Hermitage Artist Retreat strengthens its ties with Broadway

It’s a little over 1,200 miles from the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Englewood to the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in New York City, but the distance feels a lot shorter now that the arts incubator has signed a development deal for musicals with the theater’s owner, Manhattan Theatre Club.

Recent wins by alums of the Hermitage have also helped raise visibility for the retreat, which is run by Artistic Director and CEO Andy J. Sandberg. 

In June, Hermitage Fellow Bess Wohlman became the first woman in nearly 40 years to win the Tony Award for Best Play. She won for “Liberation,” which she partially wrote at the Hermitage during her fellowship on Manasota Key. The last time a woman took home Best Play Tony Award was in 1989, when Wendy Wasserstein won for “The Heidi Chronicles.”

Wohl’s Tony for “Liberation,” a tale about a women’s consciousness-raising group set in 1970s Ohio, follows her Pulitzer Prize for the same work. Clearly, great things are coming out of those cottages on the beach in Englewood, and the world is noticing. Wohl is just one of many Hermitage Fellows who have used their time in Florida to develop plays, literature, visual artwork, music and more.

The Hermitage’s new agreement with Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC), one of New York’s leading nonprofit theater companies, will provide playwrights with time and space in Florida to develop musicals.

“We are excited to be launching this collaboration with Manhattan Theatre Club,” Sandberg said in a statement. “We are proud to be an incubator for new works across all artistic disciplines, with many notable musicals being developed right here on Manasota Key. As our friends at MTC deepen their commitment to commissioning new musicals, this partnership provides a meaningful development step on this journey for some of the leading composers, lyricists and librettists of our time.”

Since joining Hermitage in 2020, Sandberg has kept his own performing career alive in addition to serving as an arts administrator. 

“We are thrilled to be partnering with the Hermitage to provide meaningful development opportunities to our commissioned musicals,” said MTC Artistic Director Nicki Hunter in a statement. 

Hunter added: “One of my hopes for MTC’s future is that we can continue to build upon our rich legacy as a home for new plays by also developing exciting world-premiere musicals. Being able to offer this group of talented artists the opportunity to develop these works at the Hermitage is particularly meaningful.”

The first two musicals commissioned through the initiative between The Hermitage and MTC are “The Orange Grove,” with a book by Lindsey Ferrentino and original music by Sam Beam, also known as Iron & Wine, and “It’s All Relative,” with a book by Sofya Levitsky-Weitz and music and lyrics by Benjamin Velez.

A modern retelling of Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard,” “The Orange Grove” follows a fruit farm in Florida on the verge of collapse.

“It’s All Relative” zeroes in on the weekly brainstorming sessions that Albert Einstein and his first wife and collaborator, Mileva Mari, held with their friends to explore the nature of the universe and humanity’s place within it.

MTC recently presented a new version of “Queens,” by Hermitage Greenfield Prize winner Martyna Majok, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Cost of Living” was also presented on Broadway by MTC.

Other creatives whose work was nurtured by the Hermitage and presented by MTC include two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (“Ruined"), Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright David Auburn (“Proof”) and Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson (“Lackawanna Blues”).

As part of their Hermitage Fellowships, artists agree to share their works-in-progress with the local community, often in tandem with fellows in other disciplines. These programs take place on Hermitage Beach, Marie Selby Gardens in downtown Sarasota and elsewhere.

 On June 22, Ferrentino (“The Fear of 13”) and Beam, a Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter, appeared on the Hermitage Beach on Manasota Key for a sunset performance called “Script & Song: A Beachfront Evening of Theater and Music.”