Venice Theatre

By Paula Atwell
The Observer 
Friday, May 8, 2013

The pleasant-and-charming play about acceptance, currently running at Venice Theatre’s Mainstage, is a gentle reminder of what really matters in life. Set in 1949, the tale reflects life in a small Southern town, similar to the mill town in Georgia, where its author, Pamela Parker, was born, and populated by folks who all know and gossip about one another.  Parker began writing plays in the late 1980s; her first three were one acts produced in New York City. “Second Samuel” is her first full-length play, and in 1992 was named best original play by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Venice cast gets into the spirit of McDonagh's 'Behanding'

By Jay Handelman
Herald-Tribune 
Friday, April 12, 2013

You don’t go to a Martin McDonagh play for a nice relaxing evening in the theater. He’s the kind of playwright who throws everything in your face in a way that makes you laugh, feel uncomfortable and think.

In such plays as “The Pillowman,” “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” and the marvelous “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” he presents often horrifying characters and situations involving violence and strong language and manages to find the humor while commenting on the human condition.

Even though you get most of those things in the lively production of “A Behanding in Spokane” at Venice Theatre’s Stage II, McDonagh reveals a slightly and oddly softer side. Well, soft is relative with McDonagh. There’s really not much violence in this one. No blood is spilled (at least not on stage), which may make it a bit more palatable for some.

By Kay Kipling
Sarasota Magazine 
March 18, 2013

Our Town is one of those plays that has become so familiar and so beloved, it’s hard to believe it struggled to open on Broadway, back in 1938, as the program notes for Venice Theare's current Stage II production mention. Watching it today, after the countless productions it’s had in the past 75 years, it seems almost impossible that this virtually perfect Thornton Wilder piece wasn’t always there, waiting to touch us.

In director Murray Chase’s version of the play, you are greeted by a sign as you enter that welcomes you to Grover’s Corners, the small New Hampshire town that lies at the heart of the story. And as you sit down, you notice that certain of your fellow audience members, placed strategically around the stage, are dressed in period costume. They are indeed actors, and sitting among them does work to make you feel more than ever part of the town, and of Wilder’s seemingly simple but oh so poignant tale.

Kim Kollar finds match in 'Hello, Dolly!'

By Jay Handelman
Herald-Tribune
February 20, 2013

Kim Kollar is a perfect match as the meddling matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi in the Venice Theatre’s production of “Hello, Dolly!”

Kollar, who has played numerous featured and starring roles in Venice and other theaters in the area over the last two decades, delivers a fully realized, funny, touching and, of course, manipulative performance as Dolly, who works her magic on several couples, while also leading businessman Horace Vandergelder into her arms.

She sounds bright and confident singing Jerry Herman’s bubbly and familiar tunes, and she has a smart way with comic timing in Brad Wages' fast-paced production. Kollar is the heart and soul of the show, but she’s not the only attraction. There is a lovely performance by Bobbi Eschenbach as hat shop owner Irene Molloy, who plans to marry Horace (thanks to Dolly’s arrangements) but finds herself falling, in a cute style, for his chief clerk, Cornelius Hackl. Eschenbach tenderly sings “Ribbons Down My Back” and moves with the kind of elegance several characters sing about.

Ben Vereen shares the love in Venice concerts

Ben Vereen may not be able to move the way he once did — two knee surgeries took care of that – but there’s no denying the high-wattage charisma he put into his sold-out weekend performances of performance of “Steppin’ Out Live with Ben Vereen” at Venice Theatre.

From the start, he noted that he no longer does cartwheels — “been there, done that,” he joked. But there is plenty of movement in his every song. He walks with a slight, almost undetectable limp, but you can sense the inner spirit running through his body and emerging in his slightly raspy but pleasing voice and the sparkle in his eyes.

The 66-year-old Vereen presented three sold-out shows on Friday and Saturday in Venice, thanking the crowd for joining him on his wide-ranging career, from Tony-winning Broadway star (for “Pippin”) to television icon thanks to Chicken George in “Roots” and all the performances since …

Venice Theatre gets intimate with Nottage's 'Apparel'

With every new production of a Lynn Nottage play, area theater audiences get a better chance to experience the world through the words of this gifted and poetic writer.

In the last few years, the Asolo Repertory Theatre presented her “Las Meninas,” and Florida Studio Theatre staged a grand production of her Pulitzer Prize-winning “Ruined.” Now Venice Theatre’s Stage II is offering her off-Broadway hit “Intimate Apparel,” a graceful play set in 1905 about a lonely 35-year-old African-American woman who has given up hopes on finding a husband and focuses on sewing undergarments for socialites and prostitutes and dreaming of one day opening a beauty salon with her savings. It deals with prejudice, conventions of the day, and a longing to belong and be loved.