Press Releases

The Hermitage property is owned by Sarasota County and is leased to the Hermitage Artist Retreat, Inc.
The property is maintained by the Hermitage Artist Retreat, Inc. and the Sarasota County Department of Parks and Recreation.

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Mar

Wed

“Craig Lucas: An Open Rehearsal” @ Booker HS Courtyard

Tickets

Mar 22 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm

“Craig Lucas: An Open Rehearsal”
with Inaugural Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner and Tony Award Nominated Playwright Craig Lucas

Presented in partnership with Booker High School

Wednesday, March 22 at 5:30pm

Booker High School Courtyard (Outdoor) (entrance at 3201 N. Orange Ave, Sarasota, FL 34234, park and enter near the front office)

Register here.
Registration is required. $5 per person.

Tony Award nominee and Pulitzer Prize finalist Craig Lucas, the first winner of the Hermitage Greenfield Prize, returns to Sarasota to talk process and show how great works – such as his indelible, Pulitzer Prize finalist Prelude to a Kiss – begin to find their feet. This remarkable playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and director is noted for works that center the “power of compassion and empathy in a brutal universe” (The New York Times). His additional Tony Award-nominated librettos include the musicals An American in Paris, Light in the Piazza, and in Paradise Square. Come see Lucas work with Booker VPA students and hear him discuss transforming his iconic play into a musical during his time at the Hermitage, as well as sharing insight on other works in process.

Craig Lucas was the first recipient of the Hermitage Greenfield Prize and is now a returning Hermitage alumnus. His distinguished career has earned him four Tony Award nominations and three Obie Awards, and he has been a Pulitzer finalist. His plays include Missing Persons, Reckless, Blue Window, Prelude to a Kiss, God’s Heart, This Thing of Darkness, The Dying Gaul, Stranger, Small Tragedy, Prayer for My Enemy, The Singing Forest, Ode to Joy, The Lying Lesson, I Was Most Alive with You, and Change Agent. Screenplays include Longtime Companion (Sundance Audience Award), The Secret Lives of Dentists (NY Film Critics Best Screenplay Award), Reckless, Blue Window, The Dying Gaul. Libretti include The Light in the Piazza (music and lyrics by Adam Guettel), Two Boys (composed by Hermitage Fellow Nico Muhly, world premiere at the English National Opera, American premiere at the Metropolitan Opera), Orpheus in Love (with composer Gerald Busby), 3 Postcards (with composer/lyricist Craig Carnelia), An American in Paris (music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin), Amélie (music by Dan Messe, lyrics by Nathan Tysen and Dan Messe), Sousatzka (music by David Shire, lyrics by Richard Maltby), Prelude to a Kiss (music by Dan Messe, lyrics by Hermitage Fellow Sean Hartley, and Dan Messe), Days of Wine and Roses (music and lyrics by Adam Guettel), Paradise Square, and Marry Me A Little, Songs by Stephen by Sondheim (co-conceived with Norman René and Suzanne Henry). His new English-language adaptations include Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya, Galileo and Miss Julie. He has directed the world premiere of The Light in the Piazza, Harry Kondoleon’s plays Saved Or Destroyed & Play Yourself, and the films The Dying Gaul & Birds of America. Lucas has worked with many remarkable directors including Mark Wing-Davey, Oliver Butler, Norman René, Pam MacKinnon, Lisa Petersen, Daniel Sullivan, Tyne Rafaeli, Christopher Wheeldon, Alan Rudolph, Mark Brokaw, Bartlett Sher, and Joe Mantello. He received the Excellence in Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, the Laura Pels/PEN Mid-career Award, the Hermitage Greenfield Prize, LAMBDA Literary Award, Hull-Warriner Award, Flora Roberts Award, Steinberg/ACTA Best Play Award among many others.

Mar

Thu

“Creativity for All” @ Butler Park

Tickets

Mar 30 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

“Creativity for All”
with Hermitage Fellows Tina LaPadula and Nandita Shenoy

Presented in partnership with Embracing our Differences and North Port High School

Thursday, March 30 at 5:30pm

Butler Park (entrance at 6205 W Price Blvd, North Port, FL 34287)

Register here.
Registration is required. $5 per person.

Using the large-scale visual art exhibition from Embracing our Differences as a launch pad, Hermitage Fellows Tina LaPadula and Nandita Shenoy invite students and audience members to tell a story. A leading teaching artist, Tina LaPadula is a founder of the award-winning arts non-profit Arts Corps and is the former chair of the Association for Teaching Artists. She has led countless workshops and conversations about the impact of stories and the arts in our lives with a focus on young people. Nandita Shenoy is a writer-actor who has performed and had her work performed across the country from Flint, MI to Silver Spring MD, from the virtual world of Zoom to Off-Broadway in New York, and from Alabama Shakespeare Festival to Cal Shakes. Both of these incredible artists and community builders share insights as they guide this participatory creative process.

Tina LaPadula is an East Coast transplant and warrior for equitable art-making and learning opportunities. For more than 15 years, she poured most of her creative energy into Arts Corps, the award-winning arts and social justice non-profit 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, Tina 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. Tina supports the growth and development of teaching artists locally and nationally, most notably as the founder of the Seattle Teaching Artist Network, as a faculty member for the WA 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.

Hermitage Fellow and theater artist Nandita Shenoy is a New York-based writer and actor. Her play The Future is Female was recently a Finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, recently had its world premiere at Flint Repertory Theater, and her Rage Play was named to the 2020 Kilroys List. Her play Washer/Dryer has been produced multiple times nationally after its world premiere at LA’s East-West Players and an Off-Broadway production at Ma-Yi Theater, in which she also starred. Her first full-length play, Lyme Park: An Austonian Romance of an Indian Nature, was produced by the Hegira in Washington, DC. Her one-acts have been produced in New York City and regionally. Nandita won the 2014 Father Hamblin Award in Playwriting. Her acting credits range from dancing on national tours to Shakespeare festivals to world premieres of new plays by living playwrights. She is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, the dtfwaw, Dramatists Guild, Actors Equity Association, and SAG/AFTRA. She also sits on the Steering Committee of the Asian-American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC), which won a 2020 Obie for their Advocacy in the Field of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Nandita holds a BA in English literature from Yale University. NanditaShenoy.com

Apr

Fri

“Aleshea Harris Presents” @ Cook Theater

Tickets

Apr 14 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm

“Aleshea Harris Presents”
with Playwright and 2021 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner Aleshea Harris

Presented in partnership with The Greenfield Foundation and the Community Foundation of Sarasota County

Friday, April 14 at 5:30pm

Asolo/FSU Center for Performing Arts (entrance at 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34243)

Register here.
Registration is required. $5 per person.

Winner of the 2021 Hermitage Greenfield Prize, genre-defying playwright and theater maker Aleshea Harris has also been honored with the OBIE, Relentless, and Helen Merrill Awards, as well as a special commendation from the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her critically acclaimed works include Is God Is, What to Send Up When It Goes Down, On Sugarland, and Brother, Brother. Described by The New York Times as “a rarefied theatrical intelligence,” Harris’ work seeks to honor the tragedies of the past and present while allowing for a potential hope to come. Join the Hermitage on Friday, April 14th at 5:30pm to hear a presentation of this incredible theater-maker’s Hermitage Greenfield Prize commission.

Aleshea Harris is the 2021 recipient of the Hermitage Greenfield Prize, awarded in the discipline of theater. Her play Is God Is (directed by Taibi Magar at Soho Rep) won the 2016 Relentless Award, an OBIE Award for playwriting in 2017, and the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award in 2019. It was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and made The Kilroys’ List of “the most recommended un and underproduced plays by trans and female authors of color” for 2017. What to Send Up When It Goes Down (directed by Whitney White, produced by The Movement Theatre Company), a play-pageant-ritual response to anti-Blackness, had its critically acclaimed New York City premiere in 2018, and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award, with additional productions in 2021 at BAM and Playwrights Horizons. Her play On Sugarland recently premiered at New York Theater Workshop (Lortel nomination for Best Play). Harris was awarded the Windham-Campbell Literary Prize and the Steinberg Playwriting Award in 2020. She has performed her own work at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival; Orlando Fringe Festival; REDCAT, as part of La Fête du Livre at La Comèdie de Saint-Étienne; and Skirball Center in Los Angeles. In addition to being a Hermitage Fellow, she is a two-time MacDowell Fellow and has enjoyed residencies at Hedgebrook and Djerassi.

Apr

Sat

“Sandy Rodriguez: Putting Sarasota on the Map” @ Hermitage Palm House

Tickets

Apr 15 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

“Sandy Rodriguez: Putting Sarasota on the Map”
Featuring 2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner in Visual Art Sandy Rodriguez
In conversation with HGP Jurors Anne Patterson and Christine Kuan

Presented in partnership with The Greenfield Foundation and Community Foundation of Sarasota County

Saturday, April 15 at 2pm

Hermitage Palm House (Parking at 6660 Manasota Key Rd., Englewood, FL 34223)

Register here.
Registration is required. $5 per person.

2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner in Visual Art Sandy Rodriguez plans to use her commission to create a panoramic exhibition, the centerpiece of which will be a new large-scale map that depicts the southeastern topography and coastline of the U.S. marked by stories of resistance from the colonial period to the present. In this engaging visual conversation, Rodriguez will show examples of her work that resonate thematically and discuss her process, which includes using hand-processed, locally sourced materials for pigments. Joined by Hermitage Alum and Greenfield Prize juror for this year Anne Patterson, as well as fellow juror and Creative Capital President and Executive Director Christine Kuan, celebrate the 15th year of the prize with a sneak peak into this incredible artist’s vision of the world and concept for this storied commission.

Sandy Rodriguez (b. 1975, National City, CA) is the recipient of the 2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize in Visual Art. She is a Los Angeles-based artist and researcher, and first-generation Chicana raised on the US-Mexico border. Her Codex Rodriguez-Mondragón is made up of a collection of maps and paintings about the intersections of history, social memory, contemporary politics, and cultural production. Rodriguez earned her BFA from California Institute of Arts. She has exhibited her works at the Denver Art Museum, The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Garden, The Amon Carter Museum of American Art and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Busan, South Korea. Her work is in the permanent collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX, The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Garden. San Marino, CA and others. She was awarded the Caltech-Huntington Art+Research Residency, Creative Capital Award and Migrations initiative from Mellon Foundation Just Futures Initiative and Global Cornell. Rodriguez and her work have been featured in BBC News: In The Studio, Hyperallergic, LA Weekly, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Spectrum News/NY1, and on several radio programs and podcasts.

“Rennie Harris: Street Dance Pioneer” @ Hermitage Beach

Tickets

Apr 15 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

“Rennie Harris: Street Dance Pioneer”
Featuring 2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner in Dance and Choreography Lorenzo ‘Rennie’ Harris
In Conversation with Joseph V. Melillo and Charmaine Warren

Presented in partnership with The Greenfield Foundation and Community Foundation of Sarasota County

Saturday, April 15 at 6pm

Hermitage Beach (entrance at 6660 Manasota Key Rd., Englewood, FL 34223)

Register here.
Registration is required. $5 per person.

2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner in Dance & Choreography Rennie Harris believes that hip-hop is the most important original expression of a new generation. He has dedicated his life and his company, Rennie Harris Puremovement, to preserving and celebrating hip-hop culture through workshops, demonstrations, and public performances. Joined in conversation by Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Executive Producer Emeritus and a longtime friend of the Hermitage Joseph V. Melillo as well as fellow juror Charmaine Warren, founder of Black Dance Stories, Harris shares insights into his remarkable career bringing street dance to stages all around the world, and how being the first ever recipient of the Hermitage Greenfield Prize in dance will shape his new work “Losing my Religion.” Be among the first to hear about how this piece shifts away from what was to what is and what can be.

Lorenzo ‘Rennie’ Harris, winner of the 2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize in Dance and Choreography, was born and raised in an African American community in North Philadelphia. In 1992, Harris founded Rennie Harris Puremovement, a street dance theater company dedicated to preserving and disseminating hip-hop culture through workshops, classes, hip-hop history lecture demonstrations, long-term residencies, mentoring programs, and public performances. Harris founded his company based on the belief that hip-hop is the most important original expression of a new generation. With its roots in the inner-city African American and Latino communities, hip-hop can be characterized as a contemporary indigenous form, one that expresses universal themes that extend beyond racial, religious, and economic boundaries, and one that can help bridge these divisions. Harris’ work encompasses the diverse and rich African American traditions of the past, while simultaneously presenting the voice of a new generation through its ever-evolving interpretations of dance. Harris is committed to providing audiences with a sincere view of the essence and spirit of hip-hop. Harris was voted one of the most influential people in the last one hundred years of Philadelphia history. Among his awards are honorary doctorates from Bates College and Columbia College. The London Times wrote of Mr. Harris that he is “the Basquiat of the U.S. contemporary dance scene.”

Apr

Sun

Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner @ The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art

Tickets

Apr 16 @ 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Anchoring a series of events celebrating the prestigious Hermitage Greenfield Prize, this elegant dinner heralds the jury-selected prize recipients.

This year, to celebrate the 20^th anniversary season of the Hermitage and the 15-year legacy of the Hermitage Greenfield Prize, there are two recipients of the 2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize (HGP), one in the discipline of visual art and one in the field of dance and choreography. This year’s recipient in visual art is Sandy Rodriguez. Raised on the US-Mexico border, Rodriguez creates poignant landscapes that weave together history, social memory, contemporary politics, and cultural production. This is the first time the HGP is recognizing dance, with a special prize going to Lorenzo ‘Rennie’ Harris. Harris has been a pioneer in the street dance movement since founding Rennie Harris Puremovement in the early ‘90s, bringing authentic hip-hop experiences to the dance concert stage and educational spaces around the world.

Apr

Wed

“The Pop-Folk World of Zoe Sarnak” @ Nathan Benderson Park

Tickets

Apr 26 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

“The Pop-Folk World of Zoe Sarnak”
with Crosby Alumni Music Initiative Artist Zoe Sarnak

Presented in partnership with Nathan Benderson Park Conservancy

Zoe Sarnak’s residency made possible by the Ruby E. Crosby Alumni Music Initiative at the Hermitage.

Wednesday, April 26 at 7pm

Nathan Benderson Park (entrance at 5851 Nathan Benderson Cir, Sarasota, FL 34235. )

Register here.
Registration is required. $5 per person.

In the next exciting iteration of the recently launched Ruby E. Crosby Alumni Music Initiative, Zoe Sarnak returns to Sarasota and brings a bit of her ‘downtown vibe’ with her. Socially and environmentally aware, Sarnak’s music is driven by evocative voices who see life from the outside and strive to bring a little light through soaring chords and irresistible beats. A recipient of the Jonathan Larson Award, and a finalist for the Ebb Award, and Kleban Prize, she is the co-author of the award-winning production of A Crossing at Barrington Stage Company as well as the book and lyrics writer for the recently opened world premiere of The Lonely Few at the Geffen Playhouse starring Tony Award Winner Lauren Patten (Jagged Little Pill).

Hermitage alum Zoe Sarnak is a New York City-based composer, lyricist, and writer. She is a recipient of the Jonathan Larson Award, and a finalist for the Ebb Award, Kleban Award, and Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award, as well as co-author of the award-winning 2022 world premiere production of A Crossing at Barrington Stage Company. Her work has been developed with and presented by Second Stage, The Public, Roundabout Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, New York Stage & Film, The Guggenheim, Geffen Playhouse, New York Theatre Workshop, WP Theatre, MCC, and many others. Current and upcoming productions include: The Lonely Few (with Rachel Bonds) premiering at Geffen Playhouse in Spring 2023, Split (with Michele Lowe) premiering off-Broadway produced by Transport Group in their 2023/2024 season, with further to be announced. Theatrical projects in development include: Galileo (with Danny Strong, Michael Weiner), Empire Records (with original screenwriter Carol Heikkinen), Afterwords (with Emily Kaczmarek), Particle Fever (with David Henry Hwang and Bear McCreary), Afloat (with Emily Kaczmarek) and several others to be announced. Zoe has several upcoming television and film projects including a musical television show in development with Sallie Patrick (at CBS Studios) and a Netflix musical film with Liza Chasin (3dot Productions), Margaret Chernin, Molly Sims, and writer/director Lauren Miller Rogen. Her music has been featured by “NY Times Live” and the BBC, and in benefit concerts and albums for Everytown, the Ali Forney Center, and more. ZoeSarnak.com

March – April 2023 Mar – Apr 2023

Press Releases

Hermitage Artists Respond to COVID-19.

Engage Creativity