To say that The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, currently onstage at Florida Studio Theatre, has struck a chord with Sarasota audiences would be an understatement, as the theater has now extended the show’s run twice, due to popular demand. Part underdog adventure, part murder mystery and part character study, the Tony and Olivier award-winning production follows young Christopher Boone as he investigates the tragic end befallen a neighbor’s dog, of course unwinding into greater mysteries and more personal discoveries as he does. But it’s not the machinations of the plot that drew actor Alexander Stuart to the role, but rather the rarity that Christopher Boone represents—an autistic lead on the theater stage.

“Representation matters,” says Stuart, who is on the spectrum himself and makes his FST debut with this second performance as Boone, following a production at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville this past fall. “There’s a very strong misconception of what it means to be autistic,” he says, “and we only see it as it’s portrayed in the media.” And between Rain Man and “short bus” stereotypes, the humanity and fullness of characters with autism is often sacrificed in favor of plot devices and easy, and unflattering, jokes. “We don't tend to think of people like Dan Aykroyd and Daryl Hannah,” says Alexander, “yet there they are.”

But in Boone, Alexander finds something different—a character with autism, as opposed to an autistic character. Boone’s autism is certainly an important part of who he is, and the play goes to great lengths to embrace this, but is not the single trait that defines the character. Written with empathy, the role contains certain stereotypes, Alexander admits, but transcends them as well, to form a “layered, emotional human being” that the actor could sink his teeth into. “This is one of the only narratives I know of that can do that,” says Alexander. “I instantly fell in love with Christopher.”

The empathy doesn’t stop with Boone, and the production as a whole is designed to help audiences identify with and understand Boone as he makes his way through the story. Even the technical aspects bring the audience into Boone’s mindset, with light and sound amped up at certain points to evoke the sensory overstimulation that people with autism can sometimes experience, or visual effects in the backdrop mirroring Boone's at-times unconventional thought processes or connections. “It’s theater at its truest,” says Alexander, “where all elements are combined for the purpose of one thing.”

Currently onstage at Florida Studio Theatre, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time runs through March 17. 

Pictured: Alexander Stuart as Christopher Boone in Florida Studio Theatre's production of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." Photo by Matthew Holler.

In March 2018, Sarasota Contemporary Dance opened its doors to the community with a free “SCD Day of Dance,” to celebrate the company's arrival at its new 3,000-square-foot home in Sarasota's Rosemary District. This January, SCD named its box office/company office after the woman who has been the backbone to the organization since its inception—Muriel Gordon Mayers. Mayers is a founding board member of Sarasota Contemporary Dance, formerly Fuzión Dance Artists, and served as Board President for the first seven years, in addition to Treasurer (a position she still holds today). Trained in ballet at The School of American Ballet, modern at the University of Wisconsin, Mayers also studied technique with Martha Graham and other notable pioneers. The official naming was revealed at Mayers’ surprise 90th birthday party at the SCD home studio, where her daughter, a few community members, friends and her SCD family surrounded her. Mayers, who has assisted SCD Founder Leymis Bolanos Wilmott in everything administratively since the beginning, is a very active board member and still assists the general manager regularly. 

Sarasota Contemporary Dance

The fourth annual Suncoast Music Scholarships program will offer up to $20,000 in music scholarships through a competition open to Sarasota and Manatee county high school students. The scholarship program is funded through a Sarasota Music Club and Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota partnership. Four scholarship awards are available for graduating seniors to use for advanced music education. The awards are: 1st place - $5,000, 2nd place - $4,000, 3rd place - $3,000 and 4th place - $2,000. Scholarships are also available for area 10th and 11th grade students through this competition. Two awards of $2,000 are available for 11th grade students, and two $1,000 awards will be available for 10th grade students. All scholarship funds are to be used for expenses related to the study of music.

Information and applications are available through the websites of both sponsoring organizations. Applications must be received by 5pm on March 13, and the auditions will be held on April 13. The 12th grade winners will perform at the annual awards luncheon on April 27.

Winners of past scholarship awards have used the funds to purchase instruments, attend prestigious summer music programs at Interlochen and Brevard Music Center, and for advanced music education at institutions like Eastman School of Music, Juilliard and the New England Conservatory. 

https://www.sarasotamusicclub.org/

The National Endowment for the Arts has approved more than $27 million in grants as part of the Arts Endowment’s first major funding announcement for fiscal year 2019. Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $30,000 to providing residencies at the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Englewood, in order to support the creation of new work by mid-career and established artists from diverse disciplines. Hermitage artists receive six weeks of residency that can be used in weekly increments of their choosing, and this NEA grant will serve 15 artists, including composers, poets, playwrights and visual artists, using between one and four weeks of their allotted time during the grant period.  While in residency, Hermitage artists are encouraged to share their work with the public through open studios, free community programming, and collaborative activities with other cultural organizations in the greater Sarasota region. 

According to Bruce Rodgers, executive director of the Hermitage, this is the largest grant the Hermitage has ever received from the NEA. It received NEA grants of $10,000 in 2016; $20,000 in 2017; and $15,000 in 2018. 

Hermitage Artist Retreat

Seniors and adults with disabilities who have concerns about Medicare and other health insurance options can receive free insurance counseling at several new locations, as SHINE (Serving Health Insurance Needs of Elders) counselors are now providing free, unbiased health insurance counseling at Goodwill Manasota community rooms at four locations in Sarasota County. Offered locally through the Area Agency on Aging for Southwest Florida (AAASWFL), SHINE empowers Medicare beneficiaries, their caregivers and family members to make informed decisions about health care coverage. SHINE is a volunteer program of the Florida Department of Elder Affairs and part of the national State Health Insurance Assistance Program network.

The SHINE counseling sessions are available at the following Goodwill locations from 11am to 2pm on designated Thursdays: Goodwill Selby (1781 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Sarasota) the first Thursday of each month; Goodwill Honore (1740 North Honore Ave., Sarasota) the second Thursday of each month; Goodwill Mecca (5150 North Tamiami Trl., Sarasota) the third Thursday of each month; and Goodwill University (8490 Lockwood Ridge Rd., Sarasota) the fourth Thursday of each month. Sessions are by appointment only; to request an appointment with a SHINE counselor, please call the Elder Helpline at (866) 413-5337. 

Goodwill Manasota

Personalized Estate Liquidation Benefiting Youth, Inc. (PEL) recently hosted a private concert—“Rocking the Roof four Our Youth”—featuring Atlanta-based singer/songwriter Michelle Malone, and raised $17,000 in support of the Sarasota YMCA's Roberta Leventhal Sudakoff Youth Shelter. The Youth Shelter provides temporary housing and safe care for youths ages 10-17 who have run away, are experiencing family conflict or have been locked out of their homes. The shelter is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week; there are 20 beds available. According to YMCA leaders, at least 90 percent of the youths reunite with their families or find suitable living arrangements; while in the shelter, all have their counseling needs met.

PEL, a qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and PEL Consignments, LLC, its affiliated company, run estate sales from people’s homes or from its 9,400 square-foot store. Donating and shopping at PEL enables the nonprofit arm of its operations to help a variety of causes that support youth in the community, including the Sarasota YMCA Youth Shelter, Booker High School Foundation, Faces of Accomplishment, Forty Carrots Family Center, Child Protection Center, Community Haven, and Mothers Helping Mothers. 

PEL, Inc.

Neal Communities recently donated the use of the old Palmetto Pines Golf Course sandwich shop to the Parrish Fire Rescue District to conduct firefighter training. Over the course of two months, about 22 firefighter personnel participated in real-life training scenario simulations using the structure slated for demolition. The Parrish Fire Rescue District utilized the building to give firefighters the opportunity to train on various tasks and exercises in a controlled environment. Some of the scenarios included firefighter search and rescue, forcible entry, rescue drills, self-contained breathing apparatus use and pump operations and breaching walls, windows and roofs.

“Currently, we don’t have a designated training tower or building to use,” said Parrish Fire Rescue District Division Chief Michael Williamson. “Receiving an acquired structure offers invaluable training to our firefighters and benefits the Parrish community as a whole. We look forward to fostering this relationship with Neal Communities.”

The donated site will be the future home of Canoe Creek, a new Parrish neighborhood by Neal Communities. 

Neal Communities

Habitat for Humanity Sarasota, Inc has recently announced the 2019 Board of Directors. The Executive Committee members are: Chair - John R. Peshkin, founder and principal at Vanguard Land; Vice Chair - Dave Langhout, vice president of Kolter Homes; Secretary - Tommy Gregory, an attorney with Williams Parker Harrison Dietz & Getzen and member of the Florida House of Representatives; Treasurer - Brian Watson, director of finance at Vanguard Land; and Renee Snyder, President and CEO, Habitat Sarasota.

Habitat Sarasota also elected one new member to the board: Justin Powell - Vice President of Palmer Ranch Holdings, Ltd. Continuing in their roles on the Board of Directors are the following members: Michael Bruno of Michael Saunders & Co, Bonnie Dezii, Michelle Crabtree of Premier Sotheby’s International Realty, Jody Garris of TIAA Bank, Lynn Kisser, Sarasota County Commissioner Alan Maio, Jennifer Poppen of Wells Fargo, Stephen Sutter of Sutter Roofing, Carl Watkins of Allegiant Private Advisors and Stephen Wilbur of Stirling and Wilbur Engineering Group. 

Habitat for Humanity Sarasota