Following a playwrights lab, Dunaway Gardens to host Sundance Episodic Lab

The Sundance Institute will hold its 2026 Episodic Lab at Dunaway Gardens in May.

The 376-acre destination in Chattahoochee Hills is hosting its second creative retreat in as many months. In April, the gardens welcomed a playwright’s lab led by Philip Himberg, who directed the theater program at the Sundance Institute for more than 20 years.

For the Episodic Lab, writers will workshop pilot scripts alongside established showrunners and producers. The six-day program, scheduled for May 15–20, will feature one-on-one story meetings, workshops and in-depth guidance and strategy for script development, according to Sundance.

Last year, Michelle Satter, the Sundance Institute’s founding senior director of artist programs, told Variety that the Episodic Lab will continue to be held at Dunaway Gardens for “years to come.”

Dunaway Gardens was created by musical actress Hetty Jane Dunaway, who moved to the property owned by her husband around 1916 and designed the gardens herself.

From the late 1920s to the 1940s, the property served as a resort and gathering place for the likes of Walt Disney, Tallulah Bankhead and Minnie Pearl.

Hetty Jane took pride in helping construct the gardens, Dunaway Gardens owner Tena Clark told SaportaReport last February. She often worked alongside laborers, planting while spring-fed pools, an amphitheater and other features were built across the property, Clark said.

Clark, an acclaimed music producer, purchased the property four years ago. The previous owners carried out a major restoration in the early 2000s after the gardens had become overgrown with kudzu and wisteria.

Clark and her team are now undertaking a new restoration that will transform Dunaway Gardens into a luxury retreat.

Even in its current state, however, the property offers an ideal environment for creative work, Himberg said in an email ahead of the April playwright lab.

“My mentor, Robert Redford, always maintained that ‘everything begins with place,’” Himberg wrote. “…This is true for any kind of storyteller as they are inventing characters in time and space.”

The setting, he suggested, plays a similar role across both the playwright’s lab and the upcoming Episodic Lab, shaping how artists approach their work.

“When it comes time to actually put pen to paper, nothing compares to the quietude and vitality of nature as a companion,” he wrote. “Away from daily distractions, supported by a visionary staff, even not having to forage for your meals — all of that breaking of routine opens up breathing room to “see the world through a new lens.”

He continued: “Dunaway Gardens’ spectacular forest scenery [provides] a setting that allows playwrights new vistas and hence inspiration, both externally and internally.”