The Play Lab, started in 1995, features developmental readings of scripts from 20 minutes to 2 hours in length. Actors are sent scripts a month prior to the Conference. The readings receive one rehearsal the day before their performance, with the playwright acting as the director. The readings are then responded to by a three-person panel, and the audience gives their feedback as well. Additionally, authors have a private meeting with one of their panelists to further discuss the script.
The following plays have been invited to present in the 2024 Play Lab.
Zach Barr’s New Oleanna (Chicago IL)
Paul Braverman’s A Crack in the Past (Fremont CA)
Lucas Calzada’s Curtain Rising (Los Angeles CA)
Stacy Isom Campbell’s 1999 (Greenville SC)
Catherine Castellani’s The Misopeds (New York NY)
Eugene Cole’s The Last Breath of Summer (Fairbanks AK)
Annie Considine’s Mnemorian (Chicago IL)
Ben Corbett’s Fat Men in Yoga Pants (Fayetteville AR)
Timothy Crawford’s Outraged: Terror in Springfield 1908 (Springfield IL)
Claire Dettloff’s stuffed (Phoenix AZ)
Erin Dietsche’s Chill (Tucson AZ)
Emma Durbin’s landscape (Chicago IL)
Tim Foley’s Vista Point (Sacramento CA)
Heidi Franke’s The Pip, The Buzzer, and The Squeaky Wheel (Valdez AK)
Erik Gernand’s The Totality of All Things (Chicago IL)
Marshall Gibbs’ Monster (Or #MeToo, Brute) (Baltimore MD)
Sarah Groustra’s The Hands That Feed You (Brooklyn NY)
Steven Haworth’s Red River Falls (Garrison NY)
Nicholas Walker Herbert’s Nadir (Sacramento CA)
Rand Higbee’s Schroedinger: Into the Quantumverse (Yachats OR)
Andra Laine Hunter’s HareSkin (Dallas TX)
Kevin Kautzman’s Moderation (St Paul MN)
Ward Kay’s The Bride in Blackout (Vienna VA)
Nina Kissinger’s This is Government (Brooklyn NY)
Katy Laurance’s The Ballad of the Cursed Stormrider (Anchorage AK)
Glasgow Lyman’s Sex Therapy Play (Portland OR)
Seth McNeill’s Red Pill, White Rabbit (Athens NY)
Dante Medema’s Biologics (Anchorage AK)
Tom Moran’s The Adventures of Uta, the Wandering Uterus (Fairbanks AK)
Mark Muro’s The Ripper Strikes Again (Anchorage AK)
Michael C. O’Day’s How to Pronounce Samhain (Brooklyn NY)
Alicia Payne’s PAZ (Toronto, Canada)
Theresa Peters’ The Impossible Ask (Anchorage AK)
Samantha Ray’s Night Visuals of Life (Houston TX)
Kristen Ritter’s Disillusioned (Anchorage AK)
Greg Romero’ and Brian Grace-Duff’s LARPing (Houston TX and Philadelphia PA))
Fernando Buzhar Segall’s The Devil and The Candlemaker (New York NY)
Phillip Christian Smith’s Hippolytus in Space (New York NY)
Chris Soucy’s The King in Yellow (Savannah GA)
Chelsea Sutton’s The Abundance (Los Angeles CA)
Zac Thompson’s Class IV (Cambridge MA)
Kanika Asavari Vaish’s Eight Ways to Plead with a God (New York NY)
Anne Valentino’s Lesbian Woman (Rockville MD)
Kyle Walker’s A Visit from Santa (Valdez AK)
Philip Middleton Williams’ Cabana Boy (Palmetto Bay FL)
Ellis Wollstonecraft’s Benjamin & Beatrice (Juneau AK)
Currently the Lab presents readings of 45-50 plays per year. Panelists include nationally acknowledged playwrights, director, designers, and dramaturgs, as well as some of the leading figures in Alaska’s theatre.