Save the date for these fall arts and entertainment events in Sarasota

As the 2024-25 season winds down and the snowbirds head north, it's not too early to think about marking your calendar for some blockbuster events coming up in the fall. Many cultural groups have already announced their 2025-26 seasons to great fanfare in the hopes of attracting new and repeat subscribers.

Depending on the arts organization, individual tickets for next season may not be on sale just yet. Many organizations open their box-office window for single tickets just after Labor Day, but others start earlier. Keep an eye on your inbox or check arts groups' websites so you won't miss out. Of course, subscriptions always offer more bang for the buck.

It's not every year that superstars like Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp come to town to collaborate on a local premiere. The rock star and superstar choreographer will be in residence at the Asolo Repertory Theatre this fall as they work on an updated version of the Broadway hit, "Movin' Out." 

History also will be made in the upcoming season as the Sarasota Orchestra welcomes only the seventh music director during its 76 years of existence. Grammy Award winner Giancarlo Guerrero, who juggled his roles as music director of the Nashville Symphony and music director designate of the Sarasota Orchestra during the 2024-25 season, officially takes the baton this fall.

In recent years, festivals have sprouted during the off season and what has come to be known as "shoulder season," when things are just getting started. There are two you don't want to miss — Urbanite Theatre's Modern Works Festival, a playwriting contest for women that features staged readings open to the public, and Sarasota Rising's Living Arts Festival, the brainchild of former Sarasota Players Producing Artistic Director Jeffery Kin, which is returning for its second year.

Get out your calendar, whether it's on your electronic device or your desk, and save the date for six events you won't want to miss this fall. Ticket prices aren't available at this time.

Modern Works Festival

Sept. 11-21, Urbanite Theatre, 1487 Second St. Visit UrbaniteTheatre.com.

Lauren Gunderson must have enjoyed her time in Sarasota when she was the keynote speaker last year at Urbanite Theatre’s Modern Works Festival, a playwriting contest that celebrates female dramatists.

One of the most prolific playwrights working today, Gunderson is bringing the premiere of her rom-com “Lady Disdain” to Asolo Repertory Theatre in June 2026.

You never know who will turn up at Urbanite’s Modern Works Festival, which will celebrate its sixth year this fall. Submissions are being accepted until May 30 for the festival, which includes staged readings of the three finalist plays in the contest for emerging and established female playwrights.

Last year, Sarasota actress and arts patron Carolyn Michel took a break from caring for her husband, Howard Millman, to attend the Modern Works Festival. Millman, who rescued the Asolo Repertory Theatre and helped inspire the creation of Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe and the revival of the Sarasota Jewish Theatre, died on Feb. 14 at age 93.

Under the leadership of Summer Dawn Wallace, artistic director of Urbanite Theatre, the Modern Works Festival has evolved into a joyful theatrical jamboree that Wallace says is “like Christmas every day.”

Seeing staged readings of new plays, mingling with patrons and fellow artists and attending panel discussions brings back the magic of opening up presents under the tree, she says.

In the past, finalist plays in the Modern Works Festival such as Brenda Withers’ “Westminster” and “A Skeptic and a Bruja” by Rosa Fernandez were produced by Urbanite in its 60-seat black-box theater. We don’t know yet whether any of last year’s festival plays will be in Urbanite’s 2025-26 lineup because the theater hasn’t wrapped its current season.

Wallace and company are preparing for Urbanite’s last play of the season, Nia Akilah Robinson’s “From 145th Street to 98th Street,” which runs from May 30 to June 29. After that closes, then it will be time to announce the 2025-26 season and to go Christmas shopping.

'Twilight'

Oct. 17, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail. Visit VanWezel.org.

As the raucous screenings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and last Thanksgiving’s silver screen debut of the Broadway musical “Wicked” demonstrate, the experience of collective moviegoing is evolving into an interactive experience, for better or worse.

Whether one embraces the notion owes a lot to your age. So if you’re a person who goes “Shush” when someone talks at a movie or during a musical performance, you probably should steer clear of “Twilight” when it comes to the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall.

Lest you’ve forgotten, this teen vampire romance sparked pandemonium when it was first released in 2008, not least of all because of the on-screen chemistry and real-life relationship between its gorgeous stars, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. The success of the original “Twilight” led to a franchise of five films that grossed more than $3.3 billion worldwide.

As the novel that inspired “Twilight” celebrates its 20th anniversary, GEA Live and Lionsgate Films are screening the original film in 60 cities around the country with a live orchestra on stage playing the score. To really get the audience in the mood for love and necking, vampire style, these will be candlelight performances.

We imagine a goth extravaganza for the ages when “Twilight” comes to town. Groups of 10 or more should call the Van Wezel at 941-263-6726 to arrange seating.

'Così fan tutte'

Oct. 31-Nov. 15 Sarasota Opera, 61 N. Pineapple Ave. Visit SarasotaOpera.org.

Opera lovers, rejoice! You won’t have to wait until the 2026 Winter Opera Festival to see the Sarasota Opera perform a full-scale production. The company has decided to revive its recent tradition of a fall production by performing Mozart’s “Così fan tutte.”

In 2023, the opera suspended its fall production for the first time in 16 years, excluding a one-year COVID pause. 

First performed in 1790 in Vienna, “Così fan tutte” features a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, who also wrote “Le nozze di Figaro” and “Don Giovanni.” The title’s literal translation is “All women do it,” but it’s better known in English as “The School for Lovers.”

The humorous tale follows two soldiers who decide to test the faithfulness of the sisters to whom they are engaged, only to learn the brides-to-be have a few tricks up their sleeves as well.

The Sarasota Opera will mark its 67th season in 2025-26, but will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Sarasota Opera House. “Così fan tutte” promises to kick off a festive season.

'Movin' Out'

Nov. 13-Dec. 28, Asolo Repertory Theatre, FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail. Visit AsoloRep.org.

The official premiere for “Movin’ Out,” billed as a “boldly reimagined Broadway hit,” is Nov. 21. The period from Nov. 13-20 is for previews, which are normally just a couple of days in Sarasota. As theater mavens know, previews are the time when the creatives tinker with and refine a production, based on feedback from audiences and critics.

The evolution of a show during previews can be nothing short of a nightmare for the cast, who have to learn new lines, songs and dances on the fly. But for theater mavens who are fascinated by the development process, it promises to be an exciting opportunity, especially when it involves two entertainment titans like Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp.

When “Movin’ Out” originally premiered on Broadway, the dance-driven musical set to the Joel’s hit songs with Tharp’s choreography won two 2003 Tony Awards, one for Tharp (Best Choreography) and one for Billy Joel and Stuart Malina (Best Orchestrations.

Asolo Rep is partnering with Nederlander Presentations, producer of the original “Movin’ Out,” a tale of love, loss and the American experience, to develop a new version of the musical. We can’t wait to see it come together in Sarasota.

Living Arts Festival

Nov. 2-9, Various venues in Sarasota County. Visit SarasotaRising.org.

When Jeffery Kin founded Sarasota Rising in October 2021, he envisioned producing a Living Arts Festival for Sarasota along the lines of Spoleto, the festival held each year in Charleston, South Carolina. 

Some in the community saw Kin’s idea as a replacement for Arts Day, a popular free event organized by the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County that ran for nearly two decades until 2009. Others were skeptical that the festival would happen at all.

The naysayers were proved wrong when the inaugural Living Arts Festival debuted Nov. 10-17, 2024, just a month after Hurricane Milton became the first hurricane to make landfall in the Sarasota-Bradenton area in more than a century.

Damage from Milton forced Kin to adjust some events and move some venues around for the Living Arts Festival, but it was just the balm an emotionally and physically battered community needed.

Last year’s debut was a rousing success, but can Kin avoid a sophomore slump in the Living Arts Festival’s second year? With the relationships he developed during 15 years as producing artistic director of the community theater now known as the Sarasota Players, Kin has plenty of artists, donors and volunteers he can count on.

There are sure to be some growing pains, but you won’t want to miss the second annual Living Arts Festival. Details are still being nailed down, but with Kin’s energy and resourcefulness, it’s bound to be a must-see festival, especially if hurricanes stay away.

Masterworks: Symphonic Dance

Nov. 7-9, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail. Visit SarasotaOrchestra.org. 

With the arrival of Giancarlo Guerrero as full-time music director, the Sarasota Orchestra has dubbed 2025-26 season the “Sound of Change.” The first season programmed by Guerrero is designed to showcase the cultural mosaic of the U.S. as it prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary next year.

No one embodies that cultural mosaic better than Guerrero himself. A native of Nicaragua whose family emigrated to Costa Rica to escape civil war, Guerrero first studied music through a youth orchestra. He later came to the U.S., where he earned a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and a master’s degree from Northwestern University.

During his 16 seasons as music director of the Nashville Symphony, Guerrero released 21 commercial albums and won six Grammy Awards. Together with composer Aaron Jay Kernis, Guerrero spearheaded the development of Nashville Symphony’s biannual Composer Lab & Workshop for young and emerging composers.

Now, Guerrero is here in Sarasota, and we can’t wait to see what he will do as the Sarasota Orchestra prepares to build a new music center in fast-growing East County, for which it recently received $60 million in anonymous donations.