Category: Artist Community

Hermitage Presents “Lighthouse of the Singing Birds” at New York Theatre Workshop 

The Hermitage Artist Retreat (Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO), today released photos from the premiere presentation of newly commissioned work by Imani Uzuri. The third recipient of the $35,000 Hermitage Major Theater Award (HMTA), Uzuri shared a workshop presentation of her newly commissioned musical Lighthouse of the Singing Birds at Off-Broadway’s New York Theatre Workshop, an institution noted for its long history of producing new and groundbreaking work, on November 18th. Imani Uzuri is an award-winning composer, vocalist, librettist, improviser, and lyricist. Her original commission is coming to fruition less than two years from the date the recipient learned of her recognition.

The Hermitage Major Theater Award was established in 2021 to recognize a playwright or theater artist with a substantial commission to create a new, original, and impactful piece of theater. This international, jury-selected award, established by the Hermitage with generous support from Flora Majorand the Kutya Major Foundation, offers one of the largest nonprofit theater commissions in the United States. Uzuri received a cash prize of $35,000, as well as a residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat, plus developmental and financial support for this developmental reading in New York. The prize is intended to bridge the connection between the Hermitage (Sarasota County, Florida), where the commission is born, and other leading arts and culture centers around the world where great theater is frequently developed and presented, including New York, London, and Chicago. 

Lighthouse of the Singing Birds is a magical realist musical with book, music, and lyrics by Hermitage Major Theater Award winner Imani Uzuri. Monday’s presentation was introduced by Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg and NYTW Artistic Director Patricia McGregor. Told through song and immersive storytelling, Lighthouse of the Singing Birds deals with themes of mysticism, death, liminality, ecology, Black American vernacular artistic culture (music, art, foodways, folklore healing modalities, and so forth), as well as illuminating the sublimated history of Black lighthouse keepers and celebrating Black American vernacular sacred/secular song traditions. The cast the first concert reading of Lighthouse of the Singing Birds included Tony Award winner Lillias White (The Life, Hadestown, Disney’s “Hercules”), Nichelle Lewis (The Wiz on Broadway, Ragtime at Encores), plus stage and screen talents Charlie Burnham (violinist/composer), Starr Busby (Octet, The Beautiful Lady), Jared Wayne Gladly (Aladdin, Frozen), Yayoi Ikawa (jazz pianist/composer), Polanco Jones (The Wiz), Marla Louissaint(Theater Producers of Color 2023, Hadestown), Mercy Viola (cultural worker/performance artist), and dramaturgy by musicologist Matthew D. Morrison.

HMTA winners are nominated and selected by a jury of recognized arts leaders in the field of theater. The 2022 Award Committee that selected Imani Uzuri included two-time Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori, Tony Award-nominated producer, educator, and artistic director Christopher Burney, and New York Theatre Workshop Artistic Director Patricia McGregor.

Past recipients of the Hermitage Major Theater Award include Madeleine George (2021), who is a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her play The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence, and is currently a writer and producer for Hulu’s hit series “Only Murders in the Building.” George presented the first full-length reading of her new play The Sore Loser to an invitation-only audience at MCC Theatre last winter. Theater-maker and director Shariffa Ali was selected as the second recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award. Ali shared an in-process presentation of her newly devised work Hero for an invitation-only audience on in November of 2023, also at MCC Theater. 

Olivier Award-winning playwright and librettist Chris Bush (Standing at the Sky’s Edge) was announced in January of 2024 as the fourth recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award, and the Hermitage will present a workshop reading of her original commission in London in the fall of 2025. California-based playwright Naomi Iizuka was announced earlier this month as the fifth recipient of the HMTA, and her work will receive its first workshop presentation in Chicago in the fall of 2026. 

Playwright Naomi Iizuka Fifth Recipient of Hermitage Major Theater Award  

Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage Artist Retreat, announced today that California-based playwright Naomi Iizuka has been selected as the fifth recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award (HMTA). This jury-selected prize, established by the Hermitage in 2021 with generous support from Flora Major and the Kutya Major Foundation, offers one of the largest unrestricted nonprofit theater commissions in the United States. Iizuka will receive a cash prize of $35,000, a residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Florida, and a developmental workshop in a major arts capital – which for this commission is anticipated for Chicago in late 2026. 

Naomi Iizuka is an award-winning playwright, educator, and theater maker based in California. Her body of work includes Anon(ymous), 36 Views, Polaroid Stories, At the Vanishing Point, Language of Angels, Skin, Tattoo Girl, and more. Her plays have been produced at theaters across the country, including BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Berkeley Rep, the Goodman, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, the Guthrie, Cornerstone, Children’s Theater Company, the Public Theater, and Campo Santo. lizuka is an alumna of New Dramatists and the recipient of a PEN/Laura Pels Award, an Alpert Award, a Whiting Award, a Stavis Award from the National Theatre Conference, a Joyce Foundation Award, and a Hodder Fellowship. She was a Berlind Playwright-in-Residence at Princeton University. Iizuka has written for “The Terror: Infamy” (AMC), “Tokyo Vice” (HBO Max), “Bosch: Legacy” (Amazon), and “The Sympathizer” (HBO Max). She is the head of the MFA Playwriting program at University of California, San Diego.

“I was thrilled and genuinely honored to find out that I had received the Hermitage Major Theater Award,” said 2024-2025 HMTA winner Naomi Iizuka upon receiving the news. “To be chosen by one’s peers is so meaningful. It felt like this unexpected and incredibly generous gift in what I guess you could call the vast expanse of my mid-career.” 

“Amidst four extraordinary and deserving finalists, Naomi Iizuka confirmed herself to be a passionate and insightful playwright who impressed us all with her timely and compelling proposal,” said Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. “We are honored to support Naomi as she creates this ambitious new play at this exciting stage of her career. I must thank our brilliant and dedicated Award Committee – Susan Booth, Glenn Davis, and Chay Yew – for their passion, intelligence, and care throughout this process. I also want to congratulate Luis Alfaro, Zora Howard, and José Rivera, each of whom are innovative and exceptional playwrights with thrilling, original ideas for new theatrical works.”

The Hermitage Major Theater Award (HMTA) was established in 2021 to recognize a playwright or theater artist with a $35,000 commission to create a new, original, and impactful piece of theater. Three distinguished finalists for the fifth Hermitage Major Theater Award include celebrated playwright Luis Alfaro,the 2024 TCG World Theater Artist and the recipient of a 2024 recognition in literature from the American Academy of Arts & Letters; Zora Howard, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, writer, performer, and Hermitage alumna whose plays include Stew, Hang Time, The Master’s Tools, Bust, and Good Faith; and José Rivera, an accomplished playwright and screenwriter who has won two Obie Awards for his plays Marisol andReferences to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay to The Motorcycle Diaries. Each finalist has been awarded a Hermitage residency and Fellowship, in addition to a cash prize of $1,000.

HMTA winners and finalists are nominated and selected by a jury of visionary and forward-thinking artistic leaders. The 2024-2025 HMTA Award Committee included Susan V. Booth, Artistic Director of Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and longtime director of the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta; Glenn Davis, an accomplished actor, producer, and Artistic Director of Steppenwolf Theatre Company; and Chay Yew, an Obie Award-winning director and playwright who served as longtime Artistic Director of Victory Gardens Theater. 

“Naomi Iizuka has been charting new territory in our practice for years and is still so untapped in terms of what’s yet to come,” said Susan Booth. “It’s hugely exciting to anticipate a new work from her, and I’m so grateful to the Hermitage for making this kind of investment in this transformational artist.”

“Naomi Izuka is an exceptional artist with a vastly disparate collection of plays that speak to her multicultural background,” noted Glenn Davis. “I am thrilled that the Hermitage will allow her to create her next ambitious work.” 

“If theater is the live cultivation of civic discourse, expansion of conversation, and evocation of empathy in public spaces, Naomi Iizuka moves our field forward with her plays unlike any other writer,” added Chay Yew. “She fearlessly uncovers the stories we need now, in a voice that is uniquely hers, which clarifies and amplifies the urgent issues of our time. Always the passionate artist who reflects the myriad lives of our nation and world politically and socially, she chronicles and gives voice to the voiceless, and visibility to the invisible.”

In addition to the $35,000 commission, the recipient of the annual HMTA will receive six weeks of residency at the Hermitage’s historic beachfront campus to develop the new theatrical work, as well as a reading or workshop in a leading arts and cultural center. Naomi Iizuka’s commission is expected to receive its first presentation in late 2026 in Chicago, which will be the first Chicago presentation of an HMTA commission.

In describing her intended HMTA commission, currently titled Casa de Mañana Iizuka shares: “Casa de Mañana is a dark comedy that explores what it means to make art when your life and the world around you are imploding. Set in an assisted living and memory care facility, the play tells the story of an underemployed theater artist who’s trying to make a play based on stories that the residents tell her about their lives – except the residents don’t want to talk to her. And who can blame them? They have their own problems to deal with and their own secret agendas. Why should they tell stories to a stranger? Casa de Mañana asks what it means to tell the story of your life. How do you make sense of the craziness and mystery of the people around you? How do you tell the truth? And what choices do you make in the time you have left?”

In the spirit of the Hermitage’s commitment to the arts across multiple disciplines, recipients of the Hermitage Major Theater Award are encouraged to create a commission that directly or indirectly represents the role and impact of art – musical, literary, theatrical, visual, dance, or otherwise – in our culture and society.As to how this will infuse Iizuka’s commission, she explains that “the arts are a place where we can both step back and dive deep; where we can have difficult conversations about what’s going on in the world in a way that allows us to listen to one another and really hear one another.”

This distinguished Hermitage Major Theater Award recognition is not an award for an existing work, but rather it is designed as a commission that shall serve as a catalyst and inspiration to a theater artist to create a new, original, and impactful piece of theater. Further, the prize is intended to bridge the connection between the Hermitage in Sarasota County, Florida – where the commission is born – and other leading arts and culture centers around the world, including New York, London, Chicago, and other notable arts capitals where great theater is frequently developed and presented. Previous recipients of the HMTA have included Pulitzer Prize finalist and “Only Murders in the Building” writer Madeleine George; theater-maker, director, and the New Group’s Director of Artistic Projects Shariffa Ali; award-winning composer and theater artist Imani Uzuri; and Olivier Award-winning playwright and librettist Chris Bush. George and Ali had their first readings at New York’s MCC Theater in November of 2023. George’s The Sore Loser is a Faustian comedy reimagining the patriarchy through a small-town bowling tournament, and Ali’s play Hero chronicles a South African village faced with an opportunity for national glory through a singling competition. Uzuri’s commission, Lighthouse of the Singing Birds, will have an invitation-only presentation at New York Theatre Workshop on November 18th. Chris Bush’s new HMTA commission, Orlando (FL), is expected to have its first presentation in London in the fall of 2025.

“This award is designed to be transformational for its recipients, providing not only significant funds and recognition, but also invaluable time, space, and inspiration at the Hermitage, plus an opportunity for these innovative theater artists to workshop and develop their original ideas,” said Andy Sandberg. An accomplished director, writer, and Tony Award-winning producer who recently directed the U.K. premiere of Operation Epsilon, Sandberg took the helm as Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage in early 2020. “In addition to introducing a new work of theater to the world each year, this is a meaningful way for the Hermitage to take a further step in supporting the artistic process, offering developmental resources to these extraordinary artists and their new commissions.”  

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 the aftermath of the pandemic and recognizing the difficult challenges facing theater artists, the Hermitage and Major awarded three HMTA commissions in the inaugural twelve months of this initiative. Moving forward, the recipient will be selected annually and will have two years to complete their commission. 

“No one does more for the arts and the creation of new work than the Hermitage,” added Flora Major, founder and trustee of the Kutya Major Foundation. “The impact and success of this commissioning program are further evidence that Andy and his team have established the Hermitage as a leading international arts incubator. I hope others who are passionate about the arts will support the important work that’s happening there. The impact and reach of the Hermitage is greater than most people realize – it’s truly unbelievable.” Flora Major was named an Honorary Member of the Hermitage Board of Trustees earlier this year.

Hermitage Presents a New Musical Commission from Imani Uzuri, 2022 Recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award 

Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage Artist Retreat, announced today that Imani Uzuri, the 2022 recipient of the $35,000 Hermitage Major Theater Award (HMTA), will have a workshop presentation of her newly commissioned musical this month at New York Theatre Workshop on Monday, November 18th. Imani Uzuri is an award-winning composer, vocalist, librettist, improviser, and lyricist, and the Hermitage is collaborating with NYTW to present this concert reading of Uzuri’s new musical Lighthouse of the Singing Birds to an invitation-only audience. Her original commission is coming to fruition less than two years from the date the recipient learned of her recognition. 

The Hermitage Major Theater Award was established in 2021 to recognize a playwright or theater artist with a substantial commission to create a new, original, and impactful piece of theater. This national, jury-selected award, established by the Hermitage with generous support from Flora Major and the Kutya Major Foundation, offers one of the largest nonprofit theater commissions in the country. Uzuri receives a cash prize of $35,000, as well as a residency at the Hermitage (Sarasota County, Florida), plus developmental and financial support for these upcoming developmental readings in New York. The prize is intended to bridge the connection between the Hermitage (Sarasota County, Florida), where the commission is born, and other leading arts and culture centers around the world, including New York, London, Chicago, and notable arts capitals where great theater is frequently developed and presented. 

HMTA winners are nominated and selected by a jury of recognized arts leaders in the field of theater. The 2022 Award Committee that selected Imani Uzuri includes two-time Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori, Tony Award-nominated producer, educator, and artistic director Christopher Burney, and New York Theatre Workshop Artistic Director Patricia McGregor.

“It has been thrilling to see the work that’s come to life from past HMTA recipients Madeleine George and Shariffa Ali, and it is incredibly exciting to be seeing Imani Uzuri’s original musical now coming to fruition,” said Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. “Imani is an extraordinary talent who engages fellow artists with light and innovation, and we’re honored to play a role in supporting her artistic journey. Bringing original works to life through this commissioning program is a true honor and a gift to the theater, made possible by the generosity of Flora Major, who has entrusted the Hermitage with this invaluable opportunity.”

Lighthouse of the Singing Birds is a magical realist musical with book, music, and lyrics by Hermitage Major Theater Award winner Imani Uzuri. Told through ephemeral puppetry, song and immersive storytelling Lighthouse of the Singing Birds deals with themes of mysticism, death, liminality, ecology, Black American vernacular artistic culture (music, art, foodways, folklore healing modalities and so forth) as well as illuminating the sublimated history of Black lighthouse keepers and celebrating Black American vernacular sacred/secular song traditions. Somewhere in the Outer Banks of North Carolina on a Sound whose beach has purple sand (from coral), a bird sanctuary, a lighthouse, and elusive wild horses, Jasmine Songbird is on the precipice. Surrounded by her quirky intergenerational family who are singers, healers, quilters, foragers, instrument makers, moonshiners and more, along with their eclectic community, Jasmine lives where the mundane and mystical merge every day. The spiritual and ancestral realm are ever present. The veil is thin. The family’s healing work is to lovingly sing people in hospice across the threshold. Their family song is “Every day is H O L Y.” 

Casting for the first full-length reading of Lighthouse of the Singing Birds includes Tony Award winner Lillias White (The Life, Hadestown, Disney’s “Hercules”), Nichelle Lewis (The Wiz on Broadway, Ragtime at Encores), plus stage and screen talents Charlie Burnham (violinist/composer), Starr Busby(Octet, The Beautiful Lady), Jared Wayne Gladly (Aladdin, Frozen), Yayoi Ikawa (jazz pianist/composer), Polanco Jones (The Wiz), Marla Lou (Theater Producers of Color 2023, Hadestown), Matthew D. Morrison (musicologist), and Mercy Viola (cultural worker/performance artist).

Upon announcing Uzuri as the third recipient of the HMTA, 2022 Award Committee member and NYTW Artistic Director Patricia McGregor noted, “When I think of the great orchestration of life, we might miss a note – but when that note reveals itself, when it is given the space to be a part of the orchestration, we are all richer. I’m excited for Imani and what this award can do for her and for this intimate, magical, liberatory, intergenerational piece. I’m also excited for us, and I’m very grateful to the Hermitage because this award is going to allow for this ‘note’ in the great orchestration of life, to sing, live, and breathe in a way that it legitimately might not have without this moment, this opportunity – and we will all benefit so greatly from that.”

Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright, Hermitage Fellow, trustee, and HTMA Juror Doug Wright said of the Hermitage Major Theater Award: “In a challenged theatrical landscape, the Hermitage has done something heroic; they have instituted a brand new, financially generous commission for a playwright of demonstrable achievement to draft a new work. It is one of the premier commissions of its kind, and it could not come at a more auspicious time.”

Past recipients of the Hermitage Major Theater Award include Madeleine George (2021), who is a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her play The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence, and she currently is a writer and producer for Hulu’s hit series “Only Murders in the Building.” George presented the first full-length reading of her new play The Sore Loser to an invitation-only audience at MCC Theatre last winter. The Sore Loser is a Faustian comedy set in a bowling alley. It’s a play about power, domination, and the death of the patriarchy – as told through a small-town bowling tournament. Theater-maker and director Shariffa Ali was selected as the second recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award. Ali shared an in-process presentation of her newly devised work Hero for an invitation-only audience on in November of 2023, also at MCC Theater. Ali provided an overview and excerpts from this heartwarming and inspiring new play with music, set in a small South African town and inspired by the true story of Shariffa’s longtime friend and collaborator Vuyo Sotashe. 

Olivier Award-winning playwright and librettist Chris Bush (Standing at the Sky’s Edge) was announced in January as the fourth recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award, and the Hermitage will present a workshop reading of her original commission in London in the fall of 2025. The fifth recipient of the HMTA will be announced soon.

Hermitage and Terrence McNally Foundation Launch the McNally Residency at the Hermitage 

Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage Artist Retreat, today announced the launch of the McNally Fellowship at the Hermitage, made possible with generous support from the Terrence McNally Foundation. This new grant is intended to support the residency of an early-career playwright. In collaboration with the McNally Foundation, the Hermitage has selected Zeniba Now as the inaugural honoree.

Zeniba Now, an award-winning writer, musical storyteller, performer, and vocalist from Los Angeles, was selected for the Hermitage’s acclaimed residency program by the organization’s National Curatorial Council, a fourteen-member body that includes two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, Doris Duke Award-winning artistic director Nataki Garrett, and acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Rajiv Joseph, among other luminaries in their respective fields. She was recently named a “Woman to Watch” by the Broadway Women’s Fund.

As part of Zeniba’s residency, the Hermitage will present “Zeniba Now: The Heartsong and Other Experiments” on the Hermitage Beach – Friday, October 18 at 5:30pm. The program will feature original works performed by this singularly talented artist and performer. Crossing mediums and weaving genres, Zeniba Now is introducing audiences to her unique approach to musical storytelling. Along with her work, Zeniba will offer insight into her creative process. The program will also feature remarks from Tony and Olivier Award-winning Broadway producer Tom Kirdahy (Hadestown, Gypsy, Little Shop of Horrors) and Tony Award-winning Hermitage Artistic Director Andy Sandberg.

“The Hermitage is deeply grateful to the Terrence McNally Foundation for their generous support and passionate belief in the work we are doing,” says Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. “It has been a joy to collaborate with our friend Tom Kirdahy on a number of special programs, and he’s been such a champion of the Hermitage and its mission. We are honored to celebrate Terrence’s remarkable legacy by providing the gift of space and time to inspiring new voices in the theater, and we’re excited to name Zeniba Now as the first recipient of this honor.”

Tom Kirdahy, a Tony and Olivier Award-winning Broadway producer and the late Terrence McNally’s husband, is the president of Tom Kirdahy Productions and a principal trustee of the McNally Foundation. Among his recent producing credits are the forthcoming revival of Gypsy starring Audra McDonald, the Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown, the hit Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors, and Stephen Sondheim’s posthumous musical Here We Are, which starred Tony Award winner and recent Hermitage Fellow Rachel Bay Jones. Kirdahy has also participated in a number of Hermitage programs himself over the past four seasons. 

“We are incredibly proud to support the work the Hermitage is doing,” added Kirdahy. “The Hermitage is a world-class arts incubator – not only for playwrights and theater artists, but for so many extraordinary talents of all different backgrounds and disciplines. The gift they are giving to these innovative and imaginative writers, performers, and artists is invaluable. We are excited for Zeniba Now to continue her creative journey with this Hermitage residency in Terrence’s name.” 

The Terrence McNally Foundation is a nonprofit organization committed to supporting bold new voices in the American theater by providing support to early-career playwrights and the institutions that support them. The McNally Foundation’s mission to champion new playwrights aligns with the mission of the Hermitage Artist Retreat: to inspire and foster the most influential and consequential art and artists of our time. Created by legendary playwright/librettist Terrence McNally and supported through the ongoing royalties of his work, the Foundation is also committed to supporting LGBTQ+ causes, as McNally did throughout his life. Following Terrence’s passing, Tom Kirdahy stated that the Foundation would continue the legendary playwright’s “singular legacy of mentorship and activism.”

Zeniba Now is a creator of commercial and independent art and performance. As a writer of musicals, her work includes the musical shorts “Beloved” and “To Be on Hold Forever / Stay on the Line.” Full-length musicals include The Loophole, Take the Lead, and a new musical in development with Disney Theatrical Productions. Audiences can see Zeniba Now in her shows “iQuit: Millennial Retirement Gala” and “Sincerely, Z” on TikTok and YouTube. Her music can be heard on several streaming services, including her new meditative release, “Wholly Chill.” Zeniba Now is the winner of The Jonathan Larson Grant, The Richard Rodgers Award, The Vivace Award, The Thom Thomas Award, and now the inaugural Fellow of the McNally Residency at the Hermitage.

Terrence McNally was an American playwright, librettist, and LGBTQ+ trailblazer, described by TheNew York Times as “the bard of the American Theater.” One of the few playwrights of his generation to successfully pass from the avant-garde to mainstream acclaim, McNally redefined American playwriting for six decades and was the recipient of five Tony Awards (two for his plays Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class, two for the books to his musicals Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime, and the 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement). He received the 2011 Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award (he was Vice President of the Guild from 1981 to 2001), the 2015 Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award, a 1996 induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame, and, in 2018, an induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His other accolades include an Emmy Award (Andre’s Mother), two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, four Drama Desk Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Obie Awards, and three Hull-Warriner Awards. Terrence was an alumnus of Columbia University and received numerous honorary degrees, including from NYU and Juilliard, where he helped create the playwriting program in 1993. His legacy lives on in his plays, musicals, and operas that continue to be performed all over the world, as well as in his papers, which are kept and open to the public at the Harry Ransom Center in the University of Texas at Austin. 

Hermitage Announces New Members of National Curatorial Council

The Hermitage Artist Retreat recently announced its 2024-2025 Curatorial Council, comprised of distinguished national arts leaders spanning the fields of theater, music, visual art, literature, and arts education. The newest additions to the Council include two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage; three-time Grammy Award-nominated recording artist and composer Shara Nova; New York Times bestselling author and one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People of 2024” Lauren Groff; the Brooklyn Museum’s Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Kimberli Gant (pictured here); New Victory Theater’s Director of Education Courtney J. Boddie; President and Executive Director of Creative Capital Christine Kuan; and founder of Arts Corp and Arts Education Manager for the City of Seattle Tina LaPadula. 

The full National Curatorial Council for the Hermitage’s 2024-2025 season, comprised of fourteen accomplished and diverse nominating members from across the United States, includes: 

  • Sanford Biggers (visual art), Celebrated Visual and Multimedia Artist, Guggenheim Fellow, Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner
  • Courtney J. Boddie* (arts education), Director of Education at New Victory Theater
  • Kimberli Gant* (visual art), Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art, The Brooklyn Museum 
  • Nataki Garrett (theater), Co-Artistic Director of One Nation/One Project; Doris Duke Award-Winning Artistic Director
  • Lauren Groff* (literature) New York Times Bestselling Author and Time’s “100 Most Influential People of 2024”
  • Cathy Park Hong (literature), Award-Winning Author and Time’s “100 Most Influential People of 2021”
  • Mitchell S. Jackson (literature), Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author
  • Rajiv Joseph (theater), Award-Winning Playwright and Screenwriter; Member of Steppenwolf Theater, Chicago 
  • Christine Kuan* (visual art), President & Executive Director, Creative Capital
  • Tina LaPadula* (arts education), Founder of Arts Corps & Arts Ed Manager, City of Seattle 
  • Terrance McKnight (music) Evening Host of WNYC/WQXR Radio 
  • Lynn Nottage* (theater) Two-Time Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright
  • Shara Nova* (music), Three-Time Grammy Award-Nominated Recording Artist and Composer; Creator of My Brightest Diamond 
  • Du Yun (music), Pulitzer Prize-Winning and Grammy Award-Nominated Composer

*New to the Council as of 2024

“We are honored to welcome these visionary and forward-thinking arts leaders to the Hermitage Curatorial Council,” says Andy Sandberg, Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO. “Courtney J. Boddie, Kimberli Gant, Lauren Groff, Christine Kuan, Tina LaPadula, Lynn Nottage, and Shara Nova are innovative creative minds with a finger on the pulse, each highly regarded for their unique contributions to their respective fields. The members of this esteemed Curatorial Council share a collective passion for the development and creation of new work from bold and diverse voices, and we are incredibly fortunate to have these luminaries of the arts in the Hermitage family. With their breadth of experience, their vast networks, and their insightful ability to identify extraordinary talent, the selection of this next wave of Hermitage Fellows is in exceptionally capable hands.”

Lynn Nottage, a Hermitage alumna and a living legend in the world of the theater, is the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world. Recent work includes the libretto for the opera Intimate Apparel (Lincoln Center), the libretto for the musical MJ (Broadway), Clyde’s (Broadway, 2ST), and co-curating the performance installation The Watering Hole (Signature Theater). Past works include the musical adaptation of The Secret Life of Bees (Atlantic Theater); Mlima’s Tale; Sweat (Pulitzer Prize, Obie, Evening Standard Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lilly Award); Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, Obie, Lortel, NY Drama Critics’ Circle, AUDELCO, Drama Desk and OCC awards); Intimate Apparel (American Theater Critics’ and NY Drama Critics’ Circle Awards). TV: Writer/Producer of She’s Gotta Have It (Netflix), Consulting Producer on Dickinson (Apple TV+). Awards: PEN/Laura Pels Master Dramatist Award, Doris Duke Artist Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship. She is an Associate Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts and a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Shara Nova is a three-time Grammy Award nominee, composer, vocalist, musician, and an artist of many gifts, currently creating from Detroit, Michigan. Most recently, she co-starred in the Tony Award-winning musical Illinoise on Broadway, directed by Justin Peck, co-written by fellow Hermitage alumna Jackie Sibblies Drury, with music by Sufjan Stevens. Shara has released five albums under the moniker My Brightest Diamond, and she has composed works for yMusic, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, Brooklyn Rider, Nadia Sirota, and Roomful of Teeth, among others. Her orchestrations have been performed by the Aarhus Symfoni, North Carolina Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, and the BBC Concert orchestra. Nova is a Kresge fellow, a Carolina Performing Arts Creative Futures fellow, a Knights Grant recipient, and a United States Artists Fellow. A Hermitage Fellow herself, Shara collaborated with 2019 Hermitage Greenfield Prize winner Helga Davis on the world premiere of Ocean Body. 

Lauren Groff is a three-time National Book Award finalist and The New York
Times best-selling author of the novels The Monsters of Templeton, Arcadia, Fates and Furies, Matrix, and The Vaster Wilds, as well as the celebrated short story collections Delicate Edible Birds and Florida. In 2024, Groff was named one of the “100 Most Influential People” by TIME Magazine. She has won The Story Prize, the ABA Indies’ Choice Award, France’s Grand Prix de l’Héroïne, and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her work has been translated into thirty-six languages and regularly appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. 

Christine Kuan is President and Executive Director of Creative Capital, a non-profit organization funding artists creating experimental and groundbreaking new work in the visual arts, performing arts, film, technology, literature, and multidisciplinary forms. Before joining Creative Capital, Kuan was CEO & Director of Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Chief Curator and Director of Strategic Partnerships at Artsy, Chief Curatorial Officer and VP for External Affairs at Artstor, and Editor-in-Chief of Oxford Art Online/Grove Art Online at Oxford University Press. A juror for the 2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize in visual art, Kuan has also worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and serves on the advisory committee at The Frick Collection in New York and The Brooklyn Rail. 

Courtney J. Boddie is the Director of Education & School Engagement at New Victory Theater, overseeing all programs related to school communities including the New Victory school partnership program, teacher professional development training in the performing arts, and an innovative approach in the professional development of more than 50 New Victory Teaching Artists. A Hermitage alumna herself, Boddie has expanded the theater’s scope of work in programs such as “Victory Dance,” “Create,” and “GIVE” all supporting students of the arts and the professional development of teaching artists. Boddie is also the Creator and Host of “Teaching Artistry with Courtney J. Boddie,” a monthly podcast featuring engaging and investigative interviews, roundtable conversations, and panels with artists and arts education leaders. She is an adjunct professor at NYU Steinhardt and was awarded the TYA Community Impact Award for her leadership in New Victory SPARK (Schools with the Performing Arts Reach Kids), a multi-year arts program that has transformed school communities previously underserved in the arts. 

Kimberli Gant, PhD, is the Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. She was previously the McKinnon Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, VA, and has also worked as the Mellon Doctoral Fellow at the Newark Museum, and Director of Exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA). A Hermitage Fellow herself, Gant has curated numerous exhibitions and gallery reinstallations, including for artists such as Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, Spike Lee, Jacob Lawrence, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Brendan Fernandes, and John Akomfrah. 

Tina LaPadula is a champion for equitable art-making and learning opportunities. For more than fifteen years, LaPadula poured her creative energy into Arts Corps, the award-winning arts and social justice nonprofit she helped found. She has collaborated with The Frye Museum, The Museum of History and Industry, and Bumbershoot Arts and Music Festival to curate exhibitions and events that elevate the art and perspectives of young people. As a teaching artist, LaPadula has taught for Centrum Arts, Seattle Children’s Theatre, The University of Washington, and in a multitude of schools and afterschool programs. She has served as a consultant to many cultural organizations facilitating workshops on racial justice and the arts. LaPadula advocates for the growth and development of teaching artists locally and nationally, notably as the founder of the Seattle Teaching Artist Network, as a faculty member for the Washington State Teaching Artist Training Lab, as the former chair of the Association of Teaching Artists, and on the National Advisory Team for the Teaching Artist Guild. Her writing and opinions have been featured by Americans for the Arts and The National Guild for Community Arts Education.

Members of the Hermitage Curatorial Council are experts in their disciplines and connected to some of the world’s most renowned artists and cultural institutions. Each year, the Council selects artists of extraordinary ability who are already making an impact in their field – artists, writers, performers, and educators who are eager to continue developing bold and impactful new works, and who may benefit creatively from a distinguished Hermitage Fellowship.

*Since national and international Hermitage Fellowships are curated, there is no application for a Hermitage residency; neither the Hermitage staff nor members of the Curatorial Council can accept applications or solicitations. However, Sarasota County artists and arts teachers in Florida schools can find information on how to apply to select programs (John Ringling Towers Fellowships and Hermitage STARs) through the Hermitage website.

Composer and Soprano Hannah Rice Wins 2024 Hermitage Prize in Composition 

The Hermitage Artist Retreat and the Aspen Music Festival and School (Aspen, Colorado) are pleased to announce that Hannah Rice, a composition student at AMFS, has been selected as the recipient of the 2024 Hermitage Prize in Composition. Rice is the eleventh recipient of this annual award, which includes a residency at the Hermitage, along with a $1,000 cash stipend. Rice was selected by a jury that includes multiple Grammy Award winner Robert Spano, Music Director of the AMFS, Artistic Director Laureate of the Atlanta Symphony, and a past member of the Hermitage Curatorial Council; award-winning composer and celebrated arts administrator Alan Fletcher, AMFS President and CEO; and the composition faculty of the AMFS, including Grammy Award-winning Hermitage Fellow Christopher Theofanidis.

Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg presented the award to Rice at the Aspen Music Festival’s Klein Tent, alongside Spano, Fletcher, Theofanidis, and award-winning composer and Hermitage Fellow Nico Muhly. This unique initiative, launched in 2013, reflects an invaluable partnership between AMFS and the Hermitage, designed to champion new and original works and to recognize exceptional talent in the field of contemporary classical music. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of this award last year, the Hermitage and AMFS produced a retrospective video featuring exclusive interviews with past winners, distinguished AMFS faculty members, and renowned thought leaders in music, which can be seen here. With established composers like Spano, Fletcher, Theofanidis, Muhly and more having experienced memorable Hermitage Fellowships, the Hermitage Prize in Composition was created to offer the same experience to young, talented composers just beginning their professional careers.

“We are thrilled to recognize Hannah Rice as the winner of the eleventh Hermitage Prize. She is a brilliant young composer and vocalist, and a welcome addition to the Hermitage family,” noted Sandberg. “We were delighted that the weekend’s festivities could be celebrated alongside fellow Hermitage alumni including Robert Spano, Alan Fletcher, Nico Muhly, and Christopher Theofanidis.” Sandberg adds that the Hermitage Prize at AMFS is the only student residency awarded each year; all other Hermitage Fellows are accomplished working professionals and leaders in their field, selected by the Hermitage’s National Curatorial Council. “This provides the recipient of the annual Hermitage Prize in Composition the opportunity to share this unmatched Hermitage experience with leading artists from all around the world.” 

This year’s 75th Anniversary season of the Aspen Music Festival featured works and performances from Hermitage alumni including Alan Fletcher, Allison Loggins-Hull, Wang Lu, Missy Mazzoli, Jessie Montgomery, Nico Muhly, Robert Spano, Conrad Tao, and Christopher Theofanidis.

Hermitage Fellows have included 17 Pulitzer Prize winners, multiple Grammy, Oscar, Emmy, and Tony winners, Poets Laureate, MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellows, and more. Hermitage Fellows regularly describe their time at the Hermitage as “magical,” “transformative,” and “life-changing.”

“I am so honored and humbled to have received this year’s Hermitage Prize in Composition,” added Rice after learning the news of her recognition. “I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to all those involved with the selection process and the Hermitage Artist Retreat. I feel so privileged and thrilled to get to work on my craft alongside so many outstanding creative thinkers. As artists, it is so rare to have this kind of time and space available to us to live in a ‘sound world’ and discover what our musical souls are yearning to say, and I feel incredibly lucky and excited to have been gifted this time at the Hermitage.” 

Hannah Rice is a composer and soprano who is drawn to extremes. A 2024 Composition Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, she writes with dense textures and stark contrasts to highlight the experiences of women and queer folks through a feminist lens. Rice’s music has been performed at notable festivals and venues including Carnegie Hall, Cadogan Hall in London, New Music on the Point, the International Clarinet Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, and more. Her film music has also been featured on APM Music’s sound library, MPATH, and in 2021, her choral piece “To Fly a Plane” was published by Hal Leonard. Currently, Rice is pursuing a double M.M. at USC’s Thornton School of Music, where she was recently awarded the Peter David Faith Endowed Memorial Award. She holds a B.M. in Composition and Voice from LSU, where she was named a Presser Scholar and University Medalist. 

Previous residencies of AMFS Hermitage Prize recipients have led to exciting collaborations, lifelong friendships, and extraordinary new compositions. The first winner of this award in 2013 was Patrick Harlin. While in residence at the Hermitage, Harlin met acclaimed designer and visual artist Anne Patterson. The two sparked a decade-long collaboration that has led to the current world premiere exhibition, “The Truth of the Night Sky,” currently on view at the Sarasota Art Museum through September 29. Harlin and Patterson also spent time at the Hermitage with AMFS composer Christopher Theofanidis and celebrated poet Melissa Studdard; as a result, these four Hermitage alumni are now working on an oratorio adaptation of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, which will premiere at the Aspen Musical Festival in 2025.

Past winner David Clay Mettens (2021) said of winning the Hermitage Prize: “My time at the Hermitage was such a gift – I found the natural beauty of the grounds to be rejuvenating and my interactions with artists from other disciplines so artistically fulfilling. I can’t imagine a better opportunity for a young composer than to be in the presence of creative luminaries in their respective fields.” Sofía Rocha (2022) added, “Some of the most valuable experiences that I got out of my time at AMFS and the Hermitage were interacting with so many other wonderful artists. Aspen is filled with wonderful musicians, and Hermitage artists span so many different disciplines – and I find that incredibly fulfilling and inspiring.” Previous Hermitage Prize recipients include Patrick Harlin (2013), Thomas Kotcheff (2014), Phillip Sink (2015), Andrew Hsu (2016), Joel Thompson (2017), Sid Richardson (2018), Chelsea Komschlies (2019), David Clay Mettens (2021), Sofía Rocha (2022), and Matīss Čudars (2023).

Dates for Fifth Season of “Hermitage Sunsets @ Selby Gardens” Announced

The Hermitage Artist Retreat’s popular series, “Hermitage Sunsets @ Selby Gardens,” continues into its fifth anniversary as part of the Hermitage’s 2024-2025 season. The outdoor series — a celebrated collaboration between the Hermitage and Marie Selby Botanical Gardens — features performances and explorations of works-in-progress by Hermitage artists-in-residence and alumni.  “Hermitage Sunsets @ Selby Gardens” events are currently scheduled to take place at Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus and the Historic Spanish Point campus in Osprey. 

The first of these events, “Let the Music Set You Free,” features Broadway veteran, Tony Award-winning co-founder of Broadway Advocacy Coalition, and 2024 Hermitage Greenfield Prize finalist Britton Smith. As the bandleader for the alternative soul band Britton and the Sting, this visionary artist and advocate is a force of nature determined to unite the world through a passion for music and theater. Britton’s vibrant work bears witness to the inspiration that can be found within and around us all. Catch this dynamic performer like never before in a stripped-down presentation surrounded by the beautiful sanctuary of Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus on Thursday October 17th at 5:30pm. 

The second of these events is “Solo Flute — Destiny of Density,” where award-winning flutist, composer, and returning Hermitage Fellow Claire Chase will share selections of her genre-defining work and discuss her innovative approach to music. This event will take place on Thursday, December 5th at 5:30pm, at Selby Gardens’ Historic Spanish Point campus in Osprey. Chase is a world-renowned musician and composer who was also one of the inaugural artists in the “Hermitage Sunsets @ Selby Gardens” series, in addition to performing at two past Hermitage Artful Lobster events. A soloist, collaborative artist, curator, and advocate for new and experimental music, she has been described by The New York Times as “the most important flutist of our time.” Chase was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2012, and in 2017 was the first flutist to be awarded the Avery Fisher Prize from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. A professor of music at Harvard University, she recently concluded her term as a member of the Hermitage National Curatorial Council. 

Confirmed dates for this fifth season of “Hermitage Sunsets @ Selby Gardens” include:

• Thursday, October 17, 2024, at 5:30pm, Downtown Sarasota Campus
• Thursday December 5, 2024, at 5:30pm, Historic Spanish Point 
• Thursday January 30, 2025, at 5:30pm, Downtown Sarasota Campus
• Thursday February 20, 2025, at 5:30pm, Historic Spanish Point 
• Thursday, March 6, 2025, at 5:30pm, Downtown Sarasota Campus
• Thursday, May 1, 2025, at 6:30pm, Historic Spanish Point 

Admission for these events has no ticket cost, though availability is subject to capacity limitations; advance registration is required ($5/person) at HermitageArtistRetreat.org.   

Each program will feature a celebrated Hermitage artist (or artists) to be announced. Last year’s “Hermitage Sunsets @ Selby Gardens” spotlighted the works and talents of celebrated mime and storyteller Bill Bowers, who shared the stage with internationally renowned composer and singer Kavita Shah; Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg, fresh from his production of Operation Epsilon in London; Hermitage Curatorial Council member Nataki Garrett, Tony Award-winning Broadway producer Tom Kirdahy, and Manasota ASALH President David Wilkins, who offered an enlightening panel discussion about the State of the Arts in Florida; and award-winning flutist Emi Ferguson with classical composer Jim Stephenson, who delighted audiences with an original performance. Previous seasons of “Hermitage Sunsets @ Selby Gardens” have included Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Michael R. Jackson, award-winning Chicago playwright Terry Guest; Kleban Prize winner César Alvarez, world-renowned violinist and Beyoncé collaborator Lady Jess; acclaimed classical harpist Ashley Jackson; interdisciplinary performance artist Ni’Ja Whitson, opera singer and Sarasota native Thea Lobo, composer Sofía Rocha, winner of the 2022 Hermitage Prize in Composition at the Aspen Music Festival; 2022 Hermitage Major Theater Award Winner Shariffa Ali; celebrated cellist Karen Patterson, and more.

“This fifth anniversary season of ‘Hermitage Sunsets @ Selby Gardens’ promises to be an unforgettable one,” says Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. “Claire Chase and Britton Smith are two of the most dynamic artists and performers of their generation, and we are thrilled to invite audiences to share a magical evening with these Hermitage artists and more against the beautiful backdrop of these bayfront sanctuaries. This popular series has been a joyous collaboration with our friends at Selby Gardens, and we look forward welcoming new and returning audiences to experience a ‘sneak peek’ into the creative process of these extraordinary talents.” 

“We are so excited to celebrate five years of this wonderful collaboration with the Hermitage Artist Retreat,” says Selby Gardens President & CEO Jennifer Rominiecki. “Welcoming world-class Hermitage artists to our newly revitalized bayfront sanctuary in downtown Sarasota and our vibrant Historic Spanish Point campus in Osprey is something we look forward to each year. Treating Gulf Coast patrons to these special programs has been such a joy, and we are thrilled that that the ‘Hermitage Sunsets @ Selby Gardens’ series continues to flourish.”

These outdoor events are one part of many ongoing programs and collaborations planned throughout the season, spanning Sarasota County and the surrounding region. The programs feature industry-leading playwrights, visual artists, musicians, poets, choreographers, and more — all free to the members of our community with a $5/person registration fee. 

Hermitage 2024 STARs Announced

The Hermitage Artist Retreat (Sarasota County, Florida) announced today that five Florida public school arts teachers will spend part of their summer on Manasota Key while working on their own artistic endeavors. They are the recipients of the 2024 State Teachers Artist Residency program (STARs) – now in its fourteenth year – presented by the Hermitage Artist Retreat in partnership with the Florida Alliance for Arts Education (FAAE). This year’s recipients were selected from dozens of impressive applicants, and the five teachers selected from across the State of Florida include three visual arts educators working in various mediums, a musician who leads the steel band at their high school, and a theater teacher recognized for his playwriting talents. The five receive a residency at the nationally renowned Hermitage Artist Retreat, where they can focus on their own work as creative artists. These five teaching artists will present a family-friendly showcase of their work on Friday, July 12 starting at 2pm. This special event will be held throughout the Hermitage’s beachfront campus on Manasota Key; entrance at 6660 Manasota Key Road, Englewood, FL 34223. 

The program is presented in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Sarasota and Desoto Counties and the Englewood YMCA. In addition to the students and families attending from the YMCA, this Hermitage community program will be free and open to the public with a $5/person registration fee. Due to capacity limitations, registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org.

“These exceptional educators are also talented artists and creative minds in their own right,” says Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage. “During the academic year, their attention is devoted to their students, and this has been a particularly challenging few years for educators throughout the State of Florida. The STARs program offers five distinguished teachers the opportunity to experience what leading artists from around the world have come to the Hermitage for – to focus on their craft and their creative process. Over the years, the STARs have created some stunning works of art, music, theater, dance, and literature during their time at the Hermitage. Many Hermitage teaching artist alumni have shared that this program enables them to return to their students with a new fire and passion for arts education.” 

The five recipients of this honor, selected among dozens of impressive applicants, include: Greg Burdick, a theater arts educator, director, and playwright in Central Florida (Polk County); Dealey Dansby, a sculpture and ceramics visual artist currently teaching elementary and middle school art at Carrollwood K8 in Tampa (Hillsborough County); Shaun Fergus, a passionate art instructor at Fort White Middle School (Columbia County); Dr. Kayleen Justus, Director of Steel Bands at Leon High School in the Tallahassee area (Leon County); and Vanessa Watkins, a distinguished glass artist with a focus on restoration art at Markham Woods Middle School (Seminole County). Full bios are included below.

Since the start of the Hermitage STARs program in 2011, 67 teachers have represented over 30Florida counties. These prestigious residencies culminate with a free community program, this year hosted in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Sarasota and Desoto Counties and the Englewood YMCA. 

The STARs program is one of the only Hermitage residency programs open to application; arts educators from schools throughout the State of Florida are eligible, including music, theater, visual art, dance, and creative writing teachers. For more information about the Hermitage STARs program and how to apply, Florida arts educators are encouraged to visit FAAE.org/STAR.

New Summer Events Feature Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer, The Lazour Brothers, and More

The Hermitage Artist Retreat today announced new programs throughout the months of June, July, and August. Continuing its commitment to innovative year-round arts programming, these events will be presented throughout Sarasota County, from the Hermitage’s beautiful beachfront campus on Manasota Key to the heart of Sarasota’s vibrant downtown arts scene. Hermitage programs introduce world-renowned artists to Florida’s Gulf Coast community for candid and engaging conversations, open rehearsals, play readings, and film screenings. 

Fresh from her 2024 Tony Award, Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle nominations, Hermitage Fellow Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer returns to Manasota Key for “Stealing the Show: Broadway, Beach, and Beyond” on Wednesday, June 26 at 6:30pm on the Hermitage Beach. Leslie previously performed as part of the Hermitage’s 20th Anniversary Celebration alongside Andy Sandberg at the Van Wezel, then again at the 2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner. Kritzer is a 2024 Tony Award nomineefor her showstopping performance in Spamalot, where the New York Times noted that “she steals the show.”Broadway audiences have celebrated Kritzer for years thanks to her powerhouse voice, her pitch-perfect comic timing, and her iconic roles in Broadway’s Beetlejuice, Something Rotten!, Legally Blonde, The Robber Bridegroom, and more. TV audiences have also come to know her, notably through her memorable turn as Carol Burnett on the series finale of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Now, Hermitage audiences will get to know Leslie as a gifted writer, composer, and lyricist who has been developing her own original projects right here along the inspirational shores of the Hermitage. In this special beach program, this quadruple-plus threat will share some of her own original work as well as some of Broadway’s greatest hits.

“This year’s Hermitage summer season promises to be a memorable one,” notes Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. “Year-round Gulf Coast residents have been growing rapidly, and we are excited to be presenting some truly one-of-a-kind offerings throughout the summer. Pulitzer Prize winners, Tony Award nominees, and more are well worth a little summer heat!”

On Friday, June 28 at 6pm, celebrated author and Hermitage Fellow Kimberly King Parsons will read selections from her novel and dive into conversation about the writing process in Bookstore1’s intimate loft space. Her short story collection Black Light was long-listed for the National Book Award, and this Hermitage program will shed light on her highly anticipated debut novel, We Were the Universe. Parsons’ remarkable style has readers turning pages and discovering entirely new frames of mind; from trips to Oregon to acid trips, life, death, and rock ’n roll, Sarasota audiences will get to experience this exemplary writer’s work from the author herself. 

The “2024 Hermitage STARs” initiative continues into its fourteenth season with a culminating program on the Historic Hermitage campus on Friday, July 12 at 2pm. The State Teaching Artist Residencies (STARs) at the Hermitage Artist Retreat is designed to nourish the artist within Florida’s dedicated arts teachers and proudly serves educators from across the state in partnership with the Florida Alliance for Arts Education (FAAE). The STARs program is one of only a few programs in the United States that offers five educators an inspirational residency opportunity that culminates in a free public sharing with the Gulf Coast community. This public program is presented in partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Sarasota and Desoto Counties as well as the Englewood YMCA. The selected teachers span multiple artistic disciplines and will be announced at a later date; this year’s STARs recipients will offer insights into their creative practice to an audience of all ages, in a program presented in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Sarasota & Desoto Counties and the Englewood YMCA.

On Thursday, July 25 at 6:30pm, Hermitage Fellows Jeffery Renard Allen and Yasi Alipour both work on paper to create narrative, but Allen uses letters while Alipour prefers lines and intricately folded patterns. In the original works created by these innovative Hermitage artists, time collapses and worlds expand; the future is present, and history is interrupted. Splitting time between New York and Johannesburg, Allen is an award-winning author of six books, including the critically acclaimed debut Song of the Shank. His latest work “Fat Time and Other Stories” is a collection of short works described by The New York Timesas a “fierce itching dazzle.” Alipour, a celebrated visual artist interested in paper, politics, and performance, explores systems of math and history in her work. Informed by her time studying at the University of Tehran, intricately folded pages take on three-dimensional presence when imbued with her intuitive and highly technical art. Hear from both artists about why they make the work they make, and what they hope an audience will see and hear when they encounter it with “Interrupted History” on the Hermitage Beach.

Hermitage programs continue into August with Hermitage Fellow Mónica Lavín and translator-collaborator D.P. Snyder for “Translation-Traducción” on the Hermitage Beach on Friday August 9 at 6:30pm presented in partnership with UnidosNow. When done right, two writers’ literary DNA recombine to create not mere reproductions but wholly new works. What is the alchemy by which this literary magic takes place? How does such an interchange enrich the work and its readers? In this age of A.I. and ever more present translation technology, these gifted writers offer audiences a chance to explore the Spanish-English literary dynamic and the deeply human activity of understanding another person’s voice as they share insight into the intimate, generous, and empathetic act of literary translation.

On Friday August 23 at 6:30pm, audiences will experience a truly dynamic duo as 2024 Hermitage Greenfield Prize finalists Daniel & Patrick Lazour present “The Lazour Brothers: A Lifelong Collabrotion.” Musical theater has a long history of storied collaborators: Rodgers & Hammerstein, Kander & Ebb, Ahrens & Flaherty, Pasek & Paul, and now Daniel & Patrick Lazour. The Lazour Brothers are already Jonathan Larson Grant and Richard Rodgers Award recipients, and their works have been recognized by such prestigious institutions as American Repertory Theater and Lincoln Center. Blending cultures and weaving stories as eloquently as they meld musical styles, the Lazour Brothers are two of the most innovative and evocative musical storytellers working in the American theater today. Hear selections of past and upcoming works and learn what’s next for this energetic duo on the Hermitage Beach.

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. Running time for most Hermitage programs is 60-70 minutes. Due to capacity limitations, registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org.

2024 Hermitage Major Theater Award Winner Chris Bush to Present Program on June 7 

The Hermitage Artist Retreat is pleased to announce “Standing at the Beach’s Edge: London to Sarasota” on Friday, June 7th 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-winning Co-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 7th, 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 21st 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.