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The curtain has risen on another theater season
in Southwest Florida, and several newcomers wait in the wings.
Sanibel Island's Periwinkle Playhouse has changed
hands and been reborn as The Schoolhouse Theater. It reopens
Friday, Oct. 22, as island businesses face the double whammy
of Hurricane Charley recovery and the possibility of a doubled
causeway toll.
Meanwhile in Naples, two brand-new companies
join what's becoming a thriving but crowded theater town:
Stage 88, an amateur or community troupe, and Gulfshore Playhouse,
which intends to mount professional Equity productions.
They join the Naples Dinner Theatre, The Naples
Players, The Pelican Players and The Neighborhood Theatre
Company on the Collier County scene.
"We feel there's definitely room to grow
all of our cultural events in this marketplace," said
Mark McClellen, artistic director of Stage 88. "With
the growth of this market, there's room for another theater
company."
Apparently, there isn't room on Sanibel for
another theater company.
The island's Off Beach Players and Synergy
Productions have been searching for new homes since the Old
Schoolhouse Theater Foundation took over the Periwinkle this
summer. The foundation closed its own pink playhouse down
the road on Periwinkle Way; the 108-year-old former schoolhouse
will be moved to the Sanibel Historical Village, bowing out
after 40 years in the theater business.
That leaves The Schoolhouse Theater as the
island's only venue devoted exclusively to theater. Because
a full season of shows is planned, there are no plans to make
it available for other companies.
For artistic director Victor Legaretta, it's
the best of times and the worst of times. Leading a new venture
and creating his own shows represents a major career boost
for the longtime performer and director. Yet it comes at a
time when the hurricanes' impact on tourism remains uncertain,
and possibility of a pricey toll hike could alienate audiences
who have to cross the causeway.
"You can't not think about it," Legaretta
said after finishing up a day-long rehearsal of his first
show, "Make 'Em Laugh." "It's a little troublesome,
but if I worried about it constantly I'd be a wreck."
Legaretta, who performed on Sanibel for many
years, said patrons often complained that the old $3 toll
was too high.
"The raise is going to devastate us,"
he said.
Legaretta hopes a season of feel-good entertainment
will draw diversion-starved theater lovers to the venue's
160 seats. "Make 'Em Laugh" combines classic comedy
skits such as Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First,"
with comical songs by a variety of composers. Subsequent shows
include a holiday revue, a Sinatra tribute and a rock 'n'
roll beach party theme
"We're keeping the season very upbeat,"
Legaretta said.
Down in Naples, new theater companies might
not face the same economic pressures as Sanibel but they feel
another pinch: limited space. Sugden Community Theatre and
the renovated Norris Community Center Theatre already house
resident troupes.
"All the theater spaces are packed to
the gills — we can't get into any of them," said
Kristen Coury, producing artistic director of the newly formed
Gulfshore Playhouse.
Despite its name, the fledgling professional
company has no place to call home.
"We're going on a capital campaign to
build one," said Coury, a New York theater veteran who
moved to Naples three months ago.
The fund-raising drive begins Tuesday with
"3 Men and a Diva," a concert featuring Broadway
and television star Carol Lawrence and Tony Award-nominated
singer Brian Lane Green. With other benefits planned, Coury
hopes to raise enough money to launch a 2004-05 season.
Gulfshore Playhouse's goal — producing
new work — carries on a mission Coury embraced as a member
of the Lark Theatre Literary Wing in New York. The organization
discovers and develops new voices in American theater.
"We can fill a niche," she said,
by staging new plays and revisiting classics with professional
actors. "Sarasota has eight functioning theater companies.
Miami has 12."
The new troupe won't present a threat to Lee
County companies such as the professional Florida Repertory
Theatre, she said.
"I don't think I would be in competition
— no more than Florida Rep is in competition with Asolo,"
she said, referring to the professional Sarasota theater.
As for Stage 88's McClellan, he plans to squeeze
his shows in around the Pelican Players' season at the Norris
Community Center Theatre. His lineup begins Dec. 2 with "Escanaba
in da Moonlight," a comedy by actor Jeff Daniels ("Terms
of Endearment," "Dumb and Dumber"). Tennessee
Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" will follow.
"We're concentrating on intimate shows
with smaller casts," said McClellan, who has been active
in local theater for 15 years.
His new company will complement — not
compete with — other amateur theater groups by offering
more people an opportunity to participate.
"We've noticed over the past few years
so many people are involved in theater down here," he
said. "It's going to be another venue for people to work
on their art, whether they're actors, producers, technicians.
I don't want to put myself on center stage. We're doing this
as an opportunity for others."
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