Building Dreams, Breaking Barriers: Kristen Coury on Vision, Grit & the Power of Theatre

We're joined by the brilliant Kristen Coury, the visionary Founder, CEO, and Producing Artistic Director of Gulfshore Playhouse. Prepare to be inspired as Kristen recounts her incredible journey—from vibrant New York City dreams to creating a thriving artistic haven right here in Naples, Florida. She'll share the fun, the challenges, and the sheer force of personality that has built this cultural gem. Tune in to hear how Kristen's bold vision and even bigger heart define what it means to be a truly good person making a monumental difference!

Transcript

Kristen Coury, the Theatrical Trailblazer_ Bringing the Gulfshore Playhouse to life!

[00:00:00] I won about $30,000 on a game show. Wow. My dad took it, 'cause I was still in college. He was like, I'll take that. Thank you. He gave it back to me when I graduated and he said, you have a choice ahead of you. You could do something stupid, like buy a car or you could do something that's gonna change your life.

And so I decided to move to London for a year on that money, which broke down to after paying rent that I had about 17 pounds a day to spend for the whole year that I was there. And I ended up at some theater company and they were like, what earth would we want to hire you in American? And I was like, well, because I'll work for free and uh, and I'm smart and I'll be helpful.

Theater people to me are like magic unicorns. They're very skilled, they're very usually very passionate. They're very multi-talented. There's like this whole but m bum thing about comedy. You know? It's math. And so if you go and the other person goes, they're not gonna laugh. But if you go and the other person goes, ah.

They'll, they're gonna laugh. I opened the, the cabinet and then, so that check was pasted in there to golf show playoffs, $10 million. Patty and j Baker and I ripped it down and I said, [00:01:00] uh, this doesn't work. And somebody can come two hours before the show and get a rush ticket for half price so they can really watch a Broadway level quality show for $17 and 50 cents.

So the actors are the ones on the stage really bringing the characters to life. A director is a very mysterious career path for people. The reason why I think that is, is because directors are invisible. Hey everyone, and welcome back to the spotlight on good people, where we shine a light on humans that are making the world a more compassionate and connected and kind place.

So today's guest is the force behind one of Southwest Florida's most exciting artistic institutions. She's a visionary, a builder, a creative powerhouse, and one of the most inspiring leaders in the arts. Kristen Cory is the founder, CEO, and producing artistic director. Of Gulf Shore Playhouse. We're here on site at their brand new state-of-the-Art Baker Theater and Education Center.

A dream more than a decade in the making. It's such an [00:02:00] honor to be here. It's an honor to be here with you. Yeah. I, I think our community is so blessed to have someone like you and it, and, uh, this is a real honor for us to get to a chance to get inside your head and to hear what makes you tick and so, so sweet of you.

How this made all this happen, which is really special for our community. You did wonderful things and are doing wonderful things for this pleasant field that we live in, which I call Naples. Anyway, that's very kind of you. Thank you. I go back to the beginning of it all. Where are you? How did you end up here?

Where are you from? Um, I grew up in upstate New York. The age old question is what made you a theater person? Uh, you would think my dad was an impresario and my mother was a diva or something. Um, not none, none. None of that could be further from the truth. I grew up in regular middle class America, um, all along Route 90 and upstate New York, between Buffalo and Albany, uh, and everywhere in between.

And I, the only two things that I can chalk up why I have such a deep passion for theater and why I love it so much is [00:03:00] because I started watching Sesame Street at the age of three or younger. I don't even know. But, um, I was absolutely addicted to Sesame Street and even. You know what I remember of Sesame Street, you know, they teach you the letters and they teach you the numbers and all that, but they were using, at least back then when I was little was, was what I now realize as Broadway type songs.

You know, it's like LA what's the name of that song? You know? And that's like a Broadway tune right there, you know? And I think I just must have started loving it. My dad was addicted to MGM musicals, so he would watch every MGM musical. He could, you know, he came across whenever he would click and find one and sang in the car all the time.

But your dad would. But other than that, yeah. But other than that, I don't know. I mean, we went to plays, we went to shows, we went to the concerts. As I was a kid, it wasn't like forced upon me. It wasn't like, we must go to this museum. We're gonna go on a trip and see a show, you know? But it was, it was there, it was accessible to me.

And I always remember loving it. You know, seeing Annie when I was, you know, 10 years old or 12 years old as a kid at my local performing arts center [00:04:00] was so exciting. And so as in high school, I just started to get into it. More from the behind the, I was always more behind the scenes. Mm-hmm. You know, I was a terrible actress even when I was 16.

So I was selling tickets and making posters and trying to sell the shows, you know, and doing all that, helping stage manage and doing whatever I could do as in high school and ultimately majored in it in college and, you know, the rest is history, I guess, you know. So were you on stage in anything in high school?

Did you get a, you know, I did it, of course. I was always like third ensemble creature from the left. And then, um, in college I wanted to major in theater, but I majored in acting and directing because you have to, you know, you could, there was no, at least where I went to school, there was no just strict, strict directing major.

So it was majoring in theater with a concentration in acting and directing, which I find great because actually now as a director and I do direct a lot still, um, there are a lot of things I learned as an actor, um, even in an educational setting that help me now to communicate to actors and help. [00:05:00] You know, bring the message along the vision that I'm trying to achieve in the show to the actors in a way that they can, um, metabolize and understand, well, what's the distinction between directing and acting?

What's the, so the actors are the ones on the stage, really bringing the characters to life. A director is a very mysterious, um, career path for people. People. The reason why I think that is, is because directors are invisible. When you go see a show, you talk about the great actors, you talk about the story, you talk about the songs that you heard, you talk about the tap dance number, but you never say, and that was a great direction, you know, because if the director is doing their job well.

Everything ultimately is under the auspices of the director. Everything, that style of dance that you just saw, the way the song is sung, the tempo of the song, the costume that the actor was wearing, how they were on stage, if they were broad and big, or if they were, you know, sort of more introverted and whatever about it.

If they were angry, if they were sad, um, all comes through [00:06:00] the director's lens and all the conversation that the lens that the come, that the director and the actors have all throughout the rehearsal process. Mm-hmm. So at the end, it feels like the actor's show or the music show or the dancing show. Um, but it's all really the director behind the scenes pulling strings, you know, and sort of imparting if the director's good, they're creating a vision for a show that feels cohesive and it feels like it's one piece and it feels like it just compels you from beginning to end and, and you love it and maybe you don't even know why, you know.

Well, how do you adapt to, so if you're giving direction to an actor who's higher profile and they're not on point with the character. And you've gotta give them guidance with that. How does that go? Because especially if they're somebody who's thinks they're somebody or are somebody Yeah. What do you do?

How do you handle that? It can be very frustrating. Sometimes you have real breakthroughs and you get very excited. I can remember, it's funny, we're gonna be reprising our very first show. We've, we've never produced the same show twice at Golfer Playhouse, even in the [00:07:00] last 21 years. But this year we will be, um, producing again and I'll be directing the importance of being Earnest, which I directed back in 2013 in the Nora Center.

And back then, and I don't wanna call anybody out, but we had a, a gentleman playing an old lady, and he was an English actor. And the Brits have a different sensibility about comedy than the Americans do. Mm. The Brits for everything, for them, everything is understated and it's very, oh. You know, and they don't, you know, they barely even emote.

They just do a shift of the eyes or something. And for Americans, everything's more like, what? And so it. You know, the whole point is the old battle battleax aunt is supposed to be upset about something and her response is, you know, a handbag. And, you know, while Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey, I'm sure would've pulled it off with nothing more than like a, an eyebrow handbag.

And I would've laughed my head off on stage. And in America, you know, what I wanted it to be as a director is I wanted it to be like hand back. You know? So I wanted her [00:08:00] to just like, you know, flip out. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And he just wouldn't do it. He just would not do it. And for weeks I tried, and I even, and you're not supposed to really model, you know, like what I just did to show you what I meant.

Like you're not really supposed to do that from director to actor. Really. They consider that like giving a line note and you, that's taboo. You should not do that. So you kind of have to like talk your way around every which way without actually exemplifying for them how you want it to be. Well, why?

Which can be really, why is that just a code? It's a code. It's a code. It's like, it's just like, don't offend the actor. They know their job, they know what they're doing, you know? So don't spell it out for them. They'll figure it out. Huh. You know, give them what you're trying to ask them to do. Give them the action.

Are they trying to be, you know, are they trying to be funny? Are they trying to convince someone to do something? Are they trying to persuade? And then hopefully through that they'll come to the same picture you have in your head about Okay. How they say it or how they do it. Yeah. You know, you gotta get them there on their own in their, and they gotta see it in their own way.

Yeah. Is the way, it's really interesting work around it. I was, um, I was thinking of, I was in drama in high [00:09:00] school and uh, we did the play Our Town and I was, uh, George in, in the play. I had no idea as, as much as we went through it, I didn't get the meaning of it until later in life. Yes. Like how significant it was.

And I remember, um, Mr. Bechtel rest in peace, my drama teacher, uh, who was, um, I, I love that man. 'cause he just let us be who we were as teenagers as, as we were. He was just somebody, somebody the first time in my life. She treated us, treated us like we were adults even though we were kids who were, you know, teenagers who were still figuring stuff out.

And, um, that scene in the play where, um, I was grieving over, um, her death, my wife's death, um, and just how he and I didn't get how big a deal it was until we actually did it and performed it in front of people. To see the emotion come out of people Yes, yes. Was unbelievable to me to see people crying like upset.

So [00:10:00] sad about this moment. And, uh, you know, I, I didn't really get it until later. And now I look back on that play and I think, oh my gosh, it's so significant in how life goes. You know, the whole series of it, you know, there's so much to unpack with what to unpack with what you just said, which is like you get to the very heart of it.

First of all, with regard to the idea of. Arts education and how you are still talking. You just said Mr. Bechtel right. You're not gonna forget him. Never, never. The impact he had on your life, and nor will you forget the impact that you had on others when you did that role. Yeah. Yeah. And you talk about interviewing people that making the, the community more sympathetic or compassionate, whatever you was the word you said.

Theater at its core is all about empathy. Mm-hmm. And one of the ways that I think it is so very striking in its pursuit of, of empathy is that it, it just plunges a whole group of people who are virtual strangers with each other into a dark room and asks them to imagine their lives as someone else.

That's essentially what we're doing, right? Mm-hmm. Because we're in the dark and we're watching you play the [00:11:00] husband, and we're imagining what that would be like to be you. Mm-hmm. And the wife dies and the blah, blah, blah. And, excuse me, sorry. And, um. And then we feel it too. And now we've walked another footstep in your shoes and we understand you better, which helps us understand ourselves better.

Yeah, yeah. And what it means to be human. And we share the human, the human experience together in that way. Yeah. No, I totally get that. Now I get the. The impact and what it means for people. Alright. Hey everybody, stop the action. Stop the podcast. I've got some news for you. Since you've made it this far, you're gonna get rewarded.

We're giving away $100 gift certificates to Robert of Philadelphia salons, but it's only for the first 50 people who jump on this right now. So here's what to do. Follow us on Instagram, that's Spotlight GP or TikTok, spotlight under gp. And then comment on the latest post with the words spotlight on good people.

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We've got more coming your way. Uh, it just hit me though, uh, when you said that the, the ripple impact of theater of. This work and what it creates in people. Um, I know I'm always so moved when I see something I, we don't go to a lot of live events, but when I do, no matter what it is, there's always something that, um, I'm hit with that.

I don't know what it is, but I feel it in a way. Like, it's not like going to the movies at all. It's not like it at all. But seeing a, a, a person live performing in a, moving in, in whatever way, like, but it always manages to move me. Just the courage that they have and the, the way that they convey their message.

It just, you know, alters me. If you think about the world the way it is now [00:13:00] compared to how it was 2000 years ago, and we sat around fire. Fires and we campfires and we talked to each other and we told stories. Mm. And we went to church together and we went to school together and we worked in the farm or the field together.

And we did The world was about human connection back then. Yeah. And it's like anything but about human connection now. Right? It's everybody's isolated and they're behind technology and they're getting EMFs and they're, you know, blue light and all the things we talk about, you know, and, and they're on medication and they're not getting fresh air and all these things are happening.

Theater is an ancient tradition of 2000 years. And so I really do believe that there are still roots that go back to the amphitheaters of Greece where people gather together. And there are so many studies that show, for example, if for not unlike a movie, when you sit inside of a theater, your heartbeats start to.

Synchronize with the people around you, they're doing studies on this. Mm. Um, when you hear a voice un amplified, it [00:14:00] actually hits, like the way my voice is hitting you is different than it's hitting the people listening. Yes. Because it's coming through a wire and it's getting to their ears in a different way, but my voice is actually vibrating on your body.

Mm. And so that's, there's something actually magical in my mind about what happens when we watch witness something unfold on stage. Yeah. Versus observe it happen on a screen. Yeah. Which is just a different thing. Wow. Never even. I heard that thought of that, or, but now I understand the feeling that I get from it.

Yes. That's, and when you're like, why am I, why am I for clamped? Why am I having an emotional response? You know? And you don't realize, like when you're looking at a movie, you're looking at it flat. If you're sitting in this seat or that seat, it doesn't matter. You're still looking at that same flat image.

You know, the hand looks like the hand. Yeah. But when you're on stage or you're looking at people on stage, you might be over there and therefore you're seeing this side of my hand. And you might be over there and you're seeing this side. Yeah. And, and I might turn around. You see the back of me. You know, it's a 3D experience.

Yes. It's a fully fleshed experience, and I think that's really special. Yes, I do. Yeah. I get it. It's why I'm so passionate about it. Yeah. I get it. I, [00:15:00] it excites me about it. Like, I'm ready for, take my wife down here and do Yeah. Love to have you. So what was it, what were you like. In New York growing up, what, what, what crowd were you in?

Yeah, what was your, well, that's where you, you mentioned this too when you were talking about being in theater and the fact that it gave you, I don't know exactly how you phrased it, it gave you something to do or gave you a place to be. Um, and I think that that's what all theater kids are always seeking is that they feel themselves, the misfits.

And I don't know why it is. Um, theater people, to me, are like magic unicorns. They're very skilled, they're very usually very passionate. They're very multi-talented and. I don't know if that's because when you're 14, that's a very uncool thing to be. Mm-hmm. You know, you're supposed to be, you know, schlepping around and like, hating life and theater kids have this kind of aliveness about them, and so you're, they're all kinda like, what do I do with myself and I don't wanna get into sports and I don't know what to do.

There's this theater outlet, and there are all kinds of studies about, um, the kids that get into theater in high [00:16:00] school or middle school don't get into drugs. They don't get into bad, you know, street gangs and whatever. They have this creative outlet, and it's not even just about creative outlet. It's like self-expression, like learning to be confident in who you are.

Yes. Also, learning that you, maybe you're not such a misfit and actually starting to grow as a human, and then mm-hmm. Academically, they exceed Excel and they, they don't get into bad stuff. And so, um, I think that, that was me. I was a theater kid for sure in high school. Totally a misfit of my own making.

Mm-hmm. And, um, as smart. I mean, I graduated, you know, top of my class, but it wasn't, but I, I had this need to express, you know? Mm-hmm. And, um, and then, so I moved, so I graduated from college. While I was in college, I had been on a, a game show, the a hundred thousand dollars pyramid, and I won. Oh, I wonder if I could find it on YouTube.

You might be able to, because I remember that that was, uh, Dick Clark do that. Dick Clark. Dick Clark was passed by then. It was, um, excuse [00:17:00] me, it was, um, John Davidson. Mm-hmm. Remember that show? Yes, yes, of course. Yeah. Yeah. I remember the dollar signs turning around as the thing spun. Yeah. I won about $30,000 on a game show You won.

Wow. That big bucks. I did. It was, it was huge. I mean, and I was like, you know, 21 years old or whatever. So I, um, I was very excited. I qualified, I went, I won the big one twice for 10,000 each, and then I qualified to go to the a hundred thousand and I didn't get it unfortunately, but, but I, but I exited the building with about 26 net or something like that.

Wow. My dad took it, 'cause I was still in college. He was like, I'll take that. Thank you. He gave it back to me when I graduated and he said, so now you could, do you have a choice ahead of you? You could either. Do something stupid, like buy a car with this money, or you could do something that's gonna change your life.

And so I decided to move to London for a year on that money, which broke down to after paying rent that I had about 17 pounds a day to spend for the whole year that I was there, which was absolutely nothing. I got no haircuts. You know, I didn't have it out, you know, I didn't, I didn't, [00:18:00] it was very expensive in London.

Still is. But, um, but best, you know, one of the best years of my life, I had the best time and I, I started writing. What a good investment. Yeah. Yeah. It, it was a great investment, right? Yeah. I went to, um, I started writing to theater producers back then, you know, it was like the nineties and so there was no internet or whatever.

So I had find it like a magazine that somehow had a list of theater producers in London. Yeah. And you're handwriting letters. And I'm handwriting all these letters and I'm getting letters back, you know, oh darling, lovely. So glad you want to come. But unfortunately we don't have anything for you, you know?

And so I just decided to go anyway. And I started knocking on doors, literally knocking on doors. And I ended up at some theater company and they were like, what, ah, would we want to hire you? You're an American. And I was like, well, because I'll work for free and uh, and I'm smart and I'll be helpful. And they were like, okay, great.

You know, so I ended up working for this, um, not-for-profit, what their version of not-for-profit, uh, theater company would've been. And it taught me so much. I was in the present, present marketing department and one of the people who worked there was also a, a [00:19:00] commercial producer on the West End. And so I got to see the differences between this and this and mm-hmm.

It was just such a great, um, basis mm-hmm. For me to start a theater career. Um, when I left there, and unfortunately England wasn't as, um, open with their immigration policies as they seem to be now. Mm-hmm. Um, I was forced out after a year and, uh, decided to move to New York because back in those days it was sort of like.

If you wanted to move to New York, if you wanted to work in theater, you had to move to New York City. Yeah. So regional theater was, was alive, but it wasn't, it didn't, it wasn't pervasive around the country the way that it is now. You know, now a lot of cities have their version of Golfer Playhouse, their professional theater, which is all producing everything they do and hiring actors out of New York, our professional theaters from other markets.

Um, but back then it was still in New York, so I went to work on Broadway. Hmm. And so that was sort of like a, a master's program in and of itself. It was some, some way for you to get, you got a whole other culture in your life though. A lot of value in [00:20:00] Totally. That experience. And then you had to make it, uh, on a budget.

You had to do it on a budget, you had to do it in a certain way and all on your own. Did join something, um, my boyfriend at the time was, um, grad, had just graduated as well, and he got into some program that allowed him to go work for a year as well. So he did that. And I did this and. It was great. We went over there for a year.

So then you lived in the city? In the city. And then I lived in New York City. I moved to New York City. I lived there for 10 years. I was working with Broadway producers, so I was working, um, first for Walt Disney Theatrical Productions, which was great fun because. They had just launched Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, and that was their first Broadway show.

That was Disney's first foray into Broadway production. And they didn't know what they were doing. They were like, we got animated feet classics and we know what to do with theme parks. But they had no idea what to do with Broadway. So they had hired a whole slew of Broadway types and um, who were just, you know, like I said, these people are a little more outta the box, much more self-expressive.

Not like corporate America, you know? Mm-hmm. So here we've got Disney Corporate America Yeah. Who are [00:21:00] saying, you know, you wanna fly a scenic designer from Burbank to New York, you've gotta get three signatures and fill this out in triplicate and do this. And I've got, you know, the guy who runs all of the labor unions in New York City going, mommy, get three signatures.

Get that guy in here, you know, whatever. And I'm, you know, 25 years old or whatever. I was laughing my head off, you know. Um, I started as a receptionist for Walt Disney theatrical and I ended up being their international production coordinator because what happened was they were figuring out how to do Broadway pretty quickly.

Beauty and the Beast took off and we were now in the process of sending it to Japan and Australia and Vienna and London and whatever. So that was fun and cool and I just worked in London, so that worked out well. Um, and, and then I went to work for Andrew Lloyd Weber's Company, the really useful group working on Sunset Boulevard.

And I eventually went on on tour with Joseph in the amazing technical dream Call All is like a manager behind the scenes, um, what they call general manager, company manager, things like that. On tour. On tour. So you were living first on Broadway, sunset Boulevard was on Broadway and then on tour, [00:22:00] like living out of a suitcase.

What was that? Yeah, I mean, what they call, what they really call a bus and truck. So artist Naples, for example, is a performing art center. The, the way that they're different than us is we produce everything we do. We, we produce everything we do. We have a 25,000 square foot production center over off of Airport Road.

And we build all of the huge sets that you'll see on our stage and we create the costumes that they wear and we paint the props and we paint the sets and we do everything. Artist. Naples being a performing arts center, they receive tours and so they're a venue, not really a producer. Oh. They're pre a presenter, not a producer.

Okay. And so tours will go around as literally in buses and trucks. Right. The set is driving around in eight or nine trucks. Mm-hmm. The cast is driving around in a bus. Mm-hmm. And they'll stop, let's say in Naples. The doors will open, the set will come off in a day, they'll load it all in, and at night they're performing.

And they'll perform for a week in this town. And then they'll get back on the bus and they'll go somewhere else. Okay. So I was on the trip with everybody else. Okay. You know, I was on the bus or the plane, whatever it was, and we would go to [00:23:00] the next town and set up again and break it all down and go to the next town.

Yeah. It's, it's hard work. Yeah. It's hard work. Yeah. Um, it's rigorous for sure. But it was great fun, you know, and I was young and I gotta see a bunch of little towns in America I never would've seen before. Um, I never would see again either. Um, but, um, and you learn a lot, you know, when you're off on your own like that.

Mm-hmm. Having to take on something like that and be in a management position and having to. Please all these people, you know, actors coming at you. I needed a king size bed or my, my mattress is too soft and where am I supposed to cash my check and how dare you? You know, I have no place to do my laundry.

You know, all that kind of stuff. It's just like, oh my god. You know? And meanwhile I wanted to do more of the actual art of the theater. Yeah. So when I came back from that tour back at the home office in New York, we closed sooner than we expected to. And they said, you know, we thought you were gonna be on tour a year, so we replaced your job in the office and now we don't have a job anymore for you.

And I said, that's great. 'cause I wanna get more into the creative side of, of theater. I'd majored in directing as you knew, [00:24:00] and, um, you know, all that sort of management and behind the scenes and looking at a computer just didn't feel like working on art. And I wanted to be pursue directing. So I ended up working, um, as a stage manager, as a a.

What we call a production assistant, um, on big Broadway shows for a little bit. Assisting direct like assistant director to a great director, um, on a few shows that he was working on, both on Broadway and um, in, in regional theaters. And eventually directed a feature film of my own actually on independent film.

And then, uh, realized I would never wanna ever work in the movie business again. Hmm. And, um, and, and got into theater. So that was the way that, um, hi. Sorry. Oh. Oh. Hi. Hi. Oh good. Okay. Thank you. You found us. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. And started, um, and started, started working more on shows of my own, I started directing in universities and I started directing here and there and little by little, [00:25:00] um, just became a director as well, so that when that accidental trip to Naples, Florida happened, and I accidental.

By some chance ended up staying at the Bayfront and on fifth, which at that time in 2004 was a comfort inn. Yes, yes. And then convinced my, at that time, husband to move to Bayfront. I became a customer of Robert Philadelphia back in 2004. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. Started golf sho decided to start Golf Shore Playhouse right out of the condo because it just seemed like, why do we have a great performing arts center and a good, um, community theater, which uses amateurs and non, you know, um, volunteers and people who are bankers by day and, and actors by night, which is totally different than a professional theater.

Um, why don't we have a professional theater in this town? It didn't make sense. Um, meanwhile, don't get me wrong, artists brings in professionals. Yes. But they, like I said, they're, they're on, they're coming in on the bus and they leaving. Yes. But we go to New York. We hire Broadway people and people you've seen on [00:26:00] TV and Yeah.

Movies or whatever, and they're coming down for two months to live with us. Mm. We have to put them up and get them cars and everything for, um, four weeks of rehearsal, four weeks of performance, or five or six weeks of performance. And so, um, it's a really different model. Completely. And so I thought, I think.

I think we should do this here. It seems like a good idea. It seems like a, a, a, an arts loving market. Mm-hmm. It seems like a perfect niche to fill. And so right away when I decided to move to Naples, I decided to start offshore playoffs. I had to think of the name. I went back to New York while we were looking for houses, we were sitting on the, okay, you can edit this however you want.

We were sitting on the deck of the hotel, which will overlook Bayfront. Yes. I looked at my hus, my ex-husband, who was my husband at the time, and who was French and still is, and, and I said, and I said, you know, we should just go home and sell the co-op. It was post nine 11. I was not happy in New York anymore.[00:27:00] 

Um, I just, I, I felt like I was hitting walls and I didn't know what to do. I needed to get out. I was like, like, I was like, I either need to figure out where did, where else I can do theater or join the Peace Corps. Like one of, one of these things needs to happen and I don't know why. You know, I always, my second, in my second career, I would've always been a National Geographic photographer, but I think it was too late for that, you know, so.

So I said, let's just go sell the co-op and let's just move here to Bayfront. And he was like, okay. And so we did. And so while that was all in process and happening, uh, I went to a lawyer, a friend of mine in New York who was also a Broadway producer, and he and I said, look, I've got this idea. There's this beautiful city that I'm now gonna move to and it doesn't have a professional theater, and I think I'm gonna start one, you know, but I don't have any money.

I don't know anybody at all. I don't even have a name for the place, but is it too soon to start? And he said, Nope, it'll take you a year to get your 5 0 1 C3. The not-for-profit designation. Little known fact outside of Broadway, all theater in America is a not-for-profit. Um, it's [00:28:00] because, you know, the difference between the Broadway prices, which now are like $500 a ticket, and our prices that started at $35 a ticket.

And the reason why is because we can rely equally as much on philanthropy as we do, um, ticket prices, ticket sales, to keep ourselves in business. Mm-hmm. And that helps us, you know, keep the price affordable and accessible to all. Which I believe in really and fundamentally as an art form, you know, that theater should be accessible to everybody.

In fact, that $35 ticket, even if we use dynamic pricing, our prices go up that those back rows that are $35 never go up. And somebody can come two hours before the show and get a a, a rush ticket for half price so they can really watch a, a Broadway level quality show for $17 and 50 cents. Wow. Um, which is really important to me to keep that accessibility Yeah.

Available. So, so we're, so he said to file you for your not-for-profit, it'll take about a year to get it. So in the meantime, figure out a name, find three board members, uh, hit the ground running and see what you can do. My naivete is that there was no theater space. You [00:29:00] know, in New York there's theater, like some abandoned something on every corner mm-hmm.

That you can turn into a theater or it is a theater, or it was a theater or, you know, it's the attic of a theater, you know, whatever it is. And in the, and in Naples, that didn't exist at all. Mm-hmm. So it became much more about a, a, a property space that we could get. So. So I thought of the name Golf Show Playhouse, because I knew I wanted to create what we call regional theater in the business.

We call it regional theater. So I wanted, so I was like, well, how do we label the region? You know, sometimes theaters are called, you know, fourth Street Playhouse or mm-hmm. You know, the, the, the, the, you know, the Dock Playhouse or whatever it's like based on its geography. I was like, I don't know where we're gonna end up someday.

Yeah. So I guess I'll call it Gulfshore Playhouse to kind of like, make sure I've covered, you know, hedged my bets and, um, needed three board members. And like I said, I knew nobody in this town, so I asked my realtor to be my first board member, and thank God he said yes. 'cause I don't know what would've happened after that.

Who else would I have asked? And he worked for John, our wood realtor. So he brought me to Phil Wood. Mm-hmm. The president. Mm-hmm. And said, and I told him my story [00:30:00] just like that. I mean, that was the story, that there's nothing much more to it than that. I had two pieces of paper in my little folder. And I told them what I wanted to create, which at the moment already in 2004, the I, the dream was, you know, the, I had to write a short and long-term goals for the government application.

My short term goal, I just looked at this last night as a matter of fact for some odd reason, but the short-term goals were like, put on a play, start a capital campaign. I don't even know why I would've set a short-term goal, was start a capital campaign. Um, and, um, you know, hire some staff or something was my short term goal.

My, but my long-term goal was create a theater and education center with a 99 seat black box and a 399 seat main stage, and all the classrooms and rehearsal rooms that go along with it. So that was in 2004. Wow. And that document still exists. And, and it took 20 years to get there. That detailed. You had an education center in there, you had this, the rooms, you had it back down like that.

Oh, that detailed. And it's how close we got. I mean, I said 99 seats and 3 99. We're at 125 seats in the black box in about [00:31:00] 368 in the. In the main stage. So it's about as close as you can get 20 years later. Wow. So it was just like keeping the dream. Yeah. In front of me all the time. It fascinates me how, uh, the, it was a risk number one, just moving here, just packing up, saying I'm leaving there and going here.

But not only that, you had nothing here. You had no roots. You had not nobody here, you're just coming in raw, like completely. Yeah. And then seeing this need and, and playing this flag or making this declaration that this shall be without anything. And that, that to me is mean. There's no blanket, there's no security, there's nothing there at all.

There's only, however, whatever the proceeds were from selling my apartment in New York City, you know what I mean? Yeah. That I was sort of like, 'cause I didn't get paid for, I mean, six years I guess I didn't get paid. And um, yeah. Yeah, it's insanity. I, I, I would say that I, uh, very often said to myself, I'm either crazy or courageous and I don't know, which, you know, I'm either stupid or, [00:32:00] you know, I'm either completely stupid or I'm, or I'm enlightened.

I'm not sure. But, um, but it was, you know, it was hard. The hard part was the hanging on because when I think about all of the, I heard a phrase, it's interesting 'cause the, there are a lot of, there aren't a lot of female artistic directors in the country at professional theaters, but there are a lot of women who are founders of regional theaters, which is fascinating.

So, um, one of the first founders of the theater that's now called Arena Stage in Washington, DC was a woman by the name of Zelda Fish Chandler. And I remember seeing a video of her not too long ago, maybe 10 years ago or so, she was talking about. Self donation. The notion, the idea of self donation. And when I think about it, I feel that way.

Um, and not to be like, you know, it's more like, you know, my ex-husband is not my ex-husband. We, you know, it was sort of like at, people always ask, well, what [00:33:00] happened? I say, well, the husband went up against the theater and the theater won, you know, and that's what happened. He wanted to leave Naples. And I was like, uh, I started this thing.

And he said, well, it's not really anything yet. And I kept saying, but it will be, you know, but it will be. Mm. And, and he said, I'm got a job offer in Hong Kong. And I said, well, have fun. Enjoy it. I'm not gonna move to Hong Kong. What would I do? You know, what would I have done in Hong Kong? You know, I didn't speak Chinese and, and wouldn't have been able to find an American speaking theater in Hong Kong.

Maybe, you know, who knows? But, uh, but I'd already, we were already well down the road, um, and. Like I said, for the first three years there was no pay, there was no infrastructure, there was no anybody, there was no staff. Yeah. Um, but what there was was my little office in the back of my condo in Bayfront.

And if you remember back in 2004, 2005, this, this whole area was still called Grand Central Station. Remember? Oh yes. Is Grand Central. Nothing was happening at Grand Central Station, which was of course hilarious for a former New Yorker like me. Um, and the only thing that even was running there was the wellness center.

The [00:34:00] Briggs was now called the Briggs Wellness Center at CH. Yeah. Yeah. And it was just, we weeds in the parking lot. I mean, it was just an eyesore. Yeah. With the name Grand Central Station with the name Grand Central Station. Right. The biggest dichotomy. And also how weird the gateway to downtown Naples.

Mm-hmm. Downtown Naples is adorable. And here's this horrible, like, abandoned Yes. Strip mall. And so I would stand on my balcony and look across the street and look out at that land. Close my eyes. And imagine a theater coming up out of the land over and over again. I did that. Mm-hmm. You know, back then it was The Secret and Oprah Winfrey and, you know, yes.

Manifest and Visualized. And, um, for 10 years I lived in Bayfront from 2004 to 2014. And, uh, at some point or another too, the, the Secret had all these workbook and, you know, worksheets and stuff. Mm-hmm. So I printed out a huge, more than life size check that was a blank check. And, and I wrote a check to Golfer Playhouse from for $10 million from Patty and Jay Baker.

And, you know, so over those 10 [00:35:00] years we grew from zero. I wasn't getting paid the first three years. I didn't get paid. The second three years I was vote. The, the board now that I had assembled voted to give me $15,000 a year, but we couldn't afford to pay me $15,000 a year. So I deferred that to for the next three years.

And so, you know, at some point, probably in 2010, I think people should hear that again though, $15,000 a year to people now who are complaining about $25 an hour. Yeah. So if you're getting $15,000 a year to deferred on deferred deferred, it didn't even go to you. Someday. You might get it someday. Someday.

I did get it. I did get it eventually. So, um, but you know, so we couldn't afford to hire staff. We couldn't afford, everything was like me, myself, and I. If, if we had enough money to six to up together and make a budget, I would hire a stage manager and some actors and we would do a play at the Norris Center.

We didn't get into the Norris Center full time until after the downturn because there was a community theater group in there that went under as a result of the downturn and they had space and the city of Naples wanted to make money on renting that space. And so I said, yes, this is the North Center of Camia.

This is the [00:36:00] North center of Camia. Okay. And that's where we produced for from 2006 till 2020. Mm-hmm. I mean, well 2020, when did we move here? 2024. We were there all that time. Okay. But it wasn't really full-time until about 2009. Um, 2010. And once that happened, then we started to look about, try to talk about office space and hiring a person or two to have on staff, you know, so it took a good six, seven years.

And from the 10th, 2010 to 2014, we finally had about 20 people that worked for us, which was a ton. And we were over a million dollar budget and it was all very exciting. Um, but meanwhile I had that little check in my bathroom cabinet and I would look out here and I'd visualize and visualize. And, um, around 2014, I guess, so we were 10 years in.

I told my board, I said, look. The no center, literally the no center stage is about the size of this room. I mean, it is tiny 20 by 20 feet and no wing space, no fly space, no anything that you need. Theater, good theater, big [00:37:00] theater. Good theater is usually big theater and big theater needs infrastructure.

And so without infrastructure you're forced to do either like really scaled down versions of shows. Like we did a 10 person two piano, my Fair Lady, which is usually 50 people on stage and lot and watch dancing and everything. People loved it 'cause it was really well conceived and you know, minimal into the extreme and really cool.

And so people loved it, but still, it's not like you don't wanna do that every time. You wanna be able to do like what, how we opened this, um, building was with anything goes 24 people on stage, three foot, three story high boat and just, you know, all the bells and whistles, amazing tap dancing and you know, all the stuff.

Mm-hmm. Um, that's what you wanna be able to do. And so when you'd have to do a 10 person two piano, my Fair Lady. It's just, it's, it's crushing in some way as a theater maker, you know? Yeah. You're like, yeah, that's cool. I'm so glad we created that, but I also wanna do this, you know? So I went to the board and I said, you know, here's the thing.

We've been at this now for 10 years, and I said, and I don't know how much longer I can bring my creativity to this. 'cause I dunno how many, much more small plays there are and how many more large scale plays we can reduce down. Mm-hmm. And I said, so we really need [00:38:00] to start looking for land. So we, we, we ended up coming across a guy who did this for us for, for free.

He helped us start, start to look for land and figure out where we would look everywhere from Sanibel Island, um, Lee County, Collier County, downtown Uptown. Um, so you were looking at, you were open to anything, whatever. You, you, we were open to everything, right? Yeah. We were open to everything. We were lucky we were looking.

2014, Patty and Jay Baker came into our midst around 2009, I think they sponsored a show. They sponsored our, our stroke tar for $5,000 as, and that was their first. Gift to us. Mm. And they, they started coming to everything. Patty was a college, you know, she majored in it in college. She loved directing. Oh, she loved theater.

Didn't know that. Really? She loves theater. She's a Tony Voter. She's a Tony Pro. She's a Broadway producer. Any witch way that she can get her hands on theater, she will. She loves it. Mm. Which is just so awesome. I love that there are people like that in this world who are willing to support theater because arts are not the first thing people support.

You know, the top three donations are [00:39:00] people's Alma Maers, their hospital, or, um, what's the third one? Healthcare, education and church. Mm-hmm. And their, and their church. Mm-hmm. So, um, arts are like 4% of giving or 6% of giving mm-hmm. On anybody's, you know, to-do list. So to have somebody like The Bakers, first of all in this town, but in the country in general, is just, we're all so lucky.

Yeah. And, um, so they came into our midst. Somewhere along the line, I wrote that check in 2014, I moved out of Bayfront, and at that time I opened the. The, the cabinet. And then until that check was pasted in there to Golf Shore Playoffs. Yeah. $10 million, Patty and J bak. And I ripped it down and I said, oh, this doesn't work.

And uh, one year later, pretty much to the day the Bakkers gave us $10 million. Wow. Oh man. That's the secret in action. That's the secret in action. Wow. It is. Yeah. This is why one of the first, um, PowerPoint slides that I have when I [00:40:00] do a speaking engagement that said like, I'm being a founder, a manifester, and an entrepreneur, because that story's worth telling.

Like, I feel like it worked. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I don't feel like I had any special powers or anything. Like I feel like those are the laws of the universe and they actually worked. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And so, yeah. But keeping the vision in front of you is the most important thing. You can't give up.

You cannot give up. Yeah. And I think the only thing that kept propelling me through all the dark years, because to talk tuko back to the notion of self donation is like. There were so many years that I was single and I would be working till three o'clock in the morning every morning on my couch with the, with the thing tying the bows on the, the gifts we were gonna give out to the patrons the next day for this little cocktail party we're having.

Whatever it was, I did it. I was willing to do it. I had almost no, you know, I had no friends, you know, there was, my friends were in New York or Washington, DC because I just didn't, never took time to like make social connections here. Yeah. Because I was working my butt off and my mother was yelling at me, don't you know when to say, when, like, this isn't working.

When are you gonna get a real job? You know? Mm-hmm. And uh, [00:41:00] and I just kept the vision in my head first of all, of what that sheet of paper said. And I really do think, looking back, that it was the fear of missing out. Like I thought to myself every time that I was about to give up and believe me, there were many times that I was like, but I can't give up.

'cause this might be the moment that it turns. Yeah. And then I would miss out on this. Yeah. And now that I know what this became, I'm so happy that I didn't give up. Wow. And there were so many things that were getting in the way that did, were there that you didn't let stop you. 'cause there's a lot of stuff that's happening between hurricanes, between pandemics, between economic turndowns, between Naples being Naples, between changes in government, between, there's so many things.

Oh, yes, my friend. You, yeah. We can't talk about some of that, but we will talk about hurricanes and pandemics. Um, the, yeah, the politics are hard too. They really are. Yeah. I mean the, I mean, you have to wear so many hats Yeah. To get this done. Yeah. When you talk about getting a masters, right. I feel [00:42:00] like I've had four masters, you know, because it's like masters in politics, masters in city planning, masters in construction.

Yeah. Masters in Yeah. You know, running a company, masters in, uh, directing, you know, whatever it might be. Like I've had five, you know, I think, yeah. I mean, easily you couldn't even taken in any one of those disciplines. I mean, if you took an MBA and a whatever, whatever all those things put together, wouldn't have.

Gotten this result. It was that passion and that whatever's inside you is very unique. 'cause you had to wear, you had to be so many different people for so many people, for so many different reasons. Yeah. Yeah. I mean the, yeah, uh, uh, the, the, the, all of it was crushing. And that's not even like, that's not even just the basic story.

Right? The basic story is like 2009. When I look at my board chairman at lunch and I say, look, we did, did two shows. They went well. People liked them. Back then it was like a hundred people a night, 50 people a night coming. It wasn't gangbusters. And we wanna finally do this big show. Tartu, which was the one actually that Patty sponsored first.

Um, the first show Patty sponsored. But I went to my board chair and I said, look, we need to give $35,000 to the Actors Equity [00:43:00] Association by Friday. Because back then we were on a certain kind of contract and the actors. Equity Association is the Professional Actors Union, and they required us to give them enough money to cover two weeks of salary in advance of starting rehearsals because we were small, small, small back then.

And so this is, we still have to actually do this in a much more formidable way, in a much more official and formal way. Now we still have to bond and now we have to give them, you know, a hundred thousand dollars every time we were about to start a season. Mm-hmm. But back then it was on a per show basis.

So on this show we owed them two weeks salary for these eight actors. 'cause we were gonna do our first sort of big show. Mm-hmm. That was big for us. $35,000. And I said, we just don't have it. I said, we've been trying. I've been trying. So unless you find, help me find $35,000 by Friday. This was 2009. We're gonna have to close down.

And I said, and if we're gonna close, close down, we were five years old by that point. I said, I think this is the sign from the universe that I'm supposed to close it all down. Mm mm And he showed up two days later with $35,000, seven people [00:44:00] sponsored us $5,000 each for that show. Wow. And I, and that was the turning point.

You know? So those are the little stories, you know, like the big stories are two major hurricanes. I mean, Irma was horrible for us. Yeah. We had to cancel a show. Our housing was flooded. Ian was worse. Yes. And this goes back to city politics because it took us so long to get our site plan application approved.

We were delayed our, that was right at the time coming outta the pandemic that the end, everything was starting to in inflate. Yes. So the, our budget went up $6 million just like that because we were delayed for an entire year. Oh man. And we would've been installing steel One week later, one week after Hurricane Ian came through, we were supposed to be installing steel on the building.

Had we installed steel on the building, then two outta the three walls that were up wouldn't have fallen down. And we wouldn't have been delayed another six months. We were actually supposed to open a year ago last January, but we only opened in November because of what Hian did. You know? So it all goes together.

Yeah. And that's what people don't realize when they're voting, you know, what, what the real impacts are in terms of [00:45:00] who we're voting for. Well then I, I look at the. I look at the restaurants over here and I look at this, just this whole area and the impact that this has on this area. When I look back at Grand Central Station, you know, and, and the weeds.

For a long time it was like that. And now see that the, what this draws into the area and what it brings and how it supports so much of this community. You know, it's a big, it's a big deal. It has a big impact on Naples in, in a lot of ways. It's wild. I mean, theaters are known to be economic impactors.

This is a known thing because this is why you hear about theaters all the time that are put into areas of what they call blight. I mean, in many cities it really is blight. Yeah. This was called Blight by Naples. This isn't really Blight, right. It never really was, but still Grand Central Station in the weeds, right?

Yeah. And so, um. What, you know, in Minneapolis, on the banks of, of the river, they put the Guthrie Theater and now there's all kinds of high rise buildings and all [00:46:00] kinds of stuff going on in Dan Denver, downtown Denver was hair horrible, like a, a warehouse district. They put the Denver Center and now it's a cool hip RD area, you know, and that's what happens.

So, and we know this and, or, and, and city people should, you know, city governments should know it as well, I think. And um, the cool thing was that guy that we got to work for us for free, he eventually became our owner's rep and he was. He was a good owner's rep, but he was a great former city manager and he knew how cities thought.

Mm-hmm. So he knew we were ultimately, we ultimately identified this space, which was amazing, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Because here it was like, this was the spot where I was visualizing all the time that it was available and we talked them into selling it to us and that was amazing. And um, and at first they were like, well, we don't really know our people who are buying Naples Square.

They might not want a theater there. They might rather have a, a grocery store. And and I was like, are you kidding me? A theater's gonna be amazing, you know, whatever. Yeah, yeah. And uh, and they were like, well, we dunno. So Patty and Jay had given us the money in May of 2015 and[00:47:00] 

Jan in late 2015, we were making the negotiation to get this spot. So in January of 16, I'm driving to the lawyer's office with a 50,000 check in my hand to like put down the deposit and sign the deal. And I get a call from the lawyer and he says, pencil's down. They don't wanna sell you the land anymore.

They don't believe you've got the money. And we couldn't release. The knowledge that Penny and Jay had given us this $10 million until February of 2016, because we were having a gala. We were gonna make a big deal out of it. And it was a big secret until then. Mm-hmm. And no matter what I did, they wouldn't, they wanted to build up, I don't know what they wanted to do a, a grocery store, I think.

Mm. I don't know what happened. I don't know if they changed their mind. I dunno if the grocery store said no. I don't know if the city said no. To this day, I do not know what happened. But I was the whole time, like, wait a minute, how could this happen? I was visualizing, you know what I mean? That's, that's, that's not how this was supposed to work.

So for another two, another year and a half, we looked for more somewhere else, another piece of land. Oh gosh. You were so close to it. They had, we were so close and we had a couple of leads on a couple of things that were just, I think, not [00:48:00] ever gonna really work out. And the owners of Naples Square came back to us and they said, oh, well, we're just kidding.

We changed our minds. And, and I was like, okay, great. And they said, but it'll be an extra million dollars. And I was like, absolutely not. You know, we've got, we've got leads on two other places. My donors will never go for another million dollars. And so, sorry. Thanks. And they were like, okay, just kidding.

You can have it. Um, for five, you know, for 5 million. And so, um, thank God. So now knowing that it's a not-for-profit too, I mean that, that there No, I mean you were upfront about what was going here. It wasn't like you were Yeah. Coming here to be a That's right. A restoration Hardware or something. We weren't gonna Exactly.

We weren't gonna, nobody was gonna get rich off of this in any way, shape or form. Yeah. Except hopefully the citizens of Naples. Right, right, right. In enrichment. Yeah. Uh, in a different kind of way. But, um, so we bought it, we, it was seil and delivered in November of 2017. And this guy who was the former city manager, he's like, okay, now here's what you have to do.

You just bought these three acres. So we bought these two acres for the building and then a, a strip next to us for parking for the [00:49:00] parking lot. That was the original thought. And then beyond that strip was the strip where, um, wind's catering was, and it was like an old 1970s bunker that used to be a cement factory.

You know, it wasn't not pretty. And he said, here's what you gotta do. Go to the Wind family and ask them if they would be willing to do a land swap with you. Tell them that you'll give them the frontage along first avenue that will be good for them. They'll be happy to, that's more valuable land. They'll say yes and tell them you wanna do something nice.

You want them to do something nice, like a nice mixed use building. And to that, to build some office space so you could have office space. 'cause we already knew the building price of this was, you know, 859 to between 850 and a thousand dollars a square foot for this building. Mm-hmm. There was no way we could afford to put offices in here, even though we would've wanted to.

So he was coming up with a great idea, you know, tell them to do that. If they put office space in there, you can rent office space right there. It'll be right across the street. Mm-hmm. I said, okay. And then he said, and so if they take that and they do the land swap, then they'll have the frontage on first Avenue and behind there will be [00:50:00] another acre that will be left and that will be yours.

Go to the city of Naples and tell them you wanna donate a the acre to them. If they'll build a, a, a public parking garage on it. Mm-hmm. Because. This is gonna explode. People don't realize it yet, but the, you won't. This 120 parking spaces that you would have in that parking lot, nobody wants to look at a parking lot.

Yeah. And it won't be enough. You're gonna need more. Yeah. So I go to City of Naples, hello, city of Naples. I wanna donate an AC of land to you over there where nothing's going on. And they were like, now why would we wanna do that? Why? You know, if we're gonna invest the money to build a fourth parking garage in Naples, why in the world would we want it to be there?

And I was like, well, let me tell you about 2022. You know, back then I thought it was 2022. 2022. It turned out to be 2024. But you know, let me tell you what's gonna happen. Yeah. And um, and the truth is, when people go to see theater, they go somewhere else first. Right. They go to dinner, they go Yes. To shop.

Mm-hmm. Or they go Valley Park, or maybe even sometimes they're driving Yes. To another location and they're staying at a hotel and [00:51:00] they're seeing a thing, you know, whatever it is. Mm-hmm. And so there's a lot of money invested. So this is why you see the growth. Mm. Um, there's an article in Naples Alien News when Ingrid AI said we we're putting Grino here because we know golf show playoffs is coming.

Mm. AC Marriott was tied to our hip as we were walking through the approval process. And they were like, us too. Us too. Yes. And they were coming here because they knew we were coming here. Yes. And the winds are gonna build that beautiful building. The garage is there now the district is here, you know, so all these things, worn whiskey, the collective, all these things are coming ever since the announcement we bought the land, like I said, we closed on land in 2017, but we really broke ground in late 2021.

Yeah. So especially around then, 20, 20, 21, when everyone knew, it was like, oh, it's happening. Yeah. Then all the excitement started to happen. All this stuff started to, to. To, to explode and to blossom. And that's no surprise. 'cause that's what happens when you put a theater somewhere. So it's very exciting.

Yeah. Um, to be part of the swell, you know? Yeah. And, um, well, I even see how that with the canoe [00:52:00] races that are back, they, the city was trying to persuade them to go to Baker Park instead of where they used to go. Where were they before? Used to be at the dock. Oh, at the dock? Yeah. Wow. And the city said, absolutely not.

Now it's too much. It's, you know, it's, the regulations have changed and things have changed. So, so with Baker Park right there, the city was urging them to go this way. And then they said, well, we have this parking garage. And the parking garage. Yes. They finally opened. Yes. It's supposed to be open a year ago.

Um, it opened on May 8th, I think, or ninth. We closed our first whole season on May 4th, so never too late. Really. But we made it, they allowed us to Valley Park people and we did. So that's it. Okay. Oh yeah. Well, so that's a ripple there because they're saying now, and now the canoe race is coming back again.

That's cool. 'cause it, it makes for more use of Baker Park. Yes. I guess they're allowing a band and, and alcohol sales and everything. Awesome. It's a big deal. They're, they're gonna let it go. I know, I know. I miss the Naples we used to have with like music playing everywhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 'cause they got so [00:53:00] mad about Bayfront doing music and there was somebody there was, wouldn't let that happen.

But yeah. At least that we have that. I have a lot to say about that. I lived in Bayfront for 10 years. I moved there from New York City because I moved there from New York City. And so I thought living in Bayfront would be cool with music links. And sometimes, you know what? It was loud. And so I closed my doors and I was just like, I'm not, you know, into that tonight and other nights I was standing on my balcony listening to the music, you know, and you just, it's something you sign up for.

I feel like when you move into a mixed, these area don't live there. Right. That's the point of it. Why are you bother complaining about it? Like, I don't understand. You moved there, wrong spot. You can to a really quiet spot and big quiet. Right. You know, I just don't get it. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. But you feel of it.

Well, I, I love that. You know, and now that I understand that, 'cause I heard those guys talking about the canoe races and they were saying that they're gonna be using this area. So again, that's one more thing that, uh, you know, the ripple effect that this continues to have. That's cool. And you did it debt free?

We did. Well, yes we did. I mean, we have never, we've run in the black every single year, even [00:54:00] pandemic years and everything else. We always ended up in the black. So that means no debt, no deficit. And we are, we have a bridge loan right now because we've got a lot of, um, uh, pledges for the capital campaign that are, um, over five years.

And so it's not, I don't consider it a debt in the real sense, you know, because we know Right. 'cause there's money coming in to pay for it. Exactly. Yeah. We know that money's coming in. Wow. And so, yeah, we've got about 3 million, I would say, to go on the capital campaign, but we've got, people are very generous and very excited about the building and, and so we'll finish that up in the next.

To, to be able to do that with all the overruns and with the way things are. I mean, you get a quote and it's never what it's gonna be. There's always something they find that, oh, we found rock underground. We have to chip that up. There's another, it is infuriating to the nth degree. It's, I can't, I'm so glad I'm a theater maker and not in construction.

That's all I have to say. I can't wait for every little thing to be finished in this building and I will cook, you know? But you had to get people in so many [00:55:00] different arenas to align on this vision that you had like a lot, and it wasn't, your background wasn't that. So that's what's kind of cool. I mean, I think it's fascinating to me to see that you pulled this off.

I mean, it's really, you know, and the, the way we do one thing is the way we do everything, and thank God I'm a director, because I have the eye for detail already. You know, like, oh, that, that looks crooked on the set. Or, you know, like, I want the, I want the molding to be something different on the set, you know?

So I think I had the pension for it, because what I learned was. This I'm shocked at. I, I felt like very often it was up to me to have the creative idea about, or the architecture, and I was like, I don't understand. I'm not an architect. Yeah. This should be your ideas. Like you should be going, we could do this or we could do that.

Right, right. We've got three different ideas. Which one do you like? You know, I thought that's the way it was gonna go. And instead I was always like, but what if it's higher? What if it's got more for this or that? You know? I, I couldn't believe it. And I also thought, you know, they would be responsible for it, like making it look beautiful at the end.

I picked that slab. I, we picked that wallpaper, you know, like in the end it wasn't the architects who, who decided it was like the touches. Yeah. Yeah. And I didn't, [00:56:00] I had no idea that that was true. We had, like, we were layered up with consultants and no consultant ever said, keep your eye on everything, you know?

Yeah. Do not let them own the subs. You should own all the subcontractors. That's a piece of advice to anyone getting into con, into construction. Yeah. Don't let the architects own the subcontractors and watch like a hawk, because they will never care as much as you care. Yeah. And they won't make it as pretty as you want it to be.

That's what I learned at the very. Almost tail end of construction. I said, I just don't understand why you guys aren't talking about finishes with me. We want the paneling, we want the wallpaper. They're like, here's the truth, Kristen. Most professional theaters in America run out of money by the time they get to the end.

We don't, we're not used to having to talk to people about finishes. Wow. I was like, really? I thought it was like a design aesthetic that was like popular in the eighties and nineties of making regional theaters, professional theaters of out of concrete and metal. I just thought it was, they thought it was cool and, and I was always like, I don't wanna build a theater.

It looks concrete and metal. You know, I want it to be pretty. And little did I know it's 'cause everybody ran outta money. But I said, this is [00:57:00] Naples. We did not run out of money. In fact, we just made a deal with our board to raise the capital campaign amount so that we could make sure everything looked really pretty.

Yeah. And uh, and they were like, okay, well yeah. And so we ended up working with Lisa Con Allen, who's an interior designer here, who was so helpful in saying, what about this we have wallpaper, or what about, let me take you to the slab yard and we can pick out a slab, you know, and making sure that the touches were really what we wanted them to be.

Yeah. Well, you can really tell, I mean, the detail, the beauty of, of every area here, you know, is, is impeccable. Thank you. And I, I think it's, it's probably unique too that because of your background that you were able to make this exactly the way it's needed to be. Like I, I know when we would build out salons, um, you'd take an architect or somebody from a design, uh, from a, uh.

A drafting perspective to put things together. But they don't know the functionality. Right. They don't know the flow, what the flow needs to be. Right. They don't have that mind at all. So they're just putting things that they think, I remember we, we had one architect [00:58:00] who's doing here, and he was using the technology from the fifties when they had the old barber chairs where they had to actually put them into the concrete, the old barber chairs.

Oh. And he was designing this. He said, oh, I need, he needed an engineer to design the way a chair, a barber chair. Salon chairs are just, you know, they, they sit on the ground. It was so far out of touch. Wow. Yeah. Seriously. But you being able to, to, to, to see what it really needs. 'cause you've been to so many and had such a background in that, to be able to make it the way that it's functional and useful and Yeah.

It flows. Yeah. I mean, we had, we had con, we had this kind of consultant with that kind of, we had theater consultants, we had all these things, and in the end we ended up paying a little bit of money to our scenic designer or our lighting designer, like our trusted ones that we use over and over again saying, can you take a look at these plans and tell us that this is gonna suit us?

And I can take, I can't tell you how many times, like especially the lighting designers. Kristen Corey will never be satisfied with this. And I was like, why? What's wrong with it? They're like, there won't be enough side light, there won't be enough back. You know? And I was like, well, what do we need to do now?

You know, the, the theater's designed, you know, how can we fix it? They're like, okay, well, you just needed [00:59:00] this and this and this and this, but it, if they hadn't told me that, we would've ended up putting up the theater. And then it would've been like, I hate the lighting. You know, how, how would I known that?

You know? Yeah. And so it's, it's, it's, it takes vigilance beyond to compare, like, like no other. Yeah. You got it. You got it. It's, it's shocking. I was shocked by that. That was really a learning. Was there something with the water and the, and the hurricane with the, the table or the way the theater is with the water and the No, actually because we are, um, uh, we are in a floodplain here, and so I mean, yes but no.

So there was no issue with the water. Not even during the hurricane, because we're in a floodplain and because we're in a floodplain, we actually brought in a million dollars worth of dirt. So we brought in 12, we raised the theater up 12 feet. So you notice you have to walk up a hill to get in. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's, that was, that was our, that we built the hill. Um, we wanted to build the castle on the hill, so we had to build the hill. And, um, and so when you come up into the theater, um. [01:00:00] You go into the main theater, which have you seen the main theater? I have to show you the theater. I did. You did? Okay.

Yeah. Yeah, I did. Um, and I walk on the stage and I Oh, okay, great. It just was so cool. Awesome. Good. Okay, good. And you walk in and you walk in and then you kind of slope deck down. That's the way theaters are built. Mm-hmm. So when you're at the bottom of our orchestra section in the, in the main stage, you're still above floodplain.

And, um, but if we'd put in an orchestra pit in the side note, if we had put in an orchestra pit in the main stage, we would've been back into the water table. Oh. So we actually created a room, a soundproofed room, up in our education wing where the orchestra plays and it's all piped in and then mixed Wow.

In the room to sound like it's all there, you know? And it sounds, it's like clean, clean, clean. It sounds so good. Um, but therefore, in Hurricane Ian, like I said, we only had three. We had the main wall of back wall of the main stage, and the two sidewalls of the main stage up. Those were the only concrete that was the only concrete in the whole building.

And so, um, those were up. And the two sidewalls fell down and, um, but the water, which you remember fifth Avenue was [01:01:00] flooded. They were like air boating mm-hmm. Through Fifth Avenue and everything else. Mm-hmm. Only came halfway up our hill, thank goodness. Which also proves to us now that the building's built, we hope that that means we have the next big one and hopefully we don't ever, anytime, um, that hopefully the water will only come halfway up the hill and it won't hopefully encroach the building.

Well, you had already planned for that. So to have the orchestra in a different place that rather than down low because of the way you, but I mean, if we got 12 feet of water, you know what I mean? It would come in the front doors and everything else, but I mean, that would be 12 feet of water. Yeah. Would be catastrophic for everybody.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, Ian was just something we've never had as all the years I've been here. You know, we never had anything that had a lot of wind and wind damage, but never like water like that. That was, that was the one that really Yeah. That was devastating in a different way than, than any of the other ones ever.

Wilma, any of the really less we've ever had, so. Like you guys are built like a fortress here now, so that's good. So for us, another piece of good news is that in that wind building on the third floor, we just got permission from the city for them to build 17 studio apartments for [01:02:00] us. We'll rent on a 20 year lease.

It won't be public housing or it won't be an Airbnb or anything like that, but it'll be ours. And we'll be able to put our actors there because right now we have a lot of, we have 54 bedrooms all around the county that we rent on an annual basis to put our actors, directors, designers, stage managers, everybody in.

'cause we're bringing everybody. But you don't think about all that from places? From places. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Wow. And um, like a million dollars just to bring all these people in. Yeah. And then more than that to put them all up and give them cars and everything else. Yeah. But um, a lot of our housing was in an area called Jade Apartments just over there across from the hospital, first floor housing.

And in Irma and Ian, they were both flooded out. Mm. And um, so knowing we have dry individual studio apartments on the third floor, um, in a new building. Yeah. With built a code will be another. Relief for us. Oh, great. And, and that's another, uh, ploy to get people here too. 'cause that to be able to come and stay down here, you know, it's a great thing for people to, that's it.

[01:03:00] And we actually, we rent a lot of 2, 2 2 bedroom and three bedroom apartments. And so sometimes we get great actors all the time. Um, but sometimes we miss out on that very top actor we would've loved to have had, because they say, if you can't give me my own personal, I don't care if it's 400 square feet.

I wanna be by myself where I can shut my door and, you know, be myself. Even if it's a two bedroom, two bathroom and they have their own bathroom, they're like, Nope. You know? So that'll help us too, with our negotiations. Yeah. Wow. So many things to piece together to make it all go. There's a lot people thinking, what's funny about theater is that people don't think of it as a business.

People don't think of it as a, as a, um, you know, an in an infrastructure, a company. We've got 80 people that work for us, um, and about 150 actors that, you know, artists that come in throughout the year. Yeah. We've got, we're a huge factory. We got, like I said, the 25,000 square foot. Shop over there where 50 of our people working and they're constructing scenery and doing all kinds of stuff.

Yeah. There's so much going on. And people think that magic, that magic happens and the set just comes outta the stage. Yeah. The actors are naturally [01:04:00] rehearsed and, and the show goes on. Right, right. You know what I mean? It's like the craziest thing. So how do you 'cause your, your, your true passion is, is in the, is in that room, is with the, the act, the performance.

How do you balance that or how do you keep yourself from going too far one way or too far the other way? How do you do all that? Because you got a lot to Yeah. Deal with. When I started Gulfshore, there was a guy in New York City, um, I used to be a volunteer for something that doesn't exist anymore, called the Lark Theater and it became called something else, the theater, the Lark Play Workshop or something like that.

I can't remember what, but he was the artistic director for a long time and he said to me, don't ever let them force you to stop doing the thing you love. And I said, oh, that's great advice. And I always kept it in my heart. And the. Early years. I mean, in the first 12 years, nobody directed any show on, on a golf show playout stage.

But me because, not because I was hoarding all the shows in one sense, you know, I, I didn't have as much to do as I have to do now. So I had more [01:05:00] time to direct, you know, three shows a year or whatever it was. It was, we weren't doing a huge season or anything at that point, but it was also because we had so little infrastructure and we had so few staff people, and we had no, we didn't even have a costume shop.

We had a little closet in the back room that didn't even have an outlet. We had to bring in extension cord so we could set up a sewing machine and, and build a costume, you know, so it wasn't until 2012, so that was eight years in that we first had our first guest director. And then after that I started to direct less.

We started doing more shows, started doing a six show season, and so I would direct two or three a year. And then in the past few years, as you can imagine, it's been a very hectic, I directed one in our final season in the No Center and won this past season. But next season I'll direct two again and I made sure that I directed two.

Because as soon as some time freed up, because there wasn't a molecule of my brain that was left, you know what I mean? There was so much. But now we're not gonna be arguing with City Hall. We're not gonna be arguing with construction managers, and we're not gonna be, you know, worrying about all this stuff.

There's actually some time freed up for me Yeah. To go back to directing a show, uh, an extra show. [01:06:00] And I'm really excited about that. Um, but along the way I also developed a deep love for, for managing, you know, I'm the CEOI run. I know, yeah. Run a business with a really good culture. And we're really proud of that.

And, you know, all of the infrastructures that need to be in place to have all these departments and a huge organizational chart and, you know, communication and how does that work throughout the company and how do, how are we with each other and all of that. And I also have developed a huge love for wanting to serve this great city of ours and the wonderful people in it.

Yeah. And that has become, actually will become, I'm sure by the time I die, the thing that will matter the most to me is that I was able to impact people's lives. Mm-hmm. In a really fundamental way. Yeah, you sure have. It's like directing an even bigger show, you know, directing an even bigger show. That's right.

Yeah. And that's super exciting. You know, somebody the other day said to me I had to do a speaking engagement. And she said, you know, my husband and I got engaged in Marco Island. So we always had this sort of like idea that we were gonna retire to Marco Island. And so my husband [01:07:00] kept saying, I wanna retire to Marco Island.

And I was sort like, I don't wanna retire to Marco Island. There's nothing to do out there. I wanna come, can we go to Naples? 'cause there's lots of arts, there's things to do. And he said, you know, he, he said, yes, that's they would move to Naples. And she said, so I just wanna thank you so much because you have fundamentally changed my life.

You've created a place where I can afford to go and have some magic in my life and I just can't thank you enough. And it was just like, that's just so amazing. It's the things you don't realize. The thing I have to say, this is so silly, but as you know, I put on that page in 2004 when I was creating the company to build this theater and education center, but it was because in my mind.

I knew that great theater required great infrastructure, so I just wanted to be able to create great theater for people. Right? Yeah. Hold,

let me take a sip. Do it.

Am I good? [01:08:00] Yeah. Great. But what was shocking to me was throughout this whole first season when people were coming in and going, we're so excited about the building, it makes us proud to live in Naples. And I was like, huh. Wow. Like, I can't tell you, I mean, it sounds so stupid that I never thought about the civic contribution of the building itself.

Yeah. But I was, I just was so focused on the, the outcomes. Yeah. Yeah. And now the, well, the pride of the community, it's, it's a, it's another, um, it's one more thing that this area that we live in that I love. So it's so hard for me to go on vacation because this. It's such a great community. It is so amazing.

It is. I mean, in so many ways, and there are so many things that, sorry, let me do that again.

There are so many things that are so great about Naples. You go somewhere else and you're like, man, why did I go on vacation? Yeah. I can go home in Naples and have all that. Yeah, we got [01:09:00] everything here. We got it all. It's true there. There was something you said, and I wanted to learn more about this. The play finishes in the audience.

Did I say that? You mentioned the play finishes in the audience. What do you hope people take away when they leave the golf tour Playhouse? Yeah. Yeah, so, oh yeah. So

the thing I said on opening night was, and I guess this is why I never thought about the civic contribution of the actual building, was because for me, the building, it was never about the building. It was always about, mm-hmm. What the building would allow us to fill the building with. Mm-hmm. You know, I talk about in the early days I talked about, um, let me refill you.

Oh, I got this other one. How are we doing on time, Zach? We're good. It's 12 two right now. It's 12 what? 1222. Oh my god. I talked too much. No, no, no, no, [01:10:00] no, no, no. It's great. No, that's, that's when we know it's working. That's, that's good. So what's good, like natural Then five more minutes, like, is that okay?

However, however long you, you're so sweet. You keep giving me this. I'm just gonna tell this story 'cause this is the good ending. I think great part about this is that it's not just a sound bite. It's, I don't know. That's why I like the podcast format. It's so cool that you started this. How long have you been doing it?

Uh, on and off a couple years ago. Started it, but probably got more serious about it in the last six of this. Yeah. Yeah. Came across him. Podcast footage of him once started up and I was, oh my God, that's super cool. Yeah, it's really kind of is just 'cause you get the whole human, you don't just get the soundbite that, you know, is, I don't know, I, I like it in, in a lot of format.

Even listening to Putin when he got interviewed by Tucker was like, that was different to me to hear a different, not just hear the negative sound bites. Not that I like the guy or admire. Right, right. But yes. But I gotta to hear the whole being like, who is this [01:11:00] guy? You know? And, and that's who is, who are you?

And this is a big, big deal for our community. This is a really big deal and you had to do it with so many different I, I'm i's fascinated. It's, I, I still am in awe. So it's a lot to accomplish. Um. Especially in this town. Like it's not easy to get stuff done in Naples, you know, especially with the way government is and the shifting and the changing and the multiple opinions about PE that people have about stuff.

And the, and people are very vocal one way or the other about things. So you gotta deal with all of that. Yes. And then you gotta deal with even your own family saying, when are you gonna get a job? When are you, you know, like you gotta go against a lot of, no. Yes, yes. For sure. For sure. And now, it's so funny because now that we're here, there are so many people who are willing to come outta the woodwork and tell me how crazy they thought I was.

I was like, you think I didn't know that? You thought I was crazy all the while. Um, but what I told the audience on opening night was that it was never about the building. It was about this building for me was the body. But I was [01:12:00] excited about the soul of the building and what we could fill the building with.

And so much more than we've ever been able to do before. Right. We've got a huge education department. Um, we do conservatory classes for kids from five to 18 and in school stuff and whatever. And I knew, and we do, um, adult programming and we do audience engagement and we do all kinds of stuff. I knew we could just do more if we had a bigger space to do it in.

So I talk about Wednesday, um, and it was a first, it was very shortly after we opened the building. We had opened anything, goes first in our main stage, and then we opened every brilliant thing in our smaller space in the Struthers. And we had, um, we had a corporate training that our director of education and I were doing together all day.

We had understudy rehearsals going on. Kids were rehearsing in two spaces and, um. There were audience engagements for two shows, and it was just, the building was alive. Everywhere I walked, every room was being filled. There were kids singing, there were people [01:13:00] applauding, there were, you know, whatever. And, and it was just so, so, so exciting to see that that's because that's what I meant when I say that the show finishes with the audience.

Mm. Is that there is none of this that's worthwhile. None of this matters if the audience doesn't come. Mm-hmm. And we talk about it. I mean, from a theater making perspective, it's an actual component of what we do. We do something called previews, like a few previews before we actually officially open.

Because if it's a comedy, if it's a tear jerker, if it's whatever, you need to know for sure the audience is responding the way you anticipate they, they'll, that they'll actually respond. Mm. If they're not laughing at that joke, you're working on it for the next three days before you open. 'cause you're like, we gotta make them laugh here.

Like, what are we doing wrong? Did we not say it at the right? You know? Mm-hmm. There's like this whole but m bum thing about comedy. You know, it's math. And so if you go. And the other person goes, ma, they're not gonna laugh. But if you go and the other person goes, ah, they'll, they're gonna laugh. Mm-hmm. You know?

And it's just so crazy. You just don't, sometimes you just don't know. And sometimes they're laughing at things you didn't expect them to [01:14:00] laugh at, and maybe you wanna calibrate that, or they're crying their eyes out. You didn't expect 'em to cry. You wanted them to cry some other time. So the audience is literally the final component.

But it's not just that they help us make the show better, it's that we, they are the ones we're doing it for. And despite all of this and all the reasons why, and all the passion I have about the art and everything else, my covenant. My covenant is with the audience. Mm-hmm. And if I am not delivering them good art, then I feel like I'm not doing my job.

Hmm. And that's that. Hmm. No, what a powerful statement. I love that. Or just, that's what's, that's what moves you. That's what gets, that's what has You do all this. Yeah. All of it. Yeah. How about just for fun, we have cards here too. All right, I'll tell you about those in a minute. So what music's playing while you're in the car or you're in the zone?

Uh, that's a good question. Um, it could be anything from the Outlander soundtrack to, uh, crazy mix of like, music from the early two [01:15:00] thousands, which I absolutely love, or classical music. If your career was a movie, uh, what would the opening soundtrack be? My God. Um, there's this song I just listened to from Gypsy, and you'll have to find it.

There's an amazing recording of Audra McDonald singing it right now on an on NBC, and it's called Some People. So you gotta listen to that. Okay, we'll, we'll edit that in here. Good. Uh, books or podcasts you love. Podcasts. I love books. I love as a kid I loved to read. Um, but unfortunately now I don't have a lot of time to sit down and read a book.

Mm. So I listen to a lot of books on tape. Yeah. And I listen to a lot of podcasts. Yeah, me too. Any, any that stand out to you? Any that you are your go-tos or that you think Oh, I, not that I'm willing to share, but I will tell you that, um, yeah. I will tell you that it turns out that Joe Rogan is one, is was [01:16:00] listed in variety this year as one of the most influential people in the, um, they're calling it in show business, which I find fascinating.

'cause I don't think what he does is show business. I think what he does is, is sort of investigative journalism, you know? Yeah, yeah. Right, right. Um, but I do, I do love to listen to Joe Rogan 'cause I think he's always got really interesting people and he really dig deep and so, yes. Yeah. Okay. Uh, your coffee order lately, it's been, um, a, an oat milk latte.

Oat milk latte. Okay. Um. If you weren't the CEO here, what do you think you'd be doing today? So that's a, that's a really good question because now I've lived in Naples for 21 years. I'm not leaving Naples. So that, that answer becomes different. Like I mentioned earlier, my second career would've been National Geographic photographer.

Yeah. That's an alternate universe life. Right. So now here I am, like I love Naples and I'm not leaving. So I don't know, I wouldn't, I don't wanna become a realtor, [01:17:00] but who knows? I'd probably have to start something else. Oh, I wanna go on a speaking tour and write a book. So maybe just doing that. Okay. I won't be looking forward to those.

What's something about you that most people don't know but should? Ooh, A lot of people are surprised that I speak French. Uh, I speak a little bit of Italian. I wanna teach myself how to speak Spanish because I've decided it's time for me to learn Spanish, so I'm gonna do that over the summer. I maybe that.

Cool. Wow. Multilingual too. Alright, these are some random questions. Pick a card. Oh goodness. All right. Ah, my comfort food. Well, here's the thing. I am gonna put in a plug for the wonderful I group because I am officially in this country, gluten-free. Um, I can't eat wheat because of what they've done with it here in America.

So I used to love [01:18:00] pizza and I can't eat pizza anymore. I couldn't eat pizza anymore. And so when I would go to Italy or England, or wherever, France, I would, you know, splurge on croissants and pizza and everything else 'cause I can eat it. Over there. 'cause they don't mess it up. Right. They don't mess it up with all the chemicals.

Yeah. Yeah. It's very different. But the AI group, you know, Grino Bakery, my new favorite place, um, is, um, they import all their flour from Italy. So the, it's a, it's a problem for my waistline, but it makes me so happy because their pizza is so good and I can eat it. I didn't know that. I didn't know they did that.

Oh, okay. Gotta try that out. Right. And that is truly my comfort food. All right. One more. Alright. Favorite bar? Hmm. What do I wanna say about that?

Does it have to be in Naples or can it be anywhere? Anywhere? Yeah. I'm not a big drinker, so my favorite bar is hard. But, um, what I will tell you is that I'm hoping to make my favorite bar. [01:19:00] Um, there's, um, uh, my husband and I are going to, uh, sort of do a little tour around. France and Switzerland this summer and in Paris we're gonna stay at a place called Hotel, which just means the hotel.

And in it, it turns out that Oscar Wilde died in this hotel in 1900. And I'm excited about that because I'm directing the importance of being Earnest in the Spring, which was written by Oscar Wilde. Oh. And they have a bar called Oscar's Bar, or Oscar's Lounge or something like that. Wild's Lounge or something.

Yeah. And I'm super excited to experience that bar because, um, because of all the connections to theater, because at the end of the day, I'm just a theater geek. Yeah. And I love it all. Yeah. Oh, I love that. My wife and I'll probably go next summer back to Paris. She loves shopping in Paris and, um, have to have to stop and have a drink there.

That sounds cool. You should, right? Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited to see, um, the new Notre Dame too, I think. Oh, right. It sounds like it's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. It's excited to see [01:20:00] that it's still there. Yeah. I'm glad they decided to rebuild it. Yeah. That was a big deal when that happened. Yeah. Well, we're in a bar here now too, kind of, right?

This is, that's true. My favorite bar is the Cory Family Bar. Right. How, how could I have forgotten that? What is the place? That's right. How cool. So before we, um, Zach, I want to do some pictures. Maybe we can do some pictures together on the main stage down there. After this is over, couple of, uh, great for the, um, uh, for the thumbnail.

And, uh, my final question is, um, what do you love about your life?

Uh, God, you know, it's so funny. Last night my casting director sent me, uh, a pop-up from Facebook. That was from 11 years ago. And, um, it was just a post by me, no pictures, no anything. And it just said, um, context. We had gotten in our first artistic associate by the name of Cody Nichol, and he [01:21:00] was, we had expanded our season.

He was gonna direct some of the shows. He was also a great actor. And our, and he was, um, and still is actually very connected to the Washington DC scene. Up to that point, we had only ever auditioned in New York all the time. 'cause all, all good actors, it's like all roads lead to Rome. Like all good actors come outta New York mostly.

Mm-hmm. But he, yeah, he felt like there was a really, and there is a great professional, um, group of actors in Washington DC so he felt we should go audition them. So it turned out that we did that. And I was on an Amtrak with my casting director and my artistic associate at the time, and I apparently posted and said, I'm on this Amtrak with Michael Ra, who's sending out, um, audition appointments for tomorrow's auditions in New York while Cody Nichol memorized his, his lines from a Midsummer Night's Dream.

I love my life. And, and I said to my casting director.

And I said to my casting director, I would, if you had asked me if I had ever been on an Amtrak with you, I would've [01:22:00] said no. I'd actually go back into the animals of my brain to remember that train ride and why we were even on the train ride and, and so I think that I love my life. I love. Being married to Michael Wynn.

I love being, I love being on the board of the Chamber. I love being a member of Naples. I love the fact that this building is built. I love being a director. I love the fact that, you know, even when I was single for a decade and people were like, you gotta get a life. I felt like I had a great life. You know, I was traveling, I was traveling all around the country, going to New York all the time for auditions or to watch Broadway shows and keep working on my craft.

And I just feel like I've always been really blessed and that there's always been an angel on my shoulder. And I really feel like the angel on my shoulders for this, because there is no way I did this alone. You know? I mean, and I don't even mean that the village that it took, I'm so grateful for being surrounded by great people, great board members, great staff members, and all the, all the generous people who, who, who donated to this 72 million plus capital campaign?

Mm-hmm. It's [01:23:00] just shocking to me. But I know that the angel has been on my shoulder all the way too, because sometimes there were miracles that were just like. This, the universe wanted this. God wanted this. Mm-hmm. And I just happened to be the lucky servant who got to play the role. Mm-hmm. And so those are all the things I love about my life.

Wow. Wow. We're blessed. We're blessed, we we're blessed. We're so blessed to have. You and our Oh, I'm, I'm, I'm thankful for the Comfort Inn. Yes, thank you. Comfort Inn. That's right. I forgot it was a comfort inn too. In Grand Central. I'm grateful for Robert Philadelphia. Oh, wow. Gee, thanks for keeping us in business.

We appreciate you. Oh, God bless you. Thank you so much. Really. This has been really cool. Really fun. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you, Kristen. Thank you. Not just for sharing your time with us today, but for the light, you shine through your work, your leadership, and your relentless belief in what's possible. It's one thing to create beautiful art, but it's another to create a space that inspires, educates and uplifts an entire community.[01:24:00] 

Your passion, your tenacity, your creativity. They've not only built a world-class theater, but they've also built belonging and beauty right here in Naples. We're lucky to have you, and I'm so grateful we got to tell some of your story today. I. Thank you for being one of the good people.