Hermitage Announces New Programs in March in Partnership with Asolo Rep and Embracing Our Differences

March 3, 2023 – Sarasota

The Hermitage Artist Retreat (Sarasota County, Florida) today announced new programs rounding out the month of March. These events will be presented all across Sarasota County, from Asolo Repertory Theatre to Butler Park in North Port. Hermitage programs introduce world-renowned artists to Florida’s Gulf Coast community for candid and engaging conversations, musical performances, play readings, work-in-process showings, and educational opportunities for students and adults.

          Newly announced programs in March include partnerships with Asolo Repertory Theatre, Embracing Our Differences, and North Port High School. Featured artists and performers include Hermitage Fellows Kit Yan (Jonathan Larson Grant and Kleban Prize recipient), writer-actor Nandita Shenoy (O’Neill Finalist, Kilroys List), and celebrated teaching artist Tina LaPadula (founder, Seattle Teaching Artist Network, former chair Association of Teaching Artists).  

          On Friday, March 24 at 6pm, the Hermitage presents “Complicated, Beautiful, Messy and Strange: The Words and Music of Kit Yan,” at Asolo Rep’s Robert & Beverly Koski Center. With Kit’s musical collaborations receiving development and productions across the country at noted theaters such as Seattle’s 5^th Ave Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Mixed Blood Productions, and NAMT (National Alliance for Musical Theatre), Kit Yan is quickly becoming a theatrical force. In this combination musical cabaret and artist talk, audiences will hear music and poetry from past work as well as new material.

          The following week, Hermitage programs continue on Thursday, March 30^th at 5pm in beautiful Butler Park in North Port with “Creativity for All,” a participatory storytelling program facilitated by leading teaching artists and Hermitage Fellows Tina LaPadula and Nandita Shenoy. Using the large-scale visual art exhibition curated and installed outdoors by Embracing Our Differences, these two incredible artists and educators invite students and community members to explore their own perspective and share their voices. With LaPadula’s background founding and chairing national arts non-profits dedicated to change and focused on engaging students and Shenoy’s experiences acting and writing at theaters across the United States, this program promises to be an engaging and joyful celebration of our community.

          These newly announced artists coming to the Hermitage in March join previously announced March and April Hermitage Fellows. On Thursday, March 2 at 5:30pm, Tamara Anderson and Lesley Mok put the Hermitage’s multidisciplinary mission on display with “Tell and Show: Art and Performance Expressing Identity.” Working across different mediums but both using material from their own lives to inform the substance of their craft, each will share work and discuss their artistic process. Tamara Anderson has been seen on stage and screen and celebrated for her charm, humor, and impressive vocals. Lesley Mok’s innovative and dynamic compositions have been performed by such leading ensembles as the International Contemporary Ensemble, Metropolis Ensemble, and JACK Quartet.

Hermitage Major Theater Award Winner Madeleine George has a gift for delivering a powerful message in a joyous package, which she will speak about with Hermitage audiences in “Comedy and Community” on Friday, March 10 at 5:30pm. Like her work on Hulu’s hit television series “Only Murders in the Building,” or her plays Hurricane Diane and the Pulitzer Prize finalist The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence, her commission-in-process promises to tackle cultural and systemic mores all in the high stakes world of amateur bowling. With her unique blend of comedy and heart, George will share prior work and discuss her goals for the new HMTA commission, as well as how she hopes it will help to build and enhance a sense of community. To celebrate the world of community theater and its influence in our artistic culture, this program is presented in partnership with the Players Centre and Manatee Players.

Sofía Rocha, the 2022 recipient of the Hermitage Prize in Composition presented at the Aspen Music Festival and School, shares her original musical compositions as part of the Hermitage “Sunsets @ Selby Gardens” series with “Making Musical Waves.” Rocha, no stranger to Florida having grown up in Naples, has studied and presented work across the United States with noted ensembles such as JACK Quartet, DeCoda, loadbang, and Brentano String Quartet, among others. For this musical program on Thursday, March 16 at 6:30pm, the Hermitage is partnering with musicians from the Venice Symphony and the Pops Orchestra to offer live performances of this next-generation composer’s nuanced and evocative work, all with unique insights from the creator, set against the backdrop of the botanical gardens. This season of “Hermitage Sunsets @ Selby Gardens” is sponsored in part by Scene Magazine.     

The Hermitage recently announced that Broadway guest stars Jeannette Bayardelle (Tony nominee), Laura Bell Bundy (Tony nominee), Jay Armstrong Johnson (Drama Desk winner), Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer (Lortel Award winner), and Sarasota’s own Ann Morrison will join Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg in concert at the Van Wezel Hall on Monday, March 20^th at 7:30pm, with music direction by Hermitage Fellow and Grammy nominee Rona Siddiqui. This benefit concert celebrates the Hermitage’s 20^th Anniversary Season and will raise funds for ongoing hurricane repairs.

The Hermitage has also announced its full line-up of programming surrounding the Hermitage Greenfield Weekend. Four recent HGP winners – Aleshea Harris (theater, 2021), Angélica Negrón (music, 2022), Rennie Harris (dance, 2023), and Sandy Rodriguez (visual art, 2023) will each take part in the celebration of events April 14-16, 2023, culminating with the Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner on Sunday, April 16.

Nearly all Hermitage programs 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. Due to capacity limitations and social distancing, registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org.

The Hermitage hosts artists on its Gulf Coast Manasota Key campus for multi-week residencies, where diverse artists from around the world and across multiple disciplines create and develop new works of theater, music, visual art, literature, dance, and more. As part of their residencies, Hermitage Fellows participate in free 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, lectures, readings, interactive experiences, open studios, school programs, teacher workshops, and more, serving thousands in our regional community each year.