FST provides theatrical learning experience

Located on a mellow corner of North Palm Avenue, the Florida Studio Theatre and its multivenue facility are a hive of activity preparing for various playwriting, improv, cabaret, mainstage and special events through its season. Because of the constant buzz of people, patrons and participants, it is easy to miss FST’s major and most influential function: education.

“We are delighted when someone finds an artistic home here and is sparked to seek a career in theater,” says Beth Duda, director of education at FST. “But our goal is to create a place we can share in our common humanity, develop storytelling skills and an emotional place where we can understand the world a little better.”

And for three women, FST was just such a place of personal discovery of themselves and the roots of their theatrical passion. Nicole Wee, 34, Rebekah Small, 25, and Savannah Sinclair, 17, each fostered and experienced her first professional venture in the dramatic arts during various professional productions. Now, their paths have converged for FST’s opening mainstage production of the season: the big-hair, colorful, cross-dressing, civil rights musical, “Hairspray.”

Wee, a costume designer and costume coordinator for the current production, found her path into theater out of a love of animation powerhouse Pixar.

“I knew that Pixar liked to hire people in the artistic division who had a theater background, aka acting experience, which I knew I wasn’t interested in,” says Wee. “So I took costume history thinking it is ample theater experience.”

After graduating from Brown University, Wee was looking for a place to intern, and a trusted professor steered her in the direction of FST.

“This was basically where I learned everything to be a theater professional,” says Wee. “We did it all: making costumes, being backstage, fittings, designing, and I learned how to make clothes here. This was my first big theater experience.”

Small, assistant stage manager, is a Sarasota native. She stumbled upon FST after reading an advertisement for a stage management internship. Through that internship she found her artistic home and sharpened her skills.

“I definitely grew as a stage manager here,” says Small. “I became more correct and more assertive when things needed to get done. It has all been a great learning experience for me, and as soon as each production is over I feel like a different person.”

Sinclair, a junior at Booker High School and an ensemble member in “Hairspray,” was raised in her mother’s old dance studio in Sarasota. She has been performing on stage throughout her childhood at FST and is grateful for the professionalism FST’s equity productions offer.

“I’m used to working with high school students and community theaters, and I love those people, but I notice that I get really upset when things are going off track or behind,” says Sinclair. Although she was intimidated at first, Sinclair has gotten used to the method to the madness of musical rehearsal.

After “Hairspray” closes, Wee, Small and Sinclair are all headed to New York City, the theater mecca of America, to look for their next engagement and continue learning their crafts. And, perhaps the greatest testament to Florida Studio Theatre as an educational institution is that no matter how much time or distance may pass, all three women say they would happily return and work where their theater journey began.

IF YOU GO 
‘Hairspray’
When: Runs through Jan. 4
Where: Gompertz Theatre, 1241 N Palm Ave.
Cost: Tickets are $18 to $49
Info: Call 366-9000 or visit floridastudiotheatre.org.