A Festival of Firsts: LAB Theater Project’s Comedy Showcase Highlights New Work, Familiar Challenges
With nine brand-new comedies, Ybor’s LAB Theater Project doubles down on its mission to champion new work. But as the company celebrates 10 years, its latest festival also highlights Tampa’s ongoing diversity gap in theater.
by Avery Anderson
Every play needs a first audience.
In Ybor City, LAB Theater Project has made that its mission for a decade, producing only world premieres—no revivals, no familiar titles, just brand-new scripts finding their feet on stage. It’s a rare commitment in Tampa Bay, where many companies rely on safer box office bets.
This month, the company toasts its milestone 10th season with LAB Laughs 2025, its annual short-play comedy showcase. The festival packs nine comedies by 10 playwrights—many longtime writers, some newer voices—into a single evening, each piece a bite-sized window into everyday absurdities.
The plays span a wide range of humor: awkward restroom etiquette, holiday family meltdowns, suburban crime capers, and even a Brady Bunch riff. The lineup includes:
- A Reservation by John J. Kelly (DeLand, FL)
- All Puffed Up by Romney Humphrey (Seattle, WA)
- Daydream by Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend (Singapore)
- Eye of the Beholder by Rich Rubin (Portland, OR)
- Inconvenient Store Robbery by Robert & Lynn Dixon (Dunedin, FL)
- Plinth by Robert Kehew (Arlington, VA)
- The Brady Girls by Debra A. Cole (Lawrence, KS)
- The Extraordinary Ordinary Ones by Maury Zeff (San Francisco, CA)
- We’ve Still Got It by Raven Petretti (Jersey City, NJ)
Though the themes range widely, the festival’s playwright lineup is overwhelmingly white—a fact that stands out in a city as diverse as Tampa. It’s an omission that feels especially glaring in 2025, when conversations about representation in theater are not only necessary but expected.
LAB Theater Project’s executive producer, Owen Robertson, notes that the festival uses a blind submission process for both playwrights and casting, selecting scripts solely on merit.
The festival doesn’t make claims of being cutting-edge or boundary-breaking. But its lack of diversity raises unavoidable questions: Who gets the chance to premiere work on local stages? Who gets invited to the table? And what might this festival look like if it widened its reach?
New Work, Old Challenges
LAB Theater’s niche—developing plays from script to stage—is an important one. New plays are notoriously hard to produce; many playwrights never see their work leave the page.
“People sometimes forget just how hard it is to get a new play produced,” says Robert Dixon, whose piece in the festival is a heartfelt comedy about a store robbery gone awry. “People need something to laugh about—and sometimes that starts with giving new writers a shot.”
Most of these playwrights are seasoned—but outside of a few festival credits and regional productions, they’re largely unknown to Tampa audiences. Some are based locally; others are scattered across the country.
The plays themselves lean toward what one might call comfort comedy: stories about aging, retail anxiety, awkward family dynamics. Several were inspired by personal anecdotes or writing prompts, and many writers cite the communal joy of hearing an audience laugh together.
For Raven Petretti, whose play tackles intimacy in older couples with a sharply funny edge, comedy isn’t just about jokes—it’s about finding release.
“Comedy is a permission slip to process life’s disasters while sounding clever and slightly unstable,” she says. “That’s my comfort zone.”
Laughs—and Limits
While the festival’s heart is in the right place, its narrow range of perspectives reflects a broader challenge in Tampa Bay’s theater scene: the pipeline for new work here, especially comedies, remains largely homogenous.
Still, LAB Laughs 2025 offers something increasingly rare: an evening devoted entirely to new writing—messy, funny, and full of first chances.
If You Go:
LAB Laughs 2025
📍 LAB Theater Project, Ybor City
📅 July 18–August 3
🎟️ Tickets and details: labtheaterproject.com
Or catch a sneak preview (plus drinks, food, and a silent auction) at Laughs & Libations on July 17.
✨ Bonus: Meet the Playwrights—Full Q&A
Playwrights featured in Lab Theater Project’s Lab Laughs festival include, from left: Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend, John J. Kelly, Rich Rubin, Debra A. Cole, Raven Petretti, Robert Kehew, and Romney Humphrey. (Courtesy photos)
Romney S. Humphrey- All Puffed Up
What inspired your play in LAB Laughs?
A story I heard at a book club discussing one of my books, How I Learned I’m Old. Someone told a story about her grandmother stomping her feet every time she passed gas. I have a character I put in a lot of my plays about older women who is quite vain—so I had to put her through the bank experience.
What’s your favorite thing about writing comedy?
I LOVE LOVE LOVE making people laugh—the community of it all. Though I have written dramas, I find it easier to find the funny parts of humanity.
Comedy that made you laugh recently?
My granddaughters (ages 8 and 11) “wrote” a play and performed it for the family over July 4th. One costume change caused pants to fall down. I laughed so hard I couldn’t breathe—unintentional slapstick wins.
Robert Dixon - Inconvenient Store Robbery
What inspired your play in LAB Laughs?
I love seeing my work come to life. I’ve long admired LAB for only producing new plays, so it was a perfect fit.
What’s your favorite thing about writing comedy?
Just seeing people laugh. We live in a time of depressing news cycles—people need laughter.
Comedy that made you laugh recently?
Robin Williams’ old stand-up bit about inventing golf—it gets me every time.
Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend - Daydream
What inspired your play in LAB Laughs?
I wrote this as part of a Secret Santa title exchange with a playwright group. I was assigned the title Daydream, and had recently gotten hooked on “romantasy” novels—so I wrote a spoof.
What’s your favorite thing about writing comedy?
Hearing the audience react—it’s the closest I’ll ever get to medaling at the Olympics.
Comedy that made you laugh recently?
The Mitchells vs. The Machines—I recommend it to everyone, especially adults without kids.
Raven Petretti - We’ve Still Got It
What inspired your play in LAB Laughs?
My mother casually told me she and my dad stopped having sex in their late 70s—like it was the weather. It was either trauma or material. I chose both.
What’s your favorite thing about writing comedy?
Comedy lets you process life’s disasters while sounding clever and slightly unhinged—my comfort zone.
Comedy that made you laugh recently?
Bowfinger—especially the highway scene with Eddie Murphy. My best friend and I send it to each other when we need a laugh (or even when we don’t).
Debra A. Cole - The Brady Girls
What inspired your play in LAB Laughs?
I was challenged to reimagine something familiar. As a child of the ’60s, The Brady Bunch felt ripe for a fresh perspective.
What’s your favorite thing about writing comedy?
Hearing an audience laugh at something I wrote—it’s an honor.
Comedy that made you laugh recently?
I just binged The Righteous Gemstones. Absolutely priceless.
Rich Rubin - Eye of the Beholder
What inspired your play in LAB Laughs?
My semi-irrational shopping anxiety—just ask my wife.
What’s your favorite thing about writing comedy?
Hearing the audience laugh, of course.
Comedy that made you laugh recently?
This Is Spinal Tap—it never gets old.
John J. Kelly - A Reservation
What inspired your play in LAB Laughs?
Two women at a theatre griping about restroom lines. One said, “If we can reserve drinks, why not the restroom?”
What’s your favorite thing about writing comedy?
Creating a “logic of the illogical”—making absurdity seem normal.
Comedy that made you laugh recently?
Something Rotten!—relentlessly clever.
Robert Kehew - Plinth
What inspired your play in LAB Laughs?
I wrote Plinth after the big wave several years ago of tearing down statues of Confederate generals and renaming streets after other people. My short play is a satire not so much on those events directly, but rather on the at-times ham-handed efforts of politicians to try to satisfy everyone and not offend anyone.
What’s your favorite thing about writing comedy?
If a passage connects with people, if it makes them laugh or if they recognize a small truth about their world in it, that is a wonderful thing.
Comedy that made you laugh recently?
In my feed in Facebook, I seem to be getting a lot of clips from the TV sit-com Friends. What a lot of brilliant comedic writing and acting.