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Hamlet, Prince of Cuba The Asolo Rep’s education department has scheduled an impressive array of talkbacks and lectures in conjunction with the theater’s current production of Hamlet, Prince of Cuba. The show has been presented in English for the past few weeks. Beginning May 3, the same cast will perform the show in Spanish with [...]

Mark Zeisler and JD Taylor in Red. I need a spring break! I’m worn out, but happily so, from attending six jam-packed days of cultural events and parties, many of which involved exciting collaborations between local arts organizations. For example, the Asolo Rep and the Ringling Museum of Art are partnering to present Red, the [...]

Dominic Walsh In the Sarasota Ballet rehearsal studio last Saturday, company members listened intently as choreographer Dominic Walsh critiqued their run-through of his ballet Bello. “That was great, the partnering is really coming along nicely,” Walsh said. But then he suggested a long list of tweaks, from the way a shoulder was bent to the [...]

With the Selby Botanical Gardens as the perfect tropical backdrop, organizers of the Sarasota Film Festival unveiled their diverse and intriguing 2012 lineup on Monday. Encompassing 230 movies from 30 countries, the festival  is larger and more wide-ranging  than ever, said director Tom Hall. Running from April 13-22, the festival will feature 14 U.S. or [...]

The current arts season is still in full swing, but the Asolo Rep and the Sarasota Ballet are already getting their patrons excited about next season. Both organizations announced their 2012-13 schedules this week, the Asolo at a town hall reception in its theater, and the ballet at a press conference on the University of [...]

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 [...]

Michelle Obama in Sarasota on Thursday. I wanted to  offer  Michelle Obama some words of support  in Sarasota on Thursday. But it was she who ended up giving me an encouraging  pat on the back. “We admire and respect the work you do, and the example you set,” I told the First Lady as I [...]