A Grand Goodbye

BY NANCY STETSON | April 03, 2024 | Florida Weekly

A GRAND GOODBYE: Gulfshore Playhouse produces last show before moving into $72 million venue

“She Loves Me” runs at the Norris Center through April 21.

Kristen Coury’s been feeling a little Janus-like lately.

While directing Gulfshore Playhouse’s current production, “She Loves Me,” she’s been looking back and looking ahead.

“She Loves Me” is not only Gulfshore Playhouse’s last show of the season, but its last show in the Norris Community Center in Naples.

The company will be moving to its newly constructed home, the Baker Theatre and Education Cen- ter, located on Goodlette-Frank Road and First Street South. Its first show, “Anything Goes,” opens Oct. 27.

“The Norris Center has been terrific for us,” says board member David Drobis, “but it’s exciting to move to a bigger, newer venue — our own space.”

“She Loves Me” is its last love letter to its Southwest Florida audience staged at the Norris Center. The musical runs through April 21, but may have to be extended due to demand.

It’s their last show on that stage.

“This is it,” Coury declares.

Kristen Coury is directing her final show at the Norris Community Center before moving to a stunning new theater.

It’s mixed for me. It’s a little bit bittersweet.

Kristen Coury

She’s also feeling grateful.

“We couldn’t be where we are today if not for the generosity of spirit of Jennifer Fox, the original park manager, when we first started to rent,” she says. “It was thanks to her that we were able to do three shows here, then four, then six-show seasons. And then our observatory program and classes. It was thanks to her and the City of Naples offering us (this space that) we were able to grow and accomplish a lot.”

Coury founded Gulfshore Playhouse in 2004 and is also its producing artistic director. She staged its first shows in 2006.

“It was a few nights of David Mamet’s ‘Oleana’ and a few nights of a play called ‘Life X 3’ by Yasmena Reza,” she recalls. “Honestly, we were only able to do that. We had a budget of less than $100,000.”

Their budget going into the new building?

Over $11 million annually.

“That’s a huge trajectory,” Coury says. Except for the pandemic year, she says, they’ve grown between 5 and 25% with no debt.

“She Loves Me” is Gulfshore Playhouse’s final performance at the Norris Center. It was chosen as a sendoff before the company moves into its new facility.

“That’s certainly first and foremost due to the generosity of our patrons and donors.”

But, she adds, her philosophy has always been to employ something called The Merlin Principle.

“Look and see where you want to be in the future and how to get to that,” she explains. “We want to get to XYZ, so that means we have to do this and this and this. A lot of businesses might look at their budget and say, ‘We did this much, we’ll add one to two percent and call that good.’ I’ll look, and say, ‘I want to hire three more people and I want to do an extra show. How much we have to make to accomplish that? So we have to make X more in ticket sales and X more in fundraising.’

“I’m what you could call the cart-before the-horse girl.”

The only two “tiny contractions” in their budget, as she refers to them, were in the 2020 and 2021 fiscal year.

Coury says she’s looking forward to making new stories and new memories in the Baker Theatre.

“It was the deep, dark days of the pandemic,” she says. “It’s worth noting that our fundraising for the capital campaign grew exponentially. We raised $32 million that year. That was the gamechanger.”

The $72 million building has more than 40,000 square feet, which includes two theaters — the Moran Mainstage and the Struthers Studio — an education center, rehearsal rooms and classrooms.

‘She Loves Me’

Coury had planned to be in the new building this season, but as she ruefully says, “Hurricane Ian had other plans.”

The original plan was to close after “Mornings After Grace” last year, take the autumn off, and open the new building in Jan. 17 of this year. But the hurricane, which damaged some of the construction, delayed everything for four months.

“We couldn’t open the new building a month from now, at the end of season. So, we made the executive decision to do another season at the Norris,” she says.

“I’ve felt many, many times like I’ve been that person pushing the rock up the hill. It’s not easy to figure out plays and musicals on a small stage and present a variety. I didn’t think I had another season in me; my head was on bigger shows. We looked and we looked and we looked.”

Then their literary manager suggested “She Loves Me.”

“I just started crying, and I said, ‘That’s perfect.’ I really do feel this is just the perfect icing on the cake.”

The musical, with book written by Joe Masteroff, who also wrote the book for “Cabaret” and music and lyrics by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, who wrote “Fiddler on the Roof,” is a charming tale of two people who work together in a perfume shop in Budapest in the ’30s. They are antagonistic toward each other in real life, not realizing they’ve been exchanging secret love letters and have fallen in love with each other, their identities unknown.

Lee Harrington and Ben Fankhauser play the leads. (Fankhauser made his Broadway debut originating the role of Davey in “Newsies.” Fellow actors Jack Mastrianni and David Baida are also Broadway actors.)

“This cast is stellar, every single one of them,” Coury says. “All 12 of them are hugely talented. Every number is a show-stopping number. It’s like a mini- ‘My Fair Lady.’ It’s so delightful, from top to bottom. And it’s taken from the same source material as ‘You’ve Got Mail.’ I had a big smile on my face the whole time (I was directing it), because they’re so good.

For our last show, we’re putting on our best and biggest show ever.

Kristen Coury on SHE LOVES ME

“For our last show, we’re putting on our best and biggest show ever. I hope people come and play with us and help us ring out our last production in the Norris Center.

“This is a celebration, a big bash. I’m as pleased as punch.”

Attending the opening night production is bittersweet,” says board member Cynthia Scholl, “because we had so many wonderful productions here. But the overwhelming feeling is excitement for the new theater.”

Coury agrees.

“It’s bittersweet, nostalgic,” she says, “but generally exhilarating and exciting. I spent the last 18 years of my life working in the Norris Center. I moved those chairs hundreds of times myself, nudged them into straight rows, made sure the floor was vacuumed. It’s such a huge part of me and my history.

“But I’m looking forward to making new stories and new memories in the Baker Theatre.

I want to have a party after the final performance, even if it’s just me. Much of the staff is newer, so they don’t have the emotional side (of leaving this building.)

“We gotta have a party to close this out. It’s really been a ride. If it wasn’t for the Norris Center, (I don’t know what would’ve happened).

“I hope a small young theater company goes in there and grows,” Coury says, thinking of Gulfshore Playhouse’s own beginnings. “Wouldn’t that be great?”

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In the KNOW
‘She Loves Me’
When: through April 21
Where: Gulfshore Playhouse at the Norris Community Center, 755 8th Ave. South, Naples
Cost: $40, $64, $71, $80
Information: : 239-261-7529 or www.gulfshoreplayhouse.org

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