wcw NOVEMBER 2023

out and about continued
Choreographed during the opening
stages of the Second World War,
Ashton’s Dante Sonata continues
the theme of war in Program Two. A
synthesis of wartime symbolism and
his reflections upon experiencing
Franz Liszt’s piano piece of the same
name—the work enraptured Sarasota
audiences during it’s Company Premiere
this past Season.
The triple bill closes with Paul Taylor’s
Company B, framing the turbulent
era of World War 2 through the
songs of the Andrews Sisters. Combining
moments of joy and hilarity with
the heavy reality of war, Taylor creates
a remarkable piece that perfectly exemplifies
the duality of America in the
1940s. At the Sarasota Opera House.
Tickets: www.sarasotaballet.org
Sarasota Concert
Association
Sarasota Concert Association has
Canadian Brass Holiday Concert on
December 4 at the Sarasota Opera
House. Celebrating 50 years of making
spirits bright, the world’s most famous
brass quintet performs festive holiday
favorites, from Carol of the Bells, to A
Charlie Brown Christmas, swinging
Glenn Miller tunes and more. Tickets:
www.SCAsarasota.org.
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At the Van Wezel
Coming up (partial list):
• Neil Berg’s 50 Years of Rock &
Roll - November 10
• Mannheim Steamroller
Christmas - November 19
• Rumours of Fleetwood Mac -
November 25
• Johnny Cash: The Official Concert
Experience - November 26
• Pretty Woman: The Musical -
November 27-28
• Dave Koz and Friends Christmas
Tour - November 29
• Sweet Caroline Tour: A Neil
Diamond Christmas - December 4
• Daniel O’Donnell - December 15
Pre-show dining for both shows is
available through Mattison’s at the
Van Wezel which is located inside the
theatre. Reservations can be made
on VanWezel.org or through the box
office. Tickets: www.VanWezel.org
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Bishop Museum
of Science and
Nature
The Bishop has SHE ENGINEERS
through December 31, 2023. SHE
ENGINEERS is a bilingual (English
and Spanish) poster exhibition
highlighting eight women in various
engineering fields. In their own
words, the women share their passion
and what inspired them to become
engineers.
The Bishop Museum of Science and
Nature, 201 10th St. W., Bradenton. Information:
bishopscience.org.
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Sarasota
Art Museum
Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling
College has:
• Contemporary/Traditional: Selections
from the Basch Glass Collection
through Feb. 11, 2024. Drawn
from the Richard and Barbara Basch
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Collection, Contemporary/Traditional
gives a
glimpse into the
dynamic world of
international contemporary
glass
art of the late 20th
and 21st centuries.
This exhibition
showcases a
range of glasswork
styles, from delicate
figural sculptures
to powerful
abstract shapes.
• Juana Valdés:
Embodied Memories,
Ancestral
Histories through
Feb. 11, 2024.
This is Valdés’ first solo exhibition at
a museum. It will showcase a range of
works drawn from her three-decadelong
career. Valdés’ work, anchored
in history and narratives related to
her Afro-Cuban heritage, addresses
colonization’s history and migration’s
impact, as well as the issues of gender,
race, and the representation of the
female body.
• Judy Pfaff: Picking up the Pieces
runs November 19-March 24, 2024.
Pfaff, widely regarded as a pioneer of
installation art, has created work that
spans disciplines from painting to
printmaking and sculpture to installation,
eschewing definition. Pfaff
ingeniously transmutes and transforms
materials, including natural
objects from her garden, hand-painted
and digitally manipulated images,
welded steel, aluminum, wood,
expanded foam, melted plastic, blown
glass, neon, and LED lights.
Visit sarasotaartmuseum.org to
learn more. Sarasota Art Museum
is located at 1001 S. Tamiami Trail,
Sarasota.
The Hermitage
The Hermitage Cross Arts Collaborative,
now in its second season,
is a new annual residency program
focused on supporting the talent of
performing artists frequently featured
on Sarasota stages.
This year the program is represented
by musician and composer
Lizzie Hagstedt, whose work has been
developed with Asolo Rep, and Sarasota
Contemporary Dance Company
member Jessica Obiedzinski. After
two weeks on the Hermitage’s historic
beachfront campus, these two creators
will reunite to share selections of their
new works and talk about how they
utilized their residency time as the sun
sets at The Bay on November 14.
On December 14, Hermitage Fellow
Cleyvis Natera reads from and offers
insight into her “refreshingly direct
and declarative” (NY Times) debut
novel, Neruda on the Park, and shares
a glimpse into her writing process at
the Johann Fust Community Library
in Boca Grande.
All events at: hermitageartistretreat.org.
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At The Ringling
The John and Mable Ringling
Museum of Art has Mountains of the
Mind: Scholars’ Rocks from China
and Beyond which runs through June
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23, 2024 in The Ringling’s Ting Tsung
and Wei Fong Chao Center for Asian
Art. The exhibit features a selection of
scholars’ rocks and related paintings
and prints, including rocks recently
donated from the extensive collection
of Nancy and Stan Kaplan, a new
acquisition funded by Lucia and Steve
Almquist and paintings on loan from
the Dongguan Lou Collection.
Scholars’ rocks are collected from
remote geographic locations, where
they have been formed by natural
elements over millions of years. The
stones may then be carved, polished
and inscribed before being displayed
in a custom-made stand to enhance
their visual appeal. Scholars’ rocks are
both natural objects and products of
human creativity.
Mountains of the Mind will feature
a wide array of scholars’ rocks in
various shapes, textures and geological
properties. The rocks are further
contextualized by paintings, prints
and texts that illuminate their cultural
importance for scholars across
the centuries. The stones have been
appreciated and admired in China
for more than a thousand years;
historically, connoisseurs displayed
their stones in their studios alongside
paintings and other treasures, where
they served as a focus for meditation
or creative contemplation.
On view through March 3 is Working
Conditions. Explore labor through
The Ringling’s Photography Collection.
The Industrial Revolution of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
radically changed the nature of human
labor. Photography was itself introduced
to the public in 1839.
The subsequent development of
photographic media has thus been
intertwined with the culture of labor
ever since. In addition to the camera’s
technical use as an instrument to record,
photographers have also created
images over the decades that have
helped shape how we think about
work and the politics of labor. This
exhibition explores the myriad ways
in which photographs have communicated
ideas about labor since the
nineteenth century through examples
from The Ringling’s photography permanent
collection.
The John and Mable Ringling
Museum of Art, 5401 Bay Shore Rd.,
Sarasota. Info: www.ringling.org.
Theatre
Urbanite Theatre has THE
SOUND INSIDE running through
December 3. This is a story about the
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On December 5 enjoy an
evening with Carl Hiaasen,
Florida’s most savagely funny,
riotous, and cathartic storyteller.
It’s an irreverent evening of
Florida Stories recounting
Floridians’ relationship with
our enchantingly wild lands,
waters, and creatures.
unlikely friendship
between
creative writing
professor Bella
and her enigmatic
student Christopher.
Written
by Adam Rapp,
this six-time
Tony-nominated
play explores the
limits of human
connection and
leaves audiences
questioning what
one person can
ask of another.
www.urbanite
theatre.com
Westcoast
Black Theatre Troupe open its season
with “Once On This Island.” Set
on a verdant Caribbean island, this
Tony Award-winning musical tells
the coming-of-age story of a peasant
girl searching for love and her place
in the world, while dealing with complicated
social issues of race, class
and affairs of the heart.
Based on the novel “My Love, My
Love” by Rosa Guy, this production
showcases Afro-Caribbean rhythms
and instruments, with music and lyrics
by the Tony Award-winning musical
team behind “Ragtime” (lyrics
and book by Lynn Ahrens, music by
Stephen Flaherty).
The show runs through November
19. Location: WBTT’s Donelly Theatre
(1012 N. Orange Ave., Sarasota).
Tickets: westcoastblacktheatre.org
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The Players Sarasota has Pass
Over by Antoinette Nwandu on
November 10-12 and 17-19. Pass
Over reimagines Beckett’s Waiting for
Godot through the eyes of two innercity
Black men.
Moses and Kitch stand around on
the corner – passing the time and hoping
that maybe today will be different.
As they dream of their promised land,
a stranger wanders into their space
with his own agenda and derails their
plans. Emotional and lyrical, Pass
Over crafts everyday profanities into
poetic and humorous riffs, exposing
the unquestionable human spirit of
young men stuck in a cycle just looking
for a way out.
Held at The Players Studio Black Box,
1400 Blvd. of the Arts, Suite 200,
Sarasota. Tickets: theplayers.org
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Learn more at
http://ecosummit.org.
Manatee Performing Arts
Center has:
• Peace of Woodstock — go on a
musical journey from the acoustic
opening act of the Woodstock experience,
Richie Havens, through the
closing moments of the festival with
the electric sounds of Jimi Hendrix.
Also featured are songs from Crosby,
Stills, Nash, The Who, Janis Joplin,
Sly and the Family Stone, Joe Cocker,
Arlo Guthrie, Country Joe McDonald,
Santana, the Jefferson Airplane, and
others. Held on November 11.
• Elvis On Tour: The Elvis Presley
Experience — In the spring of
1972, Elvis Presley embarked on a
fifteen-day, fifteen-city tour across
America! Performing in his prime.
Matt Stone, a nationally-acclaimed
Elvis Tribute Artist, who was named
by Graceland as one of the top performers
on the planet, is bak to recreate
these performances. Held on
November 18.
• She Loves Me— In this case of
mistaken identity and letter writing,
two feuding perfume clerks have no
idea that they are in love. Considered
by many to be the most charming
musicals ever written, She Loves Me
is a warm romantic comedy. Dates:
November 30-December 10.
Box Office: 941-748-5878. Manatee
Performing Arts Center, 502 Third
Avenue W, Bradenton.
Venice Theatre has Pickleball
through November 19. Pickleball
is a quippy screwball comedy
about the predominant mania of our
time. Goofy, lightning-fast, and slightly
naughty, it’s a “pwocking” good time
that will “pickle” your funny bone.
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• In the Raymond Center (Venice
Theatre’s 130-seat temporary stage in
the Raymond Center directly behind
the main building) running October
13-November 12 is The Addams Family.
Music by Andrew Lippa; Lyrics
by Andrew Lippa, Book by Marshall
Brickman and Rick Elice. Based on
the comic strip The Addams Family
by Charles Addams. Now see Gomez,
Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley, and
Lurch live in the Broadway musical hit.
Info: venice theatre.org/
Asolo Rep has Crazy For you
November 18-January 4, 2024. Put on
your dancing shoes as you are transported
back to the Roaring Twenties
by this Tony Award-winning, romantic
musical comedy. Featuring iconic
Gershwin songs such as “Someone
to Watch Over Me,” “I Got Rhythm,”
and “Embraceable You,” Crazy For
You delivers comic high jinks, spectacular
dance numbers, and fun for
the entire family.
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Visit asolorep.org to learn more info.
FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor
Training’s has Anton Chekhov’s The
Three Sisters running through
November 19 and showcasing the
talents of second-year Conservatory
actors. Experience the heart-wrenching
tale of the Prozorov sisters, whose
dreams of returning to Moscow are
shattered in a provincial Russian
swamp. Discover the secrets that have
made audiences weep for over a century
and delve into the mystery of why
Chekhov protested dramatic interpretations
of The Three Sisters.
For information, visit asolorep.org/
conservatory
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Florida Studio Theatre presents
Little Shop of Horrors starting
November 15. A hapless flower shop
assistant, Seymour stumbles across a
new breed of plant, which he names
‘Audrey II’ after his coworker crush.
The saucy, R&B-singing carnivore
promises Seymour unending fame
and fortune with one condition: he
must keep feeding it blood. Seymour
soon discovers Audrey II’s out-ofthis-world
origins and its man-eating
appetite for global domination.
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Carole Kleinberg, artistic director
of Sarasota Jewish Theatre , said,
“Because we sold out and turned away
so many people for ‘Bashert – Some
Things are Meant to Be’ last season, we
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8 WEST COAST WOMAN NOVEMBER 2023