Urbanite puts finishing touches on inaugural show

It’s 5:30 in the morning and Summer Wallace is awake. Wallace and her artistic partner, Brendan Ragan, have been early birds for the last 15 months as they have worked to bring new voices and shows to Sarasota audiences via their Urbanite Theatre.

Wallace and Ragan, professional actors, are no strangers to Sarasota. Both graduates of the Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training M.F.A. program in 2012 and 2013, respectively, the duo has a keen sense of Sarasota’s theater scene, honed over years of performing and living in this artistic community. More than a year ago the two decided to do something that, in a relatively small city with several popular theatrical institutions, was rather risky: start their own theater dedicated to new and thought-provoking plays and shows.

“If there’s any statement that we want to make, it’s that we are not afraid,” says Ragan. “We will produce a play if we believe in it and think it’s a powerful story, no matter the content. The policy will be that we’re not scared of content, language, violence, nudity, whatever happens with it.”

“Chicken Shop” by Anna Jordan fits that definition. Winner of the 2014 London Fringe production of the year, the play deals with a young man’s loss of innocence as he encounters and befriends a woman ensnared in the steely claw of the human trafficking trade.

But before opening night April 10 there seem to be hundreds of things to do and many days’ worth of preparation. The two trained actors sit in on rehearsals to work on their adapted script for the play’s U.S. premiere; finish final touches of construction on their blank canvas of a black box theater; put in seats, furniture, lights and other necessary physical installations required for hosting large groups of people; sell tickets and subscriptions; and handle administrative tasks such as contracts and publicity.

Paint buckets, props, set furniture, audience seating, bathroom fixtures and painting mats are splayed all over the theater.
“The train is still full speed ahead,” says Wallace. “Our to-do lists are 10 pages long, but what’s been exciting leading up to opening is the artistic stuff interspersed among the administrative and construction tasks.”

From the first table read-through of the play with the cast  the night of March 17 to every rehearsal until opening night, the few hours per day of rehearsal serve as fuel and creative restoration for them to power through the heavy lifting involved in opening their small business. However, as important as opening night is for Wallace and Ragan, the actors will  keep moving to the next goal, the next night, the next challenge.

“We’re actors,” says Wallace. “We put on our ‘on face’ and we go. Suddenly, in a flash, it’s all over. I don’t know what opening night will feel like. I think slightly out-of-body and exciting. It’s a dream come true.”

Opening night is already sold out.

“All of those people who helped us are going to be here on opening night, and that’s going to be the meaningful part,” says Ragan.

Wallace adds: “That’s what makes this so special. It’s not going to just be an opening night for us. It’s not going to just be opening night for the actors. It’s opening night for our ‘Urbanites,’ all those people that helped us along the way.”