BWW Q&A: Peter Rothstein on Asolo Repertory Theatre's 2024/2025 Season Announcement

We spoke with Peter Rothstein about Asolo Rep's upcoming season lineup! The season includes Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (November 13, 2024 –  January 5, 2025), Ken Ludwig’s Lady Molly of Scotland Yard (January 17 – February 8, 2025), Anna in the Tropics (February 19 – March 13, 2025), Dancing in Lughnasa (March 19 – April 29, 2025), Good Night, Oscar (April 2 – April 27, 2025), Jesus Christ Superstar (May 14 – June 15, 2025) and All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 (December 4 – 25, 2024). 

Peter Rothstein serves as the Producing Artistic Director for Asolo Repertory Theatre where he directed Man of La Mancha, Sweeney Todd and Ragtime. He works extensively as a director of theater, musical theater, opera and new work development. For 25 years Rothstein served as the Founding Artistic Director of Theater Latté Da, a Minneapolis-based company dedicated to new and adventurous music-theater.

Other collaborations include the Guthrie Theater, Children’s Theatre Company, Ten Thousand Things and Seattle’s 5th Avenue as well as the Minnesota Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Florida Grand Opera and Chicago Opera Theater. Rothstein is the creator of All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914, which had its Off Broadway debut in 2018 receiving the Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience, and has been seen around the globe airing on PBS. Rothstein served on the board of directors for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, Alive and Kickin’ and the Twin Cities’ Ivey Awards.

He has been a panelist and evaluator for the Playwrights’ Center, the McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board and the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals. He holds degrees in Music and Theater from St. John’s University and an MFA in Directing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

What inspired the selection of productions for the 2024-2025 season at Asolo Repertory Theatre?

Our artistic team has crafted a season of stories that span oceans: from Ybor City, Florida to County Donegal, Ireland and on to Jerusalem; stories about revolutions that forever changed the course of history to quiet moments that illuminate the recesses of the human heart; stories about songwriters and cigar-rollers, detectives and concert pianists, soldiers and saints. I hope this season has something for everyone, and inside this array of characters we both see ourselves and come to understand each other.

How do you approach the balance between classic and contemporary works when planning a season?

The theatre only exists in the now. Even classic work needs to come alive in the present and needs to resonate with contemporary audiences. We approach each play or musical as if it’s being created for the very first time. Our 66th Anniversary Season has some of the most respected plays and musicals ever written-- honored with the Pulitzer Prize and multiple Tony Awards. The season also provides Sarasota audiences the unique opportunity to experience area and world premieres by some of the industry’s most celebrated writers.

What makes Asolo Repertory Theatre unique in the landscape of American theatre?

Thanks to the robust investment of our audiences and donors, the Asolo is able to create world class theatre made right here in Sarasota. We have some of the best craftspeople and theater-makers working in the industry, and thankfully they have chosen to make Sarasota their home. Since joining Asolo Rep a year ago, I’ve had countless playwrights, composers and lyricists reach out, wanting to collaborate with the Asolo, because of the organization’s impressive history of prioritizing the artistic process and creating work of the highest quality.

Can you elaborate on the importance of new work development in your role?

I believe we must support living playwrights, composers and lyricists who are wrestling with and celebrating the stories of our time. Much of my career has been focused on the development of new work and providing the opportunity for writers to shape their material in collaboration with a creative team and a live audience. The audience is the ultimate scene partner and a new play or musical needs that scene partner in order to find itself. Next year we will produce the world premiere of Ken Ludwig’s Lady Molly of Scotland Yard. It is a great privilege to collaborate with and to be an artistic home to one of the world’s most prolific and celebrated playwrights. Audiences are in for a wild and hilarious ride with Lady Molly.

Asolo Rep will be doing the regional premiere of Good Night, Oscar. What does it feel like to be the first theatre to get to put your own stamp on it following its Broadway run?

When I saw the show on Broadway last season, I knew immediately that I wanted to produce it at Asolo Rep. Doug Wright has crafted a unique theatrical experience that is at once a riveting drama, a laugh-out-loud comedy, and a tour-de-force performance of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”. I also knew I wanted Peter Amster to direct the production. Peter has a long history of creating dynamic work on the Asolo stage and he has the soul of a musician, which is at the heart of this wonderful new play.

How did the partnership with The Ringling come about for All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914?

When I first toured the Historic Asolo Theatre last year, I thought it would be the perfect venue for All Is Calm, a show I wrote back in 2007. It’s an intimate space, similar in scale to where the show had its Off Broadway premiere, but the space also has the grandeur and majesty to hold this remarkable story.

Can you give audiences a teaser of what they can expect from All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914??

All Is Calm is an a cappella musical about a truce that took place during the first year of World War I, when the men laid down their weapons and celebrated Christmas together. The show is also a documentary told in the words and songs of the men who lived it. It feels most appropriate and quite profound to be performing this particular show inside a museum and in a theater that was brought from Europe piece by piece.

Why must audiences come and check out the full season of shows at Asolo Rep?

There is nothing like the thrill of live performance. In these times when the world has become so divisive and when technology has made us more isolated, I believe coming together to share stories and songs that celebrate the human spirit can be a vital force in creating a more connected, humane world.

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