2024 Hermitage Major Theater Award Winner Chris Bush Visits the Hermitage

May 1, 2024 | Sarasota

The Hermitage Artist Retreat is pleased to announce “Standing at the Beach’s Edge: London to Sarasota” on Friday, June 7^th at 6:30pm, presented on the Hermitage Beach. This newly added program features 2024 Hermitage Major Theater Award winner Chris Bush, an Olivier Award-winning playwright, lyricist, and theater maker based in the United Kingdom, in conversation with Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg.

Bush’s impressive body of work includes the hit musical Standing at the Sky’s Edge, which recently won her an Olivier Award and a UK Theatre Award for Best Musical. Following sold-out runs at the National Theatre and Sheffield Theatres, the acclaimed production transferred to the West End earlier this year and has been heralded as “the most exciting new British musical in years” (WhatsOnStage) and “a moving and resonant piece of popular entertainment — magnificent and meaningful.” (The Times) Bush has also received UK Theatre Awards for her shows Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World and The Assassination of Katie Hopkins, celebrated by The Guardian as “an intelligent, thoughtful, and often wryly enjoyable look at the polarization of public debate in the age of social media.” Raised in Sheffield, England, Chris Bush currently lives in London, and this will be her first trip to Sarasota.

Earlier this year, Chris Bush was announced as the winner of the 2024 Hermitage Major Theater Award; she is the fourth recipient of this distinguished international honor. Bush will receive a cash prize of $35,000 USD, an extended residency at the Hermitage, and a workshop presentation in London in 2025. Bush was selected by an Award Committee that included Michael Grandage, Tony and Olivier-Award winning director of stage and screen, former Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, and current Artistic Director of the Michael Grandage Company; Tessa Ross, CBE and BAFTA Award-winningCo-CEO of House Productions; and Indhu Rubasingham,an Olivier Award-winning director, longtime Artistic Director of the Kiln Theatre, and newly announced as the incoming Director of the National Theatre. The Hermitage Major Theater Award is made possible with a generous multi-year gift to the Hermitage from Flora Major and the Kutya Major Foundation.

In this newly announced Hermitage Beach program on June 7^th, Gulf Coast residents can enjoy a candid conversation with a celebrated UK playwright, librettist, and lyricist whom London theatergoers can’t get enough of — Chris Bush. This rising star of the UK theater scene and recent winner of the Hermitage Major Theater Award will share thoughts about her career, making theater in the UK, and how she plans to reimagine Virginia Woolf’s iconic novel Orlando for the 21^st century. In describing her intended Hermitage commission, currently titled Orlando (FL), Bush has shared: “This original play will be a story of transformation, translation, and self-determination. The play will follow Lana, a trans woman living in Orlando, Florida, whose life is turned upside down by the arrival of a fantastical stranger. Orlando (FL) aspires to be a queer fantasia – a gloriously funny, angry, and defiant testament to the power of literature and the resilience of LGBTQ+ communities.”

          Hermitage programs like this one are free and open to the public (with a $5/person registration fee), offering Gulf Coast audiences a rare chance to engage and interact with some of the world’s leading talent. Running time for most Hermitage programs is 60-70 minutes. Due to capacity limitations, registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org.

A leading national arts incubator, the Hermitage is the only major arts organization in Florida’s Gulf Coast exclusively committed to supporting the development and creation of new work across all artistic disciplines. The Hermitage hosts artists on its Gulf Coast Manasota Key campus for multi-week residencies, where diverse and accomplished artists from around the world and across multiple disciplines create and develop new works of theater, music, visual art, literature, dance, film, and more. As part of their residencies, Hermitage Fellows participate in free year-round community programs, offering audiences in the region a unique opportunity to engage with some of the world’s leading artists and to get an authentic “sneak peek” into extraordinary projects and artistic minds before their works go on to major galleries, concert halls, theaters, and museums around the world. These free and innovative programs include performances, conversations, readings, interactive experiences, open studios, school programs, teacher workshops, and more, serving thousands in our regional community each year.

Additional summer programs will be announced soon.

For more information about the Hermitage and upcoming programs, visit: HermitageArtistRetreat.org.