American Stage has presented “the most powerful stories of the moment and the most defining stories from our past” for decades. It’s a key part of their mission as Tampa Bay’s longest-running professional theatre company, work that’s included outdoor performances nearly every year since 1986.
A St. Petersburg staple, American Stage in the Park is held at Demens Landing Park to ensure the company’s art is even more accessible to the community it serves. The tradition first featured a musical for its 21st anniversary in 2006, becoming American Stage’s new normal in the process.
By 2010, more than 15,000 people attended their production of “Hair,” a record that set the stage for recent musicals like “Mamma Mia!,” “The Producers” and “Footloose.” Next up is the iconic “Ragtime,” a perfect fit for the park.
“Set in the melting pot of turn-of-the-century New York, three distinctly American tales are woven together — that of a stifled upper-class wife, a determined Jewish immigrant and a daring young Harlem musician — united by their courage, compassion and belief in the promise of the future and the power of the human spirit to overcome,” American Stage describes “Ragtime.” The production opened April 12 and plays through May 14.
The celebrated musical is the winner of four 1998 Tony Awards including Best Score and Best Book, which was penned by the late, openly gay playwright and St. Petersburg native Terrence McNally. Among other honors, he posthumously received Equality Florida’s Edie Windsor Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021.
“Our annual Park show is one of the most impactful services that we offer the City of St. Pete and the Tampa Bay area,” Producing Artistic Director Helen R. Murray said in a press release last month. “It is a beautiful intersection of our city and our art. We look forward to welcoming audiences from far and wide as they grab their picnic blankets or get a couple chairs, enjoy some tasty treats and watch great theatre under the stars.”
Theatergoers will have plenty of opportunities for that. “Ragtime” is scheduled to be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays and will feature two event nights.
That includes Pride Night on April 23, held in celebration of Tampa Bay’s LGBTQ+ community.
“We’re here, we’re queer and we’re in the park having a local beer,” it’s described. “American Stage’s Pride in the Park night is your chance to wear your best rainbow, pack a picnic and enjoy ‘Ragtime’ in a fun, safe place. And what’s more LGBTQ+ than musical theatre? … Come early to enjoy the rainbow before the show kicks off.”
The pet-friendly “Wagtime in the Park” will follow April 30, which encourages guests to bring their “dogs, cats, chickens, ferrets” or other animals. They aren’t required for entry.
“‘Ragtime’ is a powerful story and we’re boldly telling it,” Director Erica Sutherlin says. “So far the community is showing up in beautiful ways.”
That’s something the theater veteran — also American Stage’s director of community engagement — discussed with Watermark ahead of opening night, reflecting on the show’s LGBTQ+ ties and more.
WATERMARK: What draws you to directing?
Erica Sutherlin: There’s something very magical and special about taking a blank slate and transforming it into another place, whether it is a living room or magical forest, and having a script that we analyze and add subtext to. All the highs, all the aha moments, all the problem solving, I just love the teamwork and the collaboration. You can’t do it by yourself. It’s beautiful.
What drew you to “Ragtime” specifically?
I was gifted this show … so I fell in love with “Ragtime” differently. When I explored the book, the more I got inside the world of the characters and working with my actors and musicians, I saw that it really is a beautiful score. It really is, shall I say, a beautiful story? Or should I say it is a story that forces you to sit in your frustration?
How so?
This story takes place at the turn of the century, and we look at three different journeys. We have Mother who is from New Rochelle, which we would call our idyllic world — our white world — and her journey. Then we have Tateh, who is immigrating from Russia into America, and then we have what they call in the book, Harlem, which is a representation of Black America. That is the journey that Coalhouse Walker, so we look at three journeys and three different aspects of America and the questions that come up.
Is the American dream an attainable thing? Is it still the same dream? Has it shifted? If it has, what is it? If it hasn’t, why not? We can take this story and lay it right here in 2023 in our turn of the world … we’re having the same conversations now, when this show was written for the turn of the century, the early 1900s. So that’s why I say, “do we sit in our frustration?”
There are a lot of layers.
There are a lot of layers. (Laughs.) It’s not a happy show. The score is beautiful. You can say, ‘this story is beautiful. I love this story, it’s gorgeous,’ but when you really start to unearth it, is it? Or is it frustrating? Is it sad? Are you angered by it? Does it want to make you do things, change, stand up, or curl up in a little ball? Because there’s so much — does it say that we haven’t changed, that we can’t change?
But there is such beautiful singing; this cast can sing and act in some beautiful moments. The songs are gorgeous, even though the words can be hard to sit with at moments. And this is a very different show for our park shows, which are accustomed to being fun, sing-along, feel good types of shows. That’s not what this is.
Why is it still a good fit?
This is an extension of American Stage for me. It’s our second stage, and I love the idea of putting provocative art on the stage in the park and bringing the masses to that. Because different people come to the park show than who come to the theater; we start looking at this idea of accessibility and people feeling like they don’t belong inside the theater. Some people can feel like it’s too high-brow, too high-class, or like they don’t fit. But the thing about the park is that it’s in the community, it’s open, it’s outside, you can’t miss it. It pulls you in.
People that would never have the opportunity, you just bring up a chair, you sit down, you can bring your own things and have a moment. I love that idea of making art accessible for all — even if you can’t afford a ticket to get into the grounds in which we exist, you can still hear the music, you can still hear the story. So I love this particular stage. It goes back to our mission, powerful stories boldly told.
What do you want people to know about that?
This is a powerful story and we’re boldly telling it, we’re not hiding it. We want to have conversations about it, but it is a training and a moment that our audience is not used to in the park. I think there was a moment where we thought that may be problematic, but the community is showing up … I’ve heard so many people that I do and don’t know talk about how excited they are to see this show, so it speaks to the greater idea of art to me.
Why do you think “Ragtime” can appeal to LGBTQ+ audiences?
I think it’s the journey of finding oneself, one’s worth, where one exists in America, and how you achieve the American dream. What is the American dream on your journey? I think it really speaks to everyone in that way. It speaks to all those people that are in America who are forced to find — or encouraged or challenged to find — ways to exist in a world that is not always accessible for them. I think that’s what this story does.
So while no, there may not be written into the storyline as one of the lead characters someone who is clearly stated as LGBTQ+ , but the journeys that they take, the strife that they go through, the conflict and tension that they face in a world that doesn’t truly accept them, I think that’s where we find the commonalities with this story.
What else can you share about the cast and crew?
This is a huge show, normally done with like 30-40 cast members. We have 21, and so we have multiple people playing multiple roles and you will see that intersectionality of the world. It will blend during this production more than in other productions, just because of the sheer number of people we have.
That also becomes interesting, when you have like New Rochelle and Harlem in the same space, because it wasn’t written that way. If I have a person of color playing a person that was written to be white, that does bring something new. I think those are conversations that we can continue to have about also what it means to be an actor in roles that do not conform with your identity or your gender. How do you show up for that? I’m very proud of our casting … I think American Stage is really moving forward in diversity and inclusion. I think you’ll be pleasantly happy with our diversification. It’s a great start.
For those who are and aren’t familiar with “Ragtime,” why is this the perfect production to see?
It’s an important piece of theater. It’s an important piece of history. This is probably the perfect time to have this show because it creates and initiates conversations that we should be having, looking at our own political landscape right now and our own environmental landscape.
It’s also not a traditional set. I really wanted to look at the American dream and ask what liberty is, so we have a deconstructed Statue of Liberty as our set and it’s looming, it’s huge. The set is big because I wanted the actors to feel like they were small in this space, like the idea of the American dream is always looming over us. That pressure, the joy, the obstacles, all of it is constantly there in our lives, whether we know it or not.
This is a great story to experience theater. First of all, it’s a musical so people are singing to you — and the second thing is the stories themselves, I think they pull you into a world. Whatever your emotional journey, it will pull you in. I’m very excited about the work that we’ve done.
American Stage in the Park’s “Ragtime” plays Wednesdays-Sundays now through May 14 at 7:30 p.m. at Demens Landing Park, located at Bayshore Dr. & 2nd Ave. S. in St. Petersburg. Pride Night is scheduled for April 23 and tickets begin at $25. For more information and to purchase yours, visit AmericanStage.org.
