Sanibel School House Theatre Now Part of Big Arts

If you missed the news, the Herb Strauss School House Theater is now a member of the Big Arts family. The move which took place in late Spring provides the Theater with a management, marketing and volunteer base and provides Big Arts with a theater capacity. It's certainly a win-win for the two organizations, and the theater going public will be the biggest winner of all as this helps to assure the continuation of quality theatrical productions.

Just as exciting, a $1 million challenge grant to the BIG ARTS Endowment Fund has been pledged by island residents John and Mary Jo Boler, who are benefactors of both The Schoolhouse Theater Foundation and BIG ARTS. Steve and Debbie Klug along with the Klug Family Foundation pledged to match the first $500,000 of the Boler’s gift to secure the $1 million endowment to specifically support the theater operations in perpetuity.




The second half of the matching grant ($500,000) will be raised by BIG ARTS and used to support the full range of BIG ARTS programs. The conditions of the gifts include that the annual earnings of the $1 million endowment will support theater operations and the direction of the theater will be under volunteer Program Chair Art Cassell, former president of The Schoolhouse Theater Foundation.



And clearly demonstrating the spectacular programing the Theater has produced, the roster of entertainment for this coming season is sure to please a wide variety of guests and residents.



Playing now until November 6, Songs for a New World, is a musical that has been captivating audiences since its opening Off-Broadway in 1995. The Tony Award®-winning composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brown says of his Songs for a New World, “It’s about one moment. It’s about hitting the wall and having to make a choice.” The show is a collection of songs connected by the theme of embracing the moment. Brown transports his audience from the deck of a 1492 Spanish sailing ship, to 1775 colonial America with a flag maker at work, to present day in the Bronx, where a young man dreams of life as a basketball star. Soaring melodies and irresistible rhythms mark a wide range of songs influenced by jazz, pop, and gospel.



And there's much, much more to come.


Comedies and musicals, inventive and inviting, will be running all the way to the end of April.


Curious? Then click here: http://www.bigarts.org/theatre.php


The staff and management of Sanibel Holiday wishes the best to Big Arts and the Theater on their new relationship and the truly exhilarating roster they have put together.