This post was originally published on NY Times - Theater

Written by: Rhoda Feng

Despite its thunderbolt of a title, the focus of this memory play is on the relationship between a self-involved author and his long-suffering agent.

Amid an ongoing strike by Hollywood screenwriters and actors, a play with the nifty title “Pay the Writer” courts applause before anyone has uttered a word. Never mind that its turf is mainly the literary world, not the cinematic one; the author at the center of Tawni O’Dell’s play, Cyrus Holt (Ron Canada), seems to speak for all underpaid writers when he inscribes that feisty injunction in a copy of his book that is being adapted as a movie.

South Florida Theatre is undergoing a change… or at least that is what the evolving audience should hope for. 

With smaller companies like LakeHouseRanchdotPNG, that change is at its most present. Having just made it to their second season, this small but growing theater company is still making strides in going against the grain that is South Florida theatre. They do this by not only choosing experimental and absurdist plays for their season, but by operating as a playwrights theatre, something you don’t see enough of within the community. All of their work comes from new, exciting, and challenging playwrights – a mission that not only expands the outreach of the community, but in a way might also alienate certain audiences… and maybe that’s okay.

At 26, Area Stage Company of Miami director Giancarlo Rodaz became the youngest director to win a Carbonell Award for creating an immersive theatrical experience in his production of the musical Beauty and the Beast in 2022.