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ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT OCTOBER 5, 2023
YOUROBSERVER.COM
50
Greg Wilson
Through its five venues — two theaters and three cabarets — and its community outreach programs, Florida Studio Theatre impacts 200,000 people a year.
YEARS YOUNG
MONICA ROMAN GAGNIER ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
A
book written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Florida Studio
Theatre would need to devote countless pages to its CEO, Richard Hopkins, who joined FST 43 years ago, and his wife, Rebecca Hopkins, who came as an intern in 1998 and was named managing director five years later.
For better or worse, for richer or poorer, the story of FST is the story of the Hopkinses. Luckily for Sarasota theatergoers, there’s been a lot more better than worse, and the theater’s productions, stages and outreach programs for children and playwrights of all ages have grown richer, not poorer, through the years. Along with the Sarasota Players, the community theater now in its 94th season, and the Asolo Repertory Theatre, which has grown from a festival launched in the late 1940s into Southeast Florida’s largest Equity theater, FST is a veritable theatrical institution in Sarasota. But with a dizzying number of plays, musicals, cabaret shows, festivals and workshops throughout the year, it is in a league of its own. Thanks to the Hopkinses, FST stands as a towering example of a regional theater that makes firstrate live entertainment accessible and affordable, day in and day out. SEE FST, PAGE 2
Richard and Rebecca Hopkins turned a scrappy upstart into a cultural powerhouse.
Courtesy photo
Rebecca and Richard Hopkins have been the driving force of growth and creativity during their long tenure at Florida Studio Theatre, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.