PJH
CultureWatch_1467080432-pac8
Seasonal residents of Bonita Springs are in for quite a surprise when they get back into town. Bonita Beach Road has turned into something of a performing arts district.
The brand-new Southwest Florida Performing Arts Center, a fusion of arts and fine dining, opened its doors in June, giving year-rounders an immediate blast of entertainment and promising an action-packed roster for season.
It is located a mere 1.8 miles from the Centers for the Arts Bonita Springs’ performing arts campus, which opened just a year ago and is gearing up for season two with performances, film screenings and lectures.
OK, the “arts district” moniker might be a little overblown, and these two groups, each of which profess unfamiliarity with what the other is doing, aren’t likely to launch a Fort Myers-style Art Walk or Music Walk collaboration in the immediate future.
Nevertheless, the organizations promise that residents, who typically drive north or south for entertainment, will have some close-to-home options this season. Combined, the venues can seat more than 1,200 people. (And, in case you’re fretting about traffic, the city has already commissioned a long-term traffic study for Bonita Beach Road, independent of the venues’ openings.)
“Bonita Beach Road is the main gateway to our community and is in close proximity to our downtown corridor,” Assistant City Manager Arlene Hunter says. “We’re very excited (the art centers are) here and a part of our community.”
So as Southwest Florida prepares for high season, the spotlight moves to Bonita Beach Road, where the arts directors are promising to keep patrons well-entertained.
The Southwest Florida Performing Arts Center
Center founder Brien Spina is trying to concentrate on a conversation, but his cell phone is buzzing, and he excuses himself. It’d gone off around midnight, too, with a sleep-interrupting but welcome call. Cedric the Entertainer wanted to perform at his newly opened venue. The comedian’s managers were now signing off on promotional materials.
“There’s never a normal day,” Spina says. “You never know when you come in (to work) what to expect.”
Spina is the founder of Off The Hook Comedy Club, established initially to draw more patrons to his first restaurant, Capt. Brien’s Seafood and Raw Bar on Marco Island. Over time, Off The Hook not only gained a loyal audience but also won credibility in the entertainment industry, booking major acts such as Kevin Hart, Carlos Mencia, Pauly Shore and Mike Epps.
Even with the club’s success, Spina had harbored dreams of creating a more versatile performance space. In August 2015, just two months after introducing his new Vanderbilt Beach Road restaurant, Row by Capt. Brien & Crew, and moving the comedy club there, Spina broke ground on the Southwest Florida Performing Arts Center. It opened in late June.
“I wouldn’t say we are the world’s best theater venue as far as design; I wouldn’t say we are the world’s best wedding venue ... but what we did was build an amazing multiuse facility for everything,” Spina says.
In both the restaurant and the adjacent theater, tables can be moved and the spaces transformed to suit an event’s needs. The center’s inaugural line-up includes the music group Recycled Percussion, which had appeared on America’s Got Talent in 2009; comedian and actor Gary Valentine; the Southwest Florida Symphony; Jerry Lewis (yes, the Jerry Lewis, coming Oct. 21); and Nelson’s Illusions, which bills itself as the nation’s largest touring illusions company (coming Nov. 3).
Food is a player in its own right. The center has a test kitchen designed to support Michael Psilakis’ menu for Teatro, dining service for the theater, culinary events such as food shows, as well as weddings, corporate and private parties.
Read more about Teatro here.
“We want to host large weddings. We want to host big celebrity events. We want to do fashion shows. These kinds of things—there’s not a lot of venues that will be able to host that,” Spina says.
The Centers for the Arts Bonita Springs
Just up the street, Centers for the Arts Executive Director Susan Bridges is busy figuring out ways to trump her successful first season.
The organization had long supported visual artists at its Old 41 gallery and had done its best to support performers, hosting shows in a donated space at the Promenade shopping center. In March 2014, it bought Living Waters Church. The one-time sanctuary is now a 400-seat theater; the former recreation center has been converted into a 200-seat film auditorium that can also be used for small live productions. Other amenities include a dance studio, kitchen and an artist studio designated for a new visiting artist program in which professional guests will hold intensive workshops for local practitioners.
Programming choices spotlight both local—youth and adult theater and improv troupes—and national acts. The 2016-17 roster includes a return performance by New Orleans-based jazz artist Delfeayo Marsalis, the Fabulous Thunderbirds band and a classical group, O Sole Trio. Playwright and actor Frank Blocker, who lives locally, will stage several productions, and a classical music education series, “Meet the Composer,” returns this year after gaining a wide following last year.
“The genres for us move—there are no barriers. We try to pick people in that upper echelon and each week have something for different audiences,” Bridges says. “Prior to having a space, we just couldn’t facilitate that.”
Where the center is really making a name for itself is in film. The Monday night film series runs year-round, drawing as many as 80 people even during the height of summer.
The series morphed into the 2015 Bonita Springs International Film Festival. Bridges says she was careful to pick a genre (foreign films) and a screening schedule that didn’t conflict with the region’s established film festivals. “We were very lucky. A lot of people applied; a lot of people attended,” Bridges says. “It just exploded.”
This year, the organization will debut another “first,” a 10-minute play competition in which playwrights are challenged to produce a short script that will go before experienced judges for critiques. And, it is looking to stage more short-format plays, productions such as one-person or one-act shows that seem to be resonating with area theater-goers.
“We seem to have a cultivated audience for that,” Bridges says.
If either group is worried about tripping over the other, they’re not letting on.
“I think there’s room for everyone; we just need to be respectful of each other’s programming,” Bridges says. She says her group and most other credible organizations avoid booking acts that have already committed to nearby venues.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of crossover, to be honest,” Spina says.
And if anyone is concerned about oversaturation, says Tamara Pigott, the executive director of the county’s Visitors and Convention Bureau, they can relax.
“I’m not sure oversaturation is possible, and I’m not being coy,” she says. She makes a comparison to New York’s tightly packed theater district, which draws visitors because they can experience multiple shows in multiple venues. “Sun and sand is great, and we have a lot of gifts from Mother Nature,” Pigott says, “but having assets like this really enriches our community.”