We’re calling on Gulfshore Playhouse founder and producing artistic director, Kristen Coury, for an encore. When we first honored the multihyphenate director as a Woman of the Year in 2013, Kristen made two predictions for her growing nonprofit theater company: “We’re going to have a new building, all our own. And we’re going to win a Tony.”
One of Kristen’s premonitions is realized this season with the opening of Cole Porter’s toe-tapping musical comedy Anything Goes on the Broadway-sized Moran Mainstage of Gulfshore Playhouse’s new $72 million Baker Theater and Education Center. While they’re still working toward the lauded award, the theater’s education director, Steven Calakos, earned two consecutive Tony Award Honorable Mentions for Excellence in Theatre Education in 2022 and 2023. And Kristen has more in store.
The New York City transplant is best known around town for her successes in growing Gulfshore Playhouse from a one-woman operation in her condo to a multimillion-dollar earning nonprofit. However, her influence in Southwest Florida runs much deeper than the buzzy regional theater. “I’m looking forward to becoming more of a communitarian, where I can help however I can, wherever I can,” Kristen says. She’s an active board member of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the newest addition to the charitable Wynn’s Market family since marrying descendant and Sunshine Ace Hardware president Michael Wynn.
While fundraising for the new building, she also forged a relationship with the City of Naples, resulting in a land donation—an acre converted into a public parking garage near the theater for better downtown access. And, 10 minutes away, the group is almost done building their new 25,000-square-foot production center, which comes with an influx of jobs for behind-the-scenes creatives and trade programs for high school thespians. “We’ll be able to weld, paint and build, and construct sets, costumes and props,” she says.
The Playhouse’s opening marks an essential step for the surrounding Naples Design District. The campus—which includes a secondary conservatory stage, a full-service kitchen and bar, classrooms for the ever-growing education program, and lushly decorated gardens that are always open to the public—is designed to attract passersby to explore the neighborhood. “When you buy a ticket to see something at the theater, you’re going to valet park, grab something to eat and potentially buy a pair of shoes or go for a drink—there’s a lot of money spent around the theater,” Kristen says.
The director’s next prediction: the thriving arts scene will only magnify amid Naples’ growth. And, Gulfshore Playhouse intends to be at the heart of the action. —Jaynie Bartley