Fame—The Musical hits the stage at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center tonight for the first of two productions of this upbeat and inspiring tale of aspiring artists and starry-eyed students trying to make their dreams come true. Directed by international stage and opera director Dom Ruggiero, whose production of Phantom won wide acclaim across the US as his Italian production of West Side Story did in that country, the performances feature local Sarasota high schoolers in walk-on roles amidst the professional cast.

Inspired by the Academy Award-winning 1980 film, Fame, the musical continues that story with the next generation of young artists at New York City’s High School of Performing Arts, where life, academics and performance collide. Fighting for their dreams, the students clash and commiserate in equal proportions as the path to stardom sometimes leads to rocky and unfortunate episodes. It’s something Ruggiero remembers identifying with when he first saw the film in 1980, a young artist himself. “Fame has always been a special memory for me,” he says, and so jumped at the opportunity to direct.

“It’s all about living your dream—making it happen and not giving up,” says Ruggiero, and although not everything that happens in the story is strictly uplifting, the overall feel and the energy around the show and with his young cast certainly is. “They’re so excited to do the show that it was just a joy for me to work with these kids,” he says. “It’s reminding me of why I got into the business, because you forget that as you get older, as it becomes more of a job.”

Part of the youthful energy is undoubtedly due to some of the cast’s local additions—a handful of high schoolers from Sarasota High School and Northport High School stepping in for cameos in crucial scenes to fill out the cast. They won’t be delivering monologues or singing solos, but they do get to be part of the show and garner early experience. “They get to be backstage and see how a show happens, how it works and all the effort that goes into making the performance happen,” says Ruggiero, and the production benefits as well. “The story is very real with these kids in the show—students going through the same emotions as the kids in the show.”

But though the story centers on the difficulties of young artists, Ruggiero remains confident that the central message can resonate with any audience. “They’ll see the joy and hard work it takes to do what you love to do as a profession,” he says. “Hopefully, it’ll remind everybody what our dreams and ambitions were or still are and that we should never give up on them.

Because if you give up, what kind of life would that be?”

Fame—The Musical hits the Van Wezel stage tonight at 7pm with another production the following night at the same time. 

Pictured: The cast of "Fame." Photo courtesy of the Van Wezel.

Indecision, indecision; what to order when looking through the endless delectable morsels on the Jpan menu? Why not get a little bit of everything? Hit up the new UTC location for lunch and feast your eyes on the salmon teriyaki bento box—with a nook for each part of the meal, it's just the right amount for a filling, but not heavy, imbibe on your lunch hour. Baby pink wild Scottish salmon simmered in miso sits on a pillow of veggies in one cranny, white rice next door and four generously cut California rolls rest in the next. One square over, two slivers of spring rolls with a dollop of white sauce hang out next to steamed shrimp shumai. Top it all off with your choice of warming miso soup or a health-conscious ginger salad.  

Jpan, 3 Paradise Plaza, Sarasota; 229 North Cattlemen Rd, Sarasota, 941-954-5726.

After she graduated from New College of Florida in 1999, Emily Saarinen traveled and worked all over the world: conducting wildlife surveys in Alaska, teaching rock climbing in Thailand, getting her doctorate at University of Florida and teaching at colleges in Oregon and Michigan.

Now she’s back where her academic career began, teaching biology and conducting research on endangered butterflies at New College of Florida.

 “The students have retained the same passionate drive as they did when I was a student,” Saarinen says. “Students continue to encourage each other to be their academic best, while fostering a sense of community that allows for creativity and innovation.”

Those qualities are on display in her lab at New College, where freezers maintain hundreds of samples of butterfly DNA. She uses non-lethal sampling and molecular techniques to extract the insects’ genetic coding. Then she provides that information to zoos and agencies working to prevent the extinction of species like the Miami Blue butterfly.

Establishing a colony of the Miami Blue butterfly is emblematic of her concept of teaching: giving students a foundation in scientific theory and training them to use it in the world.

 “I am a product of New College's supportive, but not restrictive, academic structure,” Saarinen says, “and I am honored to continue that tradition today with the next generation of innovators.” 

New College of Florida

NewGate School, the independent, international, college-preparatory Montessori school of Sarasota, opens the door to its second campus on a five-acre site in Lakewood Ranch. The new campus will house 7th to 12th grade students of NewGate’s upper school, which offers a Montessori International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma program. NewGate plans to integrate the two buildings, expansive gardens and surrounding nature preserves of its Lakewood Ranch campus to engage their students in hands-on research and exploration. 

NewGate

Artfully designed in a distinctive West Indies style to make the most of its tropical waterfront location, the Glenbrook model by Gulfshore Homes is complete and open for viewing at Miromar Lakes Beach and Golf Club. The grand estate home encompasses 7,587 square feet total, with 5,537 square feet under air, and has four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a powder room, cabana bath, study, family room and four-car split garage. The Glenbrook is one example of several floorplans that can be built by Gulfshore Homes in Lugano, the newest waterfront neighborhood to be introduced in Miromar Lakes.  

Miromar Lakes

Gurley Vitale, a Sarasota law firm specializing in construction law, announced that founded and president David E. Gurley has been selected by Super Lawyers as a top Florida attorney. This marks the eighth consecutive year Gurley has achieved this recognition, having first received the honor in 2009. An active participant in the American Bar Association, Gurley serves on both the tort trial and insurance practice section's fidelity and surety law committee and the forum on construction law. He is also a member of The Florida Bar, the Sarasota County Bar Association, the Florida Surety Association, the National Bond Claims Association, the Defense Research Institute and the Judge John M. Scheb American Inn of Court. 

Gurley Vitale

This month in For Heaven’s Sake, indulge in a product whose process of manufacturing is just as much a science as it is an art. Venture alongside writer Phil Lederer as he learns what it takes to be a toji, or sake brew master, how to determine the overall quality of sake (it’s all about water and rice) and where to find the best brews both here and abroad. Just don’t ask for it hot.   

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