New Play Readings at The Lab!

Lumin by Emma Gibson has won the Laboratory Theater of Florida’s Louise Wigglesworth Excellence in Playwriting Award. Two additional plays are finalists: Virtual Reality by Wendy Vogel and Annelies by Oded Gross. Concert readings of these three works will be held May 15, 16, 17. 

About the plays

The Winner: Lumin by Emma Gibson: The pigs are stressed, Liv won’t eat, and Ma wants everyone to follow the Constitutions. Set in a modern-day cult on the outskirts of the Chihuahuan desert in Texas, this new play about our need for community asks why the line between delusion and what the rest of us believe is getting blurrier than ever.

Emma is a playwright, director, and actor. Her plays have won the Pittsburgh Public’s New Play Competition, she was shortlisted for the Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship, she was a finalist for The Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2024, a runner up for The Ambassadors Theatre Group Playwriting award 2024, a finalist for The O’Neill New Play Conference, and many more. Her plays have been presented and produced worldwide.

Finalist: Virtual Reality by Wendy Vogel: Rebecca is used to men letting her down. Scarred by divorce, she avoids the real world by playing a virtual reality role-playing game. She isn't looking for romance but she finds Paul, a widower crippled by grief from the death of his wife.

Through their in-game avatars, they bond in the virtual world with no plans to meet in the real one.

But when Rebecca's son is injured in a hate crime shooting, they both realize they've become more than "gamer buddies." And when Paul's life is threatened, they must face the fear of rejection and loneliness and leave their avatars behind for a chance at a real-life connection.

Wendy Vogel is a veterinarian, author, playwright, board game writer and designer, and cancer warrior. Her plays include During/After, Finding Mickey Mantle, and Virtual Reality, and her short works have been included in festivals around the Midwest. Novels include the Horizon Alpha sci-fi series and the gothic horror Trouble the Water. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband Andrew and a houseful of special needs cats.

Finalist: Annelies by Oded Gross: The present collides with the past in the drama Annelies. Mourning the loss of his father, a bereaved man in 2020 begins to keep a journal, only to find himself in correspondence with the famous and tragic diarist, Anne Frank. A play about grief and friendship, Annelies explores the strength and legacy of the written word, and its power to change our lives forever.

Oded Gross is an award-winning playwright whose plays have been produced throughout the United States and abroad, most notably at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, The Great Lakes Theater, The Theatre at Boston Court and The Moscow Art Theatre in Russia. His adaptations include Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid, Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters, Gogol’s The Government Inspector (aka The Inspector General), for which he also wrote the music and Giradoux’s Madwoman (aka The Madwoman of Chaillot), also with songs by Oded.

His original play Annelies was part of the Great Plains Theatre Commons Conference. His play Dantino’s, an original Commedia Dell’Arte that tackles the controversial issue of gay marriage was a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. His play Hermione was a Finalist for Inkslinger Playwriting Competition. Butterflies and Margarine was a semifinalist for the George R. Kernodle Playwriting Competition and selected to be part of the 2017 Renegade Theatre N.O.W. Festival. His play, A Solution of Sorts was included in the Athena Theatre Company’s new play development series Athena Reads.

His adaptations, as well as his original productions, have garnered numerous Critics Picks and nominations, including Best Adaptation by LA Weekly, Backstage West, and LA Stage Times for The Government Inspector and LA Weekly’s Critics “Pick Of The Week” for his one act The Comedy of Romeo and Juliet. His original short play Stain was the WINNER at Scripp’s Ranch Theatre’s Out on a Limb Festival, voted BEST PLAY at the St. Paul’s Arts Council’s Festival of New Plays and selected as an AUDIENCE FAVORITE for the Center for Performing Arts Stage It-10 Minute Play Festival. His one-act play GhostWriter won first place at the WordWave Festival of Story.

He is repped by Mark Orsini at Bret Adams Ltd. He received his degree in drama from Brandeis University and his master’s in playwriting at Columbia University. He is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild and an even prouder husband and father of two beautiful children.

Louise Wigglesworth is a theater and visual artist who writes plays about other artists; actors, painters, musicians, writers, and their special journeys. In her current full-length project, Beautiful Island, she explores the science fiction/fantasy genre. Previous productions include Real Art as part of City Theatre of Miami’s Summer Shorts and Island Shorts, Real Art and Anywhere from Here by Manhattan’s Theatre of Light, Coercion by Playwrights Round Table, Seasonal Migrations at Foundation Theater, and Drawing the Human Form at Cultural Park Theatre. Her stage adaptation of Albert Camus’ The Plague premiered at The Laboratory Theater of Florida. A Proper Goodbye in the Shade of Old Trees and No Bad Dance enjoyed public readings at Theatre Conspiracy and The Migrant’s House was selected for a workshop and performance at The Laboratory Theater. One acts Second Movement, Anywhere From Here, Penumbra along with Real Art, were winners in the Naples Players annual competitions. Recently, Lemon Twist was a finalist in Bonita Springs Art Center’s Stage It! Festival, and will be published in its anthology. Louise’s youth plays Seeing Red, Tides, and In My Brother’s Name have had productions in schools and children’s theater groups. She has received grants from The American Association of University Women to support development of high school students’ work and was the teaching artist for playwriting in The Rauschenberg Project at Laboratory Theater. Louise is a member of The Dramatists Guild. Her plays are available to view on the New Play Exchange. newplayexchange.org