Book & Lyrics by Deborah Zoe Laufer

Music & Lyrics by Daniel Green 

A new musical

Producers: Barbara C. Ackerman

Directed by Matt Stabile

Double, double, toil and trouble! After four hundred years of Macbeth, Shakespeare’s Three Witches decide to spice up their recipe by throwing nine of the Bard’s characters from other plays into the cauldron – most of them heroines destined for a tragic end. What ensues is a mash-up of epic proportions as characters like Juliet, Ophelia, Rosalind, and more find themselves magically transported to the same forest, where together they grapple with love, loss, identity, and the constraints of gender roles. Is their destiny in the stars or in themselves?

Deborah Zoe Laufer, winner of the 2025 Carbonell Award for Outstanding New Work for her play The Last Yiddish Speaker, returns to Boca – this time with a new musical! During the summer of 2018, Ms. Laufer spent a week in residency at Theatre Lab where she worked with students in the MFA Acting program to develop a short one act, originally written for the O’Neill Center, into a full-length play. A few years later, with the addition of composer & lyricist Daniel Green, a new musical was ready for further development with the Department of Theatre & Dance. This April, a multi-year process comes to a conclusion when this exciting new musical returns home for a full production!

April 17-26, 2026

Performances:

Friday, 4/24, 7pm

Saturday, 4/25, 2pm

Sunday, 4/26, 2pm 

Saturday, April 25, 7 p.m.

A Developmental Workshop Presentation of a New Play

Directed by Michael Leeds

Sponsored by: The Our Fund Foundation

Tickets: $25

In 1930’s fascist Italy, homosexuals were illegally deported and marooned in an island prison because, in the words of Mussolini, “in Italy, there are only real men”. Instead of despair, they find comfort in each other, in celebration, and, sometimes, putting on a show – even as they are subjected to solitude and physical torment at the hands of their captors. When World War II arrives, however, this exile-turned-community is forced to return to their homeland, scattered, alone, and lost to history. 

Winner of the 2024 Fair Play Initiative, a commission and development program for LGBTQ+ plays and stories made possible with support from the Our Fund Foundation, The Last Queen of San Domino received its first public reading at the 2025 festival. This year, Michael Leeds, one of South Florida’s premier directors, joins us to continue the show’s development via a two-week workshop of the play in preparation for a world premiere production. Audiences are invited to join us for this one-night only event featuring a book-in-hand, partially-staged and designed, presentation of a portion of this stunning new play.

A reading of a new play

Saturday, 4/25, 2 p.m. 
$15

Elliot and Alan are two gay men of a certain age, who after eleven years, are finally about to tie the knot. Or are they? How do you reconcile choices made to escape an unforgiving past, when they undermine everything you are today? The past, present and future collide as one family attempts to deal with long buried secrets and a rapidly changing world.

One of South Florida’s most prolific playwrights brings his newest drama – centered on a blended “modern family” and the secrets that threaten to destroy them –  to the 2026 festival!

Baker Street Beginnings  by Gina Montét

A reading of a new play

Sunday, 4/26, 12 p.m.
$15

Sponsored by: The Heckscher Foundation for Children

Journey into the bustling streets of 1870s London to uncover the story behind one of the world’s greatest fictional detectives. Young Arthur Conan Doyle, an aspiring doctor with a curious mind, is taken under the wing of the brilliant Dr. Joseph Bell, a man with sharp observations and keen intellect. When a thrilling new mystery emerges, Arthur and his lively circle of friends must unravel a web of intrigue, danger, and deception. An exciting adventure that blends suspense, history, and heart, imagining how the seeds of a legend could have been planted in the mind of a young storyteller.

The playwright of two past World Premieres, Overactive Letdown (2022) and Heebie Jeebies: Tales from the Midnight Campfire (2025), returns with her newest play, commissioned for our annual Heckscher Theatre for Families Series, as we prepare  for its world premiere in Fall of 2026!

“Why Musicals Matter”

Saturday, 4/25, 12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m.

Tickets: $15

 Free admission provided for Students and Faculty thanks to the generous support of Dean Horswell 

Since its emergence on Broadway more than 125 years ago, the Musical, America’s signature art form, has played an important role in reflecting, defining, and shaping America’s culture and view of itself. This hour-long lecture will explore how great American artists from George M. Cohan to Lin-Manuel Miranda have helped to forge our national identity through their work as well as the vital importance of the cultivation, development, and production of new musicals.

Join the Center for SMART Health for this discussion with Dr. Adar Pelah, Research Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, & Center for Complex Systems, Florida Atlantic University, Florida, USA, & Professor, School of Physics, Engineering and Technology, University of York, UK. April 24th, 2026, at 11 a.m. in Engineering East Conference Room 405 or on Zoom. 

Learn more here.

Friday, April 24 at 10 a.m., Robert J. Huckshorn Arboretum at FAU Jupiter. Join Florida Atlantic University for a special Arbor Day Celebration honoring America 250. Featuring a keynote address by Dr. Jon Moore, Professor of Biology, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College; a native plant sale; and tours of the Robert J. Huckshorn Arboretum. Proceeds from the plant sale benefit ongoing arboretum initiatives.

Register here.