A son of the theater helps a venue come into its own

In January 2025, the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players brought the Victorian musical "H.M.S. Pinafore" to the 1,700-seat Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. Later in the year, the company performed a stripped-down version of "The Pirates of Penzance" at the 260-seat Glenridge Performing Arts Center. 

A smaller G&S show required a more intimate theater, but the players and the level of professionalism was the same in both instances.

Most arts fans in Sarasota are familiar with the Van Wezel, an eye-catching venue on Sarasota Bay that has been known both as the “Purple Palace” and the “Purple Cow” since it opened in 1970. Love it or hate it (its lack of a middle aisle can be frustrating), the Van Wezel is a Sarasota landmark.

Located eight miles from downtown in the middle of The Glenridge On Palmer Ranch retirement community, the Glenridge Performing Arts Center doesn’t have the same profile in the entertainment world as the Van Wezel.

Indeed, the venue isn’t usually on the radar of tourists and snowbirds unless a show they want to see is playing there. But that’s been happening more often, thanks to Ben Turoff, who’s been managing GPAC since 2006.

When he took over, the Glenridge stage was dominated by classical music and community theater shows aimed at residents. These days, the palette of performances is more variegated and draws visitors from off campus.

Turoff is the son of Robert and Roberta Turoff, founders of the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre, a mainstay of Sarasota theater for more than 40 years until it closed for good in 2013. The Golden Apple may be gone, but it lives on in the libretto of local cabaret shows and ad libbed community theater dialogue.

Forgot your line when your character is asked, “Whatever happened to Nancy?”?

“I hear she’s working down in Florida at a place called the Golden Apple Dinner Theater” is always good for a laugh or two from Sarasota audiences.

But as old-timers go to their eternal rest and newcomers arrive in droves, memories of old-time Sarasota, built on John Ringling’s circus, GI Bill-backed artists and theaters such as the Golden Apple are in danger of fading away.

Even though he presides over a relatively new theater and an upgraded restaurant, The Kiltie Grill, Ben Turoff embodies the traditions and gentility of those bygone days.

Introducing a Jan. 25 concert of banjo virtuoso Cynthia Sayer, Turoff tells a packed house, “There’s only one act I’ve booked every year in the 19 years since I’ve been at Glenridge, and you’re about to see her.”

When Sayer takes the stage, the recent winner of the prestigious Steve Martin Banjo Prize muses out loud, “Has it really been that long? It all goes by so fast.”

Sayer proceeds to introduce her mother and other family members in the crowd, much the way Turoff acknowledged his father’s birthday on Nov. 8, the night New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players brought their one-act “Pirates of Penzance” to GPAC, the acronym for the theater.

Sayer started performing at Glenridge before her parents retired there. What keeps her coming back?

“Ben has made this place a beautiful performing arts center,” Sayer says, referring to GPAC. “It’s easy to relate to him because he was a performer himself. He’s not just an administrator. He’s very involved. There’s an advantage in that. He has a certain eye.”

During a recent interview, as a reporter starts to draw Turoff out about his showbiz roots with the first line of Judy Garland’s “Born in a Trunk,” Turoff doesn’t miss a beat and picks up the tune himself. “I wasn’t born in a trunk, but pretty close to it,” he adds, noting he arrived in this world when his parents were on the road.

“The theater is my home. It always has been and always will be,” said Turoff during a December interview, right after he’d been drafted on the fly to play Santa Claus on one of Glenridge’s units.

But even though he’s been in his job nearly 20 years and attracts name acts like The Kingston Trio (a sellout Jan. 7), The Four Freshmen (Feb. 22) and The Yale Whiffenpoofs (March 1), Turoff still has to deal with some misconceptions when it comes to his venue.

The biggest one is that performances aren’t open to outsiders or that it’s difficult to get to GPAC. Eight miles can seem far to those who stay in their neighborhood, even though Sarasota theater fans routinely travel 60 miles to Tampa’s Straz Center for the Performing Arts.

 Turoff’s got a secret weapon to help outsiders feel welcome and to encourage Glenridge residents to leave their homes and come to the building that houses GPAC, the Kiltie Grill, The Thistle Stop lounge and an art gallery. Her name is Samantha Harris and she manages the GPAC box office.

When he takes the stage to introduce his entertainers, Turoff tells the audience that Glenridge is unique because when you call the box office, you “get a live person” instead of a recording.

He smoothly promotes upcoming headliners, including Chipper Lowell, “a magician who is a comedian or a comedian who is a magician, we don’t which,” who’s performing Feb. 15.

Taking a test drive with a concert

In many ways, GPAC is a marketing opportunity to potential Glenridge residents. Taking in a show is often part of the tour for couples and individuals deciding whether to retire to Glenridge.

At a reception following a rapturous Dec. 17  performance by Seraphic Fire, an eavesdropper was privy to bits of conversation: “I’ve lived here for just a month and I have more friends than I’ve ever had in my life,” and “This level of friendliness would drive me nuts.” 

At the Kiltie Grill, a couple from New Jersey who didn’t want to be named asked a visitor, “Why would you come to a concert here?”

Well, tops on the list would be the chance to see big-name acts in a comfortable, intimate setting.

What could compare to watching GPAC audience members try to stump New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players Artistic Director James Mills with a request he didn’t know? One person nearly succeeded, as Mills had to consult his iPad. Here was an audience that knew G&S, chapter and verse!

Tartan alert: Stay away from the Glenridge if you’re not a fan of all things Scotland. The Highlands references could drive a lass crazy.

But the Scottish love of a bargain is apparent in the reasonable prices for GPAC seats  ($30) and in the Kiltie Grill, where tipping isn’t allowed. That’s reason enough to “haste ye back” to Glenridge.