Feature: Theatre Lab New Play Festival Explores ‘The Happiness Gym’

By Bill Hirschman

(A full schedule follows the story)

Over a decade, Theatre Lab has built a reputation for exploring some of the newest scripts, visions and techniques in the field. But this month’s The Happiness Gym as part of its annual festival breaks down the wall between traditional styles with a mode you don’t expect.

Because this third facet of Theatre Lab’s now retitled but annual Owl New Play Festival involves a small audience of patrons led in interactions with each other in pursuit of positive approaches to dealing with life.

The Boca Raton company working ever closer with Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Theatre and Dance also will present a fully-realized world premiere, plus numerous readings, and a fully-mounted work-in-progress directed and designed by adults, but acted and staffed by FAU students.

Happiness Gym may sound like a New Age counseling session, but is described as a well-thought out semi-theatrical semi-immersive event receiving the first of four productions administered by the National New Play Network.

It’s described as an interactive event that theatricalizes empirical research on well-being and happiness. Over the course of 90 minutes, participants are welcomed into a theatrically designed space and guided through elegantly simple exercises and experiences that are scientifically-proven to boost happiness.

“It’s not a sit down and watch show, but it’s also not like, ‘Are you going to get pulled on stage and forced to do something,’ ” said Producing Artistic Director Matt Stabile.

“It’s not really immersive; it’s more I would call it experiential. You are going to be guided through activities that you will do with (different) groups. One is with a small group, then one with a larger group, and the final activity is like a one-on-one where you’ll be paired with somebody. It’s all very low pressure.”

The concept was created by playwright Ken Weitzmann, who had a reading at Theatre Lab in 2016. He noted “a whole industry in positive psychology since the 2000s that have been studying…. how do we take somebody who’s in a crisis and just get them back to neutral?” But Weitzmann asked, “Why aren’t we looking for what takes people from (neutral) to actually positive emotion and positive response?”

It struck him that people find a community at a gym where they help each other in exercises. So why not create theatrical-based psychological and emotional exercises that would benefit from being in a group?

Each subsequent planned production will have its own version with different activities, different concepts.

For this outing, “participants meet in the lobby, then are brought into the performing space… designed to be a beach where a bonfire is happening with just a group of cool friends…. Over the course of the next 90 minutes, you will go from dusk till dawn on the beach. Throughout that time, there’s going to be music, there’s going to be one-on-one, or there’s going to be group interaction. And then there’s going to be some group interaction and reflection, and then there’s going to be some one-on-one activities,” Stabile said.

Adding a fully-produced play is a new wrinkle in the festival’s arrangement, although Theatre Lab only fully produces new works; 70 percent of them originally have enjoyed first or second developing readings in the company’s schedule.

“I’ve said for a long time, the fight we have is we are an exclusively new play theater. So the fight that never goes away for us is that we don’t ever get the benefit of a recognizable title on the marquee,” Stabile said.

But in mixing up the menu this year, he said, “There are new play nerds who love to go to readings of new plays, and then there are people who are like, ‘I want to see the whole thing (fully produced).’And so I was like, well, how do we get both groups of audiences? And it was like, ‘Oh, well, you just do both things’.”

First off, this Saturday, is the world premiere The Impossible Task of Today by Jeff Bower, a FAU alumni who worked in the area for 20 years. First seen here in the 2023 readings, the play uses humor and hope to explore issues of gun violence, mental health and the dangers of social media.

The following week, the theater joins with FAU’s Department of Theatre and Dance to give the first production of ‘The Frankenstein Project’ by E.M. Lewis, whose work has been previously produced by Theatre Lab. The “fully-realized workshop production” will be directed by veteran pro Margaret Ledford, but acted and produced by a large cast of students. While it will have costumes, sets and memorized scripts, the play is considered still being developed for future productions. Set amid the challenges of AI, the drama “focuses on the monsters we battle, the monsters we create, and the monsters we sometimes are,” Stabile said.

A slate of new plays in development will also be featured in readings.

“So it’s like, how do we sell what we’re doing? Well, we’re going to guarantee people that when they come here, they’re going to get a high quality artistic experience, and they’re going to be made to feel welcome, safe and supportive. And if we do those two things, then it’s like your favorite restaurant…. Does it really matter what’s on the menu? You know the food is good and you’re going to have a good time when you go there, right?”

He added, “So we make this an event. We make this a destination. We make this a reason to come to Boca Raton, Florida, to spend a weekend here. Then on Sunday night, you can go back home and you felt like you got a fully immersed experience and you had a great time in South Florida, right?”

THE FULL SCHEDULE

April 5-20
The Impossible Task of Today
A World Premiere
Directed by Matt Stabile, Producing Artistic Director, Theatre Lab
Theatre Lab, Heckscher Stage

Five years removed from tragedy, Jack, an agoraphobic online teacher has perfected his video game playing skills but severely neglected his hygiene, mental health and dwindling number of personal relationships. When the grocery delivery guy is one of your best friends, something’s got to give, and with the arrival of a home gym, everything will change. Jack truly believes it –even if no one else does.

An audience favorite from Theatre Lab’s 2023 New Play Festival, this stunning new play uses humor and hope to explore issues of gun violence, mental health and the dangers of social media – all while reminding us that the only way to move through difficult times is together.

Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m.
Saturday matinees (3 p.m.) on April 12 and 19
Approximate run-time: 90 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $35-$45; Opening Night Celebration with reception – $60

April 11-20
‘The Frankenstein Project’ by E.M. Lewis
A fully realized workshop production
Directed by Margaret M. Ledford, Artistic Director, City Theatre Miami
Marleen Forkas Studio One Theatre

In 1816, Mary Shelley grieves for her lost child and conjures a creature that looks a lot like her beloved husband. In the present, Mary Lattimore tries to write a paper about Mary Shelley’s book for her high school English class but gets distracted by the new friendship she begins with an AI robot her father has created and brought home. “The Frankenstein Project” is about the monsters we battle, the monsters we create, and the monsters we (sometimes) are.

Following Theatre Lab’s 2022’s hit World Premiere production of her play Dorothy’s Dictionary, award-winning playwright E.M. Lewis returns to the FAU campus with her newest creation. The Department of Theatre and Dance provides a first home for this exciting new script – connecting stories of the past with those we’re living in today.

Performances: Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.
Saturday matinee (April 19) 2:30 p.m.
Approximate run-time: two hours and 30 minutes; with a 15-minute intermission
Tickets: $25

April 12-20
‘The Happiness Gym: a theatrical exercise in well-being’
Created by Ken Weitzman and New Neighborhood
Based on an Original Concept by Ken Weitzman
Brandstar Studio

Since the early 2000s, there’s been a large and successful movement in psychology to study happiness. Despite the huge number of books, apps, websites, toolkits, seminars and podcasts on well-being, many, many people find themselves struggling to attempt or continue practices that have been empirically proven to boost happiness. One major reason is that the burden of it ultimately rests on the individual==as something like exercise often does. But what if we created more of a communal venture?

The Happiness Gym is an interactive, experiential, immersive event that theatricalizes empirical research on well-being and happiness. Over the course of 90 minutes, participants are welcomed into a theatrically designed space and guided through elegantly simple exercises and experiences, which are scientifically-proven to boost happiness. It’s fun, beneficial, community-building, and, ideally, provides skills with the potential to create lasting change.

Developed and first piloted at Stony Brook University, this first professional production of the project is a collaboration between playwright and educator Ken Weitzman, New Neighborhood, a theater company specializing in socially interactive installations, Theatre Lab, and the Florida Atlantic Department of Theatre and Dance.

The Happiness Gym is recommended for ages 16 and up and requires participants to interact with one another, handle lightweight objects, and maneuver throughout a space. Please take these requirements into consideration prior to booking the experience.

Saturdays at 1, 5 and 7:30 p.m.
Sundays at 1 and 3:30 p.m.
Approximate run-time: 90 minutes
Individual Tickets: $30
* Strict limit of 16 participants per session

READINGS OF NEW PLAYS
Marleen Forkas Studio One Theatre
General Admission, free with donations encouraged

Saturday, April 12; 2:30 p.m.
“Donner: An American Musical Tragedy” by Cait Siobhan Kiley and Joel Rodriguez

Sunday, April 13; noon
Original work from high school students in Theatre Lab’s LabRATS program

Wednesday, April 16; 7 p.m.
Original short plays, scenes, and monologues from students in FAU’s Playwriting 101

Saturday, April 19; noon
“The Last Queen of San Domino” by Chandler Hubbard; 2025 Fair Play Initiative Commission