COVID-19 Affects South Florida Theater Operations to this Day

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. 

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“Dorothy’s Dictionary,” A Play About Hope and Connection

“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.

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A Peek Behind the Curtain Into New City Player’s Next Season

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. 

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CENSORSHIP – HOW IT ALWAYS HURTS AND NEVER SAVES

I’m going to make this brief – 

It is 2022, and Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz has been banned by the Miami Dade County  Public School System, prohibiting any schools from taking their students to experience this  Pulitzer Prize winning play. 

This unwarranted act of censorship is something that one would hope we had grown out  of, but as the world has shown us, nothing is safe. 

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ISLAND CITY STAGE’S BEHIND THE RED CURTAIN COMMUNITY FORUM SERIES RETURNS FOR 11TH SEASON WITH “SECRETS OF A BEAUTY QUEEN: NO TEA, NO SHADE” ON SEPTEMBER 28

Produced in Conjunction with The Miss Florida F.I. Pageant, This Special Event Will Precede the Opening of Pageant in October…

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (September 14, 2022) – Island City Stage, creating quality professional theatrical experiences focused on the LGBT+ community for a universal audience, has announced its 11th South Florida Season, and with it, the return of its popular Behind the Red Curtain community forum series. On September 28, from 6 – 7:30 p.m., the theater company, together with the Miss Florida F.I. (Florida Impersonator) Pageant, will present “Secrets of a Beauty Queen: No Tea, No Shade,” an entertaining, insightful and sometimes outrageous peek into the world of drag beauty pageants. This program will set the celebratory mood for Island City Stage’s October 20 opening of the glittering, grandiose and glorious comedy Pageant.

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The Life of Virtual Theatre in an Ongoing Post-Pandemic World

Written by: Luis Herrera

On March 12, 2020, theatre as we knew it was shut down and forever changed…

Now I know what you’re thinking, you know this story, you lived through it, but please, bear with me. After that fateful day in 2020, theatre would never be the same, it couldn’t be. What makes theatre the engrossing, heart wrenching medium that it is, has always been  the live aspect. The in-person shared experience that we as a people go through every  time we sit down at a theatre for the next play, musical, performance… But after March 12th, that was no longer possible.  

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Breaking Up Is Hard To Do with Barry Pearl and Christine Pedi

South Florida Theater Magazine interviewed the cast of Breaking Up Is Hard To Do showing at the Wick Theatre.



This smash hit musical celebrates the timeless songwriting of the legendary Neil Sedaka! Our host, Jessie Dez, spoke with Barry Pearl, who everyone remembers as Doody in the smash movie blocker Grease and Christine Pedi, Broadway star and Sirius XM radio host of On Broadway. Breaking Up Is Hard To Do runs for 5 weeks only – April 21st to May 15th, 2022 at the Wick Theatre! Tickets available at
https://ci.ovationtix.com/35559/produ… https://southfloridatheater.com/
Host/Editor: Jessie Dez