Kristen Coury is Gulfshore Playhouse’s Founder and Producing Artistic Director. 

Hello Dear Readers,

It seems like only a few weeks ago that I wrote about “the shifting sands” when we’d reached the end of our 14-15 season.  In truth, so much has changed since then, but we never stopped running toward the goal of creating fantastic professional theatre and educational opportunities for you.

In fact, season started for me sometime in July.  This was when Cody Nickell, our now departed Artistic Associate, starting sending his top finalist list for the New Works Festival to Audrey Zielenbach and me to review and rate.  This process culminated in the selection and announcement of the final four winning playwrights.  And now, here we are!  Our third annual New Works Festival is already next week!!

We had an extremely successful summer full of STAR Academy Summer Camps, featuring two full-scale productions: Disney’s Cinderella, and Peter Pan and Wendy.  I’m so grateful to Leah Porrata, our Director of Education, and to the donors who supported the Scholarship Fund, for making this summer so special and magical, and one which these children will always remember.

In August, I was off to Vermont to direct what was officially the first play of our season, The Glass Menagerie.  Thanks to a partnership with Weston Playhouse Theatre Company, I was able to direct it there first (to great reviews, thankfully) while enjoying the idyllic setting and friendly folks in Weston.  I am proud to be able to share it with all of you on October 10th.

I came home to two new faces waiting for me: Christopher Brislin, our fantastic new General Manager, and Jeffrey Binder, our talented new Artistic Associate.  To say I’m excited about both of them is pure understatement.  Together, I am quite sure we will bring the Playhouse to even higher heights.

We launched the Playhouse Partners sometime in July.  This is a new auxiliary group of extremely dedicated individuals who’ve all hopped on committees with the goal of making the foundations of our organization even stronger.

Our two Gala co-chairs, co-founders of the Playhouse Partners, came aboard: Liz and Jim Jessee.  Don’t miss this year’s gala at the Ritz on February 29th!

And, last but certainly not least, we added two new board members about which I’m ecstatic: Patty Baker and Tarren Bragdon.

There is LOTS cooking here at Gulfshore Playhouse.  I can’t wait to see you in person to tell you all about it!!

Kristen Coury