TheatreLab presents four plays in celebration of America’s 250th birthday
- Laurie Dionne Babcock
- Bower School of Music & the Arts
- Contributors: James Greco, Photo | Olivia Daley, Graphic Design
7 – minute read
In honor of the semiquincentennial, America’s 250th birthday, Florida Gulf Coast University’s theatre program is producing an entire season of plays by American playwrights.
FGCU’s TheatreLab will present Thornton Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth,” Allison Gregory’s “Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells!,” Neil Simon’s “The Good Doctor” and Qui Nguyen’s “She Kills Monsters.”
FGCU360 asked each show’s director about their plays and how they celebrate America.
“The Skin of Our Teeth”
“I’ve always believed that one of the primary goals of academic theater on a university campus is to participate in the overall project of developing the life of the mind for all the communities on campus,” says Barry Cavin, theatre professor. “It’s a natural fit for the theater to be joining the campus in thinking about what the last 250 years has meant for this country and to contemplate what our shared past means as we look toward a shared future.”
Cavin will direct two of TheatreLab’s 2025-26 productions. First up is “The Skin of Our Teeth” by Thornton Wilder.
“Wilder believes, come what may, humanity will persevere and is worth preserving,” says Cavin.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy is about a family who endures major calamities of human existence, including the Ice Age, the biblical flood and World War II. Along the way, “they discover that the future will always present hardships but, with love for the common good, they will continue to thrive against all odds — if only by the skin of their teeth,” Cavin says.
“The advent of AI, the democratization of information and the uncertainty of climate survival all contribute to the feeling of liminality, and topsy-turvy chaos lies at the heart of this play.”
Cavin says the play will give his cast and crew of FGCU students the chance to develop skills in comedic acting and technical work within non-realistic genres. It will also encourage them to think critically about “how stories shape reality, how hegemonic narratives are difficult to counter and how major systems once believed to be stable and permanent may quickly become fragile and terminated.”
See the show: Nov. 7-16
“Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells!”
“I wanted to bring this story to the children and the community to remind us all that kindness is important,” says Anne Carncross, theatre professor and technical director. She will direct the special holiday production of Allison Gregory’s play based on Barbara Park’s children’s book series. The show is sponsored in part by a Kindfulness Grant through the Roots of Compassion & Kindness (ROCK) Center at FGCU.
“It’s also hilarious and who doesn’t need a good laugh these days? The FGCU students and I have a hard time getting through the rehearsals because we find ourselves laughing at the antics portrayed in the play.”
As part of her special topics class on children’s theater, FGCU students designed the lights, costumes and props and built the scenery while blocking and rehearsing the show.
“This play offers my students an opportunity to think critically about the role conflict resolution plays in the world. Sadness, anger and feelings of revenge are all normal. We must think about how to resolve conflict and what that looks like. It doesn’t have to be earth shattering; small gestures are what make the biggest difference.”
Consistent with the rest of the season, “Junie B.” celebrates an American playwright and a slice of Americana. The title character is a young girl learning the true spirit of the holiday season.
“Junie B. is an American girl through and through,” says Carncross.
See the all-ages show: Dec. 5-7
“The Good Doctor”
As a director, Cavin is known for providing FGCU students with experience in a wide variety of theater genres. Neil Simon’s comedy “has its own set of performance demands,” he says. “There are moments of broad and physical comedy, so the students will have opportunities to develop many useful skills.”
Simon was one of the most prolific, successful and influential playwrights in American theater. In “The Good Doctor,” he weaves together short stories inspired by the works of Russian writer Anton Chekhov and narrated by a writer struggling with writer’s block. It was originally produced on Broadway in 1973.
“This play offers my cast and crew of FGCU students an opportunity to think critically about the differences between what we laugh at today as opposed to what was considered funny 50 years ago — and why those differences matter,” Cavin says.
Audiences can expect a droll comedy full of “moments based on ancient comedic techniques that are still in use today. I know they’ll have a good time,” he says.
See the show: Feb. 13-22, 2026
“She Kills Monsters”
“She Kills Monsters” by Qui Nguyen will be directed by Dan Bacalzo, associate professor and theatre program coordinator.
“The play centers on a young woman who comes to terms with her grief by discovering the power of Dungeons & Dragons to forge bonds of community. And while the play is set in Athens, Ohio, in 1995, the issues it deals with still resonate with our current historical moment,” says Bacalzo.
The play was among suggestions made last year by the student representative on TheatreLab’s production planning committee and has generated a lot of excitement among students.
Bacalzo says the play offers his cast and crew an opportunity to think critically about “how we learn to navigate a sometimes-hostile social environment by embracing who we are and finding others who understand us, creating spaces where we can exist and thrive.”
While audiences will find the play entertaining — with fight sequences, 3D-printed costume elements and offbeat characters — he also hopes they take away a deeper message.
“We don’t always know the people closest to us as well as we thought we did, and that is sometimes because we haven’t put in the effort to be the safe space for them to share what they feel is important.”
See the show: April 10-19, 2026
The show must go on
“The season is a good blend of the various disciplines students of theater must master,” Cavin says. “And this might be the first time we’ve created a full season of shows containing elements of comedy, so I’m excited to see how the audiences will respond.”
Theatre Lab tickets are $15 for the general public and $7 for students and can be purchased at fgcu.edu/theatrelab.