Top 10 arts events for Sarasota-Manatee: June 3-9
Improvising post-COVID laughs
After more than a year of lockdowns and quarantines, we probably all could use some laughs, like the ones promised in “Life’s a Beach,” which marks the return to live performances by FST Improv. The company is back on the stage of Bowne’s Lab, taking audience suggestions and turning them into scenes and musical numbers that celebrate and satirize life in Sarasota. The production will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Saturdays beginning this weekend. Improv director Will Luera said it’s a good time to revisit the show as Sarasota “is starting to poke its head out of its shell after the pandemic and we can all benefit from coming together and laughing at the ridiculous things we’ve all experienced since last spring.” Luera is joined by troupe members Kevin Allen, Sarah Durham and Kyle Van Frank and musical improvisers Sergei Glushonkov and Michelle Neal. For ticket information: 941-366-9000; fl
Heard in such a compact format, some of the songs sound similar with lots of repeated choruses that are less captivating from your theater seat than when you’re dancing to them in a club or at a wedding. But Jacobs’ cast – Syreeta Shonteé, Ariel Blue, Stephanie Zandra and Delores McKenzie – performs them with great spirit and a style that echoes, without mimicking, the originals.
And it is clearly a nostalgic throwback for members of Saturday’s opening night audience, who were eagerly dancing in and around their seats and clapping along to just about every song. The choreography by Donald Frison is filled with lots of hand gestures, turns, struts and shimmies.
Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe is thrilled to continue its Light Up the Night! open-air concert series with Sistas in the Name of Soul. This celebration of the female soul and R&B artists of the 70s (and some from the late 60s) will run from Saturday, May 8 through Sunday, June 6.
Featured vocalists for the show are Ariel Blue, Syreeta Shonteé, Delores McKenzie and Stephanie Zandra. Audiences will enjoy hits by renowned artists such as Freda Payne, Aretha Franklin, The Supremes, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Donna Summer and The Pointer Sisters. Favorites will include I m So Excited, Midnight Train to Georgia, Respect, Bad Girl and Band of Gold, among many others. The performance will be enhanced by brand new dance routines created by WBTT s Resident Choreographer Donald Frison.