out and about continued Pulling from the thousands of handwritten letters to fans and colleagues alike, Rodriguez weaves together stories from Sondheim’s own words and explores the fascinating relationships with legends such as Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerry Herman, Jonathan Larson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and his own personal story. • February 7: Michael Lasser presents the lecture, “Songs by Lieber and Stoller.” Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller were two Jewish kids who helped invent rock and roll with “Hound Dog,” “Yakety Yak,” and more. The Glenridge Performing Arts Center, 7333 Scotland Way, Sarasota. For tickets, call (941) 552-5325 or visit GPACtix.com. Choral Artists Choral Artists presents Choral Cinemagic: Featuring popular movie music, including from the James Bond films, “Momma Mia!,” “Sister Act,” and a medley of all-time favorites. Sunday, February 4, 7 p.m., at First Presbyterian Church, 2050 Oak Street, Sarasota. Tickets: choralartistssarasota.org/ ▼ Sarasota Contemporary Dance ▼ Sarasota Contemporary Dance has Evolving/Revolving: Alyson Dolan & Drew Silverman on January 18-21 in the Jane B. Cook Theatre at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts. <strong>2024</strong> launches with artists who have influenced the company in a collaboration that will expand the breadth of SCD’s repertory. SCD invites back choreographer/dancer Alyson Dolan (2006-2010) and composer/musician Drew Silverman (2009-2010) to co-create with Artistic Director, Leymis Bolanos Wilmott. Evolving/Revolving: Alyson Dolan & Drew Silverman, is a captivating new, multi-disciplinary work with projection design by New College of Florida student Lindsey Jennings. www.sarasotacontemporarydance.org Sarasota Concert Association Sarasota Concert Association’s <strong>2024</strong> Music Matinees concert series showcase regional musicians performing a variety of musical styles from classical to marimba. Coming up is Corda Voce on Wednesday, January 10. Jenny Kim-Godfrey and Dr. Jonathan Godfrey form the soprano and classical guitar duo known as Corda Voce. Since 2015 they have intertwined the influences of cabaret, classical, jazz, and popular music. The concerts are free but pre-registration is required at SCAsarasota.org, or through the box office at (941) 966-6161. Attendees can reserve up to two tickets per matinee performance. Note their new time and location: First Presbyterian Church, 2050 Oak Street, downtown Sarasota, at 2 p.m. For information about SCA, visit www.scasarasota.org or call the box office at 941-966-6161. The Grammy Award-winning Harlem Quartet, known for their eclectic programming, makes their Sarasota Concert Association debut on January 24 at the Riverview Performing ▼ Arts Center. The Harlem Quartet will be performing Beethoven’s String Quartet Opus 18, No. 5, Fanny Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E-flat Major, Guido López- Gavilán’s Cuarteto en Guaguanco, and Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte. They will be holding a masterclass at Booker High School and Riverview High School during their stay in Sarasota. Tickets: (941) 966-6161 or go to www.SCAsarasota.org. Sarasota Ballet Next up is Program 4, January 26-29 at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts and accompanied by the Sarasota Orchestra. The program: Sonatina with choreography by Ricardo Grazianoand music by Antonín Dvořák; World Premiere with horeography by Ricardo Graziano and music to be announced; In a State of Weightlessness choreographed by Ricardo Graziano with music by Philip Glass. Tickets: www.sarasotaballet.org. ▼ At the Van Wezel Coming up (partial list): • The Cher Show (January 10-12) is 35 smash hits, six decades of stardom, two rock-star husbands, a Grammy, an Oscar, an Emmy, and enough Tony Award-winning Bob Mackie gowns to cause a sequin shortage in New York City, • In another Sarasota Premiere, Hadestown (January 30 – February 4), the winner of eight Tony Awards and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, is a love story for today...and always. Intertwining two mythic tales — that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone — Hadestown is a haunting and hopeful theatrical experience that grabs you and never lets go. 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 ▼ Sarasota Art Museum Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College has: • Contemporary/Traditional: Selections from the Basch Glass Collection through Feb. 11, <strong>2024</strong>. Drawn from the Richard and Barbara Basch 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, <strong>2024</strong>. This is Valdés’ first solo ▼ Island Gallery and Studios present “I MustHave Flowers” with paintings by Debbie Snow, January 2-31. exhibition at a museum. It will showcase a range of works drawn from her three-decade-long 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, <strong>2024</strong>. 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 Programs from Hermitage Fellows in January kick off on the Hermitage Beach with celebrated playwright, award-winning actor, and “American Horror Story” writer Halley Feiffer, who offers insight into her unique journey and her creative process. Feiffer’s program will be preceded by an open-studio experience from the imaginative mind of multidisciplinary visual artist Anthony Hawley. The event is on January 5. On January 12, Hermitage alumni Stephen Cole and David Evans share musical theater selections from their Golden Age musical, Merman’s Apprentice, on the Hermitage Beach. Twelve-year-old Muriel Plakenstein doesn’t know that the ‘golden age’ of music is coming to an end, so she runs away from home to become a theater star and meets the Queen of Broadway, Ethel Merman. Hear selections from this musical fable and learn more about what inspired the musical’s journey from this collaborative team. On January 18 on the Hermitage Beach, three Hermitage Fellows share how their voice and vision inform their artistic practice across disciplines. Jacquelyn Reingold is a writer for stage and screen; Joan La Barbara’s vocal stylings have been heard across the country; Laura Kaminsky is one of the most-produced composer-librettists in contemporary opera. Next up on January 19 on Longboat Key, the Hermitage presents a cabaret ▼ of songs and stories. From Jeanine Tesori, Adam Gwon, Michael R. Jackson, and Gavin Creel to Kit Yan, Zoe Sarnak, Rona Siddiqui, and more, the Hermitage has provided space and time to some of the most exciting musical theater writers working today. Hear selections from some of these composers and lyricists at Town Center at Longboat Key. Hermitage Fellows James M. Stephenson and Emi Ferguson make music that speaks to something universal in us all. On January 25 this award-winning composer and flutist invites Sarasota audiences to hear selections and gain insight into the composition process. Each will share award-winning compositions that have been played across the county with audiences at Selby Gardens’ downtown Sarasota campus On February 2, the Hermitage offers audiences two brass and jazz improvisors as they make music and ‘talk shop’ at Nathan Benderson Park. Hermitage Fellows Amir ElSaffar and Chris Ryan Williams will present an imaginative evening of sonic possibilities as the “Hermitage Sunsets @ Nathan Benderson Park” series continues. Registration is required at: Hermitage ArtistRetreat.org. 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 23, <strong>2024</strong> 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. 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. Michele Oka Doner: The True Story Of Eve through June 2, <strong>2024</strong>. Explore Miami, Florida-born, Michele Oka Doner’s first solo exhibition at The Ringling titled, Michele Oka Doner: The True Story of Eve. This exhibition includes examples of works on paper, wood, ceramics, bronzes, and glass ranging from the 1960s to the present, paying homage to the local environment, while poignantly reminding us of our increasingly precarious ecosystem The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 5401 Bay Shore Rd., Sarasota. Info: www.ringling.org. Theatre Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe presents A Soldier’s Play January 18-February 18. On a U.S. Army base in Louisiana in the segregation-era South of 1944, two shots ring out. A Black sergeant is murdered. A series of interrogations triggers a gripping barrage of questions about sacrifice, service, and identity in America. One persistent investigator must race against his white leadership to unravel the crime before they unravel him. Location: WBTT’s Donelly Theatre, 1012 N. Orange Ave., Sarasota. Tickets: westcoastblacktheatre.org ▼ The Players Sarasota has tick, tick…BOOM! Running January11-28. Before Rent, there was tick, tick… BOOM! This autobiographical musical by Jonathan Larson, the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning composer of Rent, is the story of a composer and the sacrifices that he made to achieve his big break in theatre. Containing fourteen songs, ten characters, three actors and a band, tick, tick…BOOM! takes you on the playwright/composer’s journey that led to a Broadway blockbuster. Held at The Players Studio Black Box, 1400 Blvd. of the Arts, Suite 200, Sarasota. Tickets: theplayers.org ▼ Manatee Performing Arts Center has these shows: • January 5: Jimmy Buffet Tribute With The Aquaholics— The Aquaholics band is a group of musicians dedicated to providing music that is the backdrop to the Florida and Tropical lifestyle. The musicians all perform full time as solo and duo musicians as well as a full group. Musicians in the group have performed with members of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefers, as well as many other national acts. • January 6: When Music Speaks— This musical showcase is about a tribute to the genre of Neo-Soul and R&B. Journey back to the 90s and early 2000s and enjoy songs by India Arie, Anthony Hamilton, Jill Scott, Tevin Campbell, Music Soul Child, Floetry, and much more. • January 11-12: Crimes of the Heart— The tragicomedy play relates the story of the three Magrath sisters, Meg, Babe, and Lenny, who reunite ▼ continued on page 10 8 WEST COAST WOMAN <strong>JANUARY</strong> <strong>2024</strong>
Program 4 | FSU Center Graziano Celebrated Ricardo Graziano’s Sonatina Ricardo Graziano’s In a State of Weightlessness Ricardo Graziano’s World Premiere JAN 26 7:30 PM JAN 28 2:00 PM | 7:30 PM JAN 27 2:00 PM | 7:30 PM JAN 29 7:30 PM 941.359.0099 | SarasotaBallet.org Ricki Bertoni and Oliva Dugan in Ricardo Graziano’s In a State of Weightlessness | Photography by Frank Atura Program Media Sponsor <strong>JANUARY</strong> <strong>2024</strong> WEST COAST WOMAN 9
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