Classic Stories Brought to New Life

FST’s Children’s Theatre Series is back, and this season, all four shows celebrate the joy of reading and writing our own stories.

“This Season, we really wanted to focus on the power of storytelling and its importance in all of our lives,” said Caroline Saldivar, FST’s Director of Children’s Theatre. “Stories spark our imaginations, help us connect with one another, and shape our understanding of the world. So, we wanted to offer a variety of shows that could speak to everyone.”

The Series kicked off in September with an imaginative retelling of The Velveteen Rabbit, based on the classic children’s book by Margery Williams. This new adaptation of the beloved story was a 2020 Helen Hayes Award Finalist for Outstanding Play or Musical Adaptation.

Next in the Series is the audience favorite, Deck the Halls, FST’s annual holiday show that celebrates everything that makes Christmas and Hanukkah in Sarasota special. This interactive family show features all-new songs and sketches that will get you in the mood to celebrate the holidays in true Sarasota style: decorating palm trees and making snowmen in the sand.

“I love that Deck the Halls has become a tradition for families in our community,” said Caroline Saldivar, one of the show’s co-creators. “It is especially exciting to see children come back year after year and grow up right in front of our eyes in the audience.”

Next, audiences will experience the timeless fairy tale, Red Riding Hood, told with a comedic twist. When the famous actor Wolfgang is interrupted by a delivery driver with a mysterious package during his one-man production of “Little Red Riding Hood,” the actor and his unlikely partner must try to tell the story together. Two actors tackle all of the roles in this furiously fast and surprising adaptation of the famous fable, which asks us what it means to bravely write our own story.

Our Children’s Theatre Series wraps up with The Power of Peanut Butter & Other Winning Plays, a collection of short plays written by students in kindergarten through sixth grade during the 2023-2024 school year. Each year, about a dozen winning plays are selected from thousands of submissions to be mounted in a production, performed by professional actors.

These plays are currently being written by students not only in Sarasota, but around the world! FST’s award-winning WRITE A PLAY program reaches across the United States and beyond our borders to teach elementary school students how to embrace their inner creativity and write plays.

We invite you to experience these beloved stories in a new way and share them with a young person in your life at FST!

By Kacy Jones.

Header Image: Cast of FST's 2022 production of "Deck the Halls." Photo by John Jones.