CM: Hello, I’m Christopher from South Florida Theater Magazine, the reviewer for tonight’s show of To Kill A Mockingbird. I like to write about art, art in the community, and things like that, so thanks for chatting with me.

When a majority of the South Florida community is made up of Latine people, you would think that more stories being presented would reflect that – but unfortunately the opposite tends to be the reality. 

If you think you might be offended by simulated sex, extensive drug references, or toilet humor, Trainspotting is probably not the play for you. However, if you’re a fan of the film—or are up for something a little more out there in your theatregoing adventures—then you might want to make a priority of catching the upcoming final weekend of what is certainly among the craziest productions I’ve ever been in the cast of. 

To say that Area Stage Company’s immersive reimagining of Beauty and The Beast took the South Florida theatre world by storm may be a bit of an understatement. Along with earning rave reviews across the board and picking up several major awards including a Silver Palm and 4 Carbonells, the show sold out the entirety of its six week run last August. Demand for tickets remained high enough at the show’s close to warrant its current return engagement, which has also been selling out the majority of its performances.  

COVID-19 has affected all aspects of our lives, particularly the theater industry. 

The industry shut down at the beginning of the pandemic and reopened in 2021. Data analyzed by the National Endowment for the Arts suggests that while arts and cultural industries improved during 2021, they have not risen back to 2019 levels. South Florida theaters are coping in their own ways with the pandemic, and one of these theaters is Boca Stage at the Sol theater in Boca Raton, which seats 70. 

“Zan doesn’t want to read to Dorothy, and she’s not too sure she wants him to!  But his community service assignment is not optional.  And book by book, the two of them begin to form an unexpected friendship… just when they need it most.”

“The last 5 or 6 – 8 years have been pretty damn tough, so it’s not a shock that past season of most theater companies have been so heavy. But now, after all this time, we want to leave people hopeful with the idea of how maybe, we can still save one another.” So says the artistic director, Matt Stabile, of Theatre Lab, who also happens to be directing the world premiere of Dorothy’s Dictionary by E.M. Lewis.

Before I offer you an introduction to the stellar season planned by New City Players, the Fort Lauderdale company I was invited to join in November of 2020: to say that the past two years haven’t been the easiest ones for the group may be a bit of an understatement. Aside from the pandemic’s far-reaching and long-lasting effects on the theatre industry as whole, an internal conflict during the summer of 2021 briefly threatened the company’s future, necessitating a concerted effort by company members to ensure their work could continue.