Richard Russ News

Sarasota Opera announced its 2017/18 Fall and Winter Festival Season today at a press conference held on the Sarasota Opera House main stage in Sarasota, FL. The event was overseen by Maestro Victor DeRenzi, artistic director and principal conductor, and Richard Russell, Executive Director.

Thrilling music, exciting new voices, and compelling theater will launch Sarasota Opera into its 58th Winter Festival Season on Saturday, February 11th, 2017. This will be the company's first season in 28 years to not include any operas by Giuseppe Verdi.

Peninsula Players Theatre will host the first of three play readings Monday, February 6 at 7 p.m. when it presents Michael Perry's "Population 485" at Bjorklunden, 7590 Boynton Lane, Baileys Harbor.

For the first time, Sarasota Opera and the Sarasota chapter of the Alliance Francaise will partner to present a free program entitled "Dialogues of the Carmelites: Beyond the Stage" on Wednesday, February 15th at 7pm in the Kamlet Library at the Sarasota Opera House. 

Peninsula Players Theatre announces the 2017 season of The Play's the Thing, a winter play reading series presented to Door County audiences. 

Jacqueline E. Lawton's new political thriller Intelligence makes its world premiere at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Under the direction of Daniella Topol (Round House's Ironbound), Intelligence explores the cost of deception and the consequences of speaking truth to power. Due to popular demand, the production has been extended for one week with eight additional performances and will run February 24-April 9, 2017 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle.

Sarasota Opera is casting to find three children (boy or girl) to portray Butterfly's son in the 2017 Winter production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

Sarasota Opera and the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Englewood, FL will collaborate once again on a series of talks to be held at the Sarasota Opera House.

Sarasota Opera and the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Englewood, FL will collaborate once again on a series of talks to be held at the Sarasota Opera House.

Right at the start of Robert Schenkkan's mesmerizing Tony Award-winning play ALL THE WAY---now playing in an outstanding new production at Orange County's South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through October 2---actor Hugo Armstrong is introduced in what would become one of the most powerful, fiery acting performances I have witnessed on this very stage. Commanding, and yet remarkably relatable without ever traversing caricature, Armstrong deftly portrays one of American History's most complex leaders, our 36th President, Lyndon B. Johnson. Armstrong's powerhouse portrayal is the explosive epicenter of a richly dense, dialogue-heavy drama that recounts the rocky 11-month period leading up to Johnson's re-election as the leader of the world's most powerful nation. The play spends its entirety focusing on this contentious time which finds Johnson pushing for the passage of the Civl Rights Act---which itself incites a tug-of-war between his longtime pro-segregation Dixiecrat friends and the African-American community lobbying for rights that have been long overdue.

Today, September 10, 2016, Sarasota Opera will open its doors for the 3rd annual Taste of Downtown Food & Wine Festival at the Sarasota Opera House.

HBO Home Entertainment celebrates today's (September 6th) DVD with Digital HD and Blu-ray with Digital HD release of the critically acclaimed ALL THE WAY.

Saturday, September 10, 2016, Sarasota Opera will open its doors for the 3rd annual Taste of Downtown Food & Wine Festival at the Sarasota Opera House.

After a nationwide search, Sarasota Opera is proud to announce that composer/librettist Rachel J. Peters has been commissioned to compose Sarasota Youth Opera's next world premiere. Ms. Peter's opera, Rootabaga Country, which is being written now and will have its premiere in November 2017, was selected over 12 other submissions. This will be the sixth opera commissioned by the Sarasota Youth Opera program.

HBO Home Entertainment celebrates today's (July 11th) Digital HD release and the September 6th DVD with Digital HD and Blu-ray with Digital HD release of the critically acclaimed ALL THE WAY.

HBO Home Entertainment has announced the July 11th Digital HD and September 6th DVD with Digital HD and Blu-ray with Digital HD release of the critically acclaimed ALL THE WAY.

Bryan Cranston, Anthony Mackie were live in Times Square this morning to discuss their roles in the new HBO film, ALL THE WAY.

Robert Schenkkan's Tony Award-winning drama ALL THE WAY, about President Lyndon Baines Johnson's impassioned struggle to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, makes its Washington, D.C. debut at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. ALL THE WAY runs now through May 8, 2016 in the Fichandler Stage. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivities below!

Alley Theatre and Dallas Theater Center's co-production of ALL THE WAY, the Tony Award-winning play about President Lyndon Baines Johnson, starring Brandon Potter in the title role, continues at Dallas Theater Center through this Sunday, March 27, 2016. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!