@dramatistsguild @andiearthur 

Ten years Kristen Courey visited Naples from New York City and saw a great opportunity. Here was a beautiful location, full of intelligent retirees and no major professional theatre. She knew it was time to get out of New York and in Naples, she took her chance, founding Gulfshore Playhouse in 2004. Since then, Gulfshore Playhouse has flourished, growing from one night engagements to a six show season and a brand new New Play Festival.

Courey founded Gulfshore Playhouse with a desire to “focus on plays. All kinds of plays.” In the past ten seasons, the works have varied from beloved classics (such as Tartuffe and All My Sons) to recent Off-Broadway hits (The Whipping Man and Race) to their first World Premiere this season (Suzanne Bradbeer’s The God Game). Courey is particularly excited by the challenge of new work. In talking about Suzanne Bradbeer’s The God Game, she mentioned how doing a co-production of a world premiere really opens up opportunities. Because Gulfshore Playhouse was co-producing with Capitol Rep, they were able to take risks that she might not otherwise have taken. “We made a plot change on the day we opened, which we wouldn’t have done if Suzanne hadn’t known that we had another production. Three months later, we could always put it back. What a great gift that is for a playwright.”

Her audience has been along for the ride, as the theatre has grown 400% in the past five years, with no debt, a rarity in our current Florida economic climate. Courey lovingly refers to her audience as “intelligent, savvy theatre goers… from everywhere – Chicago and New York City and Boston – from markets where good theatre exists. They’re willing to take the journey.”

The audience not only supports the rental of a 200 seat theatre in the Norris Community Center in Naples, but also the professional actors that have to be brought in, as Naples does not have a thriving Actors’ Equity community. Since Gulfshore Playhouse was founded in 2004, another professional theatre, TheatreZone, has sprung up, but they focus on primarily on musicals. Unlike more well-established communities, Naples is still a “wild west” in terms of generating professional theatre.

Gulfshore Playhouse is working to combat the Wild West atmosphere through their extensive educational outreach program, ART SMART. During a session of ART SMART theatre artists will spend six weeks in schools, using theatre techniques to teach Sunshine State Standards. Kids get to use theatre arts to directly learn core standards. Gulfshore Playhouse has done 100 workshops in the schools, mostly working with elementary and middle school students. The idea is to work with any age range in a way that engages them directly in learning. The program is incredibly well supported by donors in a time when arts education in our state is lacking.

However, one of things that Courey is the most excited about is Gulfshore Playhouse’s New Works Festival. “New works is a passion, but it’s difficult to have the resources,” Courey says. The first Annual New Works Festival happened in August 2013. Courey and her artistic associate, Cody Nickell, waded through 86 open submissions and picked three plays to showcase, Point Last Seen by Scott Organ, Out of Orbit by Jennifer Maisel, and Gwydion Suilebahn’s The Butcher, which will be produced in their 2014 -2015 season. The plays received ten hours of rehearsal, a reading, and a talkback. Suilebahn (the DC regional rep for the Dramatists Guild) spoke of his experience, “Kristen Coury and Gulfshore Playhouse instituted a new works festival last year that was immediately the equal of any number of similar festivals and workshops I’ve experienced all over the country. I’m deeply impressed by their commitment to developing and producing new work.”

Throughout the entire experience, audiences are given insight to the process. Courey had expected 20 people to attend each reading and was thrilled by the attendance of 100 patrons for each. “All of them provided eloquent and thoughtful feedback,” she said.

Courey wants to expand the process even more to better serve the playwright. While the playwrights appreciated the level of tablework offered, she plans to expand the rehearsal time to allow for more workshopping and development for the playwright. She also wants to add designers and dramaturgs to the mix – allowing playwrights to work with them directly as they would work with a director.

Submissions for this year’s festival have already closed. Because Courey and Nickell are a reading staff of two, they decided to close submissions once they reached 100. Submissions sent after 100 would go into the pool of submissions for next year. Upon opening submissions this November, they received over 100 within 48 hours. However, Courey and Nickell will accept inquiries at submissions@gulfshoreplayhouse.org.

aarthur@dramatistsguild.com

(Reprinted from the May/June 2014 issue of #TheDramatist)