Pictured: Funding from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County will support WBTTs Stage of Discovery summer youth training program Photo by Sorcha Augustine.

As Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe prepares for its 2022-2023 programmatic and performance season, it is thrilled to have received a Strategic Partnership Grant of $35,000 from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. The funds are to be allocated as follows: $15,000 for Stage of Discovery; $10,000 for the fall gala, “Groovin’ on the Soul Train”; $5,000 for WBTT’s celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; and $5,000 for WBTT’s spring fundraiser, the April Fools Fête. Stage of Discovery, which was first offered during the summer of 2016, is a musical theatre program offered at no cost to the participants. The camp provides weeks of intensive training in singing, acting, dancing and improvisation, and culminates in a full-scale musical production. The Community Foundation-supported events take place on the following dates this year: Groovin’ on the Soul Train, November 11, 2022; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Celebrating His Legacy, January 16, 2023; April Fools Fête, April 3, 2023. Founded in 1999, the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe is the only professional black theater company on Florida’s West Coast. Its mission is to produce professional theatre that promotes and celebrates African American history and experience, engages a broad base of patrons and audiences, supports the development of a dynamic group of aspiring artists, and builds self-esteem in youth of color. The grant support was made possible thanks to the Thomas and Lola Seligman Fund, the Frances Wormser Founders Fund, the Leslie and Margaret Weller Fund, and the Allen Wirtz Nobbe and Jo Bowen Nobbe Fund of the Community Foundation. For more about WBTT, call 941-366-1505 or visit westcoastblacktheatre.org.

Pictured: Funding from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County will support WBTTs Stage of Discovery summer youth training program Photo by Sorcha Augustine.