Players Centre announces target date for closing its current building

Six easels stood at the front of a meeting room in Lakewood Ranch on Thursday night. On each easel was a placard bearing the name of one of the shows in the Players Centre for Performing Arts’ 2018-19 mainstage season.

All except the last one. That placard merely promised “A Broadway blockbuster.”

As artistic director Jeffery Kin unveiled the season for the theater commonly but erroneously known as Sarasota Players, he explained the reason.

That last show is scheduled for March 28-April 14, 2019. If all goes according to plan, it will be the last production in the company’s longtime home on Tamiami Trail. The Players Centre is hoping to break ground on a spectacular new theater complex in Lakewood Ranch in early 2019. If everything is on schedule, Kin wants the last show in the old theater to be Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies,” a musical about performers reunited in a decrepit theater that’s about to be demolished. Kin said he’ll only produce “Follies” in March as it looks as though the company will move soon after. If not, there are other musicals that he has in mind.

Meanwhile, the rest of the season is set for sure: “Annie Get Your Gun” (Sept. 20-Oct. 7), “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” (Oct. 28-Nov. 11), “All Shook Up” (Dec. 6-23), “Hairspray” (Jan 17-Feb. 3, 2019), and “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” (Feb. 21- March 10, 2019).

For tickets information, call 941-365-2494 or go to theplayers.org.

This story was originally published January 4, 2018 at 9:19 PM with the headline "Players Centre announces target date for closing its current building."