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It's a familiar story.
Visitors come to Naples and fall in love with
the area.
They work in the theater, or are used to living
in an area with more culture, so they decide to open a theater.
They then run into two major obstacles: finding
a place to perform and finding an audience.
This is Kristen Coury's story.
Three months ago, she and her husband, Laurent
Chevalier, moved to Naples.
"I'm a brand-new, loyal Neapolitan,"
she says proudly.
Coury, 35, has been vacationing in Florida
for 25 years; her grandmother lived just south of Tampa in
Sun City Center.
"Florida was a home away from home for
me," she says. "And yet, I had never been to Naples.
"It was really a very, very happy discovery on my part.
We arrived (in January) and saw this beautiful piece of paradise
in Southwest Florida. We were on vacation for two weeks, we
literally spent two days in Naples. We went home and put our
apartment up for sale. We said, 'That's it, it's time for
a lifestyle change. We want to move to Naples.'"
New York, she explains, changed a lot after
the terrorist attacks of 9/11. She was anxious about riding
the subway, fearing another attack. And the sight of a plane
flying near a tall building unnerved her. For her, it was
time to leave.
Coury thought that leaving New York City meant
having to give up theater.
"There would've been very little means
for working as a director in Naples," she says. "The
first moment I made the decision to leave New York I thought,
'I have to give up theater.' My background is theater, my
passion is theater, my love is theater."
Like many others who move here, she thought
about opening an art gallery.
What she wants to do is open Gulfshore Playhouse,
a theater that will present newer and more experimental work
as well as small musicals.
"I'm not interested in pushing the envelope
in the sense that I want to hang people from their toenails
and charge $30 and call it art," she says. "I really
want to please people in the community. I want to bring in
more new works, have Southwest Florida premieres, Florida
premieres.
"Everyone loves musicals, and I do too.
I do believe too that there is a lot of value in drama and
comedies and new works and new voices, undiscovered playwrights
who are talented but not related to anybody and might not
have a chance to ever get seen or heard. That is something
that really moves me and excites me, as well as bringing Broadway
and off-Broadway recent hits and classics."
Coury envisions it as a professional theater,
with actors from around the state and around the country,
as well as "using local actors whenever we can,"
she says. Eventually, she'd add children's programs and student
programs to foster the arts in the younger generation.
She has the credentials. Among Coury's accomplishments
is mounting the first production of "Waiting for the
Glaciers to Melt," a new musical by Tony-nominated Brian
Lane Green. She's the executive producer for a CD version
of the music from the show. She directed a cabaret version
of a new musical called "Least Likely to Sing Gospel."
And she's worked, in various stages of development, on "Steel
Pier" on Broadway, a Broadway workshop of "The Jazz
Singer" and on "Houdini" at the Goodspeed Opera
House.
She's writing two screenplays, "A Matter
of Trust" and "Soul of the Renaissance." The
former will be shot in New York and Paris. And with "Friends
and Family," she made her film directorial debut, a comedy
starring Tony LoBianco, Tovah Feldshuh and Anna Maria Alberghetti.
But when Coury tried to find a stage to use
in Naples, she couldn't find one available.
"One of the biggest obstacles is the lack
of performing space," confirms Mary Margaret Gruszka,
cultural arts services manager for the city of Naples. "That's
what I see the biggest challenge she's going to face."
The Norris Center, for example, is booked into
2006. One theatrical group wanted to put on three shows, but
the center's schedule is so tight Gruszka could only give
them two nights.
"It's not easy here," Gruszka says.
"Kristen's got the talent and the motivation. And I want
to encourage her to try. But I cannot tell her that it's a
piece of cake, because it won't be. I think (a new professional
theater) is something that's needed here and will be welcomed
here eventually. Naples is growing, but I'm not sure where
we are yet, with so many performing groups here already, if
we can support them all.
"The biggest obstacle is finding the performing
space. I think she's got the talent and the motivation, but
that will only get you so far."
Over the past months, Coury's met with various
people in the theatrical community in Naples, and she's heard
some of the stories of hopeful companies that didn't make
it. She discovered that she could only book two days at the
Norris Center, and that local high schools and community colleges
"don't give anyone more than two days in a week, and
not two consecutive days." She learned that she could
rent space at Edison Community College, but wouldn't be allowed
to move the lights.
So she's looking at different options, from
building a theater to leasing a space if a developer builds
one for her.
"It was definitely not my Plan A nor my
Plan B to build a building," she says. "It's quickly
become an embraced Plan C."
In New York City, there are plenty of theaters
and it's hard to fill them, she says. She soon discovered
Naples has the opposite problem.
On Tuesday, Coury's holding a "premiere
performance and benefit fund-raiser" entitled "3
Men and a Diva." The three men are Tony-nominated actor/singer
Brian Lane Green, pianist/singer Johnny Rodgers and master
of ceremonies Jim Caruso. The diva is Carol Lawrence, the
original Maria in Broadway's "West Side Story."
Coury is hoping to introduce herself to the
community and also interest donors.
Stuart Glazer, owner and managing director
of the Naples Dinner Theatre, plans to attend to show his
support.
"I'm officially behind them," he
says. "We need a professional theater group besides the
Naples Dinner Theatre. I think it's a very positive thing
for Naples. We're looking forward to working with them and
we encourage all theater groups to do likewise. Naples needs
a professional theater that can do other than just musicals."
"I'm just excited to have another theater
around," says Barry Marcus, owner and assistant director
of the dinner theater. "It's always good to have more
things to do in town."
Whether Coury succeeds in her quixotic quest
remains to be seen.
"I hope what sets me apart is that I'm
professional and serious," she says. "I don't take
this lightly.
"The living art that theater is, is a
pathway to our soul. It just opens the imagination, the creativity,
the human spark. And that's what I really believe in."
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By
NANCY STETSON, nrstetson@naplesnews.com
