Rise Above Performing Arts finds a new home

To the casual observer, it may appear that the mall currently known as The Crossings at Siesta Key is going out of business as key tenants like Macy's depart in the wake of a redevelopment project. But step inside and you'll find that the mall is home to no less than three community theaters.

The 97-year-old Sarasota Players is due to move in the upcoming season to its forever home in Payne Park. But right now, it’s literally footsteps from Rise Above Performing Arts, a youth-oriented company that has just moved to a new space. Katherine Michelle Tanner’s Tree Fort Productions is just a short stroll away. Its classes, plays, cabarets and other events revolve around its charismatic founder.

As a visitor killed time before an appointment at Rise Above by shooting the breeze with box-office personnel at Sarasota Players, the question was: Will people confuse the Sarasota Players with the newly relocated Rise Above? 

The consensus seemed to be “no,” because the two companies have different names and are both well marked.

Forget what you’ve read about the death of the performing arts. It may be true elsewhere, but not in Sarasota.

 The town’s theater companies run the gamut from Asolo Repertory Theatre, Southwest Florida’s largest Actors Equity theater, to regional theaters such as Florida Studio Theatre to community theater, where actors and others volunteer.

On Saturday, Aug. 1, there wasn’t a ticket to be had at any of those places. Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe was performing at the International Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Summer Dawn Wallace’s Urbanite Theatre was dark. 

How do all these theaters survive? We posed that question to Rise Above’s founders Jacob Ruscoe and Brian Chinn. 

Courtesy image

Ruscoe, who is also an assistant principal at Southside Elementary School, didn’t really have an answer. He offered, “Sarasota is filled with talented people” and that locals and visitors want to avail themselves of all the cultural attractions on offer. 

Rather than looking over his shoulder at the competition, Ruscoe is laser-focused on the youth theater company that he founded 11 seasons ago with Chinn, whom he met in high school. A Realtor, Chinn serves on Rise Above’s board.

Their start-up youth theater company grew out of plays and musicals that Ruscoe helped produce when he was working at Ashton Elementary School. 

“Our student productions at Ashton were so successful, but then the kids had nowhere to go as they got older,” Ruscoe. “We decided to form a community theater that would give them more opportunity to grow.” 

Contrary to the conventional wisdom that shows starring children and teens will only attract audiences made up of family members, Ruscoe noted that 75% of the seats sold for Rise Above productions are purchased by patrons who are not relatives of cast members.

To allay fears students might not meet the expectations of those who have paid $37 for a Rise Above ticket, Ruscoe offers a money-back guarantee. In a decade, he’s never once been asked to make good on that promise.

Indeed, Rise Above’s success has given Ruscoe the faith in the future to move to a new space that will accommodate 193 patrons, up from 160 in its previous location in the mall. Did a big donor foot the bill? 

“We don’t have people who give us $100,000, but we get a lot of small donations,” Chinn says, as he moves around debris in the former restaurant that is being transformed into Rise Above’s new theater.

Ruscoe, who is chairman of the board as well as artistic director of Rise Above, says the pool of talented professionals who have retired to Sarasota provide support for Rise Above’s youth productions. Among those he cites are Toni Dentico.

A native of Buffalo, New York, Dentico was formerly a choreographer for St. Joseph Collegiate Institute’s Music Department and has won such awards as Miss Dance of America. 

Chinn’s expertise runs toward property and operations matters. During an interview, he points out an LED screen that’s been installed above the stage at Rise Above. “That’s the largest LED in Sarasota except for the one at Bayside Community Church,” he says. We’ll take his word for it.

An immersive experience

Playgoers will get to see that new screen in action when it provides the backdrop for Rise Above’s upcoming production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s “Into the Woods.” The fairy-tale driven musical runs Aug. 13-16 and Aug. 20-23 at Rise Above’s new space.

Even if you’re not a diehard Sondheim fan, “Into the Woods” may sound familiar to you. That’s because it was performed by the Sarasota Players in 2025, with an adult cast.

An LED backdrop promises to give Rise Above’s “Into the Woods” a more immersive feel than the Sarasota Players’ in-the-round production. But Ruscoe doesn’t see the nearly century-old community theater as competition for Rise Above.

When there is some overlap in the productions staged by the neighboring companies, that can be beneficial because they can help each other with loans of props and furniture. 

“They’re using some of our stuff from when we did ‘Hadestown,’ and they’re letting us borrow their ‘Sweeney Todd’ chair when we do ‘Sweeney Todd’ in June,” Ruscoe says. “We’ve had a great rapport.”

At first glance, Rise Above may appear more accessible to students without resources. The Players Studio charges $600 tuition for its courses and holds a “graduation” production. 

But in reality, students are never turned away because they can’t afford to pay, says Thayer Greenberg, Sarasota Players managing artistic director and director of education at the Players Studio. 

At Rise Above, there is no charge to prepare for a show, but students must audition for roles. 

If they don’t get the part, Ruscoe encourages them to try again. “We want our actors to keep trying to improve themselves,” he says.

Greenberg notes that auditions are also required at the Players Studio, even for those who have paid tuition. 

“Theater kids love drama and play up competition, but I don’t see it that way. I’m in favor of arts education wherever it takes place,” she says. 

And it’s clearly happening all over in Sarasota. Is there a better place to be a theater kid?