Pictured: Dave Harris. Photo courtesy of The Hermitage.

“We want to encourage artists to feel comfortable sharing their work,” says Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of The Hermitage Artist Retreat. “It’s part of building their connection and engagement with the audience. Sometimes, artists will ask me, ‘what do you want me to do?’ and they are shocked when I respond, ‘well, what would you like to do?’”

Programming at The Hermitage Artist Retreat looks a little different than most other performing arts organizations, because well, it’s not a performing arts organization. It’s a retreat, a haven for the top artists from all over the world across every type of genre. That doesn’t mean, however, that The Hermitage doesn’t put on great programming, like From the Heart of Philly: The Works of Dave Harris this Friday at the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe. The program, presented in conjunction with The Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, features the work of Hermitage Roundabout Fellow Dave Harris, a Philadelphia-based playwright and poet. Harris, who is a fellow at New York’s Tony Award-winning Roundabout Theatre Company, is brought to The Hermitage due to the organization's new partnership with Roundabout, which is designed to continue The Hermitage’s mission of being on the forefront of new and creative work.

“I expect that in Dave’s program you’re going to see a mix of newer and older work–both in sharing pieces of his work and talking about his creative process as well. You might notice that we’re somewhat vague in our programming and how we market our events and that’s because we truly leave it up to the artist,” says Sandberg. “Sometimes they’ll have a plan in mind and will tell us what they’re going to do way ahead of time and other times they’ll pivot. We’re often guarded about locking down exactly what you’re going to see because we want to give the artist that flexibility and trust to explore what they want to explore.”

Friday, August 18, 6:30pm, Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, 1012 N Orange Ave, Sarasota.

Pictured: Dave Harris. Photo courtesy of The Hermitage.

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