Sarasota Jewish Theatre founder and artistic director is stepping down

Sarasota Jewish Theatre is launching its 2025-26 season with the bittersweet news that its co-founder and artistic director, Carole Kleinberg, will be stepping down at the end of the season. “I’m 88 years old. I’m tired,” says Kleinberg, about the decision.

Since reviving the Sarasota Jewish Theatre (SJT) in 2020 — at age 83 and after three years of planning — Kleinberg has been a dynamic force. Her "baby" is one of just 21 professional theaters outside Israel dedicated to Jewish issues and plays, down from 160 in 2020. “My goal was to make it recognized, respected and viable — and I think I’ve accomplished that,” she says.

Over the past five years, Kleinberg has succeeded in relaunching the theater company by tapping into local demand for Jewish-themed plays, elevating them to a professional level and addressing important issues through performance.

The hunt is on for her successor, but that’s up to SJT’s board of directors, says Kleinberg. She confirms that the search hasn’t gone national yet, and at least one local person was asked and declined to accept the position.

Kleinberg was prompted to revive the dormant Sarasota Jewish Theatre along with some friends after watching news coverage of the 2017 deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. She said she was so troubled by the antisemitism she was witnessing on TV that she had to act, literally.

Prior to founding SJT, whose first season was on Zoom because of COVID-19, Kleinberg was director of education and outreach for Asolo Repertory Theatre and artistic director for the Banyan Theatre. 

She came to Sarasota from Chicago, where she was a professor of theatre at Oakton Community College and was the lead director for mainstage productions at its performing arts center. 

Once she retires, however, Kleinberg plans join the SJT board, advise where she can, and continue hosting the SJT special program, “Be A Theatre Maven.”

The six shows in SJT’s 2025-26 season — the last season programmed by Kleinberg — represent a diverse blend of drama, historical adaptations and comedic fare.

The season kicks off Oct. 10-12 with “We’ve Got Short Shorts," two short plays by Bruce J. Bloom—“Daniel Ortega and Those Yom Kippur Blues” and “The Last Request of Eddie Carmichael/Cohen." Together, they explore faith, identity and the search for truth in unexpected places, from a Latino saloon to a nursing home deathbed. “These are fresh and joyful contemporary comedies about Jewish identity,” says Kleinberg.

On Oct. 17-19, SJT presents “I Never Saw Another Butterfly," a 45-minute adaptation of Celeste Raspanti’s two-act play of the same name. Based on a book of artwork created by children at the Terezin Concentration Camp during World War II, Kleinberg describes it as depicting “the healing power of art in the face of adversity.”

Produced in partnership with the Holocaust Education Program at the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee, Butterfly will also go on the road to area high schools during Holocaust Education Week in November.

New this year is the Howard Millman Performance Series, dedicating the latter three of the season’s plays to the theater titan who died in February.

Millman twice served as the leader of the Asolo Repertory Theatre. In his second stint as producing artistic director beginning in 1995, he’s credited with bringing the company from near collapse to both financial and artistic health.

“Howard made such an important contribution to our community. He deserves to be honored,” says Kleinberg. “He was also a founding member of SJT and an important advisor to me as I tried to make ‘the little Jewish engine that could.’ I will encourage the new artistic director to keep his memory alive,” she adds.

The Howard Millman Performance Series launches with “Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski,” on Feb. 4-15, a run bookended by the anniversary of Millman's death on Valentine's Day 2025. Michael Raver returns to SJT to play the protagonist in a cautionary tale about the dangers of complacency and how an “ordinary little man’’ can become a true hero, says Kleinberg.

Kleinberg describes “The Tale of the Allergist's Wife” by Charles Busch (March 4-15) as “a gloriously funny journey to self-discovery." It first launched Off-Broadway in February 2000 and moved to Broadway in November 2000 for 777 performances.

Giving a Zoom production a full-fledged run

The final show of the season is a revival of “Cherry Docs" on April 8-19. Named after the shoes worn by many white supremacists, the show centers on a jailed white supremacist being defended by a Jewish public attorney. “We produced 'Cherry Docs' on Zoom in our first season during the pandemic in 2020. I thought it deserved a wider audience and is particularly relevant right now,” says Kleinberg.

There are two special programs during the season: “Be A Theatre Maven” and the outreach series “Jewish Journeys.” The former invites audience members to explore the art and ideas behind each production. “I’m a retired — actually, twice retired,” notes Kleinberg. “I love the research and the educational opportunities that theater presents.”

“Jewish Journeys” represents an extension of SJT’s larger mission to produce plays and programs that express both the uniqueness and universality of Jewish heritage and cultural life. 

It takes a series of short plays— including the two featured in “Short Shorts”—into senior living centers, condo associations, assisted living facilities, synagogues and libraries. Each performance is followed by a lively talkback session, with the hope of “creating real dialogue about values, memory and forgiveness,” Kleinberg says..

Over the years, Kleinberg says she’s carefully chosen SJT’s main season plays, which are staged at The Sarasota Players space in The Crossings at Siesta Key mall, to strike “a balance between contemporary and older dramas and comedies focusing on important Jewish issues,” adding that most are by Jewish playwrights.

It’s a tricky puzzle, one that Kleinberg says was aided by Millman’s counsel. “Howard told me a long time ago that putting a season together is like playing three-dimensional chess,” she recalls. “He was absolutely right. It’s complicated, challenging, and a little scary.”