As we near the start of October and the return of season to the Sarasota area, performing arts organizations will start ramping up their events as well.
Sarasota Orchestra, for instance, will put on two concerts this week, one featuring the orchestra's music director (and performer in Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show) Giancarlo Guerrero.
The Sarasota Players, whose recent productions have included "Bat Boy: The Musical," will feature the original bat boy when they put on "Dracula," while Tree Fort Productions will feature "Beatle Girls."
Other arts events will include a one-act play festival, and a talk by an artist whose work is currently being showcased in an exhibition at The Ringling. Here are this week's highlights. Event details are subject
to change.
1. Sarasota Orchestra 'Classical Music Humor'
This 75-minute, intermission-free concert will explore the lighter side of classical music with commentary from Sarasota Orchestra music director Giancarlo Guerrero. The program will include Mozart’s "A Musical Joke," Rossini’s "The Barber of Seville," Haydn's Symphony No. 94 ("Surprise"), Strauss II's "Thunder and Lightning" Polka, Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 ("Classical") and Michael Daugherty's tribute to Liberace, featuring pianist Terrence Wilson. 7:30 p.m. Oct. 3; Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota; $27 and up; 941-953-3434; sarasotaorchestra.org
2. Sarasota Players 'Dracula'
In time for the Halloween season, The Sarasota Players will put on this black box production based on Bram Stoker's classic Gothic horror novel. Following the Transylvanian Count Dracula, who is secretly a vampire, and his encounters with Jonathan Harker, his fiancée Mina Murray and Abraham Van Helsing, "Dracula" has been adapted for the stage several times, including a recent one-woman show with Cynthia Erivo playing multiple roles. Oct. 3-25; The Players Studio Black Box, 1400 Boulevard of the Arts, Suite 200, Sarasota; $30, $15 students; 941-365-2494; theplayers.org
3. Theatre Odyssey One-Act Play Festival
Theatre Odyssey's sixth annual festival will feature four finalists from a hundred submitted plays. This year's selections are "Waiting to Film Waiting for Godot" by Mathew Green (Champaign, Illinois), "Sunday Sauce" by Claudia Haas (White Bear Lake, Minnesota), "A Change of Heart" by Arianna Rose (Delray Beach, Florida) and "Reasonable Doubt" by Philip Middleton Williams (Palmetto Bay, Florida). Oct. 2-4; Jane B. Cook Theatre at FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota; $32, $17 students/educators/active military; 941-748-5875; theatreodyssey.org
4. Sarasota Orchestra 'Water Music'
Sarasota Orchestra will also host this Chamber Soirées concert featuring works for string and wind ensemble. Osvaldo Golijov’s "Last Round" features two string quartets in an homage to the spirit of the tango, while the winds and horns perform in Dvořák’s Serenade for Winds. Then the two “teams” join forces for a performance of Handel’s Suite No. 2 from "Water Music," performed without a conductor. 4 p.m. Sept. 27; Holley Hall, 709 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota; $52 and up; 941-953-3434; sarasotaorchestra.org
5. 'Beatle Girls' at Tree Fort Productions
Freda Kelly was a teenager when she ran the Beatles Fan Club with a room full of other girls. She and her girlfriends, all decades older, go back in time and tell the inside story, as portrayed by six actresses. Tree Fort will also host "In My Life," a concert featuring jazz musician Lizabeth Flood offering her take on Beatles songs, at 2 p.m. Sept. 27; tickets to that show are $40. Oct. 2-11; Tree Fort Productions Studio Theatre, 3501 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota; $40, mainstage season subscription also available; 941-544-2276; treefortproductions.com
6. Andrea Carlson Lecture at The Ringling
Artist Andrea Carlson, whose work is chronicled in the exhibition "A Constant Sky" running through Nov. 15 at The Ringling, will visit the museum for a talk. Carlson will discuss how her work challenges colonial narratives presented by modern artists, museum collections and cannibal genre horror films, after which attendees are invited to view the exhibition and enjoy a cocktail reception with the artist on the Museum of Art Loggia. 5:30 p.m. Oct. 1; The Ringling, Chao Lecture Hall, 5401 Bay Shore Road, Sarasota; $10, $5 members; 941-359-5700; ringling.org
Email entertainment reporter Jimmy Geurts at jimmy.geurts@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Top Sarasota arts events this week include orchestra, 'Dracula'
