The Story That Spoke to Her: Playwright Lucile Lichtblau at Florida Studio Theatre

Some stories begin with an idea. Others with a question. For playwright Lucile Lichtblau, her most recent story began with a voice.

Her rabbi suggested that she write about her great-grandmother, whom her family called “The Makeshefah". The Witch. As she began to explore the story, her great-grandmother seemed to speak to her. The first words she heard became the opening words of a play:

“I cannot fly.”

From those words came The Whore of Kiev, an epic story of the 20th century told through what Lichtblau describes as “the Jewish spirit of survival.”

The play is deeply personal for Lichtblau, whose own identity is intertwined with Judaism. It also takes her into territory she had not explored in her previous plays, even as it revisits one theme that has appeared throughout her work: betrayal.

“I hope audiences feel the depth of passion I felt writing this play,” Lichtblau says.

With The Whore of Kiev, the story unfolded gradually as the characters “spoke” to the playwright. Even Lichtblau did not always know where they were leading her.

“I am constantly surprised by the twists and turns my plays take and this play was no exception,” she says. “I had no idea what the Whore was going to do. It shocked me.”

That sense of discovery is part of what she loves most about writing. While plot and structure are the most difficult elements for her, the characters themselves are what keep the process alive.

Once The Whore of Kiev moved from Lichtblau's imagination onto the page, the next step was hearing it come to life.

Lichtblau brought the play to Florida Studio Theatre for a series of workshops with FST staff and actors, giving her an opportunity to hear the work aloud, receive feedback, and explore the play from perspectives beyond her own.

“The team came up with fascinating, creative questions that I felt were necessary to answer, to develop, to fulfill,” Lichtblau says. “It was a marvelous experience.”

For FST, this kind of development is an important part of the theatre's commitment to new work. Rather than waiting until a play is completely finished, workshops allow playwrights to discover what is working and what may need further exploration.

Lichtblau had previously experienced that process at FST with Zoom Therapy, which was workshopped as part of FST's 2025 Burdick New Play Festival. Returning to FST with The Whore of Kiev gave her another opportunity to develop her work alongside artists and audiences.

The workshops also revealed something Lichtblau hadn't fully recognized in her own play. During a Q&A session, an audience member spoke about the betrayal of a character that the author had not fully considered.

“I had not fully appreciated [it] before,” Lichtblau says. “I really liked that insight.”

It's one of the unique possibilities of developing new work in a theatre setting: once a play is shared with actors and audiences, the story can begin to reveal itself in ways that aren't always possible in a vacuum.

Before the reading at FST, Lichtblau admits she felt somewhat nervous. But once the actors began performing, that melted away.

“I was reassured by the complete attentiveness of the audience,” she says. “Nobody moved.”

The reading also gave Lichtblau a clearer sense of what she wants for the play's future. While hearing the script performed was invaluable, she felt the experience ultimately made her eager to see The Whore of Kiev fully staged.

“The reading performance made me want to see a full production,” she says. “A reading, while helpful, is still too motionless by design, to give me the full experience I really crave with this play.”

The play is still evolving. Lichtblau continues to rewrite The Whore of Kiev, describing the work ahead as “polishing” and adding the finishing touches. That process is familiar territory for a playwright who believes a play may never truly be finished.

“I never really know when a play is finished,” she says. “Maybe it's because a play is never truly finished but I have to stop because now it's time to do something else.”

Lichtblau's approach to storytelling has changed throughout her life. Today, she says, her work contains “much less exposition” and “more drama." But one thing hasn't changed: her curiosity.

“I am always looking for different ways to tell a story.”

That curiosity has continued to bring her to new stories and new stages like FST. For Lichtblau, that willingness to keep creating is ultimately rooted in her love of theater itself.

“I love the theater because it's the one place where you can make magic happen,” she says. “The feelings that go back and forth between an audience and the actors cannot be replicated anyplace else.”

With The Whore of Kiev, that magic began with a voice from the past. Through the work of the playwright, FST's artists, and an attentive audience, that voice continues to become something new. One workshop, one reading, and one rewrite at a time.