Arts + Entertainment 2.3.22

A+E INSIDE: <GUIDING VOICES: Opera’s apprentice program has been shaping singers for decades. 3

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SHOW GOES ON: Circus Arts Conservatory dazzles audience with gala at the big top. 7>

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT FEBRUARY 3, 2022

YOUROBSERVER.COM

Harry Sayer

Before the animals, the clowns or the performers arrive, the hard work at Circus Sarasota lies in putting the tent together.

SPENCER FORDIN A+E EDITOR

Weeks before the circus begins, the big top doesn’t even look like a big tent.

It’s sitting on the grass at Nathan

Benderson Park and hundreds of pieces of steel are strewn about the ground beside it. The animal acts, clowns, contortionists and trapeze artists are on their way, and crews will be working day and night to make sure the tent is ready.

Does it ever feel like they won’t have enough time?

“Always,” says Pedro Reis, cofounder and chief executive officer of the Circus Arts Conservatory in the weeks before Circus Sarasota begins. “You know the old saying: ‘It will be alright on the night.’

“That’s what we live by. And the other thing we live by is Murphy’s Law. ‘If it can go wrong, it will go wrong.’ Trust me.”

For Reis, who has set up and torn down the big top too many times to count, it all comes down to science.

There are so many pieces, and they have to be assembled in exactly the same order every single time.

Reis said that the equipment literally came with a manual when SEE BIG EFFORT, PAGE 2

Assembly of the big top takes about three days, from putting up the tent to installing all the seats in the arena.

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Big effort

IF YOU GO

FROM PAGE 1

they acquired it, but now they’ve memorized the process by heart and they’ve color-coded the pieces for the workers who are new to the job.

At this point, before the tent is even assembled, it’s labor for about 10 people. There’s a few days of brute force sorting equipment and rapid assembly, and then the crew doubles when the tent is up and the seats are going in.

“It’s a giant puzzle,” says Reis.

“The tent itself weighs an incredible amount. It’s truly hard labor. But we love what we’re doing, and the end result is fantastic.”

First, says Reis, the main job is getting all the equipment out of the semitrailer that houses it. Each trailer can carry up to 80,000 pounds of equipment, and Circus Sarasota has seven trailers full of rods and irons and straps and tenting material that needs to be assembled.

The circus crews use forklifts to take the equipment out of the trailers, but then they laboriously sort the equipment by hand.

“The poles themselves, they’re 18 feet long and they’re steel,” says Reis.

“Each one gets laid out in a special position.”

And when they’re laid out, the real work begins in earnest.

First, the workers drive stake irons into the ground, and then they attach straps onto the tent to stretch it out.

The tent needs to be laced together, and once it gets lifted, 80 side poles will be driven in to give it a stable frame.

The tent still needs to be wired for lighting and sound; the circus has over 250 pieces of lighting equipment that need to go in before the tent is fully assembled, and the sound equipment goes in right after the lighting is erected.

“There’s a method to everything as you progress,” says Reis. “This part fits here. That part goes there.

And you’ve got to wait for this part to fit in there. The seats go in basically quite near to the end, and then we finish off by putting the rubber down in the ring.”

The circus performers will arrive

CIRCUS SARASOTA When: Feb. 11 to March 6; 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, plus 2 p.m. matinee on Wednesdays and Saturdays; 1 and 5 p.m. showings on Sunday Where: Regatta Island at Nathan Benderson Park; 5851 Nathan Benderson Circle Tickets: $20-$60 Info: CircusArts.org.

about a week before the circus starts, and there’s little margin for error.

The tent needs to be ready for the performers to be able to orient themselves and also to be able to rehearse before the performances begin.

There’s usually time for four days of rehearsals, and then on the fifth day, the show must go on.

“We’ll have orientation,” says Reis of the order of business once the performers arrive. “And then the lighting and sound and design engineers will talk to the artists and say, ‘OK, what’s the feel? What’s the mood?’ I send videos of each act to the lighting designer so he’s got an idea before we start. And he’s been a pro who’s been with us for quite a few years.”

The lighting isn’t just for effect; for many of these acts, the lighting could make the difference in remaining safe and sound.

“There are certain acts that can’t have the light shining in their eyes,” says Dolly Jacobs, co-founder and vice president of the Circus Arts Conservatory. “Maybe they’re on the wire or they’re juggling. That all has to be worked out with the individual artists. Pedro and I have traveled the world. We’ve worked in different circles with our own respective act and it’s the same thing. Even if you’re working in a building, you’d be there a day or two before making sure your lighting and music was correct so your act can look the best.”

“Not even look the best,” adds Reis. “A lot of the acts are very dangerous.”

But it’s this setting — the European style one-ring big top — that allows for the most intimate setting.

“The audience is really close to the energy,” says Reis. “They really see the expressions, see the smiles, see

Photos by Harry Sayer

Above: Luis Garcia works on the outside of the tent. Left: Big equipment helps in the setup process.

the muscles straining.”

“They can see the sweat,” adds Jacobs. “They can hear them panting.”

For tentmaster Luis Garcia, there’s more work than time to do it.

Garcia said three generations of his family preceded him into the circus trade, and he’s spent his life welding and building equipment to better facilitate the assembly of the big top.

Garcia said that even when equipment is involved, there’s danger.

“It’s all laid out on the ground.

It’s all tied together with cables and stakes and gets pulled up with motors,” he says. “You have to watch

everything. People have to stay way out of sight in case a cable snaps. It could chop your head off.”

Garcia is a one-man Mr. Fix It, and his job is basically to troubleshoot every piece of equipment and everything that could go wrong.

When the tent is assembled and Reis is tending to the business of running a circus, Garcia is in the background rigging the exit lights and filling fire extinguishers, assembling the ramps and making sure the concessions stands are working.

He even has to play a little bit of meteorologist on top. Garcia said that if there is excess wind, sometimes he

has to line up all the semitrailers to block it. If there’s rain, then there’s no solution for that except the hard work of digging trenches.

“I’m up at 5 in the morning sometimes if there’s rain,” he says. “We have to get rid of the water before showtime and make it all clean looking again. We dig trenches and get the shovel, Pedro and I. Sometimes we’ve had to do it in our tuxedos.”

Garcia says he never has time to take in the whole show. He’ll watch an act or two, but then he’ll look for the next task to complete. Garcia feels no relief when the tent is ready; he doesn’t breathe easy until every piece of equipment is put away.

“It doesn’t even matter if the show hasn’t started yet. I’m thinking about tear-down,” he says. “Once it’s up, I’m already building racks and stuff to prepare for tear-down.

“Everything is safe, but I’m already going backwards. Until the last semi is closed and the lock is on. Everything is done, safe and sound. And then go have a pint.”

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SARASOTA OPERA APPRENTICES OF 2022 Sopranos: Ariel Andrew, Tori Franklin, Jardena Gertler-Jaffe, Sara Kennedy, Ashlee Lamar, Abigail Raiford, and Julia Wolcott; mezzo-sopranos Ashlyn Brown, SarahAnn Duffy, Kaylee Nichols, Zara Semmels and Victoria Thomasch.

Tenors: Pedro Valdez Espinoza, Nicholas Hudak, James Mancuso, Samuel Rosner, Joseph Sacchi, and Gregory Sliskovich; Baritones and bass Jose Cuartas, Daniel Chiu, Johan Hartman, Samuel Rachmuth, Justin Ramm-Damron and John Siarris.

Photo courtesy of Rod Millington

The Sarasota Opera apprentices of 2022.

Staging ground An opera singer’s career can take decades to flourish, and the Sarasota Opera has been providing apprentices with an opportunity to find their own voice for 40 years.

SPENCER FORDIN A+E EDITOR

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obody becomes an opera singer on talent alone.

Perhaps more than any artistic endeavor, an opera career is one that takes decades to build, and it’s one that requires not only patience and diligence but a nudge in the right direction. Maestro Victor DeRenzi has been providing that push for aspiring opera singers for four decades, and the Sarasota Opera’s apprentice program has grown along with the company.

It started with only 10 people when DeRenzi arrived, but now it has developed into a robust program that ensures continuity both on the stage and in opera seasons to come.

“The city was not big enough in those days that we could have a local chorus,” DeRenzi says. “And often times cities have schools that support that kind of a group, but we didn’t have that. Unless we had our own chorus, we wouldn’t be able to do the kind of operas we needed to do. I was also very interested — and still am — in teaching and sharing information with people.”

DeRenzi’s apprentice program is now in its 40th year, and he’s seen hundreds of talented singers come through his doors.

DeRenzi became artistic director of the Sarasota Opera in 1982, and

over the decades, his apprentice program has placed opera singers all over the world. The Sarasota Opera added a studio artists program in 1989, and that has provided another rung for the apprentices to climb. And why is that so important? Because there are very few outlets elsewhere that provide a similar service.

DeRenzi said that many opera singers are not only college educated but also receive a master’s degree or a certificate, and still they’re basically infants in their profession.

“No one is naturally a great singer,” DeRenzi says. “Some people have better gifts than others, but no matter who you think of in any field who has achieved something, it’s not achieved through raw talent.

It’s achieved through raw talent and years and years of work.”

DeRenzi’s young charges — many of whom are in their 20s — might be decades away from reaching their peak. First, they have to learn the basics, and they have to strengthen their singing muscles over time.

Honestly, says DeRenzi, it’s hard for a young singer to display the depth of their talent in a 10-minute audition. And it’s hard for the company to envision the rest of that singer’s career. But over the course of the apprenticeship, they learn how hard that singer will work.

“It’s a long time of constant study,” DeRenzi says. “Even if you’re at the

Photo courtesy of Giovanni Lunardi

Maestro Victor DeRenzi started the Sarasota Opera’s apprentice program 40 years ago.

top of your career, you’re still working to keep your voice in shape.

You’re constantly working to learn new music and make the roles you sing better. If you’re singing the role of “Tosca,” even if you’ve done 50 performances of that opera, you go back and restudy it. We’re talking about things that are great works of art.

“Performers will never be as great as the music they sing. … If you’re a pop singer, you can be greater than the material. Judy Garland can be greater than ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ but you can’t be greater than a Mozart opera or a Verdi opera.”

For Tori Franklin, back for her second run as an apprentice, the program is literally a career-saver.

Franklin first joined the appren-

tice program in 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic put performing careers all over the world on hold. The Tennessee native returned last year as a resident artist, and now she’s taking on the entire 2022 season as an apprentice again. For Franklin, it could be a springboard to something big.

“It’s a ton of study. It’s a ton of practice,” she says. “It helps us take that next step from young artist to main stage to being completely professional. They provide us with those tools. They put us to work.”

Franklin said that the young professionals don’t just learn how to sing; they learn how to prepare and how to master material on their own.

For two months, the apprentices practice so that they have the material down when they arrive.

They have to translate the operas to demonstrate they understand the story, and they have to memorize their parts for early in the season.

“It’s right into rehearsals for the first couple weeks, and when we’re in staging, we’re ready and we’re putting it together,” says Franklin.

“I love how fast-paced it is.”

Franklin graduated from Brevard College in North Carolina, and she later earned a master’s degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. And even as the soprano progresses in her burgeoning career, she’s aware that she might not hit her best notes for decades.

“I’m 26,” she says. “I have a larger instrument, and people in my corner have decided that my peak won’t come until my 30s. That’s when my voice will sort of be done maturing.

There’s such a significant amount of training that goes into being a vocal athlete because it really is a like a decathlon in your throat when you’re singing roles like ‘Tosca.’”

This year — when the Sarasota Opera performs “Tosca” — Franklin will have a role model. Stephen Gaertner, who will be playing the role of Scarpia, is coming back to the Sarasota Opera decades after he

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began his career here as a member of the apprentice program.

Gaertner was 27 when he began as an apprentice with the Sarasota Opera, and the program gave him the ability to keep his career alive long enough for his voice to flourish.

“It’s a bit of a homecoming,” Gaertner says of singing in “Tosca.”

“I think my situation was also quite unusual because most young artists in the Sarasota apprentice program that eventually sing principal roles with the company usually do so right away or after a few years of experience elsewhere. For me, I had grown into the repertoire, but the opportunity just didn’t find itself. In the meantime, I developed even further.

In a way, for me, the time was right.”

Gaertner, decades removed from his time as an apprentice, has had a career that most aspiring opera singers could only dream of having.

The baritone has performed with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and he’s also appeared on stages all across Europe.

But he can still recall when it seemed as if it would never happen.

Gaertner studied at the Manhattan School of Music, and he noted that it seemed a bit like an opera factory at the time. He’s gone on to share the stage with legends like Placido Domingo, but before Gaertner arrived in Sarasota, he was just a young singer who felt behind in his learning curve.

“I was definitely a late bloomer,” he says. “Even within that, I just found more and more development. I feel like even now, I’m still very much in my prime. And that’s a good feeling.”

So how did Sarasota set the stage for him to make his own breaks?

Gaertner says that DeRenzi was an exacting maestro with an encyclopedic knowledge of the material, and he said that he introduced things like table readings to make the singers more comfortable.

For the first time, Gaertner was asked to translate a libretto, and that allowed him to better understand the original intentions of the composer. Toward the end of his run as an apprentice, Gaertner says he had a moment he’ll never forget.

He was getting ready to sing in “Tosca” in Colorado, and DeRenzi was giving a lecture to the apprentices about what makes opera great.

The maestro was telling them what to look out for, and he showed them a video of a “Tosca” performance from 1965 starring Maria Callas.

Gaertner, on the edge of his seat, could hardly contain himself.

“I will never forget watching it in that very moment,” he says. “I knew I was about to do it in Colorado that very summer. I felt shivers. Especially in a moment where the music really builds in excitement. I got a shiver down my spine like I’ve never gotten before or since.

“I thought, ‘My God, that is going to be me in a few months.’”

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022

THIS WEEK

SATURDAY

LONGBOAT KEY FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Longboat Key Town Center Green, 600 Bay Isles Road Free Visit ArtFestival.com.

The busiest place on Longboat Key will play host to an outdoor art festival this weekend. Come walk around the new town center green and pick up some art for your home or office.

The festival will also run on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

‘LOVE IS IN THE AIR’ 7 p.m. at SCF’s Neel Performing Arts Center, 5840 26th St. W., Bradenton Free Visit ManateeConcertBand.org.

February is kicking off and Valentine’s Day isn’t too far away. Come join the Manatee Concert Band for a free show as it features some of the greatest love songs ever composed.

Zarita Mattox will lend her lovely voice to the band’s swinging tunes.

RENE IZQUIERDO, CLASSICAL GUITARIST, CUBA 7:30 p.m. at Riverview Performing Arts Center, 1 Ram Way $35-$39 Visit GuitarSarasota.org.

The second act of Guitar Sarasota’s International Artists Series in 2022 brings Cuban guitarist Rene Izquierdo to town. Izquierdo, a graduate of the Yale University School of Music, is a professor of classical guitar at Wisconsin State University, and he’s won a number of international guitar competitions.

SUNDAY

THURSDAY ‘AN AMERICAN IN PARIS’ 7:30 p.m. at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 7777 N. Tamiami Trail $77-$107 Visit VanWezel.org.

the full measure of her achievements. “Duality” will feature large scale and mixed media works, and the exhibit will open with a 90-minute reception featuring pianist Alan Wasserman.

Gonzalez opened her gallery in the Rosemary District in 2020, and her mission is not just to display her own art but also that of several regional artists from the Sarasota community and beyond.

The “Duality” exhibit will run through March 25.

Sacre bleu! “An American in Paris” brings you along on a ride to postwar France, where you’ll hear classic Gershwin tunes and watch as the world re-discovers the majesty of dance and the power of love. The play won four Tony Awards in 2015 during its run on Broadway, and it was inspired by the Academy Awardwinning film released in 1951.

MASTERWORKS 4: BEETHOVEN AND TCHAIKOVSKY 8 p.m. at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 7777 N. Tamiami Trail $35-$98 Visit SarasotaOrchestra.org.

Guest conductor Yaniv Dinur will lead the Sarasota Orchestra through a number of challenging works.

First comes Gabriella Smith’s “Field Guide,” which samples sounds and rhythms from the natural world.

Then comes Grammy Awardwinning violinist Augustin Hadelich, who will play through Beethoven’s complicated Violin Concerto. The program will wrap up with a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, which was completed in 1878.

The Masterworks event will also have a Saturday showing at 8 p.m. and a Sunday matinee finale scheduled for 2:30 p.m.

DON’T MISS

‘DUALITY’ Mara Torres Gonzalez invites you to gaze upon her work and take in

FRIDAY

IF YOU GO When: 5:30-7 p.m., Feb. 4 Where: MARA Studio Gallery, 1421 Fifth St., Suite A Tickets: Free Info: MARAStudioGallery.com

MUSIC ON MAIN 6-9 p.m. on Lakewood Main Street Free Visit LakewoodRanch.com.

BOBBY COLLINS 6:30 and 8:50 p.m. at McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre, 1923 Ringling Blvd. $31 Visit McCurdysComedy.com.

Get your Lakewood Ranch groove on. The community’s monthly block party will feature Goodbyeddie playing some popular hits, and the event will benefit The Players Centre for Performing Arts. Lakewood Ranch Main Street will be lined with food vendors and beer trucks, and there will be rides and activities for children.

Bobby Collins has worked his way up from the most humble comedy clubs to sold out venues across the country. Collins, a former sales executive in the fashion industry, has parlayed his sharp insights into a brand new career. Watch as Collins uses physical comedy and keen timing and observations to explore the foibles of the human condition.

Collins will play two shows Friday night and two shows Saturday night for the McCurdy’s comedy crowd.

FIRST FRIDAY SIP & SHOP 5-8 p.m. at Downtown Sarasota Free Visit DestinationDowntownSarasota. com.

Destination Downtown Sarasota presents the February edition of the First Friday Sip & Shop, which will give visitors a chance to shop and sample some refreshments.

Local businesses will stay open later than usual to entertain the crowds, who will be treated to live music and live circus performers.

‘A NIGHT AT THE OSCARS’ 7:30 p.m. at Venice Performing Arts Center, 1 Indian Ave., Building 5, Venice $31-$56 Visit TheVeniceSymphony.org.

Walk the red carpet and savor your own Oscar experience. The Venice Symphony will play alongside world famous pipe player Eric Rigler, who will reprise some of the tracks from famous movies that put him on the global map. Rigler will play signature tunes you may have heard from Oscar-nominated movies like “Braveheart” and “Titanic,” and the symphony will perform tracks from several other beloved classics.

GIVING HUNGER THE BLUES Noon at Nathan Benderson Park, 5851 Nathan Benderson Circle $15-$100 Visit JazzClubSarasota.org.

It’s a charity event and also a rocking good time. The Jazz Club of Sarasota is hosting its annual Giving Hunger the Blues event, bringing a number of talented performers to Nathan Benderson Park. Headliners Selwyn Birchwood and Albert Castiglia will take the stage, and so will Ariella, Big Night Out, Bird Tribe, Fogt’s All Stars, the Jeremy Carter Quartet, Frankie Pineiro and the Cole Hazlitt Quintet. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Mayor’s Feed the Hungry program, which has collected and distributed over 600 tons of food and over $4 million in food gift cards since its origin in 1987.

‘ONE FOR THE LADIES’ 3 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 3131 61st St. $5 Visit: SunCoastConcertBand.org.

It’s Ladies Night with the Suncoast Concert Band. Come join in as the community band serenades the better half of society with a command performance.

HARPSICHORD DEDICATION CONCERT: MARK KROLL AND CAROL LIEBERMAN 5 p.m. at Church of the Redeemer, 222 S. Palm Ave. $25 Visit RedeemerSarasota.org.

Where else can you hear the Bach Sonatas played this weekend? Mark

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‘PROPER PRONOUNS’ 7 p.m. at Sainer Auditorium, 5313 Bayshore Road $10 Visit WSLR.org/Fogartyville.

This is a perfect event for he, she and them. There are 30 transgender ordained ministers in the United States, and six of them are in North Carolina. “Proper Pronouns” peeks inside the lives of a few of those ministers and reports on the sometimes arduous journey they take through living their lives in public. The film screening will be paired with a question-and-answer session with a panel featuring Meg Daniels, the film’s director. Proceeds from the event will benefit ALSO Youth.

And what’s on the menu? Salad, shrimp, potatoes and cheesecake.

Lauren Yee wrote this play, and Vanessa Stalling directs the tale about family and history that straddles a timeline in 1971 and another in 1989.

The story is about an Asian-American basketball player who wins the opportunity to play in an exhibition game in China, and it follows past and present relationships all the way to the buzzer. Runs through April 2.

FEBRUARY AT THE VAN WEZEL!

WEDNESDAY

FRI, FEB 11 • 8PM

GAYLE MARTIN, PIANO 10:30 a.m. at Selby Library, 1331 First St. Free, advance registration required Visit SarasotaMusicArchive.org.

DINNER SERIES: RICK COSTA JAZZ QUARTET 6 p.m. at Plantation Golf & Country Club, 500 Rockley Blvd., Venice $58 Visit ArtistSeriesConcerts.org.

It’s a fine dining and fine music experience headlined by percussionist Rick Costa and his expert supporting artists. Costa is supported by vocalist and keyboard player Liston Gregory III, trumpet player Camilo Molina and bassist Michael Ross.

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022

CELEBRATE YOUR

‘THE GREAT LEAP’ 8 p.m. at Asolo Repertory Theatre, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail $26-$90 Visit AsoloRep.org.

She’s graced some of the biggest stages in the world. And now she’s coming to Sarasota. Gayle Martin earned international prominence at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, and she’s performed at both Lincoln Center in Manhattan and the White House.

Martin has toured extensively throughout North America, and she’s played on stages in Europe and Asia. Martin will be playing selections from Beethoven and Chopin.

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Winner of a record-breaking six Tony Awards®, two Grammy Awards®, and an Emmy® Award!

OUR PICK

GREAT ESCAPES 4: ‘BE MINE’ It’s an early Valentine’s celebration with the Sarasota Orchestra.

Bring your loved ones and settle in for some of the most familiar romantic themes in popular entertainment.

The orchestra, guest conducted by Sarah Hicks, will play selections from “Gone With the Wind,” “Cinema Paradiso,” “Superman” and more. Hicks, who grew up in Hawaii, leads the Minnesota Orchestra’s “Live at Orchestra Hall” series and she is also a staff conductor at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

The “Be Mine” program will also be shown on Thursday (7:30 p.m.), Friday (5:30 p.m.), Saturday (8 p.m.) and Sunday (4 p.m.)

IF YOU GO When: 5:30 p.m., Feb. 9 Where: Holley Hall, 709 N. Tamiami Trail Tickets: $42-$65 Info: SarasotaOrchestra.org.

Photo Credit: ©Allison Michael Orenstein

Kroll and Carol Lieberman will pair to play the Bach Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord on Sunday as part of the Church of the Redeemer’s Great Music Series.

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MON, FEB 14 • 8PM

Bringing together four Phantoms from the Tony Award®-winning “The Phantom of the Opera” for an unforgettable night of entertainment!

SPONSORS: Wilde Lexus Sarasota and ABC7

COMMUNITY LECTURE TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2022 Hyatt Regency Sarasota

THUR, FEB 17 • 8PM

7PM

AN EVENING WITH NOA TISHBY Israeli-American author, actress, and activist CHAIR

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SUN, FEB 20 • 7PM

HANNAH AND NORMAN WEINBERG

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“Paul Anka is the quintessential performerentertainer, a master of presentation.”

–Joe Delaney, The Las Vegas Sun

QUESTIONS?

“Making Memories” is his brand-new collection of reimagined classics and new recordings including duets sung with Olivia Newton-John, Michael Bublé, Andrea Bocelli and Il Divo.

Trudi Krames at tkrames@jfedsrq.org or 941-706-0037 We will be following #SafeArtsSarasota Covid protocols requiring a negative Covid test or proof of vaccine, as well as masks when indoors.

Box Office: M-F 10-6, Sat 10-4, Open Later on Show Days Prices, dates and times subject to change without notice.

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022

The road to hell is paved with eloquent rationalizations Ronán Noone’s one-man play takes audiences on an entertaining ride on one immigrant’s hell-bound train of snatch-and-grab.

MARTY FUGATE CONTRIBUTOR

R

onán Noone’s “The Smuggler” is now stealing hearts, minds and everything that’s not nailed down at Urbanite Theatre.

The one-man play flows from a cheeky, funny, literate script.

Is the playwright showing off?

You’d better believe it. Noone set the play on Amity Island — the setting of “Jaws.”

The playwright also had the gall to name his protagonist Tim Finnegan, the hero of an Irish drinking song and James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake.” But his literary ambitions don’t end there.

Finnegan’s story unfolds in rhyming couplets. And they’re good, too.

That description might sound like lofty, intellectual, post-modern hoo-hah. No worries. The actual play is entertaining as hell.

Like his creator, Tim Finnegan (Giles Davies) is a born storyteller.

Finnegan charms the audience with a tale encompassing a vengeful mayor, a car crash tragedy, a dysfunctional family and a rodent of unusual size. But his story is

mostly about undocumented immigrants and the bad people who make a good living by smuggling them.

People like Mr. Finnegan.

He doesn’t seem the type. This barkeep is an affable fellow and he has a way with words. You discover that Finnegan once dreamed of being a big-name author and had cracked the pages of Paris Review, and other prestige publications.

But that didn’t pay the bills. He wound up as a bartender and used up his storytelling powers amusing the drinkers. When the bar went out of business, Finnegan couldn’t pay the bills at all.

He winds up living in a glorified shack with his young wife and son.

The subject of bringing home the bacon comes up. This is America, the land of opportunity. And if you’re living like a bum, it’s your fault. This subject comes up, too.

Finnegan makes up his mind to pull himself up by his bootstraps.

Since he doesn’t own any boots, he decides that stealing is his next best option. From whom?

Immigrants.

Amity Island is packed with undocumented immigrants who make up the bulk of the workforce.

They’re bakers, carpenters, dishwashers, hotel laundry workers, house cleaners, landscapers, painters and plasterers.

They take the jobs most American citizens don’t want. They can’t deposit their hard-earned money

IF YOU GO When: Through Feb. 20 Where: Urbanite Theatre, 1487 Second St. Tickets: $36 Info: Call 321-1397, or visit UrbaniteTheatre.com.

in a bank, so where do they put it?

Mattresses, walls and hidey-holes.

Stealing the blood money of immigrants striving for a better life sounds low. Finnegan’s an immigrant too; you’d think he’d sympathize. Ah, but he’s a legal immigrant — and a citizen now.

These are undocumented. That’s different. Finnegan’s hell-bound train of thought continues.

He reasons that immigrants pack themselves into run-down houses and leave for work bright and early.

Once the house is empty, the cash inside is easy pickings.

From there, it’s an easy step to the next snatch-and-grab. And just a few steps more to other crimes.

Each step begins with a rationalization. Finnegan is breaking the law for his family and his dignity!

He has no other choice. Wouldn’t you do the same for your family?

The journey is a comic romp — until you figure out where Finnegan’s taking you.

Dee Sullivan outfits him as a classic card sharp or racing tout.

Photo courtesy of Dylan Jon Wade Cox

A bar serves as the backdrop for Tim Finnegan’s tale in “The Smuggler.”

Aside from a few cellphone references, this could be the 1940s. Or the 2040s. Frank Chavez’s set looks like an actual/factual working bar.

Lighting designers Simean Carpenter and Alex Pinchin mix the mood in keeping with Finnegan’s story. Sean Ragan’s sound design intersperses the story with car crashes, baby cries and the like. It’s a lot like a radio play, unfolding in the theater of your mind.

Director Brendan Ragan reveals Finnegan’s path with subtle realism. He also has a great ear for Noone’s seductive wordplay.

Davies is an excellent performer. He embodies the role of Tim Finnegan, the charismatic raconteur. Big smile, quick wit.

His character starts the play behind the bar, mixing drinks.

Davies proceeds to tell Finnegan’s

tale. He winks, clowns around, interacts with the audience. You drop your guard. But this one-person show has more than one character. Along with Finnegan, there are 10 other roles. While telling Finnegan’s story, Davies morphs into them all with deft voice acting and body language.

Ronán Noone has an acid wit in the tradition of Jonathan Swift and Michael O’Donoghue. His charming Finnegan character disarms you. He tells you his stories and gets you on his side …

Until you suddenly realize it’s the nihilistic side of moral relativism and every-man-for-himself.

Don’t tell me you wouldn’t do the same thing for your family.

Wouldn’t you?

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Photos by Harry Sayer

Above: Co-founder and CEO Pedro Reis and co-founder and Vice President Dolly Jacobs. Below: Gala co-chairwomen Donna Koffman and Elisabeth Waters Right: Sareen Tchekmedyian and Darren Trull perform.

CIRCUS ARTS GALA Friday, Jan. 28, at the Big Top | Benefiting Circus Arts Conservatory

A

fter nearly two years away, the Circus Arts Conservatory returned to the Big Top for its Circus Arts Gala on Jan. 28.

Sarasota’s social scene made the most of the occasion by dressing up in their most performative, colorful circus costumes for a night of fun. The annual fundraiser, which was canceled in 2021, benefits the Circus Arts Conservatory’s many student programs. Guests mingled in the Ulla Searing Big Top, took photos with clowns and acrobats, and eventually sat down in the arena for the show to start.

The program started off with words from Circus Arts Conservatory co-founder and CEO Pedro Reis and co-founder and Vice President Dolly Jacobs. They also

paid tribute to longtime CAC figure Jennifer Gemmeke, who died recently.

The night’s circus performance started with an aerial act from gala co-chairwomen Donna Koffman and Elisabeth Waters along with Chaz Glunk. Circus Arts Conservatory students dazzled the audience with aerial lyra acts and contortionism, Elayne Kramer twisted her body in complex hand balancing routines and the night even had a surprise performance from Sarasota favorite Bello Nock.

The show ended with an atmospheric performance by former Sarasota Ballet dancer Sareen Tchekmedyian and Cirque du Soleil strap artist Darren Trull. The duo twisted and spun through the air to the cheers of the crowd below.

Above: Suzanne and Vinje Dahl Below: Barb Tye and Cherie Gorenstein

—HARRY SAYER

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YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022

DOTS, CONNECTED

GERALDINE FABRIKANT

Selby celebrates next steps of success at Chairman’s Circle Dinner One could not have guessed that the temperature outside was about 46 degrees on the evening of Jan. 24 as nearly 300 guests joined Marie Selby Botanical Gardens’ President and CEO Jennifer Rominiecki for the annual Chairman’s Circle Dinner to thank the garden’s supporters and celebrate its upcoming spring exhibition.

Held under a heated tent on Selby’s property, the dinner is an annual prelude to a show that marries famous artists with their love of flowers by interpreting the influence nature has had on their art. This year Selby is honoring the late Robert Mapplethorpe and his longtime friend, the artist. The exhibit: Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith: Flowers Poetry and Light, will bring together photographs by Mapplethorpe and audio excerpts of Patti Smith’s readings from her work along with audio of her music.

After more than a year of staying in, guests were clearly thrilled to dress up — even if that meant warmly — and socialize. Glamour was back, in full force. Jean Weidner Goldstein wore a long fur coat. “It has been a bit of a shock,’’ she said of the cold weather. But the tent was so warm that BJ Creighton, who had expected the dinner to be outdoors, and dressed for it, said she was burning up. Meanwhile Audrey Robbins was dressed entirely in white: slacks and top. Pauline Wamsler, Selby board member and

its former chairman, wore a colorful print jacked that she said had once belonged to her late mother, Berthe Wamsler, a garden lover and longtime board member of the New York Botanical Gardens. Wamsler was busy thanking donors for their generosity.

It has been six years since Rominiecki came to oversee Selby and its marquee fundraiser, the Orchid Ball, which each year kicks off an exhibition marrying one artist’s work with the flowers that influenced him…or her.

James Snyder, director emeritus of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, whose mother-in-law, Bernice Dabis, lives in Sarasota, has been instrumental in helping create those shows by working with Rominiecki to borrow works from museums around the world. On Monday he interviewed the late Robert Mapplethorpe’s brother Edward, also an artist, about his relationship with his late brother and his own work.

Snyder remarked that the idea of converging art and nature at Selby started just six years ago, shortly after Rominiecki arrived. “At the first chairman’s dinner, there were just 50 people. Now we are doing Mapplethorpe for whom flowers were an integral part of his art and there are 300 guests,” he marveled. “The proof is in the pudding … topped with flowers.’’

For an ebullient Rominiecki, undoubtedly the high point of the evening was announcing, to a large round of applause, that the garden had finalized a $31 million bond sale that will allow it to complete its master plan for the downtown Sarasota campus. The sale gives Selby the funds to finish phase one of its expansion while the multiyear philanthropic gifts are realized.

She added that in the current environment costs have gone up somewhat so that phase one of the construction is now set at $51.6 million, of which 90% has already been raised.

After guests dined on salad, sauteed chicken and spiced almond tort, they heard Snyder interview Edward Mapplethorpe, who talked about his relationship with his

Harry Sayer

Rob Rominiecki, Michelle Yun Mapplethorpe, Selby President and CEO Jennifer Rominiecki, Tina Davis Snyder, speaker James Snyder, Edward Mapplethorpe and Harrison Mapplethorpe

brother and his brother’s relationship with Patti Smith.

Robert Mapplethorpe was early immersed in art. As he said in “Just Kids,” Smith’s prize winning tale of the two artists’ long friendship: “I stand naked when I draw. God holds my hand, and we sing together.” But Edward Mapplethorpe said that he knew little of that brother for many years, since he was 13 years younger than his brother.

“Knowing I had a brother and didn’t know him at all. He was a creature from a different world,’’ Edward Mapplethorpe recalled. That changed when Edward, himself a

photographer, began working with Robert in his studio. It was not always easy but photography became a meeting point between them, Edward Mapplethorpe remembered.

He also realized that art was the meeting point between his brother and Smith. “She is the real deal,” Edward Mapplethorpe said of Smith.

“There was an energy between them that encouraged the creativity they each had.”

After the Orchid Ball, Smith will speak at a luncheon in Sarasota: another reason Rominiecki has to be pleased about the coming exhibit schedule.

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Chairman’s Circle Dinner Monday, Jan. 24, at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens | Benefiting Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

M

arie Selby Botanical Gardens brought its closest supporters together for its annual Chariman’s Circle dinner on Jan. 24.

Dozens of supporters met in a tent space on the Selby lawn for the annual dinner, which is put on in appreciation for donor support over the years.

The night’s main attraction was Edward Mapplethorpe — brother

of upcoming exhibit focus Robert Mapplethorpe — having a conversation with director emeritus of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, James S. Snyder.

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens president and CEO Jennifer Rominiecki spoke to Selby Garden’s recent $31 million bond sale to finance its master plan for its downtown Sarasota campus.

—HARRY SAYER

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022

CELEBRATE YOUR

FEBRUARY AT THE VAN WEZEL!

WED, FEB 23 • 7:30PM Photos by Harry Sayer

2022 Appleton Arts Integration Award recipient Maria Schaedler-Luera and Will Luera

Inspiration Gala Thursday, Jan. 27, at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall | Benefiting Van Wezel Foundation

THUR, FEB 24 • 8PM SPONSOR: Wilde Lexus Sarasota

T

he Van Wezel Foundation put on its 20th annual Inspiration Gala with Harry Connick Jr. as the star attraction on Jan. 27.

Hundreds of supporters turned out at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall’s outdoor space wearing warm — but still fashionable — clothing for an evening supporting the organization’s many arts education programs for local students.

Guests filled into the night’s tent space for the dinner and program where they heard words from co-chairwomen Kathy Martella and Susan Travers.

The audience expected to end the night with a performance from Emmy-winning singer Harry Connick Jr., but there was a surprirse before that could happen.

Connick Jr. took the stage at the dinner to thank the audience for the continued support.

THE LEGEND CONTINUES ...

MON, FEB 28 • 8PM

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Above: Co-chairwomen Kathy Martella and Susan Travers Below: John Cole and Chief Advancement & Marketing Officer Mark Cole

—HARRY SAYER

Robert Mapplethorpe, Hyacinth, 1987. Courtesy of Graphicstudio, University of South Florida Collection and Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

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