Florida Studio Theatre Receives $60,000 Grant From The Shubert Foundation

Florida Studio Theatre has announced that it has received a $60,000 grant from The Shubert Foundation. The grant will be used for general operating support for Sarasota's Contemporary Theatre through the end of May 2021. Due to COVID-19, FST had to cancel the remainder of its Winter Season, its 2020 Summer Season, and postpone its annual Sarasota Improv Festival until 2021. These cancellations are projected to cost the theatre over $1.5 million in lost revenue. The Shubert Foundation's financial support will help the nonprofit theatre offset these sizeable financial losses.

"The awards this year represent a record number of grants," said Diana Phillips, President of The Shubert Foundation. "COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the field, creating the greatest need in the history of the foundation. We hope that the general operating support the foundation provides will be particularly meaningful at this uniquely difficult time."

This year, the Shubert Foundation awarded a total of $32 million in unrestricted funding to 560 not-for-profit performing arts organizations across the country. Since the Foundation's grants program was founded in 1977, over $505 million has been awarded to non-profit arts organizations.

The Foundation makes an effort to support professional theatre and dance companies, like FST, that develop and produce new American work. New Play Development is the lifeblood of FST. Within the past year, the theatre has commissioned four playwrights to create brand new plays inspired by the fight for women's suffrage and hired 33 artists across the country to write new plays, sketch comedy revues, and musical theater revues for the stage.

"The Shubert Foundation has been one of FST's most significant supporters for over 25 years," said Rebecca Hopkins, FST's Managing Director. "They have always understood the importance of general operating support in building the strength of the theatre. That they have continued their commitment this year means so much. The Shubert Organization is America's oldest professional theatre company and the largest theatre owner on Broadway. The Shubert Foundation supports non-profit professional theatres across the country. At a time when Broadway has been devastated by the pandemic, the foundation is continuing to support the field. To me, it speaks to why the name Shubert is iconic in the theatre world."