Ali Wentworth at Sarasota’s Barnes & Noble. For nearly an hour on Saturday, uproarious  laughter erupted from the back of the Sarasota Barnes & Noble, where author and actress  Ali Wentworth regaled an overflow audience with anecdotes from her new book, Ali in Wonderland. In hilarious detail,  Wentworth talked about growing up among the Washington [...]

An Emotional Farewell to Conductor Bjaland   Leif Bjaland I’ve been covering the arts in Sarasota for more than 35 years,  and I’ve never experienced a more emotional event than Leif Bjaland’s final concert with the Sarasota Orchestra. Bjaland received the first of many standing ovations from the capacity audience at Van Wezel on Sunday [...]

Asolo’s  Education Program Is A Straight-A Success Story As a big fan of the Asolo Rep, I thought I knew everything about the organization. But even I was amazed to  discover the breadth and depth of its outreach and education programs. My knowledge increased at the Asolo’s first-ever Theatre Arts Youth Education luncheon, held last [...]