It’s a cliché that gay people and theater are BFFs. But it’s one of those clichés that tends to be based in truth, so Central Florida’s Watermark readers voted Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts their Favorite Performance Venue for the second year in a row. Our readers love DPCPA (and acronyms!), and DPCPA loves them right back.
Kathy Ramsberger, president and CEO, has been with DPCPA since its inception and said openness and inclusiveness were key goals from the start.
“We started this a long time ago, saying it had to be for everybody,” she says. “As many different areas that we can extend the invitation for people to participate, the better. I have to say this [LGBT] community is one that has really embraced the Center. It’s an audience that is very relevant and participative.”
DPCPA consistently features LGBT-themed programming. Book of Mormon was a highlight and big seller of their first season and they just wrapped a run of Kinky Boots. Dixie’s Tupperware Party opens this month and DPDPA’s 2016-2017 season announcement event unveiled upcoming runs of Wicked and Matilda, which while not specifically about gay characters, explore plots about outsiders who don’t quite fit in and are very popular among the LGBT community. Ramsberger says the theater’s gay-themed performances have been embraced by heterosexual audience members.
“I think the lines are falling down,” she says. “People see a play because it’s great, not because of the subject matter.”
Ramsberger says their values of openness and inclusion are even reflected in the building’s design and architecture, which are also “transparent and open.” On average, theatres have five points of sale.
“Ours has 30 points of sale,” she says. “Not because of revenue, but because we want people to talk to each other.”
DPCPA is entering its final phase of construction, venue space meant to sound spectacular and to entertain audiences with the finer arts: orchestra, opera.
“You’re going to see one of the greatest halls ever designed globally,” she promises, teasing that the new theater boasts a movable, hydraulic piece that changes the shape of the room, creating “two different types of halls in one.”
Sounds like a must-see. (And hear.)
