This summer, Theatre UCF’s Pegasus PlayLab returns in virtual and outdoor formats. Pegasus PlayLab is a festival at the University of Central Florida dedicated to developing plays by emerging playwrights from around the country. Each summer, audiences are invited to hear staged readings and experience full productions and workshops of new plays.
Due to continued COVID-19 health and safety protocols, this year’s new play festival features four online readings and an outdoor production of a new play for young audiences called Sombra del Sol, collectively created by students and alumni from UCF’s Theatre for Young Audience MFA and Music M.A. programs.
Live readings and workshop productions are crucial for new play development. It allows the playwright to see their work in the hands of a director and actors, but it is also often the first time they can see the audience’s reactions and hear feedback that guides their work in the next stages of development.
Each Saturday performance of the virtual readings will be followed by a talkback on Zoom, where audiences will have the opportunity to discuss what they saw and heard with the playwright, cast and director.
Pegasus PlayLab 2021 runs May 29-June 19 with virtual readings every Friday and Saturday from May 28-June 19 and the outdoor production of Sombra del Sol from June 10-19. Register for the virtual readings and purchase tickets for Sombra del Sol at arts.ucf.edu/theatre. While audiences are welcome to join the virtual readings for free, funds from the “pay-what-you-can” readings are used to support Theatre UCF and Pegasus PlayLab.
Tickets and registration now available. See the full schedule and reserve today at arts.ucf.edu.
Dear Helena
By Rachel Lynett
Directed by Cynthia White
May 28 & 29, 2021 | Virtual Reading | Pay-What-You-Can
In a loose adaptation of All’s Well That Ends Well, friends surprise Helena by throwing her a divorce party. Though the intention is to celebrate being free from a toxic man, the women share a time when they assumed all would end well and contemplate the reasons why we accept the love we think we deserve.
To Saints and Stars
By Jordan Ramirez Puckett
Directed by Be Boyd
June 4 & 5, 2021 | Virtual Reading | Pay-What-You-Can
10-all astronauts prepare for launch… 9-months and Zoe will be a mother… 8-years old, a promise made we never wanted to break… 7-months, my one-way ticket to Mars… 6-million hours staring up at the stars… 5-seconds left until launch… 4- years old when we first met… 3- decades of friendship and love… 2-peas in a pod until… 1-mission liftoff… In To Saints and Stars, Sofía’s life flashes before her eyes. In the face of death on the first manned mission to Mars, Sofía re-examines her lifelong friendship with Zoe and the age-old conflict between science and faith.
As It’s Written
By Caroline Hull
Directed by Vivian Majkowski
June 11 & 12, 2021 | Virtual Reading | Pay-What-You-Can
Parker is a successful screenwriter who begins rethinking her decisions and wondering if she is truly satisfied with the direction her own story is headed. When she reconnects with Robin, a friend from the past, she realizes that there no easy way to rewrite her life in the way she desperately wants to.
The Amphibians
By Dan Caffrey
Directed by Ingrid De Sanctis
June 18 & 19, 2021 | Virtual Reading | Pay-What-You-Can
Set thirteen years in the future, The Amphibians takes place in the west central Florida town of New Port Richey, shortly after we’ve passed the point of no return in the fight against climate change. One day while wandering through the woods, 17-year-old Simone unearths something wondrous, which she immediately shares with her best friend Bryn. At first, the girls view their discovery as a sanctuary from the anxieties of climate-induced disaster. But as the school year progresses, they realize their find may have a significant connection to global catastrophe. Both a coming-of-age story and a theatrical take on cli-fi, The Amphibians is about the evolution of friendship and what it means to take care of something at the end of the world.
Sombra del Sol | A Theatre for Young Audiences Production
Collectively created by Bianca Alamo, Ximena Gonzalez, Ralph Krumins & Daniela Monzon
June 10-13 & 17-19, 2021 | Outdoor Production | UCF Performing Arts Center (PAC) Courtyard
2-seat pod, $10 | 4-seat pod, $20
In a small village nestled in the heart of the Amazon, Sombra del Sol is filled with music and dancing as the town re-enacts the day it was founded. When four close friends begin questioning the legends and traditions of the town’s origins, the magic of the land reveals that in order to move towards the future, they must embrace the past.
Seats are reserved in 2 or 4 seat pods that are distanced from other parties with chairs provided and will be seated in the order of arrival. Please contact our box office with any questions.
While everyone can enjoy Sombra del Sol, this show is a great experience for elementary and middle school-aged kids.