Season's Preview- Theater

Thinking Big
Community theater may conjure visions of good-hearted volunteers presenting simple, lightweight shows. But the people at Cape Coral's Cultural Park Theatre set the bar higher. This season alone, the troupe will tackle the demanding musicals Sweeney Todd and Children of Eden and the intense drama of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. What's more, between September and May, the theater will present eight full-scale productions, run an after-school program for youngsters and collaborate with the Southwest Florida Symphony for a special performance.

"It is a very, very challenging and ambitious season," admits Leo Wolfe, Cultural Park's executive director. "But the demographics here have changed so much that I don't think it's reasonable to assume the artistic attitude hasn't changed. People are tired of seeing the same old thing."

In its 41-year history, the community theater has seen plenty of changes. It began as the Cape Coral Players. In 1986, the City of Cape Coral lent its support by building the 186-seat Cultural Park Theatre, and the group eventually changed its name to reflect its new home.

Still, it took a while for the troupe to find its identity. A series of executive directors tried different approaches and moved on. Three or four years ago, Wolfe started coming down once a year to direct a show. In February 2003, he decided to leave his acting/directing career in Washington, D.C., and New York behind and make the move permanent.

"Sometimes I miss working in Washington and New York," he says, "but a lot of times up there I saw the business side of theater more than I wanted. Here I can believe the art comes first."

Hence the ambitious schedule. Wolfe directed Sweeney Todd for the theater three years ago and was delighted with the results. "This time we definitely have the opportunity for a larger audience," he says. "And we have a pretty long tradition of doing Sondheim musicals."

That affection for Sondheim also led to the collaboration with the Southwest Florida Symphony. In January, the two groups will join forces to present a partially staged version of A Little Night Music. Wolfe will add narrative where necessary to complete the story, but all the music will be featured.

To help put the rest of the season together, Wolfe turned to friends. "I called people I know who have very high standards," he explains. "A lot of the shows are pet projects for our directors."

Wolfe is willing to work with sets that might be minimalist because he believes the audience can "fill in the blanks." Similarly, he's not afraid of productions like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof because he's certain that audiences appreciate drama as much as comedy.

"People will say, 'You can't do that here,' but I haven't found that," Wolfe says. "We did Marvin's Room last year, a serious show about death, and the response was phenomenal."

Wolfe admits that the schedule he's set demands an inordinate amount of time. As one of only two paid staff (the other is the box-office director), he typically works 12-hour or better days. But it's all worth it, he insists. "We're all very excited," he says. "And it's absolutely amazing how many talented people there are here."
-Janina Birtolo
For show dates and ticket information, call 772-5862.

Introducing
Diane Stewart is brave enough to take on Shakespeare, giving him a modern edge, and adept enough to stage Metamorphoses with a pool of water at the audience's feet. That's all part of directing a theater program at a new university, she explains.

A high-school teacher for years, Stewart got her own feet wet at Florida Gulf Coast University gradually, serving as an adjunct theater professor before joining the staff full-time two years ago. After the death of the theater's founding director, Hank Diers, she assumed the director's chair.

"I wanted to try the challenge of teaching at the college level," Stewart says. It's a good fit. At 51, she's young enough to connect with her students, yet mature enough to have a wealth of experience to share. She energetically mounts productions that imbue the classics with contemporary interest.

About 25 theater majors at FGCU choose from courses that include directing, theater history and dramatic literature. The courses also draw students from other disciplines-business and nursing, for example-which allows Stewart to mount larger productions.

"I like to try to bring a balance to our season in terms of classics and contemporary works," Stewart says. "And I like to bring things that have not been seen in this area."

Currently, audiences for the shows are primarily comprised of students. But last summer's show sold out, and the audiences were 95-percent nonstudents. That leaves Stewart cautiously optimistic about growing the program.

"We want to grow," she notes, "but we want to do what we do well before we expand."
-Janina Birtolo
This year, FGCU's Theater will present Molière's comic Tartuffe (Nov. 4-14) and Lucky Stiff, a madcap musical (March 24-April 3). For more information, call 590-7268 or visit http://www.fgcu.edu/CAS/blackbox.

Top Tickets
David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize winner, Proof, about a troubled young mathematician, is turning up everywhere these days; it's at the Naples Players Jan. 12-Feb. 5. Also at the Sugden, in the Tobye Studio, the Players revive John Guare's Obie winner about a struggling would-be songwriter, The House of Blue Leaves, Feb. 2-26, and take a look at a more successful writer and her protégée in Donald Margulies' Collected Stories, March 30-April 23. At the Naples Dinner Theatre, Barry Marcus stars as Toddy in the stage version of the Blake Edwards-Julie Andrews hit Victor, Victoria; that's onstage Dec. 9-Jan. 23. And it's time for another night at the Cabaret, March 10-April 24. The Kander-Ebb show, among the best in musical theater, is also at NDT.

In Fort Myers, Florida Rep brings the Southwest Florida premiere of a Carter W. Lewis play that seems perfect for our demographics, Golf with Alan Shepard. You may remember Shepard as the maverick astronaut who swung the first golf club on the moon; this show, onstage Jan. 7-30, centers on four retired guys playing 18 holes on the course while discussing their lives and dreams in a funny-sad kind of way. Another Florida Rep premiere: the comedy Sugar Bean Sisters, about two rather odd siblings living in the Florida swamps. Soon to become a movie, the play runs May 27-June 19.

Theatre Conspiracy in Fort Myers has a slew of premieres this season. Many of them came in during the company's new play contest. Among the most intriguing: Leap, a comedy about a man feigning amnesia. The play is set for a production at Cincinnati's Playhouse in the Park later this year but is onstage here first, April 7-23; another premiere: Touch of Rapture, an allegorical fantasy by Californian Mary Fengar Gail, onstage March 3-19. Also in Fort Myers: The Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre gets ambitious with its presentation of Miss Saigon, April 28-June 18; and delights kids and adults alike with Disney's Beauty and the Beast, June 23-Aug. 13.

Last but certainly not least, the performing arts halls of the area offer some exciting shows. The Phil struts its stuff with the revealing musical comedy The Full Monty, Jan. 28-30; and it also serves up a revival of the smash about two sisters trying to make it in New York, Wonderful Town, Feb. 15-20. And the Barbara B. Mann is Movin' Out with the Billy Joel-Twyla Tharp hit, Jan. 18-23; scaring us into shivers with The Phantom of the Opera, Feb. 2-27; and then sending us into hysterics with Mel Brooks' The Producers, April 5-10.