Laboratory Theater

This week, theatergoers have 17 productions from which to choose, including one new play and performances of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker by Gulfshore Ballet and Sarasota Ballet.

Laboratory Theater of Florida is mounting a production of playwright Lynn Nottage’s comedic play “Clyde’s.” Nottage is the first and only woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice. We explore the play in a conversation with the production’s director Tijuana Clemons, actor Sonya McCarter, and Lab Theater founding artistic director Annette Trossbach.

Laboratory Theater of Florida in Fort Myers is mounting the world premiere production of “Alien: The Musical Parody.” The show is a hilarious new take on the 1979 sci-fi horror classic film “Alien.” We hear from Lab Theater founder and Artistic Director Annette Trossbach, who conceived of and wrote the show, along with Earl Sparrow who composed the music.

Florida's new anti-drag statute was intended to prevent children from seeing sexual content at drag shows, but the State's "Protection of Children" law applies to any adult live performance, including musicals and plays. That has Southwest Florida's 19 local theaters re-evaluating the shows they choose to produce and who they'll admit into performances.

The Laboratory Theater of Florida in Fort Myers is mounting the world premiere production of the parody play, “Save Hamlet.” We learn more about the play and what Lab Theater has in store for the summer and its upcoming 15th anniversary season in a conversation with the director of “Save Hamlet” Madelaine Weymouth and Lab Theater founder and artistic director Annette Trossbach.

The Laboratory Theater of Florida in downtown Fort Myers is currently performing the Southwest Florida premiere production of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s 2019 Pulitzer Prize winning drama “Fairview.”The play tackles themes of implicit bias, prejudices, stereotypes, race, surveillance and privilege, but through an innovative and powerful defiance of convention.We explore the play in a conversation with the production’s Assistant Director Makayla Davis, actors and cast members Zaria Brown and Tijuanna Clemons, and Laboratory Theater founder and Producing Artistic Director Annette Trossbach.

Through its theatre education program, the Laboratory Theater of Florida in downtown Fort Myers presents a limited engagement production of the Stephen Gregg’s documentary-style thriller play “Trap,” based on the true story of an incident that occurred in the Oak Box Theatre in Menachap, California.

The Laboratory Theater of Florida celebrates the coming of summer each year by spoofing a famous Hollywood movie. This year, it’s Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 horror film "The Birds."

More than 20 million people quit their jobs in the last half of 2021 leading to chronic supply chain problems and long wait times at local eateries. Whether you call it The Great Resignation or The Big Quit, it has economists and sociologists scratching their heads to understand why. There’s a fun-loving group of puppets and their human counterparts on Avenue Q at Lab Theater that just may have an explanation for your COVID blues.

The dictionary defines unsettling as distressing, disturbing and upsetting. The Laboratory Theater of Florida invokes these very emotions with the Southwest Florida premiere of Killer Joe, on stage now through February 5th.