Florida Studio Theatre Announces Lineup for its 2026 Burdick New Play Reading Festival

SARASOTA, Fla. (March 23, 2026) — Florida Studio Theatre (FST) is pleased to announce the lineup for its 2026 Burdick New Play Festival, featuring staged readings of three new works by contemporary American playwrights. This year’s Festival includes Upgradeable by Sandy Rustin, Fundraiser by Brent Askari, and Please the Court by Sharyn Rothstein. Readings will take place on April 17, April 24, and May 1 at 3PM in FST’s Keating Theatre.

New play development lies at the heart of FST’s mission. Festivals like this provide emerging works with a platform, live audiences, artistic collaboration, and valuable feedback, helping playwrights refine their scripts and move their plays closer to full production. To date, FST has produced 37 world premieres, many of which began in its New Play Development program.

Each playwright will travel to Sarasota for a week of rehearsals and development sessions with FST’s artistic staff and guest artists. At the end of the week, the work will be presented as a script-in-hand staged reading, followed by a post-show discussion that invites audience members to share feedback and insights with the creative team.

"New play development is the engine that keeps theatre vibrant," said FST Associate Artist in charge of New Play Development, Nancy Rominger. "Every play we consider a classic today began as something simpler – often a reading just like this. These festivals are the lifeblood of the art form, where daring ideas are explored and the next generation of great plays begin.”

Audiences may recognize these playwrights from previous productions at FST. Rustin wrote The Cottage, which appeared in the Gompertz Theatre in 2019. Askari and Rothstein both had plays produced in the 2025 Stage III Series, Advice and Bad Books, respectively.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Rustin, Askari, and Rothstein back to FST,” added Catherine Randazzo, FST Associate Producer. “Each of these playwrights brings a distinctive voice and having them return with new work makes this year’s Festival especially exciting. Their continued relationship with FST speaks to the Festival’s commitment to nurturing artists over time and giving audiences the chance to experience the evolution of their work.”

A full Festival schedule can be found at the end of this release. Subscriptions to all three readings range from $15-$25, and single tickets are $10. Tickets are available at FloridaStudioTheatre.org or by calling FST’s Box Office at (941) 366-9000.

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2026 Burdick Play Reading Festival Lineup

Upgradeable
by Sandy Rustin
April 17, 2026 | 3PM in FST’s Keating Theatre

Upper West Side empty nesters, Lorraine and Stu are about to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary when their mutual discontent leads them to explore relationships with A.I. What ensues is a dark and funny exploration of the tenuous balance between technology and humanity.

SANDY RUSTIN is an actor and writer named one of the most produced playwrights in the county by American Theatre Magazine. Her adaptation of the film, Clue, has enjoyed over 5,000 productions worldwide (Clue/Cluedo) and is currently touring the U.S. and Australia. Sandy made her Broadway debut with her feminist farce, The Cottage (named one of the best plays of the year by Entertainment Weekly). Her concert adaptation of Dear World for NY City Center Encores! was a NY Times Critic’s Pick, and her adaptation of Mystic Pizza premiered in ’25, and the cast album was recently released. Her play with music, Houston, recipient of the New American Musical Award, is in development with Grammy winner Edie Brickell, and her play, The Suffragette’s Murder, a winner of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award and Henry Award nominee, premiered at The Denver Center for Performing Arts in 2025. Her musical, Always Something There premiered in Chicago at The Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre in 2025. Other Works: Loch Ness (upcoming world premiere), A Jolly Holiday: Celebrating Disney’s Broadway Hits (Paper Mill Playhouse), I Married an Angel (NY City Center Encores!), American Girl Live (National Tour), Rated P … For Parenthood (Off Broadway, West Side Theatre), Elijah, Struck, and more. A Northwestern University graduate, Sandy is a member of ASCAP, SAG, AEA, and The Dramatists Guild and is represented by UTA and Kaplan/Perrone. With her family, Sandy created the Jerry Kraut Memorial Fund. She serves on the Board of the NJ non-profit Project Write Now, and the Advisory Board of the new musical incubator, The Bridge. She lives in Maplewood, NJ with her husband and two sons. www.sandyrustin.com ---

Fundraiser
by Brent Askari
April 24, 2026 | 3PM in FST's Keating Theatre

Fundraiser is a comedy of (bad) manners that follows two couples who attend a private school fundraiser together – setting off an evening of unraveling secrets and sharp revelations. 

BRENT ASKARI is thrilled to return to Florida Studio Theatre. He received the National New Play Network’s Smith Prize for Political Theater for The Refugees, which had its world premiere in 2024. His play Andy Warhol in Iran premiered at Barrington Stage Company, won the Berkshire Theatre Critics Award for Best New Play, and was later produced at Northlight Theatre in Chicago, City Theatre in Pittsburgh, and Mosaic Theater in Washington, DC. His comedy Advice enjoyed a rolling world premiere at Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, B Street Theatre in Sacramento, and Florida Repertory Theatre in Fort Myers. Other notable works include American Underground (Barrington Stage Company, runner-up for the Bonnie and Terry Burman New Play Award); Hard Cell (developed at PlayPenn, produced at Geva Theatre Center); White Party (developed at Florida Repertory Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre LA, and Palm Beach Dramaworks; semi-finalist for the O’Neill Conference, finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival); Digby’s Home (semi-finalist O’Neill Conference, produced at Mad Horse Theatre); Cocktails and Travails (winner of the Neil Simon Festival’s National New Play Contest, produced at The Theater Project, upcoming production at the Turkish State Theater in Ankara, Turkey); Bending Reeds (semi-finalist Bay Area Playwrights Festival, developed at Blank Stage Living Room Series); and Dirty Deeds Downeast (produced at Penobscot Theatre Company and Portland Stage Company). Brent has written for HBO’s New Writers Project and penned screenplays for Paramount Pictures, Marvel Films, and MTV. He is an ensemble member of Mad Horse Theatre Company and an affiliate artist with the National New Play Network. He also narrated the nationally syndicated television show Animal Science, which received a Daytime Emmy nomination.

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Please the Court
by Sharyn Rothstein
May 1, 2026 | 3PM in FST's Keating Theatre

On May 2, 2022, a leaked draft of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision overturning Roe v. Wade was published by Politico. Marshal is tasked to find the leak with no assistance except for a team of her assistant and one IT investigator. As they try to uncover the truth, they must separate their own viewpoints from the work in order to move forward.

SHARYN ROTHSTEIN is an award-winning playwright and television writer. Her newest play, Bad Books, is a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere play and winner of the David Goldman Prize for New American Plays. Bad Books was first produced by Florida Studio Theatre (Sarasota, FL), Round House Theatre (Bethesda, MD), Williamston Theatre (Williamston, MI), and Curious Theatre Company (Denver, CO) and will be produced at other theaters across America this year. Her play Best for Baby will premiere at the Chautauqua Institution in June of 2026, directed by Oliver Butler. Other plays include All The Days, The Invested, Queen Bee (Ars Nova Out Loud reading), March (workshopped at the Bay Area Playwright’s Festival and a finalist for the Yale Drama Series Competition), Camp Monster (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Neglect (Ensemble Studio Theatre), For Abigail Who Drowns Men (New Georges workshop), and A Good Farmer (3Graces Theatre Co.), among others. Her work has been workshopped and produced around the country, as well as internationally. One of the inaugural writers selected for the Manhattan Theatre Club/Ars Nova Writer’s Room, Rothstein is also an alum of the 2011-2012 Ars Nova Play Group, as well as Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood. She is a recipient of an EST/Sloan commission for a full-length play and is a current member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre. Several of Rothstein’s short plays have been published in anthologies by Smith & Kraus and Playscripts. Her drama The Invested will be published in ‘New Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2013’ by Smith & Kraus. Her short play Relationtrip was the winner of the 2006 Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival. In addition to playwriting, Rothstein is currently working on an hour-long drama pilot for Bravo. She holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU and a Masters in Public Health from Hunter College, with a concentration in Urban Health. She holds a BA in Sociology from Vassar College.

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About Florida Studio Theatre

Florida Studio Theatre (FST) is Sarasota’s contemporary theatre. Founded in 1973, FST has grown to a village of five theatres located in the heart of downtown Sarasota. Each theatre is small in size and large in impact – providing intimate and engaging settings for high-quality, professional performances.

Today, FST has established itself as a major force in American Theatre. FST is the largest subscription theatre in the state of Florida and among the largest in the country, serving more than 225,000 live attendees each year across its diverse programs: Mainstage, Cabaret, Stage III, Children’s Theatre, Improv, The FST School, and New Play Development.

Even with its growth, Florida Studio Theatre remains firmly committed to making the arts accessible and affordable to as many people as possible. Under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Richard Hopkins, FST develops theatre that speaks to our living, evolving, and dynamically changing world. Hip and historical, entertaining and challenging, we are where everyone is welcome to engage in the art of theatre.