Sarasota Jewish Theatre sets a path for expansion in third season

For a theater company that made its debut when venues and performances were shut down because of the pandemic, the Sarasota Jewish Theatre is making good progress as it prepares for its third season.

Founder and artistic director Carole Kleinberg said the company now has its own 501(c)3 non-profit status, separate from the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee,  through which it operated for the first two years.

“They are a sponsor of what we’re doing, but we’re no longer a project of the Federation. Obviously we’re intensely grateful for everything they’ve done for us and excited about us being our own entity,” Kleinberg said in talking about the new season.

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A series of coincidences, she said, led to starting the new season with three one-person shows.

SJT will be performing again at the Players Centre for Performing Arts space at the Crossings at Siesta Key shopping center. Kleinberg is hopeful that her company might be able to get more time with the Players in the future to expand the runs of its productions.

“We have the interest. Last year we sold 1,000 out of a possible 1,350 seats, which I think is pretty good for our first live season after all the virtual shows,” Kleinberg said.

The two companies and SaraSolo Productions are co-producing the one-woman musical “Rhapsody for Golda,” created by Sharon and David Ohrenstein, about one-time Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. The Ohrensteins have been working for more than a decade on various iterations of a musical telling of Meir’s story. It will run Nov. 9-13.

SJT will bring back “Hedy, The Life and Inventions of Hedy Lamarr,” a one-woman show created by actress Heather Massie that was first seen in Sarasota at the 2017 SaraSolo Festival. Massie has won more than two dozen awards for her production about the Jewish actress, who hid both her religious origins and her scientific brain in order to have a successful career. But that didn’t stop Lamarr from inventing the technology that led to the modern smartphones that have become an essential part of our everyday lives. Massie will perform Feb. 22-26.

Blake Walton, managing director of SaraSolo, is directing the one-person shows for the company.

Donald Marguiles’ “Collected Stories,” about an aging writer who shares her wisdom and experience with a young, manipulative protégé who has come to assist her, will be presented March 22-26. Carolyn Michel is scheduled to play the writer, and her husband, Howard Millman, will direct, as he did a 2000 production presented at Asolo Repertory Theatre, where he was then the producing artistic director. Last season, Michel starred in the one-woman play “Rose” for the company.

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The final show is what Kleinberg believes will be a Florida premiere, “We All Fall Down” by Lila Rose Kaplan. Jeffery Kin, former producing artistic director of the Players Centre, will direct the comedy about a family trying to recreate the father’s favorite childhood memories of the Passover seders put on by his mother. The man now is dealing with Alzheimer’s and a therapist said recreating old memories might help in his process. But no one knows what they’re doing when it comes to a seder.

“It’s so funny, like ‘You Can’t Take it With You.’ It’s upbeat, fast-paced and very funny and with a very heartwarming ending,” Kleinberg said.

The season will kick-off with an extra one-woman show, Lynne Bernfield’s “Bashert – Some Things Are Meant to Be,” in which she shares stories and sings original songs about things that seem like coincidences but may just be fate or destiny. Bernfield presented her show at the 2016 SaraSolo Festival.

The one-night performance on Oct. 30 will be a benefit for the theater company.

All performances are at the Players Centre, 3501 S. Tamiami Trail, Suite 1130 , in the Crossings at Siesta Key shopping center. Tickets are available through the Players Centre at 941-365-2494; theplayers.org. For more details: sarasotajewishtheatre.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota Jewish Theatre grows into third season with more productions