Jan Wallace, Caitlyn Turner, Laura Parker and Amber McNew at the 2025 Modern Works Festival. Provided photo.

Urbanite Theatre’s 2026 Modern Works Festival kicked off on September 17, a two-week long jamboree celebrating new works from emerging female playwrights. The festival, now in its 7th year, was created out of a need Urbanite Theatre co-founder and producing artistic director Summer Wallace, saw in the industry.

“Female playwrights are still underrepresented,” says Wallace. “The festival grew out of me wanting to ensure that we have more plays written by women in our season. In our first year of the festival, we were still a new company and paving our way in the industry.”

The 2026 Modern Works Festival is a celebration that happens not only on stages, but in different stages. September 17-20 features performances of the festival’s headlining production, Tea Time, Erika MacDonald’s award-winning solo show. Next comes a festival kick-off party for artists and passholders on September 24, followed by a talk from guest speaker, acclaimed playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger. The heart of the festival, however, revolves around the staged readings of three plays: The Longest Walk (Stacey Isom Campbell), Conversations by the Beach (Mantra Radhakrishnan) and Spectres (Joz Vammer).

These three playwrights had their works chosen by a panel of readers from over 300 submissions. The Modern Works Festival is intended to provide a platform for play development—each play is given three fully produced (with professional actors and a director) readings to the public. From these readings or during the roughly 15 hours of rehearsal prior, the plays are changed, altered or improved for the future. Those changes are welcome—Wallace stresses that the Modern Works Festival is geared towards supporting the development of these works, rather than just entertaining audiences. “What you can tell from a reading is really strong writing and relationships,” says Wallace. “At a reading the audience has to use their imagination, so when a play truly elicits an emotional reaction from an audience member, that’s when a playwright knows that their play is working. Ideally, the festival gives the opportunity for a playwright to know what worked and didn’t work from it being read by professional actors in front of an audience.”

Modern Works Festival, September 17-27, Urbanite Theatre, 1487 2nd St, Sarasota.

Jan Wallace, Caitlyn Turner, Laura Parker and Amber McNew at the 2025 Modern Works Festival. Provided photo.

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