On September 10, leaders of the Sarasota Players gathered donors, patrons and elected officials at Payne Park Auditorium and plugged in a ghost light. In theater tradition, that lamp stays on over a dark, empty stage. "Where's the ribbon and the giant scissors?" Managing Artistic Director Thayer Greenberg joked, as WUSF reported.
No ribbon was cut because no renovation had started yet. Sarasota has three new performance venues in the works. Each one is waiting on something different, and the bigger the building, the longer the wait. Through January, every curtain on the season calendar rises in a room that already exists, and that includes the Van Wezel, the building one of the new projects is meant to follow.
A Ticket Page Dated January 7, and a Board Chair Who Says Later
The smallest of the three projects is also the closest to opening. The Players' 97th season page lists Mel Brooks' The Producers for January 7 through 24, 2027, at 2100 Laurel St., which is Payne Park Auditorium, and it links to tickets. The ticketing page shows a January calendar with 15 performances scheduled at the auditorium.
The same WUSF report gives a different timeline. Board chair Katie Weiss said the new space is more likely to open later in the company's 97th season. "We're still waiting for sign-offs from the city on the project and we don't know exactly when that will happen," she said. "But we are ready to begin when it does." Executive Director Jason Ellis estimated the renovation would take about four months once work begins. Mid-October to January 7 is a little under three months.
The company had a backup plan from the start. In June, Greenberg told WUSF that a simplified version of The Producers could be staged in the company's current space if needed. Both theaters are in the round, so a set designed for one can be built in the other. If you hold January tickets, check the venue line on your confirmation before you drive to Laurel Street.
The building has history. Payne Park Auditorium opened in 1962 as a community center in what was then a mobile home park, and the city's Parks and Recreation department used it most recently. In 2024 the City Commission approved a 30-year lease at $100 a year plus $1 for each ticket sold there. That lease ended a search that began when the Players sold their longtime U.S. 41 property in 2018 for more than $9 million. Along the way the search included a dropped plan in Lakewood Ranch's Waterside community and a rejected bid for the Municipal Auditorium. An earlier proposal to attach a 17,000-square-foot addition to the auditorium drew public opposition because it would have cut into the park, so the agreed plan covers interior work only.
Inside, the plan is a theater of about 200 seats. It will be named the Muriel O'Neil Theatre in recognition of a $1 million bequest. The Payne Park Sprint campaign launched at the ghost-light event aims to raise $500,000 in 180 days, mainly for lighting, sound and equipment.
Until then, the Players' fall shows run elsewhere. Dracula is in the Players Studio Black Box at 1400 Boulevard of the Arts, with its final performances October 24 and 25. The Importance of Being Earnest returns to that address in February.
The Bayfront Hall Is Waiting on a Statewide Vote
The second project is far larger, and what it is waiting on is mostly outside the city's control. The Sarasota Performing Arts Center's current design, Concept 2.0, is a 2,200-seat building with a flexible space, estimated at $260 million to $295 million and proposed for the northeast corner of the current Van Wezel parking lot, according to Your Observer. The city's own January statement placed the concept south of the canal, and the published descriptions have not yet been reconciled.
At the July 27-28 budget workshop, City Manager Karie Friling recommended pausing six "generational projects" until after the November election, with the arts center first on the list. She cited uncertainty over Florida Amendment 3 and a possible $5.5 million hit to city property tax revenue by fiscal year 2029. "It doesn't mean the projects aren't important," she said, as quoted by Your Observer. "It just means that we have an unknown future."
A pause does not stop all the work. Talks with the Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation are continuing over an implementation agreement that is already two years behind schedule. Commissioners also voted unanimously to have the city manager specify which parts of the six projects could move forward.
Meanwhile, the Van Wezel keeps operating. The city said in January that the Van Wezel would "continue to serve the City as a venue for the arts" alongside the new center. On August 31 it announced a 2026-27 Van Wezel season, with public ticket sales opening September 12.
The Orchestra's Hall Is Waiting to Break Ground
The third project is the furthest out and the furthest from the water. Sarasota Orchestra's planned Music Center sits at 5701 Fruitville Road, between Honore and Cattlemen. Sarasota County approved the zoning amendments, and the Orchestra completed its land purchase in 2023. In May it announced an additional anonymous gift of $11.7 million, reported by the Herald-Tribune, and its latest project update said schematic design was complete and design development nearly finished.
At an Architecture Sarasota "Future Landmarks" talk this month, Sarasota Magazine reported, the speakers described a nearly 32-acre site near I-75. Plans call for a concert hall of up to 1,800 seats, a 700-seat recital hall and an education wing given equal prominence. The project is estimated at $325 million to $475 million, and the buildings would sit 26 feet above sea level. Construction is expected to start sometime next year, and the target opening is the 2029-30 season. Music director Giancarlo Guerrero told the audience, "The concert hall is an instrument, too."
That leaves the Orchestra where it is for at least three more seasons. The full orchestra plays many of its concerts at the Van Wezel, and its education programs are based at Holley Hall, 709 N. Tamiami Trail. The Van Wezel is the hall both the arts center and the Music Center were planned to improve on, and it remains central to this season.
The Season the Existing Rooms Are Carrying
With all three new stages still dark, the calendar from now through January runs in established theaters, galleries and gardens. Several of these dates bring company premieres or first-in-region exhibitions.
| Dates | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Oct. 23–25 | Sarasota Ballet Program One, with the company premiere of Gemma Bond's Manner | FSU Center for the Performing Arts |
| Oct. 23–24 | Sarasota Orchestra, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi | See orchestra listing |
| Oct. 30–Nov. 14 | Sarasota Opera, Hansel and Gretel | Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple St. |
| Nov. 4–Mar. 21 | FST, American Rebels cabaret | Goldstein Cabaret |
| Nov. 7–8 | Sarasota Orchestra Masterworks, Beethoven and Prokofiev, opening with Lera Auerbach's Icarus | See orchestra listing |
| Nov. 18–Jan. 2 | Asolo Rep, Singin' in the Rain | Mertz Theatre |
| Nov. 18–Jan. 3 | FST, Kimberly Akimbo | Gompertz Theatre |
| Nov. 20–21 | Sarasota Ballet, company premieres of MacMillan's Solitaire and Ratmansky's Pictures at an Exhibition | Sarasota Opera House |
| Dec. 2–Jan. 3 | Asolo Rep, It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play | Cook Theatre |
| Dec. 5–Jan. 2 | Selby Gardens, Lights in Bloom | 1534 Mound St. |
| Dec. 9–Feb. 14 | FST, The Bully Pulpit | Keating Theatre |
| Dec. 18–19 | Sarasota Ballet, Wheeldon's Within the Golden Hour with Ashton's The Two Pigeons | Van Wezel |
| Jan. 9–10 | Sarasota Orchestra Masterworks, Mozart and Dvořák | See orchestra listing |
The Ballet's season is Iain Webb's 20th as director and includes eight company premieres among 16 ballets. Its December program at the Van Wezel is a reminder of how much the current hall is still asked to do. Florida Studio Theatre's The Bully Pulpit is also back in the Keating Theatre, where it first premiered in 2004.
The museums and gardens fill the gaps between performances:
- The Ringling has Yoshida Fujio: Secret Gardens through April 4, 2027, the first exhibition in the southeastern U.S. devoted to the artist. Acquisitions in Photography: 2020–2025 opened October 17 with works by more than 40 artists.
- Sarasota Art Museum opened three exhibitions on October 18: Presence: The Photography Collection of Judy Glickman Lauder, Chie Fueki's Painting the Floating World, and Eszter Sziksz's immersive installation. Monica Guggisberg and Philip Baldwin's commissioned glass work, Precession Through Glass, follows on November 15.
- Selby Gardens runs The Orchid Show 2026: Christian Sampson on its Downtown Sarasota campus through December 6, with site-specific installations set among the living orchid displays.
- The Living Arts Festival runs November 8 through 15 at venues from Bradenton to Venice, so check where each event is before you go.
Asolo Rep has built its season around the centennial of the circus arriving in Sarasota. Its world-premiere musical, The Day the Circus Came to Town, is scheduled for March 21 through April 24, 2027. The Players' season page lists one more production at 2100 Laurel St. after The Producers, a murder-mystery comedy based on a board game, scheduled for April 14 through May 2, 2027.
At Roger Pettingell, we follow how Sarasota's cultural venues are changing because they shape daily life across the city, from Payne Park to the bayfront to Fruitville Road. If you would like to talk through any of these projects, or how they fit into your plans here, please contact us.
