TheatreWorks Florida Announces Inaugural Season

TheatreWorks Florida is thrilled and proud to announce their inaugural 3-show season at their new theatre venue, Davenport Community Campus - TheatreWorks Florida Theatre! We are bringing our award-winning professional musical productions to the community of Davenport, FL and are so excited to share the magic of theatre with Polk County and all of Central FL.

The season will open with The Marvelous Wonderettes at our new location: Davenport Community Campus - TWF Theatre, 8 W. Palmetto St., Davenport, FL 33837. Three years in the making, we are beyond thrilled to finally bring our professional, high quality arts & culture programming to our hometown!

TheatreWorks Florida's inaugural 2017-18 season includes: The Marvelous Wonderettes - Sept 8-17, 2017, Winter Wonderettes - Dec 1-17, 2017 and The Great American Trailer Park Musical - Mar 9-25, 2018. For more information on each show, please visit our website at: Theatreworksfl.org.

TheatreWorks Florida's 2017-18 season shows will be directed by Scott A. Cook, the Artistic Producer of TheatreWorks Florida. TheatreWorks Florida has brought exciting and colorful productions to the Central Florida Stage in the past, including Rock Of Ages (2016 - Central FL regional premiere), Hands On A Hardbody (2016 - Central FL regional premiere), Schoolhouse Rock Live! (2015 Tour - National Endowment for The Arts), Sweeney Todd (2014 - winner of Best Set, Best Musical Direction and Best Lead Actress In A Musical; BroadwayWorld Orlando 2014), Nunsense (2013), and Legally Blonde: The Musical (2012 - Central FL regional premiere; winner of Best Musical; BroadwayWorld Orlando 2012). Cook has developed show designs and concepts for companies such as Universal Studios Florida and the Walt Disney World Company, and won numerous producers' honors including the Pierrots Award, Best Musical for Cats at Theatre Winter Haven (Winter Haven, FL) in 2006 and multiple awards at the Orlando Fringe Festival including Best In Fest 2010 & 2012 for The Great American Trailer Park Musical and Little Shop of Horrors, respectively.

Says Cook of TheatreWorks Florida's new theater venue and inaugural season: "I have lived in Davenport, FL for 17 years. TheatreWorks Florida has been based here since 2007 but most of our work has been outside our community because there was no solid audience for arts & culture. We had no home venue to speak of, save for borrowing limited space from our creative partner, Florida Southern College (Lakeland, FL). In the beginning years, we never really needed a home because we were touring and installing shows for other theatres. All that changed in 2014 when we received our first of three National Endowment for the Arts awards that supported our community outreach program, TheatreCares. Overnight, we needed a place to produce completely on our own. Through a gracious series of events, the School Board of Polk County opened the doors of the Davenport Community Campus, an old School of The Arts that had been shut down, and let TheatreWorks Florida utilize the space. The facility had been left in the dark for so long but when I turned the lights on in the dance studio for the first time in years, a million ideas went racing through my mind. A beautiful rehearsal studio, theatre, shop space and more - it was like Christmas! I knew we had found a long awaited home. As time passed, more and more of our community found interest in what TheatreWorks Florida had to offer Davenport with arts & culture programming. As a theatre company, we became heavily involved with the efforts of the Davenport Arts & Culture Alliance, creating new ideas and fresh programming that our growing community desperately needed. We still need a lot of funding and support but now, 3 years later, we are finally ready to open our inaugural theatre season for the community of Davenport. TheatreWorks Florida has so much to offer Davenport, Polk County and all of Central FL. It is beyond thrilling to be at the helm of a company that will offer year-round programming that is sure to be exciting, empowering and transforming to a community that has never had it. We are ready to propel the arts to a whole new level in Polk County."

TheatreWorks Florida is proud to announce the outstanding cast, designers and staff of the first two shows of the season, The Marvelous Wonderettes and Winter Wonderettes:

Cast:
Missy - Bethany Hafer

Suzy - Frida Söderdahl

Betty Jean - Desiree Montes

Cindy Lou - Ali Molnar

Designers and Staff: Scott A. Cook (Artistic Producer-Director), Shannon Kropf (Music Direction), James F. Beck (Scenic), Cori Blythe (Lighting), Mandy Swing (Costumes), Heather Franklin (Hair & Makeup), Steven Maynard (Props/Stage Manager), Abel Gonzales (Company Manager), Alexis Senge Johnson (Development Director) and Mark S. Graham (Marketing Associate).

Key partnering organizations include: Wayne T. Fellows, Inc., Aegis Community Management Solutions, Meehle & Jay Law Firm, Florida Southern College, Theatre Winter Haven, PPG Architectural, DanceWear Corner and the School Board of Polk County.

Season subscriptions are on sale now at a 15% savings from single show tickets; Adult: $61.00, Student: $51.00. Individual shows tickets for each show in the season go on sale July 15, 2017; Adults: $24.00, Student: $19.00. All seating is general admission. Show times for all performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM, Sundays at 2PM. Tickets can be purchased at the TheatreWorks Florida website at TheatreWorksfl.org or by calling the box office at 407.340.0473.

Simultaneously, TheatreWorks Florida's highly successful outreach program, TheatreCares, will launch the "TheatreCares Arts Access Pass" program on July 15, 2017. The purpose of the program is to make the arts accessible to everyone, regardless?of their ability to pay. The pass allows participants to reserve up to 2 tickets per TheatreWorks Florida event. Online applications for enrollment into the TheatreCares Arts Access Pass program will be available starting July 15, 2017. Applications can be found at our website. For more detailed information contact Abel Gonzales, Company Manager at theatrecares@theatreworksfl.org or visit TheatreWorksfl.org under the TheateCares section.

ABOUT THEATREWORKS FLORIDA

TheatreWorks Florida is a 501(c)(3) professional Central Florida-based theatre company. Formed in 2007, TheatreWorks offers some of the finest theatrical musicals available today as well as produces new, original works from area artists and artists from around the country. For more information, visit Theatreworksfl.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.