“The Cake,” now playing at Asolo Repetory Theatre, was the show I was most eager to see on the theater’s schedule for this season. Bekah Brunstetter, who is also behind the wildly popular TV show “This is Us,” has written a masterpiece about the ways hearts and minds can be influenced, one person at a time, to create a more hopeful, inclusive world.

I often marvel that “This is Us” became such a sensation during the most divisive political period of my lifetime. People all…

Sarasota Ballet combined two key ingredients to the good life for the March performance - “Poetry and Liberty.” Poetry without liberty is heartbreaking; and liberty without poetry results in an unexamined life – together they proved electric. The company turned in a powerhouse evening with two major ballets, Sir Frederick Ashton’s “Apparitions” and George Balanchine’s “Stars and Stripes” representing the range of human emotions.

“Apparitions” is an unusual ballet that could…

Several years ago, the Sarasota Ballet began hosting a touring company early in the new year to give local audiences a greater breadth of experience with modern dance and to give the dancers a chance to relax in the audience for a change.

Local balletomanes have been treated to companies ranging from the well-known Paul Taylor Dance Company to, more recently, the less familiar Smuin Dance Company. This year, the Sarasota Ballet has hosted the grande dame of the dance world –…

“Sweat” by Lynn Nottage opened February 8^th at Asolo Repertory Theatre. “Sweat” is considered the first play to speak directly to the Trump era because of its focus on a working class community in America’s heartland.

Pundits have spent the better part of nearly three years discussing the forgotten working class voters that have been touted as the key to Trump’s appeal. I was intrigued to see a play that would address head on a community impacted by the loss of…