GableStage opens its 28th season on Friday, Sept. 25 with a California weather forecaster trying to keep smiling as the world around her burns.
“Weather Girl,” Brian Watkins’ one-woman dark comedy, arrives in Coral Gables after an award-winning Edinburgh Fringe debut and acclaimed runs at London’s Soho Theatre and St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. GableStage is presenting the play’s regional premiere at the Wolfson Family Theatre inside the Biltmore Hotel, where it runs through Oct. 18.
A weather girl unraveling on air
The play follows Stacey, an relentlessly upbeat television weather presenter in Fresno who delivers forecasts as wildfires close in on the community she covers.
Her camera-ready optimism gradually gives way to something darker. What begins in the recognizable language of local television — heat, fire, smiling banter and polished presentation — becomes a story about environmental destruction, personal unraveling and the distance between what Stacey tells viewers and what she knows is happening around her.
GableStage has cast Ella Olesen in the role, marking her debut with the company. Olesen previously appeared at Florida Repertory Theatre in David Mamet’s “Oleanna” and at Gulfshore Playhouse as Cecily Cardew in “The Importance of Being Earnest.” Nicole Stodard, founding producing artistic director of South Florida’s Thinking Cap Theatre, directs.
From Edinburgh hit to Netflix adaptation
“Weather Girl” premiered at Summerhall during the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Julia McDermott as Stacey and Tyne Rafaeli directing.
The production won a Scotsman Fringe First, the Popcorn Writing Award and a Summerhall Lustrum Award. It transferred to Soho Theatre in March 2025, where its run sold out, and later moved to St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn for a September-to-October engagement.
Watkins, who created Amazon’s “Outer Range” and wrote “Epiphany” for Lincoln Center Theater, is now adapting the play for television. Netflix has ordered a limited series with McDermott reprising the role of Stacey. Watkins will serve as writer, showrunner and executive producer and direct the first episode. Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey’s Team Downey and A24 are among the executive producers.
The stage production was also named one of The New York Times’ best plays of 2025, a distinction GableStage has highlighted in introducing its new season.
A theater with its own history of adaptation
GableStage’s home has its own long history of reinvention.
The company was founded in 1979 as Florida Shakespeare Theatre and originally performed at Vizcaya. It later moved to Coral Gables’ Minorca Playhouse, which was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. After operating temporarily at the Carousel Theatre, the company relocated in 1998 to the historic Biltmore Hotel and adopted the GableStage name.
The company has since become one of South Florida’s most decorated theaters. GableStage reported 79 Carbonell Awards as of 2025, including three consecutive Outstanding Production awards in 2023, 2024 and 2025. The Carbonells also awarded GableStage the Bill von Maurer Award for Theatrical Excellence in 2025.
A 2025 gift from Jessie Wolfson and the Wolfson family renamed GableStage’s Biltmore space the Wolfson Family Theatre, the name under which “Weather Girl” opens the company’s 2026-27 season.
If you go…
“Weather Girl” runs Sept. 25 through Oct. 18 at GableStage’s Wolfson Family Theatre, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables.
Single tickets begin at $50. Students and teachers may attend any performance free with valid identification by arriving 45 minutes before curtain and taking an available unsold seat. GableStage also offers discounts for military personnel, artists and groups.
Tickets and additional information are available at GableStage.org or by calling 305-445-1119.
Author: Coral Gables Gazette News Staff
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