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This Summer: Iconic Artists, Newly Reimagined
Summer Quarterly Newsletter, Florida Studio Theatre, 2024
As our Winter Season cools down, our Summer Cabaret Series is heating up! Featuring songs from the 1960’s to the 2010’s, the Summer Cabaret lineup is bringing new and returning artists to FST’s stages.
RHINESTONE COWGIRLS
Opening the Summer Cabaret Series is Rhinestone Cowgirls, where three powerhouse singers take the stage to perform fresh arrangements of classic and contemporary hits in an elegant and authentic journey celebrating the evolution of country music.
This sparkling cabaret was created by Nancy Allen, the same woman behind Divas Three from last summer. Allen takes the audience favorite and gives it a new twist, from the powerhouse vocalists to the authentic, down-to-earth women we all know and love. Audiences across the country have called Rhinestone Cowgirls “Fantastic”, “Amazing”, and “High-Energy”.
“Both country fans and non-country music fans will love this show,” said Allen. “One of my favorite comments that we get after the show often is, ‘I didn’t know I was a fan of country music until I saw your show!’ That is so rewarding to hear because I paid special attention to creating a show where everyone could connect to the songs in some way, whether a die hard country fan or not.”
Returning performers in Rhinestone Cowgirls include Samantha Duval, Charity Farrell, and Gianna Maria. All three performers made their FST Debut last summer in Divas Three, and Duval was most recently seen on FST’s Mainstage in Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey.
Spanning eight decades of country music, Rhinestone Cowgirls features songs from some of the most legendary female vocalists of the genre, including “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “Nine to Five,” and “Man, I Feel Like A Woman.” This summer, come to FST for a boot-scootin’ time with the Rhinestone Cowgirls, beginning May 21st in FST’s Goldstein Cabaret.
THE MUSIC OF LAUREL CANYON FEATURING BUFFALO ROME
Next up in the summer lineup is The Music of Laurel Canyon featuring Buffalo Rome. This down-to-earth, acoustic trip down memory lane pays tribute to the Laurel Canyon music scene during the 1960’s and 70’s.
Laurel Canyon is a mountainous neighborhood in the hills of Los Angeles, California.
The region became popular with counter-culturalists in the 60’s, with many artists such as Cass Elliot, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and James Taylor calling it home.
This nostalgic cabaret is performed by Buffalo Rome, a country folk band from Nashville, Tennessee. It will make you feel like you traveled back in time to when life was easier. With songs like “Monday, Monday”, “Take It To the Limit”, and “California Dreamin’”, you’re sure to “Take it Easy” with The Music of Laurel Canyon featuring Buffalo Rome, beginning June 18th in FST’s Court Cabaret.
THE FOUR C NOTES
Rounding out the Summer Cabaret Series is The Four C Notes, an authentic recreation of Franki Valli and The Four Seasons. This look back at one of the popular groups in music history features some of their greatest hits, including “Sherry,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You,” “Let’s Hang On,” and many more.
The Four Seasons were an extremely popular vocal quartet that rose to fame in the 1960’s. They received many accolades over the years, including being inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
The Four C Notes was created by John Michael Coppola, best known for his appearance in Chicago’s long-running production of the Broadway smash hit Jersey Boys.
This high-energy cabaret has been described as a “can’t miss” by audiences around the country. Come join us in this breezy throwback to the music of our youth in The Four C Notes, beginning August 6th in FST’s Goldstein Cabaret.
From a salute to the most impactful female country music stars and the music that shaped a generation, to The Four Seasons’ greatest hits, FST’s Summer Cabaret series is sure to have you tapping your toes and humming along all summer long.
Write A Play Strengthens Local Impact
Winter Quarterly Newsletter, Written with Lydia Baxter, Florida Studio Theatre, 2024
This season, FST’s awardwinning arts-in-education program, WRITE A PLAY, is celebrating its 33rd year. Since the program was founded in 1990, it has reached over one million students around the world. However, the largest impact is often on students right here in Sarasota.
This year, FST focused on strengthening its parternships with three schools in its own backyard: Alta Vista Elementary School, Pine View School, and Emma E. Booker Elementary School. Instead of working with students over the course of just one week, FST hosted multi-week residencies at each school with a special focus on what each student body needed.
“So many of the teachers in Sarasota are new, and we wanted them to see that they can complete the WRITE A PLAY program with their classes, and that their students can be successful at playwriting.” said Caroline Saldivar, FST's Director of Children’s Theatre.
WRITE A PLAY started this year with students seeing a producton of a play brought to life by professional actors at the start of the school year. Some students took a field trip to FST's downtown Sarasota campus to see The Velveteen Rabbit. For students who couldn’t make the trip, FST brought a touring production of Red Riding Hood to their school.
Next, students saw Imagination Rocks!, a compilation of short plays written by their peers, at their school. Then, students learned about the four key components of playwriting: character, setting, conflict, and dialogue, before creating a play together as a class. From there, FST Teaching Artists came back to each classroom three or four more times to lead additional playwriting workshops, ensuring that every student got an in-depth understanding of playwriting.
“The best part of this process is watching students tap into their creativity," said Trisha Stever, one of the Teaching Artists who got to see WRITE A PLAY's impact on local students. "Rather than relying on popular characters, the students create their own.”
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Being involved in WRITE A PLAY even reminded Stever about why she got into arts education in the first place.
“My biggest takeaway from this program is the power and importance of bringing arts and theatre into the classroom, where students learn about everything that goes into making a play come to life," added Stever. "It is incredible to watch and facilitate each student's creativity and passion.”
After several comprehensive workshops, students put pen to paper and wrote their own plays—either individually, in small groups, or in pairs. Their creations were sent to FST and submitted to the theatre's annual youth playwriting competition. FST has already received some plays from these creative students, such as Snowboard Dragon Plays Golf, The Parenting Dilemma, Truckless Jason, and Kraken Got Ya Turkey!
“We want to demonstrate that all children can be successful in playwriting, regardless of where they come from," said Caroline Saldivar. “Through our extended residencies in these schools, we have a variety of types of students participating, but WRITE A PLAY works for all of them because of its tailormade approach.”
Young playwrights are not required to have a Teaching Artist come to their school in order to submit a play to FST's youth playwriting competition. They can simply visit FST's website, download the WRITE A PLAY submission packet, and mail in their play.
Join us for our production of The Power of Peanut Butter & Other Winning Plays, which begins playing March 30, to see if any of these brilliant local writers are a winning playwright this year.
FST School Spotlight: Spoken Memoir
Winter Quarterly Newsletter, Written with Lydia Baxter, Florida Studio Theatre, 2024
Have you ever been tempted to try your hand at playwriting, improvisation, or acting? From center stage to the writers' room to the rehearsal studio, the FST School offers theatre fans a wide range of opportunities to dive more deeply into the art form they know and love.
At the FST School, students learn from professional artists who customize their lessons to fit the interests and experience levels of each class member.
One of the most popular offerings at the FST School is Spoken Memoir, an eight week class where students are given autobiographical prompts to take a story from their lives and turn it into a piece of solo theatre. Along the way, Professional Teaching Artist Martha Velez-Reid gives students guidance on how to structure their piece and perform it with confidence and clarity.
Velez-Reid is an accomplished playwright and performer, herself. She played Sheila in the Broadway production of Hair and wrote an award-winning play titled Power of the Powerless.
“Teaching Spoken Memoir enables me to use all that I have learned in my long professional performing arts career and share it with my students,” said Velez-Reid. "The class is an opportunity for students to explore their personal history and examine who they are now based on who they have been."
Like most offerings at the FST School, Spoken Memoir keeps its class sizes small so each student gets specialized feedback and support.
"I love the feedback, followed by revising, replacing, and reimagining to develop a pithy story that resonates," said student Jane P. "Before taking Spoken Memoir, I had never thought of performing scenes from my life, but I have discovered that I very much enjoy digging around in my memory to find stories that are personal yet somehow universal."
Regardless of a student's age or experience level, Velez-Reid always aims to ignite her students' imaginations through two expressive mediums: writing and acting.
"Finding stories from one's history is ageless and priceless," said Velez-Reid. "Everyone's story is valuable. There is no age limit for sharing the history of your life. Young or older, you have a Spoken Memoir in you."
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Taking a class at the FST School also inspires students in their everyday lives.
"Taking Spoken Memoir makes me more observant in my day-to-day life as a way of adding texture and reality to whatever the story is that I want to share," added Jane P.
Session 3 of classes at the FST School, including Spoken Memoir, begin the week of February 12 and are now enrolling. For more information or to enroll, visit FloridaStudioTheatre.org/fstschool/for-adults.
Sharr White Spotlight
Playbill body, Pictures From Home, Florida Studio Theatre, 2023
Pictures From Home playwright Sharr White had a difficult time breaking into the business, often describing it as a “slow-burn start” to his career. In an interview with Broadway.com, White had this to say about his beginnings:
“I was writing a lot. I was waiting tables. I was self-producing when I could. These little plays—we did a production in a hotel room over a weekend,” he said. “I didn’t have any prospects. I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t go to school. I wasn’t connected in the industry. I finally won a small award. I got an agent and things started very slowly happening. I got a couple of commissions, and I thought, ‘Well, I can’t stop now.'”
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His play The Other Place got its big break when it opened off-Broadway in 2011, moving to Broadway shortly after. After that, he moved to television, where he wrote for Showtime’s The Affair for five seasons. Pictures From Home was his third Broadway credit after The Snow Geese opened in late 2013, just six months after The Other Place played its final performance.
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White was initially drawn to Sultan’s work when he visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2015, where there was a posthumous exhibit of around 200 Sultan photographs, titled Here and Home on display. He found a play forming in the pictures in front of him, but it was ultimately the dialogues between Irv and Jean printed on the wall that motivated him. He began asking himself, “’Who are these people? What is this dynamic I have to explore?’” He eventually concluded that “it’s all in the book. What’s important is that the book itself—all of the book—is a work of art,”
White doesn’t believe that Sultan took these photographs to expose some underlying dark secret in his otherwise happy childhood, so he adapted his story accordingly. White says that his play “[Pictures From Home] is about exploring Sultan’s narrative in the pictures of his family and bringing his own narrative into that relationship.”
Larry Sultan and the Importance of Pictures From Home
Playbill body, Pictures From Home, Florida Studio Theatre, 2023
Larry Sultan was an American Photographer born into a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York at the end of World War I. He grew up in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles, California, where his family moved shortly after he was born. He began his career in the 1970’s as a conceptual photographer, publishing Evidence, a collection of photographs found in government archives. He is often regarded as the “King of Color Photography”, and many view Pictures From Home as his crowning achievement.
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The late 1980’s and early 1990’s was an era that was constantly moving and changing. The rise of the internet, the end of the Cold War, and the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope ushered in a radical new era of communication, business, and entertainment; information was suddenly much more accessible, with worldwide access at your fingertips.
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Sultan began shooting Pictures From Home in the 1980’s when Reagan was president and “the institution of the family was being used as an inspirational symbol by resurgent conservatives. [Sultan] wanted to puncture this mythology of the family and to show what happens when we are driven by images of success. And [he] was willing to use [his] family to prove a point.” Sultan’s photographs of his parents are set up against the quintessential backdrop of the Reagan era American Dream. Larry thought that, by examining his elderly parents and learning more about them, he would resolve unanswered questions about himself.
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The book came out in the early 1990’s, at a time when many “serious” photographers weren’t focused on doing personal work because popular culture was inundated with a wide variety of imagery. This project exposes the dynamic of his family as a perpetual tug-of-war between fiction and truth, tension and tenderness; mixing reality and fantasy, domesticity and desire – going directly against the ‘norm’ of popular photography at the time.
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Pictures From Home is a mix of stills from old family videos, images that Sultan staged with his parents, and “candid” photos of them living out their everyday lives. Interspersed with these photos are excerpts of conversations that Larry had with his parents about the project, about their marriage, and about their lives. Over the course of over 125 pages, Sultan explores the painful reality of his parents aging, facing fewer and fewer options in their lives, and solidifying or “calcifying” their relationships. His memoir examines how we view the place we call home, who gets to control a family’s image, and measures “how a life [is] lived against how a life [is] dreamed.”
She Kills Monsters Program Note
Playbill body, She Kills Monsters, Western Kentucky University, 2022
In the 90’s, subcultures flourished. Music movements like grunge and hip hop were making their debut, and then going from the streets to the mainstream. The beginning of zines, or fan-curated magazines, allowed marginalized groups of people to have a voice in a safe, independent environment. People were also creating fantasy worlds, with the growing popularity of Dungeons & Dragons making this more possible than ever. Although Dungeons & Dragons was a primarily white male activity, that didn’t stop women, people of color, and members of the LGBT community from exploiting it’s potential to tell their stories.
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy tabletop Role-Playing Game (RPG) that encourages players to create characters with elaborate personalities and backstories. They do this with the help of a Dungeon Master, a host, referee, and storyteller, who maintains the setting where the adventures occur and plays as the divine beasts and monsters that inhabit it. Players form a team and interact with each other and the world around them, solving problems, fighting enemies, gathering treasure and knowledge, and completing quests. The customizable nature of the game made it welcoming to all kinds of people, including those who identified as part of the LGBT community.
Queer culture had always been there, but in the 90’s it began to become more visible in the mainstream. With K.D. Lang and Cindy Crawford’s Vanity Fair cover in 1993, Melissa Etheridge’s coming out album titled Yes I Am coming out the same year, and Ellen DeGeneres coming out through her sitcom in 1994. Policies like “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” still made things hard, with the ban on openly homosexual people serving in the military, being LGBT was starting to become more normalized. People began reclaiming the word queer and making themselves be seen. In our story, Tilly is a teenage girl who feels like nobody understands her. Throughout the play, she shows us the importance of queer people taking control of their own story when pushed down by society telling them what life they must live.
FooLs Program Note
Playbill body, FooLs, Western Kentucky University, 2021
Edith McGovern has described playwright Neil Simon as writing plays that make audiences “laugh to avoid weeping.” In the years before FooLs premiered in 1981, the Cold War raged on: tensions with the USSR were high while physical walls separated countries. War had broken out in Afghanistan. In the US, distrust of the government was high after Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment. A Hollywood star won the Presidential election with the slogan “Let’s Make America Great Again.” After the social justice movements of the late ‘60s and early 1970s, people began to turn their focus more towards themselves. So much so that the 1970s would become known as the “Me Decade.” Americans needed to laugh, but they also needed a reminder of community. Sound familiar? Sometimes history seems to repeat itself. And in 2021, the Coronavirus pandemic also separates and isolates us. Once again, we struggle with what community means.
Kulyenchicov is a community in the truest sense of the word, filled with people who genuinely support and care about everyone around them. FooLs still brings us laughter, along with themes of love, trust, and the power of writing your own story that can offer hope for a better future. It reminds us to feel compassion and empathy for everyone, including people different than ourselves. We just need to remember that FooLs’ community may be a small town in 1890’s Ukraine, but it could very well be in 2020’s rural Kentucky or any other small town. “After all,” as Leon says, “there are so many Kulyenchicovs in this world.”