- November 7, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
Prior to the ceremonial groundbreaking for Florida Studio Theatre’s McGillicuddy Arts Plaza, organizers literally set the stage with all the theatrical production value one might expect.
Following a reception in the Green Room Cafe, which included continental breakfast and mimosas in the The Hegner Theatre Wing, FST patrons gathered in the Gompertz Theatre where, beneath the bright lights of the stage, delivered comments were in front of a projected rendering of the 8-story, $57 million mixed-use project.
“This has been a decade in the making, if you talk about the first time we ever mentioned it to the board when we started discussing it, to where we are today,” said FST Managing Director Rebecca Hopkins. “Together, we have worked to overcome pandemics and inflation, and we're signing a contract so it will stop the inflation.”
The preliminary event presented an opportunity for the organization to thank patrons and donors to the project, which will expand FST’s facilities to add a second mainstage theater, two more cabaret venues and a 125-space parking deck beneath affordable apartments to house touring performers and performing arts organization employees.
Florida Studio Theatre began as a touring company that found a permanent home in downtown, taking over the former Woman’s Club on First Street in 1983 and converting it into a 72-seat theater on a $100,000 budget.
“We wanted to make great contemporary theater that our friends could afford,” Producing Artistic Director Richard Hopkins told the audience. “We built a six-show subscription and sold it for $18. For my mathematically challenged artist friends, that's $3 a ticket.”
With decades of following that high-quality, high-volume, low-price model, Hopkins said FST has built the third-largest subscription-based theater company in the country, following only the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the Lincoln Center in New York City.
To provide opportunities for more patrons and support continued growth, FST is adding 144,000 square feet of performance space, structured parking and on-site residential units for actors and arts workers. The Arts Plaza will be next to the Hegner Theatre Wing on First Street over what was previously non-paved parking.
The McGillicuddy Arts Plaza is named in honor of Dennis and Graci McGillicuddy, who for four decades have been involved in guiding FST’s growth. Dennis McGillicuddy is president of the FST Board of Trustees. Graci McGillicuddy, a child welfare advocate, was recently honored by the Republican Party of Sarasota County honored with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Florida Studio Theatre is a thriving and vibrant organization dedicated to serving our audiences and our community at large by continuing our tradition of being inclusive and authentic,” Dennis McGillicuddy told the audience, adding he and Graci were moved to tears when the learned of their namesake. “Graci and I believe in the transformative power of theater, and we've been so blessed to experience that first-hand time and again.”
