Triple Threat
Actually, not a threat, more of an invitation to see three exhibits at the Sarasota Art Museum on Tamiami Trail.
The first is a collection of patches. Not nicotine and not patchwork quilts, but patches of ideas put together to make art, all from the mind of Maria A. Guzmán, a Peruvian artist based in California. Pictured is just part of the 4-foot-by-6-foot, riotously colored collage of different colored and painted cuts of fabric titled Déjame Llevarte.
Some paintings, drawings, sketches or whatever that are hanging in museums deserve a glance and maybe a slowing of one’s pace. Others, a bit of eyeballing. The true test of a work of art is the stopping, the moving toward and away, the moving back and forth. Not just with the eyes, but with the whole body, so that every part of the artist’s effort is registered by all of one’s visual senses.
The next exhibit, titled Something Borrowed Something Blue, is a collection of collections. It’s a gathering of art, not by local artists, but from 10 local collectors in Sarasota, on Longboat Key and in St. Petersburg. These collectors have an eye for what is good, and it is good that they are sharing some of what they have.
Ai Weiwei, the expatriate Chinese artist now living in Portugal, purchased a piece of Neolithic pottery on which he painted the Coca-Cola logo. In doing so, he replaced our perception of a piece of humanity’s history with “a symbol of American capitalism and consumer culture.”
A photograph by Liu Jin, a Chinese artist, shows Liu in his studio — he appears in a mirror. Looking at the photo, one could say, “Ah, a nice photo of the artist in his studio.” But looking more closely — good art is always worth a closer look — one can see at least eight distinct areas that could be interesting photographs on their own.
Lewis Hine, a photographer, took a sepia-toned photo of a shoeshine boy in the early 1920s. It showed the man’s leg, his shoe on the shoeshine box and the boy brushing away. The Portuguese artist Vik Muniz has created the same image, but with thousands of tiny toys and trinkets placed on the floor and then photographed. Standing 1 foot away, one sees the toys. From farther away, one sees the toys and an homage to Hine’s photo. From still farther away, one sees only the sepia photo, but in glorious Technicolor.
Dozens and dozens of other paintings and sculptures, and lots of etc., by Hockney, Leibovitz, Mapplethorpe, Neruda, Lichtenstein, Syd Solomon and many, many others are in this exhibit.
The third exhibit is Strict Beauty: Sol LeWitt Prints. Strangely, quite a few prints in this exhibit are not by LeWitt. When he became famous for his work in minimalism and conceptual art, one of his enduring projects was to write down, in extreme detail, how his shapes should be laid out. He then provided those directions to other artists, who produced the final product.
To quote LeWitt, “Idea becomes a machine that makes the art.”
Perhaps, in his eyes, he was the idea and the artists who did the work were his machines?
Information on all exhibits is available at sarasotaartmuseum.org.
Remembrance of Things Past
Marcel Proust’s book by that name was, among other things, about, yes, memories of things from the past. On Sept. 25-27, in its Auditorium Series, the Sarasota Cuban Ballet School will be doing some remembering when it presents Classical + Contemporary, which will be a celebration of past and present.
So, if you missed some of its earlier ballet performances, don’t remember them, or do and want to see them again, well, attend its current production of great ballet pieces.
And thinking of the past — of ballet in Sarasota and of Transylvania and its dark history — remember Oct. 30-Nov. 1 are the days of Dracula. And Dracula, with its dancing minions, will once again be recreated by the Sarasota Cuban Ballet School’s production of Dracula in its auditorium on Cattlemen Road.
Information is available at srqcubanballet.org.
Tapestry, Collage or Mosaic
A tapestry is a weaving together of colorful elements to create a new whole. A collage is a grouping of like or dissimilar images placed together to create a themed image. And a mosaic is a single, unified whole made up of many diverse elements, often displayed on a wall.
Or, in this case, on the stage of the beautiful Historic Asolo Theater on the evening of Sept. 24.
Vocal Mosaic: An Evening of Song brings together five vocalists and two pianists, presenting a kaleidoscope of jazz, Broadway, art songs and opera arias to weave together music for, as they say, your listening pleasure. These singers and musicians are artist faculty from the Florida State University College of Music.
More information is available at ringling.org.
Festival Time
Many festivals commemorate memorable times from the past. But the past is the past, so perhaps it would be better to focus on things more up to date. Urbanite Theatre is doing just that with its 2026 Modern Works Festival. Shakespeare, Molière and Beckett did write good stuff, but they are being put back on their dusty shelves from Sept. 17-27.
The kickoff event is a four-day run, Sept. 17-20, featuring Erika MacDonald’s Tea Time. For tea time to take place, there must be tea, and MacDonald does explain the brewing and steeping experience, and much more.
Did previous audiences enjoy this show? Well, there were seven sold-out performances at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, and there will be only four performances in Sarasota. So, play the odds and get tickets now. MacDonald has won 10 “Best of Fest” awards at fringe festivals in the U.S. and Canada.
The staged reading of Stacy Isom Campbell’s play The Longest Walk, Sept. 25-26, is a deep look into the memories of two Marines who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a powerful exploration of PTSD, survival and the interior scars that one accumulates along the way.
Up next, also on Sept. 25 and 26, is a staged reading of Mantra Radhakrishnan’s Conversations by the Beach, a tale centered on a mother and her two daughters’ experiences of both grief and freedom after the passing of the family patriarch.
The play takes the form of a traditional Bharatanatyam recital: a set of seven dance movements woven between the conversations of the three women over 20 years. The first dance is a Pushpanjali, an opening invocation in which flowers are offered to the deities and audience to seek blessings. The fifth dance, a Varnam, is the longest, focusing on devotion, longing or romantic love from the perspective of the soul. The seventh movement, Tillana, is a high-energy finale showcasing sparkling footwork and joyous musical phrasing. Listen, watch and enjoy.
The staged reading of Joz Vammer’s Spectres takes place Sept. 26 and 27. The adventurous Roxie and Grace, seeking to clarify the legend of the famous Woman in White, enter a cave and go batty. No, no bats, but there is an even eerier encounter that blurs the line between the deeply personal aspects of grief and fear and the supernatural.
Do their own emotions take form in this darkened cavern, or are there all-knowing spectres that can dredge up dark images from within their own depths?
Information on all events is available at urbanitetheatre.com.
How Long Is Pinocchio’s Nose?
An entire month, as that is how long this new production will last: Sept. 19-Oct. 18 at Florida Studio Theatre’s Keating Theatre. Curious encounters (of the third kind?) and daring escapades bring plenty of magic to this retelling of a timeless classic. Ticket prices are also brought back from the past: as low as $6.25 per adult or child.
Still running: Songbirds of the Seventies: From Woodstock to Soft Rock at the Court Cabaret through Sept. 20 and Legacy: Motown & More at the Goldstein Cabaret through Oct. 11.
Information on all shows is available at floridastudiotheatre.org.
Back to the Classics
Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace (1869) was a classic, and way too long. A new adaptation by Dave Malloy, based on 70 pages from the original Volume II, Part V, is being presented by Dingbat Theatre Project through Sept. 13.
The title of this production is Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, a sung-through electropop opera mixing Russian folk music, electronic dance music and classical-sounding theater numbers.
The show focuses on Natasha’s romance with Anatole and Pierre’s search for meaning in his life. It premiered at Ars Nova in New York, moved off-Broadway and then opened on Broadway.
Reddit wrote that the message of the play is that human life holds meaning, hope and redemption even through profound suffering and mistakes. Typical Tolstoy stuff, but in an updated vision/version.
Dingbat Theatre is located at 7288 S. Tamiami Trail.
More information is available at dingbattheatre.org.
