Tree Fort Productions takes a recovery road trip, one classic car at a time

Former Vice President Mike Pence got some pushback for not taking one-on-one meetings with women because it made his wife uncomfortable. But that was just one high-profile example of the chill that has been slowly descending over male-female relations in this century.

For a number of reasons, society has made it harder for men and women to fraternize on a platonic basis. Of course, the French would say romance is always a possibility, but that’s the French.

With her play, “Notes From the Dashboard,” Tree Fort Productions Projects founder Katherine Michelle Tanner opens up communication between the sexes. Her play explores a cross-generational friendship between an older man and a younger woman who are in different stages of recovery.

Too often when theatergoers hear the word “recovery,” they immediately assume they’re going to be subjected to a stern morality tale. But Sean Daniels proved that notion wrong with his humorous semi-autobiographical play, “The White Chip,” which ran at Florida Studio Theatre in 2024 and has since crossed the pond to London.

In an interview, Tanner didn’t reveal the recovery aspect of “Notes From the Dashboard,” which premieres Jan. 9-25 at Tree Fort Productions’ space in The Crossings at Siesta Key mall. She didn’t want any spoilers. 

However, in a separate interview, director Lee Gundersheimer discussed the affinities between the two characters in the play.

Besides staying sober, Vanessa (Tanner) and Miles (Don Walker) share a love of classic cars. Tanner divides her play into vignettes based on six cars — a black ’42 Ford Coupe, a turquoise ’57 Oldsmobile, a red ’63 Chevy pickup, a hunter green 1970 Chevelle, a white ’83 Mercury Cougar and a maroon ’63 Pontiac Bonneville.’

Meeting at an intersection of life

When the curtain rises on a spare set decorated with road signs, it’s not clear what has brought two strangers together. “They meet at an intersection of life,” Tanner says. “You don’t know what brought them there. That gets unveiled.”

At Tree Fort Productions, a theater training company founded in 2013 that became a full-fledged company in 2023, Tanner has been taking a repertory approach. She’s been working with actors and directors she has gotten to know in Sarasota since earning her MFA at FSU/Asolo Conservatory in 2004.

Her “Notes From the Dashboard” co-star Walker directed her in “Time Stands Still” at the now-defunct Banyan Theater Company in 2013. Nearly a decade later, the roles were reversed as Tanner directed Walker in “Tuesdays With Morrie” in 2022 at the Sarasota Jewish Theatre.

“Dashboard” director Gundersheimer is a Miami native who came to Sarasota for a short-lived position as artistic director at The Players (now The Sarasota Players). He met Tanner when he auditioned for the role of a talent agent in James C. Ferguson’s “Deep Freeze,” which she directed for Theatre Odyssey’s 2022 One-Act Play Festival.

As the producer of the One-Act Play Festival and the Ten-Minute Play Festival (Jan. 8-11, 2026), Theatre Odyssey is a fulcrum for theater in Sarasota, bringing together actors who go on to work on other projects.

Since appearing in “Deep Freeze,” Gundersheimer has  collaborated again with Tanner and other Theatre Odyssey players, including Walker and Annie Morrison, now playing the lead in a national tour of “Kimberly Akimbo.”

It was at a reading at Tree Fort that Gundersheimer became reacquainted with Tanner’s mentor and friend Morrison, whom he hadn’t seen in 40 years. As undergrads at Florida State, Gundersheimer and Morrison were both selected to be apprentices at Burt Reynolds’ theater in Jupiter, Florida.

“Katherine can’t afford to have a repertory company per se at Tree Fort, but she does like to work with people that she’s established trust with,” Gundersheimer says. 

His first big role at Tree Fort was as the painter Mark Rothko in a homegrown production of John Logan’s Broadway hit “Red,” which Tanner directed in her maiden 2023-24 theater season.

While some of the plays and musicals Tanner produces at Tree Fort are licensed, others are original. Some are written by Tanner herself. “Notes From The Dashboard” had been percolating for years but came to life in a matter of days, she says.

“The idea came to me on an airplane flight many years ago,” Tanner recalls. “I wrote down a timeline and notes. It just wouldn’t leave me. Finally last April, I wrote the whole script in 72 hours. I sent it to Lee, who said, ‘you have to do this.’”

Tanner describes the relationship between Miles and Vanessa in “Dashboard” as a mentor/mentee situation. But unlike the traditional Pygmalion tale, where an older, wiser man shapes the life of a younger female, the balance of power between the two characters isn’t totally unequal. Vanessa has some life experience under her belt.

The Pygmalion storyline reached its peak in the Hollywood film, “My Fair Lady.” In that version, Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) turns a Covent Garden flower girl (Audrey Hepburn) into a “lady” ready to mingle with the British upper class. Of course, they fall in love.

But in “Dashboard,” Vanessa isn’t helpless and she doesn’t fall  for her mentor.

Although Miles has plenty of wisdom to share with his younger friend, she brings a lot to the table — or classic car discussion, if you will. 

Most important, says Gundersheimer, their journey leaves the audience changed. For many, that is the true definition of art.