“I always knew I wanted to open a production company,” says Luke McFatrich, founder of Dingbat Theatre Project. “It’s been my dream ever since I joined my first theater group in 7th grade, but there was just never enough time in my schedule to give it a real shot.” However, when 2020 rolled around, Luke and his good friend Brian Finnerty, like much of the rest of the world, found themselves with nothing but time. Armed with the same ambition, Luke, who worked as the Community Engagement Coordinator at Venice Theater and Brian went about putting on their first production — Brian and Luke’s Live Holiday Jamboree — in December 2020 at The Bazaar on Apricot and Lime. “It was an original review with just me, Brian and musical director Michelle Kasanofsky. It was funny, we did a bunch of different songs, sold out, had a blast and thought huh, something must be here,” says McFatrich.

Something was, in fact, very much there. A need for accessible, live entertainment could be felt throughout the community ever since the initial lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. That communal craving struck at just the right moment for creatives like Luke and Brian to bring their craft to the light. “The Players Centre was very generous with us at the beginning. They did A Christmas Carol at the Bizarre Apricot and allowed us to use their spaces without charge. Because it was an original holiday review, we didn’t have to pay for any licensing and could keep all the revenue — the Players Centre and Bizarre’s generosity allowed us to pocket that money and put it into production costs for Shrek the following year,” attests Luke McFatrich.

Shrek the Musical, which Dingbat Theatre project put on in May 2021, was the next in a line of community-driven productions made on a shoe-string budget done by the company in 2021 including Hedwig and the Angry Inch and The Spongebob Musical. “I like that our productions are from a very collaborative place — everybody has a stake in us including the actors. Creating accessible theater is our biggest goal— not only financially, but in the stories we present. Audiences here tend to be older and of a certain wealth. For example Shrek the Musical typically has over 30 actors in character- realistic costumes. Our version has 3 actors playing 100 characters in costumes we made ourselves,” states McFatrich.

While financial restraints regaled Dingbat Theatre Project to a part-time endeavor for Luke and Brian, their future was bright. It’s was a burden McFatrich has been happy to shoulder. The past two years have been invaluable to not only the growth of Dingbat Theatre Project, but also the blossoming of McFatrich’s knowledge of the industry. “I don’t want to call it a product, but it really is. You’d love for it to just be a bunch of kids in their twenties making art, but when people are paying $30 to go to it, there’s a level of production quality that’s expected of it, especially with Sarasota being such a theater town,” says McFatrich.

As of this past summer, a partnership with ReFlex Arts Dance, a local dance and yoga school, has enabled Dingbat to continue on a larger scale — and for McFatrich to pursue his dream full time. “ReFlex Arts Dance is the producing organization for the shows that we’re doing — both of them will performed in a newer, bigger studio than last time. We’re also doing a bunch of educational programs through it as well. I’ve transitioned to doing this full-time and I’m very, very happy,” says McFatrich.