Arts + Entertainment 3.31.22

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ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT MARCH 31, 2022

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IN LIVING Alexander Solotzew believes his work is the art of the future, but it demands to be seen in the present.

COLORS

SPENCER FORDIN A+E EDITOR

A

lexander Solotzew doesn’t believe in the trope of the tortured artist. If you do believe in that concept, he thinks you might be hanging the wrong things on your wall.

Solotzew’s artwork, filled with vibrant colors and vigorous action, is the product of 50 years of passionate expression, and his latest exhibit at the Art Ovation Hotel reflects the last nine years of his work.

The exhibit, dubbed “Life in Colors,” will have an official opening on April 7 and will be displayed in Art Ovation’s lobby into August.

If there is a theme for the exhibit, it’s the master painter’s love for life and the human condition.

This artist never works when he’s unhappy because he believes his subconscious mind would render his work unrecognizable.

“I tell all my clients, you have to know the artist,” he says, translated by his wife, Marina. “If you don’t know who the artist is as a human being, you may wind up with a painting that will be influencing your life in a negative way. I’ve experimented; I never paint when I’m in a negative mood or loaded with problems. No matter how perfect the painting is technically — the composition, the form, the color — it will still reflect my state of mind at the time.”

Solotzew conceives the finished paintings in his head before he works on them, and he doesn’t sketch them out before he paints. Sometimes, in fact, he has so many competing ideas in his head that he cannot work on them all; and sometimes, in those cases, his inspiration is lost forever.

EARLY START

Solotzew’s talent was nurtured from an early age, but it’s taken a lifetime to develop his skill.

Born in Kalingrad, Russia, Solotzew began painting at age 11 and received a rigorous artistic education at the Moscow Academic Art Lyceum. He later studied at the Tambov Art College and the St. Petersburg State Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

But that only identifies where he was taught; it doesn’t describe how he was taught.

Marina Solotzew said Alexander was separated from his parents for four years starting at age 11 and painted eight hours a day, learning every line of masters like Botticelli and Michelangelo.

Solotzew moved to East Germany in 1981, and after the Berlin Wall fell, he crossed the barrier like so many other thankful citizens of the world.

Solotzew considers himself a cosmopolitan; he wants more than anything to connect people and help them appreciate beauty in their dayto-day lives. And since moving to Sarasota, he’s entered a productive phase of his career.

SEE COLORS, PAGE 2 Spencer Fordin

Alexander Solotzew’s Puppet “La Fortuna” is part of his series “Puppets and their Masters.”

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Colors FROM PAGE 1

“He believes it’s very important for an artist to know what’s happening in the world. He cannot separate himself from it,” says Marina about her husband’s frame of mind. “If he did, he wouldn’t be a contemporary artist. He wouldn’t be reflecting what’s happening at this time. But also, he has to reflect what he feels and how he feels.

“For him, war always has an alternative: peace. Hate always has an alternative: love.”

That love is readily apparent in many of his pieces, whether it’s a pair of couples dancing the tango or a celebration of a Jewish wedding inspired by artist Marc Chagall. Solotzew portrays New York and Paris in his paintings, and another one evokes Venetian canals.

In many of his pieces that evoke time and place, you can see both the visual trademarks of the city and the way its inhabitants dress and live.

One piece in his latest exhibit is inspired by Sarasota’s Field Club and features a reclining couple dressed in tennis whites looking out over a beautiful water view.

“We went to this club with our friends,” says Marina about the genesis of the painting. “When Alexander came out, he saw people playing tennis, boating and all the beauty that Florida can offer.

Solotzew’s “Tango Passion” was inspired by his love of dance.

IF YOU GO

LIFE IN COLORS When: 5:30 p.m. April 7 Where: Art Ovation Hotel, 1255 N. Palm Ave. Tickets: Free Info: Solotzew.com

“And he immediately said, ‘I have to start painting about Florida.’”

Solotzew has three adult sons who live in Europe, but none of them has pursued art as a vocation. He said the Field Club painting — and indeed much of his Art Ovation exhibit — is influenced by his second marriage, to Marina about nine years ago, and he believes that getting married again helped fire his creative engines.

“Being married brought me a lot of joy,” he says. “I’m in love, and my work always reflects my passion.

There’s a lot of joy, and that’s why there’s a lot of red and yellow and a lot of light. When I was searching for the woman of my life, I was also in search of my art.”

NEW FOCUS

Solotzew also worked in sculpting and stained glass earlier in his career, but now he’s fixated on developing his skills as an avant garde painter.

In one instance, says Marina, Solotzew was offered a job as an instructor at an art college in Boston but declined because he felt he’s still a student himself.

Solotzew has resisted the impulse to paint what other people tell him to paint. He’s been told there’s more of a market for abstract art, but he’s determined to follow his own muse.

“I have enough skill to do any kind of painting, abstract or realistic,” he says. “But I believe that I’m going on my own path and that my path is right. That’s why I create what I do. I believe this art will be the future.

“I believe I belong to the future, and I want my art to be the witness of our era. That’s why I put a lot of energy and a lot of meaning into it.”

Now age 65, Solotzew doesn’t believe in the concept of an artist’s prime. Every artist is different, he says, and their prime hinges on their understanding, not their age.

“The artist never retires. He always works all the way until he dies,” says

Photos by Spencer Fordin

Alexander Solotzew’s latest phase of work has been inspired by his marriage to Marina Solotzew.

Solotzew. “The prime of an artist is when he reaches an understanding of something higher than himself.

“It’s not about age. It’s about understanding. It could be a 10-yearold boy who suddenly gets it, and he gets it more than a 70-year-old man.

It depends on what you’re looking for, and in the end you’ll find what you need. But you need to continue searching.”

Asked about his favorite artists, Solotzew says he favors Matisse and Chagall. He does not like Dali or Picasso, not because of their craft but because of what he knows about Dali and Picasso as people, which impacts his love of their art.

Does that mean he identifies more with the painters of his age?

Not really.

“If you have at home a perfect French cuisine restaurant, and you’re a connoisseur, why would you go to McDonald’s?” he asks. “I’m not against contemporary artists. If they come to me, we speak on the same level. But I don’t see anybody who can teach me anything.”

Art, for Solotzew, is more than a

From the creators of Ragtime comes the World Premiere Musical

career and a passion. Marina likens it to an addiction in that her husband cannot live happily or productively without his craft.

His paintings can sometimes take more than a month to come to fruition, but that doesn’t count the time they live in his mind as concepts.

Sometimes, says Marina, the art consumes his every waking moment.

And in some cases, it even keeps him awake at night.

“I ask him if he’s sleeping because he’s lying awake and looking at the ceiling, and he says, ‘No, I’m thinking.’ And I know when he’s thinking about the painting because he doesn’t hear me, and he looks through me,” says Marina. “Nothing touches him. Nothing matters except what he thinks about this painting.

“And he can do that a week. He’s like in a different state and a different realm. He only paints when he’s happy, and he’s happy when he paints. It’s just like a circle receiving that energy. He brings a lot to the canvas, and then it’s like the canvas is reflecting it backward onto him.

Sometimes, the canvas reveals that

he has a problem.”

When that happens, Solotzew doesn’t just paint over what he sees.

He burns it or otherwise destroys it.

And he begins anew with a fresh canvas and inspiration.

Music, interestingly, plays an important role in his creative process. He prefers to listen to a few specific artists when he works: Jimi Hendrix. Mozart. Bjork. Tom Waits.

It’s not so much their music, says Solotzew, but how they make him feel. It’s their general essence, and it’s the frequency of their music set to the tempo of his brushstrokes.

Solotzew will stage an event at Art Ovation in May in which he paints over a brick from the Berlin Wall; in that figurative canvas that’s so evocative of his life’s journey, he hopes to keep the inspiration moving.

“The most rewarding is not when he sees what he’s done,” says Marina.

“The most rewarding is when other people have seen what he’s done and accepted it.

“He stays faithful to himself and to his theme of love, and he stays faithful to the people that believe in him.”

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The World Premiere of Knoxville is made possible by a generous grant from The Roy Cockrum Foundation.

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ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

Back from the drawing board Instead of moving onto other projects, the creative team behind ‘Knoxville’ used the pandemic to strengthen it ahead of its world premiere.

SPENCER FORDIN A+E EDITOR

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hey charted every path and made every creative decision, pushing their production farther along to opening curtain.

But then they had to take a step back.

The award-winning creative team behind “Knoxville,” which will make its world premiere on the Asolo Repertory Theatre stage on April 15, used a two-year break caused by the pandemic to make wholesale revisions to their play’s structure and song cycle.

The original musical is based on the James Agee novel “A Death in the Family.” Frank Galati, director of “Knoxville,” said that while the creative team could not have imagined the disruption, the musical is much better because of it.

“The whole world was ambushed and terrified and in many ways wounded by the pandemic,” says Galati. “Even when we were told we would have to postpone, none of us could’ve predicted this enormous break and unbelievable trauma.

“In the passage of time, as artists, we hold inside of ourselves the work that we do. And it kind of falls asleep. But it stays there. ... In our sleep, we’re singing. We’re looking at staging. We’re imagining interactions. We’re having conversations with the novel and wrestling with James Agee. It was wonderful to be liberated for a time to put it away, let it sleep and let it have its way with us as time passes.”

Galati, who won a Tony Award for his adaptation of “The Grapes of Wrath” in 1990, is working with kindred spirits. Composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens worked with Galati on “Ragtime,” and they’ve collaborated separately on a number of productions. Ahrens and Flaherty made “Anastasia” and “Seussical” together, and while they’ve been in Sarasota, both shows have had local performances.

Galati, Ahrens and Flaherty said that the long gestation cycle of “Knoxville” isn’t necessarily out of the ordinary. In fact, Galati said that he thinks that “Ragtime” toured regional theater houses for four years before it got to open on Broadway.

In that case, the creative team had

Photo courtesy of Nathan Johnson

Above: Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens Left: Frank Galati

Courtesy photo

the chance to see what worked and didn’t work on stage before they made any revisions. But this time, they were kind of flying blind.

“When you have a hiatus, you’re clear-eyed,” says Ahrens. “When you’re in the midst of it, and you’re headed to the stage, you only have rehearsal time for this much time.

You’re working overnight putting a change into the next page. The clock is ticking, and it’s very tense. It really

IF YOU GO

WORLD PREMIERE OF “KNOXVILLE” When: 8 p.m. April 15; runs through May 11 Where: Mertz Theatre, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail Tickets: $30-$81 Info: AsoloRep.org

requires cool heads and a lot of focus.

If you do have a chance to step back for a weekend — or two years in this case — you see things you could never have seen under that pressure or in those time constraints.”

For his part, Flaherty says that “Knoxville” was fully orchestrated and ready to go even though he had never heard it played live. And then that version died an untimely death due to the pandemic.

The extra time allowed him to reimagine moments in the score and rewrite them, and it gave the creative team time to draw up new characters and songs for them to sing.

“We just taught a new song this morning,” he said recently. “It’s for a new character who wasn’t in the earlier draft; it’s a new idea and came through the interaction of the three of us. It was great to finally be teaching this particular actor this song and to hear it sung in the room for the first time.”

But that bit of creative license has repercussions. When the creative team writes new dialogue and new songs for new characters, it means they have to spike some of the material they loved.

Time and experience have made them ruthless, Ahrens says.

“As we sit in this room, we are surrounded by invisible piles of dead songs,” says Ahrens. He said every

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AN EPIC DEBUT ON A SARASOTA STAGE How did a world-class production team wind up premiering its show in Sarasota?

By finding an artistic community that matched its sensibilities.

The creative team behind “Knoxville” — director Frank Galati, composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens — say they have never really conceived a life for their musical beyond the boundaries of the Asolo Repertory Theatre stage.

“We’d like it to have a life, and we all hope for that,” says Ahrens.

“But we really have no notion of what and where. We’re just here in the moment.”

They’re here in the moment, but the moment has lasted a lot longer than expected.

“Knoxville” was supposed to make its world premiere two years ago but was postponed by the pandemic. Instead of moving forward with other projects, the Asolo assured the “Knoxville” creative team it had a home in Sarasota.

From the local perspective, there was never any hesitation.

Michael Donald Edwards, producing artistic director of the Asolo Repertory Theatre, said he was committed to seeing it through and that having the premiere here will be a boon to the

night, he receives a binder from Flaherty full of every cut song, moment, underscore and transitional music.

“It’s all in the book, along with his drawings and pictures that say, ‘This never made it out of your living room.’”

“If you read the book, it’s not like a sad read,” says Flaherty. “You can see how this idea led to this idea and how this conversation about this moment led to this moment. It’s really about the thought process rather than orphaned songs. Although I think orphaned songs want to live together, it helps my soul knowing that they’re close together in the book.”

Galati says a favorite theater critic, Walter Kerr, offered advice that pertains to this kind of situation, saying that a playwright should try to kill every third laugh in a script.

Sometimes, says Flaherty, time and distance wind up dictating the editing process by themselves.

Flaherty says he believes “Ragtime” is even more relevant today than it was when it opened, and part of that is because they had so many great chefs in the kitchen.

“Frank brought so many smart people into the room,” he says. “Lynn is a book writer as well as a lyricist.

Our costume designer is also a set designer. Our choreographer is also a director. Frank is a playwright as

local community.

“It reflects well on the support for arts in this town, and it’s already garnered us quite a bit of national attention,” says Edwards.

“There’s going to be a lot of people bursting with pride that we’ve pulled it off, that we’ve come back with such a heightened and glamorous way with these artists from the very highest level of the American theater.”

Edwards, in fact, says that Asolo Rep has an advantage over bigger theaters. Here in Sarasota, it has all of its functions under one roof. The costumers and sets are designed in house, and Edwards says that’s novel in the industry.

“I promise all the artists that come to work here that they will be supported in very meaningful ways to create the best work,” says Edwards. “I promise them they’ll be healthy and vital and alive, and they’ll return to New York refreshed as artists and excited about what they’ve achieved here. … A lot of Broadway people are used to working in Broadway theaters that are not homes.

“They are temporary spaces for the shows and have long histories of many productions being in them. But they don’t come with a family.”

well as a director. Everybody had so many skills.

“To get that kind of energy in the room, it was like an incubator for ideas. The gestation period, even though it seemed long, it made the piece richer because we had the time again.”

Flaherty likens the creative process to raising a child. You do the best you can, pour as much love as you can, and then you set it free. Ahrens, not one to miss a beat, chimes in before he can even finish the sentence.

“And you call after it, ‘Send Mommy and Daddy home a check now and then,’” she says.

The trio has no idea what will happen to “Knoxville” after its run. Will it go to another regional theater?

Will it be taken off Broadway or straight to Broadway? They haven’t even begun to think about it; they’re too busy wrestling it into shape.

“Our days are crowded and busy, but this is why we live. It’s like being in the sunshine, and you’re a plant,” says Galati of the final revision process. “It’s very charged, very thrilling and exciting. You sort of pinch yourself because there’s so much coming at you from other souls. And they’re all telling the truth. Sometimes it can be exhausting and draining emotionally.”

MICHAEL BERGER GALLERY See Hung Liu: Portraits of Promised Lands at the National Portrait Gallery The first large scale retrospective of a Chinese-American Artist.

Through May 2022

Dear Friends and Neighbors, I’m writing to introduce you to my Art Gallery.

Born in Pittsburgh, I spent my Harvard undergraduate years studying Art History at the Fogg Museum in Cambridge. By 1965 I had opened Michael Berger Gallery of Contemporary Art in Pittsburgh. In 1999 I changed MBG to a 501c3 not-for-profit enterprise.

Beginning as a college senior without much money and continuing to this day I buy signed, limited edition prints (and unique drawings and paintings).

To me a great artist is recognized by having the God-given talent to be able to produce with his hand what his eye and brain sees. That talent is especially evident in printmaking.

UPCOMING SHOWS: April 10 - Peace Presbyterian Church, LWR April 24 - Church of the Palms, Sarasota

RingSarasota.org 941-451-7601

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Purchase your tickets today!

I recently donated a large painting, and a print by artist, Hung Liu to the Ringling Museum in Sarasota as well

as 30 works to the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. When it opens, I will have donated 18 works to the Sarasota African American Cultural Museum.

I CURRENTLY HAVE 500 WORKS IN MY COLLECTION AVAILABLE TO SELL AT MICHAELBERGERGALLERY.COM My Real Estate CFO, Mrs. Janice Moore, handles art shipments and billing for MBG. Once you have selected a work to own, she will email you an invoice and advise shipping cost. Once your payment clears, we will make shipment.

AS A NEIGHBORLY GESTURE should you select a work for your home in the Sarasota area MBG WILL PAY THE FREIGHT DOWN FROM PITTSBURGH. VIEW AND PURCHASE FROM OUR WEBSITE: MICHAELBERGERGALLERY.COM

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Ring Sarasota, Sarasota’s Premier Handbell Ensemble, is ready to entertain audiences with some of their favorite music from the stage & screen.

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THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2022

MONDAY WARSAW PHILHARMONIC WITH PIANIST BRUCE LIU 7:30 p.m. at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail $30-$95 Visit SCASarasota.org.

The world renowned Warsaw Philharmonic will play Brahms Symphony No. 1, and Bruce Liu —the First Prize Winner at the International Chopin Piano Competition —will perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Andrey Boreyko, Music Director of the Naples Philharmonic, will lead the orchestra.

TUESDAY

THIS WEEK STEP INTO MY CHAMBER SCF Symphonic Band 7:30 p.m. at State College of Florida Recital Hall, 5840 26th St. W., Bradenton $15 Visit SCF.edu.

The SCF Symphonic Band will blow you away with a procession of small chamber groups inside the school’s new 150-seat recital hall. Come hear brass, woodwinds, clarinet, percussion and more.

FRIDAY DEBBIE KEETON 2 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church, 3975 Fruitville Road $15-$20 Visit JazzClubSarasota.org.

Debbie Keeton and company will lead you on a journey through jazz standards and the American songbook. Keeton will be accompanied by drummer David Pruyn, pianist Stan Collins and bassist Mark Neuenschwander.

OPENING NIGHT: SARASOTA FILM FESTIVAL 7 p.m. at Sarasota Municipal Auditorium, 801 N. Tamiami Trail $50 Visit SarasotaFilmFestival.com.

The Sarasota Film Festival kicks off with “Porcupine,” which stars Jena Malone as a struggling worker estranged from her family. Malone’s character ultimately explores the world of adult adoption in her search for acceptance and community. The actress will be one of the stars in town for the festival. She’ll be featured in an in-person conversation about the film and her career at the Sarasota Yacht Club on Sunday.

IN-STUDIO PERFORMANCE SERIES FEATURING MONESSA SALLEY 7 p.m. at SCD Home Studio, 1440 Boulevard of the Arts $10-$20 Visit SarasotaContemporaryDance. org.

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

DON’T MISS

CHALKFEST We live in a world of instant gratification, but chalk art allows you to appreciate the ingenuity of the creative spirit and the moment in which art is created.

For three days, artists from all over the world will set about crafting all kinds of lifelike images at the airport in Venice. Then they’ll wash them away.

The Chalk Festival is returning from a two-year absence due to the pandemic, and artists are raring to go and create drawings of massive skill and scale.

Peruvian virtuoso Jorge Caballero will be the next guitar luminary to play in Guitar Sarasota’s International Concert Series. Caballero has developed a worldwide reputation for taking orchestral masterworks by artists like Dvorak and Debussy and adapting them to his one-man exhibition of skill and showmanship.

NIGHT OF R&B AND JAZZ WITH NU JAZZ 8 p.m. at Manatee Performing Arts Center, 502 Thirdrd Ave. W., Bradenton $40 Visit ManateePerformingArtsCenter. org.

IF YOU GO Where: Venice Airport, 610 Airport Ave. E., Venice When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 1-2; 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. April 3 Tickets: $5-$30 Info: ChalkFestival.org.

Sarasota Contemporary Dance presents “Dancing Through Life,” a program built for the incandescent skills and talents of Monessa Salley.

Salley will also perform Saturday night, and that showing can be streamed virtually.

FOOL*ISH DANCE SHOWCASE 7 p.m. at Booker High School, 3201 N. Orange Ave. $15 Visit BookerVPA.com Watch the talented members of the Booker High School Visual Arts Program as they dance their way through a performance designed to blow you away and make you laugh.

The showcase will have a second performance on Saturday.

LEGENDS AND LAUGHTER WITH JIMMY MAZZ 7:30 p.m. at Studio 1130 – Crossings at Siesta Key, 3501 S. Tamiami Trail $25 Visit ThePlayers.org.

It’s one man and a whole catalogue of voices. Mazz will take on the outsized talents of legends like Rod

www.manasotaonline.com

1734 South Tamiami Trail Venice, FL 34293 941.493.7441

Kenny G is double billed in Sarasota; he’s in town to screen his documentary for the Sarasota Film Festival on April 7 and also to perform at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in his inimitable signature style.

He’s experienced a level of renown few musicians ever achieve, and as his documentary “Listening to Kenny G” shows, he has a sense of humor about it.

If you see Tuesday’s show and can’t get enough, mosey on over to the Municipal Auditorium on Thursday for the screening of his film.

It’s live jazz and R&B with local artists Nu Jazz taking center stage at the Manatee Performing Arts Center.

Stewart, Michael Jackson and more as he moves through an astounding range of voices and stylings.

‘A SKEPTIC AND A BRUJA’ 7:30 p.m. at Urbanite Theatre, 1487 Second St. $36 Visit UrbaniteTheatre.com.

If you’ve got the blues, Fogartyville has the antidote. Ray BookBinder and Todd Albright bring consummate skill and decades of experience at playing the blues on large and small stages.

It’s the world premiere of a Rosa Fernandez play that deals with the paranormal and colors in the lines of today’s virtual reality television climate. Runs through May 1.

SUNDAY

SATURDAY FST IMPROV PRESENTS: COMEDY FREESTYLE 7:30 p.m. at FST’s Bowne’s Lab, 1265 First St. $15 Visit FloridaStudioTheatre.org.

There’s no rules or boundaries here; whatever makes you laugh is fair game. The Florida Studio Theatre improv troupe will make it all up as they go along in the interest of cracking you up.

4551 N. Washington Blvd.

Sarasota, FL 34234 941.355.8437

ROY BOOKBINDER & TODD ALBRIGHT 8 p.m. at Fogartyville, 525 Kumquat Court $22 members, $26 nonmembers Visit WSLR.org/Fogartyville.

LA MUSICA: DEREK HAN MEMORIAL CONCERT 5:30 p.m. at Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave. $65 Visit LaMusicaFestival.org.

It’s a tribute and a memorial to Derek Han, cofounder and associate music director of La Musica, and the music that he loved. Beethoven, Brahms and Ravel will be on the menu, and Han’s friend and colleague Wu Han will perform.

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WEDNESDAY BASILE 7 p.m. at McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre, 1923 Ringling Blvd.

Tickets $25 Visit McCurdysComedy.com.

Basile, who bills himself as “Everyone’s Favorite Greek,” will be at McCurdy’s for seven shows starting Wednesday night. Basile has brought his show to Europe and Australia and all over the United States.

LA MUSICA CONCERT: INNOCENCE AND ILLICIT PASSION 7:30 p.m. at Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave. $50 Visit LaMusicaFestival.org.

La Musica, which began in 1987, will continue with this show featuring the works of Mozart, Romberg and Franck. The festival will conclude with events on April 10 and April 13 at the Opera House.

‘TWELFTH NIGHT’ 8 p.m. at FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail $32 Visit AsoloRep.org.

OUR SHOWROOMS ARE OPEN Special Financing Available

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THURSDAY

KENNY G 8 p.m. at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail $57-$82 Visit VanWezel.org.

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THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2022

APRIL SHOWS

SARASOTA FILM FESTIVAL: AMERICAN MINEFIELDS 6 p.m. at Historic Asolo Theater, 5401 Bayshore Road $20 Visit SarasotaFilmFestival.com

TUE, APR 5 • 8PM Sponsored by Encompass Health

John Sims, a Sarasota-based activist and artist, will be the featured guest for this evening of cinema. Two Sims films will be shown, followed by the artist taking part in a talk about his life and career.

Photo: Art Streiber

IF YOU GO When: 8 p.m. April 1 and 2, 2:30 p.m.

April 3 Where: Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail Tickets: $35-$98 Info: SarasotaOrchestra.org.

SARASOTA PREMIERE! SARASOTA PREMIERE!

WED-THUR • APR 6-7 • 7:30PM Sponsored by Wilde Lexus Sarasota and ABC7

Photos by: Matthew Murphy/Evan Zimmerman/MurphyMade, Denise Truscello

MON, APR 11 • 7PM

SAT, APR 23 • 8PM “Diana Krall possesses a voice at once cool and sultry, wielded with a rhythmic sophistication.”

–The New York Times

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

TICKETS & PRESHOW DINING

941.263.6799 vanwezel.org

View the Latest Safety Protocols on Our Website

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It’s the opening night of a Shakespeare offering! “Twelfth Night,” directed by Jonathan Epstein, will open with a preview performance on Tuesday evening and begin its normal theatrical run on Wednesday.

The romantic comedy peppered with the Bard’s memorable dialogue will run through April 24.

Sarasota Orchestra full time next season, but now’s your chance to get in on the ground floor and greet him with a hearty welcome.

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BREAKING BOUNDARIES It’s back to the future with the Sarasota Orchestra, which welcomes Bramwell Tovey, music director designate, for this series of shows.

Tovey, longtime music director of the Vancouver Symphony, is excited to share the stage with his future charges and showcase their skills in a program of epic compositions by Ravel, Strauss, Coleridge Taylor and Mendelssohn.

Tovey will take over the reins of the

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YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2022

SEASON LINEUPS

Photo courtesy of Asolo Rep

Photo courtesy of Sorcha Augustine

WBTT founder Nate Jacobs is excited about his organization’s upcoming season.

As this season begins to wind down, four arts organizations reveal their plans for next season’s performances.

“Guys and Dolls” will kick off the upcoming WBTT season, which begins in October and runs through May 2023. WBTT will also perform “Flyin’ West” and “Big Sexy: the Fats Waller Revue.” The latter piece is a tribute penned by Nate Jacobs, the founder and artistic director of the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe.

The company’s holiday show will be “Black Nativity,” a tried-and-true WBTT classic based on the poetry of Langston Hughes.

Visit WestCoastBlackTheatre.org for more details.

BY SPENCER FORDIN A+E EDITOR

There’s plenty to be excited about in the next few months of Sarasota entertainment.

Several local institutions have announced their upcoming slates, including the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, Asolo Repertory Theatre and Sarasota Opera.

Read on for highlights from each.

Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall The Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall will bring 10 Broadway shows to Sarasota for its 2022-23 season, which kicks off in November with the smash hit “Chicago.” Several popular shows make their Sarasota debut, including “Mean Girls” and “Aladdin.”

“Legally Blonde” and “My Fair Lady” will also be coming to the Van Wezel, as will “9 to 5,” “Tootsie” and “Cats.”

And there won’t just be drama on the schedule, as Van Wezel will also welcome the “Blue Man Group” and interesting dance acts.

Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe The Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe will stage two legendary Broadway productions, “Guys and Dolls” and “Dreamgirls,” as part of its upcoming season. “Guys and Dolls” won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1950, and “Dreamgirls” won a host of awards during its original run.

The “Riverdance 25th Anniversary Tour” will make its first stop here in January, and the Van Wezel will also host “Momix: Alice” and “Pilobolus.”

Visit VanWezel.org for more details.

Sarasota Opera

Some excitement is coming to the Sarasota Opera. Domenico Cimarosa’s “The Secret Marriage” will be the only show in the fall season, which runs from Oct. 28 to Nov. 12.

This will be a Sarasota debut for “The Secret Marriage,” which was written in 1792.

The winter season will bring productions by some of history’s most celebrated composers, for Mozart, Puccini, Verdi and Massenet will be represented. “Madame Butterfly,” by Puccini, one of the world’s mostfamous operas, will run in Sarasota between Feb. 18 and March 24.

Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” last seen in Sarasota in 2011, will have eight performances between Feb. 25 and March 25. It will be followed by Verdi’s “Ernani,” last performed by the Sarasota Opera in 1997. Six performances of “Ernani” are scheduled for March 11-26.

The final opera of the 2022-23 season will be “Therese,” a piece

by Massenet set during the French Revolution. This won’t just be a Sarasota premiere: It’s the first time a professional opera company in the United States has performed the work, which was penned in 1906.

Visit SarasotaOpera.org for more details.

Michael Donald Edwards, producing artistic director of Asolo Repertory Theatre

Asolo Repertory Theatre Big things are also afoot at the Asolo Repertory Theatre, which will soon begin its 64th season. The classic musicals “Cabaret” and “Man of La Mancha” are on the docket for the 2022-23 season, which begins in November and runs until June 2023.

“Cabaret,” directed by Josh Rhodes, will ignite the new season in mid-November. “The Three Musketeers” will be performed after the new year, as will “Silent Sky,” the true story of a pioneering astronomer who managed to transcend the gender roles of her era.

The Asolo will also show “Chicken & Biscuits” and “Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Hope.”

“Man of La Mancha,” directed by Peter Rothstein, will bring the season home in May. Visit AsoloRep.org for more details.

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YOUROBSERVER.COM

THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2022

Photos by Harry Sayer

Pitbull —Mr. 305 himself — rocks the house.

Firefly Gala Saturday, March 26, at Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota | Benefiting Forty Carrots Family Center

M Above: Mark Hyman and Chairwoman Ariane Dart Below: Tonya Gowan displays a guitar autographed by Pitbull.

r. 305 made his way to SRQ for Forty Carrots Family Center’s final Firefly Gala on March 26.

The long-delayed but much-anticipated event had more than 500 supporters meeting at the RitzCarlton, Sarasota for the event’s swan song featuring Miami rapper and singer Pitbull.

The evening started with cocktails and conversation in the hotel gardens before the crowd made its way to the tented dinner area as the sun set over the bay. They heard from Forty Carrots CEO Michelle Kapreilian, board Chair Susan Travers and event Chairwoman Ariane Dart.

It was an emotional night for Dart, who thanked the audience for its continued support for Forty

Carrots and her signature event.

Forty Carrots Family Center helps families with parenting education, early childhood education and mental health services.

After the crowd bid on high-end items at the live auction — including a guitar signed by Pitbull himself — it was time for dinner.

Once everyone had their fill, the hundreds of eager supporters filled the Ritz-Carlton ballroom to shake, dance and boogie to Pitbull’s many hits.

The night concluded with an after-party and more dancing.

Above: Sheba Matheu, Gabby Frederick, Rachael and Taylor Sanger Below: Jaclyn Brunckhorst, Mario Oliva, Amie Austin and Terri Najmolhoda

—HARRY SAYER

941-306-1202 ArtistSeriesConcerts.org

Stars on the Rise Building on our Legacy

MAX TAN, violin

JOSEPH HOLT, piano

April 8, 7:30pm

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

April 9, 4pm

ST. BONIFACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

April 7 • 11 am performance 12:15 pm luncheon Bird Key Yacht Club Max Tan is a past winner of Artist Series Concerts National String Competition and a member of the Sarasota Orchestra. As a recitalist and chamber musician he has performed with major orchestras throughout the world.

April 10, 4pm

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KENDRA COLTON, soprano KAYO IWAMA, piano

April 20 • 6 pm performance followed by dinner Plantation Golf and Country Club Kendra Colton last appeared with Artist Series Concerts in 1997 as part of our very first season! Joining her in this musical “homecoming” is the distinguished pianist and Colton’s frequent collaborator, Kayo Iwama.

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This project is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture (Section 286.25, Florida Statutes).

BLACK TIE

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THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2022

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HARRY SAYER

40 Years of music

Sarasota Opera Artistic Director Victor DeRenzi has had 40 years of musical expression and performance with the organization but says it rarely feels like it’s been that long.

“Every year we do something different,” DeRenzi says. “It’s a continuous job. I’ve been in the same position, but every year it’s slightly changed, but enough to make it almost new.”

The opera’s many supporters turned out to the Sarasota Opera House to celebrate DeRenzi’s tenure during the organization’s annual gala on March 26.

The evening featured a Jubilee Concert narrated by General Director Richard Russell with a number of works chosen by DeRenzi. One of those was the “Aida” opera that DeRenzi worked on with a small company when he was 13. He was able to bring that production to the Sarasota Opera House years later.

The event concluded in a tent space outside the opera house, where DeRenzi spoke to the crowd.

DeRenzi said seeing the opera — and Sarasota’s arts scene as a whole — grow over the decades is what gives him a feeling of pride.

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Some of Sarasota’s leading women in the medical field had an in-depth discussion about gynecological cancer during the Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation’s ninth Women & Medicine Educational Luncheon on March 25.

It was a long-awaited return for the event, which hadn’t been held since before the pandemic.

Around 350 attendees met at Michael’s On East for the social hour before heading inside for the featured program.

This year’s offering included Sarasota Memorial Hospital President Lorrie Liang, Dr. Elizabeth Guancial with Florida Cancer Specialists, Dr. Beverly Long with First Physicians Group and Nicole Wood with Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute. The panel was moderated by Stephanie Roberts of Suncoast View ABC7.

The group talked about the effects of gynecological cancer, as well as genetic testing for hereditary risk factors and personalized treatment.

Photo courtesy of Nancy Guth

Photo courtesy of Cliff Roles

This year’s event benefited an expansion of Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s genetic testing services.

Save Our Seabirds

The Save Our Seabirds nonprofit brought some feathered friends to its Sunset Soiree fundraiser on March 24.

The animal conservation group brought an eastern screech owl named Myrtle to the event at Michael’s on the Bay, during which supporters purchased items to help rehabilitate and release injured birds in the area. Artist Nata Logvinova painted an art piece of the brown pelican — the nonprofit’s unofficial mascot — which was sold during the live auction.

Save Our Seabirds raised more than $250,000 by night’s end.

Top: Sarasota Opera Artistic Director Victor DeRenzi Above: Sarasota Memorial Hospital President Lorrie Lian addresses the crowd.

CORRECTION

The March 17 issue of the Observer Black Tie section, we listed a photo of honorees at Aviva Senior Living’s Eight Over 80 event and mistakenly named one honoree as Margot Coville. The correct honoree in the photo was Ina Schnell.

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BLACK TIE

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THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2022

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BLACK TIE Photos by Harry Sayer

Jay Riley with Sandra and Tony Stone

HospitaBull dinner Tuesday, March 22, at Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota | Benefiting University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee

U

niversity of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee Hospitality Management program students put their knowledge to the test and cooked up dishes at the annual HospitaBull dinner at the Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, on March 22.

As is the custom with the annual culinary event, USF students prepared a number of dishes and served them to the school’s

longtime supporters. Students also passed out hors d’oeuvres to guests mingling at cocktail hour.

Instructor Joe Askren introduced the program before guests heard from Karen Holbrook, Interim Dean Cihan Cobanoglu and USF President Rhea Law. Patricia Brylska received this year’s student scholarship.

—HARRY SAYER

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Above: Brittany Fisher cooks spinach and grilled mushrooms. Left: Karen Holbrook and scholarship recipient Patricia Brylska

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YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2022

THE LAST FIVE YEARS

Photos by Harry Sayer

Gulf Coast Community Foundation philanthropic advisor Matt Kahn addresses attendees.

Embracing Our Differences luncheon

MAR 4-APR 3

Wednesday, March 23, at Michael’s on East | Benefiting Embracing Our Differences

“captivating” “engaging” “endearing”

E

mbracing Our Differences supporters united for a celebratory luncheon at Michael’s On East on March 23.

After some time away due to the pandemic, supporters gathered for a day celebrating the nonprofit’s work promoting diversity through arts and education programs.

Embracing Our Differences has its annual arts showcase on display at Bayfront Park through April 10.

Supporters mingled before settling down for the program, during which they heard from board Chair Charles Williams, Matt Kahn with the Gulf Coast Community Foundation and others. Winners from the 2022 art exhibit were recognized as well.

~ KIM COOL

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Board Chair Judge Charles Williams, Executive Director Sarah Wertheimer and Vice Chair Linda Poteat-Brown

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