night.
AUDIENCE EXPERIENCE: The sound experience will shift and grow nightly as the lab progresses and the creative team makes changes based on audience experience and feedback.
“There is a crucial phase of development in the work where the play meets the audience. This stage is hugely important and sometimes underestimated in the development phase. These public labs give playwrights the opportunity and time to listen to an audience, receive feedback from them and boldly test new writing and script changes throughout a course of run.”
— Diana Bentley, Artistic Director