Orchestra left; Shakespeare arrived
Comings and goings also involve the Show Palace and the Arts Council.
By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
Published December 27, 2006
This year marked major departures and arrivals on the Pasco County arts and entertainment scene.
In August, the Florida Orchestra announced that after 10 years of holding a concert series at the Center for the Arts at River Ridge, the music group would no longer be coming to Pasco. The three-concert series had started in 1997 with nearly every seat in the 900-seat auditorium sold.
Even so, the concerts did not generate enough revenue to pay for bringing the orchestra to Pasco County, said publicist Greg Musselman.
"We were taking in less than one-half (of) what we needed just to break even," he said. The orchestra could no longer subsidize a Pasco series, despite a devoted audience.
The next month, though, entertainment prospects took a brighter turn when the Show Palace Dinner Theatre and Ruth Eckerd Hall announced an agreement whereby the Hudson theater would become a "satellite venue" for the larger Clearwater theater.
This means that Eckerd's entertainment division will bring big-name performers and shows to the Hudson theater regularly. It's the first time that Eckerd has partnered with a for-profit dinner theater.
So far, entertainment director Bob Robbi has booked comedian Joe Piscopo, 1970s rockers Sha Na Na and film and television star Tony Danza at the Show Palace in the early part of 2007, with more to come.
"The shows are all selling very well," said Nick Sessa, co-owner of the Show Palace.
Another departure
Another 10-year run ended in early 2006, when the executive director of the Pasco Arts Council, Marj Golub, decided to leave to pursue a business venture she had been interested in for some time.
Golub initiated several highly successful programs at the center during her tenure and established an continuing series of art shows that attracted well-known artists and sculptors.
The new executive director is Ann Larsen, who researched the center's first permanent collection, the works of the late sculptor Vladmir Yoffe, and who has a long history in the fine and performing arts fields.
Other arrivals
In January, Broadway legend Carol Channing played to a packed house at Spartan Manor in New Port Richey.
In February, the first-ever Shakespeare on the River festival in Sims Park drew hundreds of people to see a slightly modernized version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, watch the members of the Society for Creative Anachronism's fashion show and sword fights, and listen to talks on Shakespeare.
The success of the event has prompted Richey Suncoast Theatre and the city of New Port Richey to plan a second installment, in mid February 2007.