Orlando Shakes is opening its doors this fall for PlayFest 2026, a two-weekend festival of staged readings that gives local audiences the first public look at a stage adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” The festival runs October 30 through November 1, then returns November 6 through 8, with six new play readings on the schedule. The Hurston adaptation is a featured work in this year’s lineup.
The adaptation comes from James Ijames, a 2023 Tony Award nominee for Best Play for “Fat Ham.” The Orlando Sentinel highlighted the adaptation. According to orlandoshakes.org, Ijames is also a Pulitzer Prize winner, director and educator, and he penned this new stage version in partnership with Orlando Shakes, the University of Central Florida and Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre Company. The commission brings Janie Crawford’s journey, the heart of Hurston’s 1937 novel, to the stage for the first time in this form.
Hurston’s novel is widely regarded as a landmark of American literature, and the theater’s own materials note it was first published in 1937. The new adaptation is set in Eatonville, just miles from the Orlando Shakes theater, a detail the company highlighted in its season announcement. That proximity gives the project a distinctly local throughline even as it draws national theatrical talent into the room.
Inside the Developmental Workshop
Long before PlayFest audiences see any of it, the adaptation went through a developmental workshop on June 19, 2026, where Ijames and Roberta Emerson, Orlando Shakes’ director of new play development, listened as actors read through the script. The workshop reflects a broader process described by orlandoshakes.org: the play is being shaped through research trips and workshops involving both theater companies and Ijames himself. Per broadwayworld.com, the development process also includes a workshop, a reading, and co-world premiere productions planned at both theaters.
That timeline has already shifted once. The full production, originally planned sooner, was moved to the 2027-28 season to give Ijames additional development time, according to bungalower.com. The full production is scheduled for the 2027-28 season.
A Lineup Built Around the Hurston Premiere
PlayFest 2026 features new plays alongside the Hurston adaptation. The rest of the lineup includes “The Boy King in Queens” by Tammy Ryan, “Luca & Uri” by Nicholas Pilapil, “The Ancestry Dot Com Play” by Alyssa Haddad-Chin, “Refuse It: A Black Woman’s Guide to 21st Century Rage” by Phanésia Pharel and “Tiny Edens” by Tira Palmquist, per the same bungalower.com report. Each reading at PlayFest includes a post-show talkback, giving audiences a chance to share their reactions directly with the playwright and creative team, according to orlandoshakes.org.
Ticket pricing for the festival has varied across available listings. Orlando Shakes’ own site lists a PlayFest Pass at $71.50 covering five readings, excluding “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” alongside a $17 single ticket price. Bungalower.com, however, reported single readings at $17 with an $85.80 PlayFest Pass available for all six readings. Prospective attendees should check directly with Orlando Shakes for current pricing and what each pass includes.
For now, PlayFest offers Central Florida theatergoers a rare early glimpse at a major literary adaptation still taking shape, months before it returns to the Orlando Shakes stage as a full production.
