- December 5, 2025
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Florida Studio Theatre has received a $150,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County to support the naming of the main stage sound and lights booth in the planned McGillicuddy Arts Plaza. Honoring the legacy of the late Muriel O’Neil, the CFSC’s Muriel O’Neil Fund provides the gift for the Performing Arts.
Upon retiring to Sarasota after accomplished careers, sisters Muriel O’Neil and Gertrude Hight immersed themselves in the city’s arts community, focusing on forging connections with local organizations. O’Neil, who had written and published with American Heritage and The New York Times, died in 2013. To continue their shared dedication to the arts, Hight established the Muriel O’Neil Fund for the Arts.
The grant continues a longstanding partnership between FST and the Foundation. In 2018, The Muriel O’Neil Fund also provided essential support to renovate FST’s Arnold Simonsen and Ronda Montminy Theatre Wing and the Roberta Leventhal Sudakoff Theatre Wing. The new grant will create and name a state-of-the-art mainstage sound and light booth in a new mainstage theater.
The new mainstage theater is part of the $57 million McGillicuddy Arts Plaza planned for FST property next to its current facilities on First Street between Cocoanut Avenue and North Tamiami Trail.
“The mainstage sound and light booth is where all the magic comes together in real time,” said FST Producing Artistic Director Richard Hopkins in a news release. “It’s the unseen hub that controls the lights, the sound and the seamless flow of production. To have Muriel O’Neil’s name there presiding over every cue and every performance is a beautiful way to honor her enduring passion for the arts.”
As part of this gift, a commemorative plaque will be installed in the McGillicuddy Arts Plaza. The Community Foundation will collaborate with FST to design and install the plaque.
The McGillicuddy Arts Plaza will expand FST’s artistic footprint with two new cabaret theaters, a second mainstage, artist housing and parking.
“Because of this generous support from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, we are one step closer to realizing this important vision,” Hopkins said in the release. “Muriel O’Neil’s legacy lives on through every artist we support, every audience member we inspire and every production we bring to life.”
