The Players Centre for Performing Arts
Making Our Move!
By Ed Bertha
The Players Centre for Performing Arts [1], a 501(c)3 non-profit, is Sarasota’s first performing arts organization and the second oldest in the State of Florida. The theatre opened in 1930, in the midst of the Great Depression, with a series of one-act plays. Two hundred and eighty-one member-patrons each paid a two-dollar subscription fee for the play series. Today, The Players Centre has grown from a grassroots arts organization into a major cultural institution that touches the lives of over 75,000 people annually.
Last year, The Players Centre for Performing Arts announced its plans to relocate from downtown Sarasota to the Waterside Village of Lakewood Ranch. The current theatre site located in downtown Sarasota is for sale and a capital campaign to build the multi-theatre complex is currently underway. The new theatre will feature a 480-seat main stage auditorium with balcony seating, a 125-seat black box theatre, a 100-seat cabaret theatre with dining, and will house the main campus of The Arnold Simonsen Players Studio, which is the education arm of the organization. In order to maintain a downtown Sarasota presence, a satellite studio location will continue to operate in Rosemary Square.
“The Players Centre’s move to Lakewood Ranch is a major step toward connecting Sarasota’s Cultural Coast to the fourth best-selling community in the U.S. With over 600 annual performances and a children’s theatre school, The Players will draw arts and entertainment enthusiasts from around the region. One can envision a theater patron enjoying a great show and then dining and strolling along the lakefront in Waterside Place, the vibrant town center being planned for our new village,” says Rex E. Jensen, President & CEO of Schroeder Manatee Ranch, Inc.
In order to make the new Players Centre a premier performance and arts education facility the goal is to raise $30,000,000. A generous lead gift of $1 million from the Muriel O’Neil Fund for the Performing Arts of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County and the expected proceeds of approximately $9,000,000 from the sale of the current Players property will kick off the campaign.
“Our students are the next generation of actors, patrons and volunteers. The Players Centre for Performing Arts is for them! We see this building as the foundation for THEIR future and the future of performing arts in our community. We need your help to make a difference, to build a dream and to leave a legacy for our students of tomorrow,” shares Michelle Bianchi, Managing Director/CEO of The Players Centre.
Click HERE [2] to download a pdf of the story
Players Centre For Performing Arts
838 N Tamiami Trail
Sarasota FL 34236
(941) 365.2494
www.theplayers.org [1]
Info@ThePlayers.org [3]
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