Bios:

Kate Alexander is the Associate Director of FST and the Founder of the FST Theatre School. Ms. Alexander has directed numerous productions and premieres on the FST stages including this year’s regional premiere of Dancing Lessons by Mark St. Germain,  Becoming Dr. Ruth, Freud’s Last Session; Thurgood; South Beach Babylon; The Columnist; Talley’s Folly; Jericho; Next Fall; The Savannah Disputation; Ghost- Writer; Two Jews Walk into a War...; I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change; Sylvia; Shotgun; The Miamians; Brooklyn Boy; The Exonerated; Wit; Proof; Lobby Hero; and Ten Unknowns.    For the past 5 seasons, Ms. Alexander has developed: The City Dialogues; Forums on Race; opening the play to a community dialogue involving hundreds of organizations and people in every venue possible. The focus on race issues with community leadership has led an unparalleled cross county participation that the Association Director of African American Culture, Smithsonian said “Is on the pulse of our national and collective anxiety.”

Ms. Alexander is also a resident actress for the past 20 years. Some of her leading roles were seen in the plays: Edward Albee’s The Goat; The Occupant; Filumena; Master Class; Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women; Edward Albee’s The Play About the Baby; Golda’s Balcony; and most recently, Taking Shakespeare. Ms. Alexander is the recipient of numerous acting, directing, and public service awards, including FAER, She Knows Where She’s Going Award (Girls, Inc.), The Woman of Light Award, National Council of Jewish Women, The Woman of Power Award, the Sarasota County Arts Leadership Award, Education Award, Sarasota Manatee Jewish Federation, and most recently The Unity Award for her work on race in our community.   Most recently, she has collaborated with the Chautauqua Institution on the WRITE A PLAY program – which has been initiated in Israel, Russia, and Scotland.  She is also the co-author of The Animated Short, co-authored by Karen Sullivan, with a second edition now available.

Judge Williams was born in North Carolina, raised in St. Petersburg, Florida and graduated from Howard University in Washington D.C.; He earned his law degree from the University of Florida. He currently sits as a Circuit Court Judge in Sarasota Florida in the Civil Division. His past awards include the Community Service Award from the Manatee County Bar Association, the Manatee County NAACP Public Service Award, the Sarasota County Branch NAACP’s 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2014 C.L. McKaig Award.

He was recently honored to present the Commencement Address to the 2013 graduating class of New College of Florida. When he is not involved in his judicial duties, Judge Williams writes, directs, and produces documentary films.  His film “Through the Tunnel” won Best Historical Documentary at the DocMiami International Film Festival.  His latest film, “The Enduring Beauty of Memory” has been selected to be shown in the 2014 Sarasota Film Festival. In February 2015 Judge Williams was elected by his fellow judges to serve as Chief Judge for the 12th Judicial Circuit commencing July 1st, 2015. Judge Williams and his wife Jacquelyn have two daughters, Charlette and Caitlin.

Focus for the week: Sarasota, a beautiful tropical city has been at times named America’s “meanest” city (toward the homeless) and one of the most segregated. Two worlds exist here. Local articles have described Sarasota as an area that is deeply accustomed to strong separation between classes, and thus racist attitudes still exist in the community. In establishing the Community dialogues on Race, it was imperative that we had a cross section of the community represented at the leadership level. Chief Judge Charles E. Williams took on the role of Chair of our Steering Committee. In our partnership, we have defined the scope of the project and Judge Williams has taken a leadership role in the panel discussions and on-line questions. An important collaborative partner for the past 4 years on our community dialogues, Judge Williams will participate in this week’s focus.

This week begins the inauguration of the Fly Forums Project: City Dialogues on Race. The play Fly by Ricardo Kahn and Trey Ellis just opened and will play to about 16,000 people for the duration of the run. In tandem with the play, community dialogues on race will begin in every venue imaginable. From the Sarasota Ministerial Association to the Ringling Museum, over 50 people representing organizations are involved. Along with my Chair, Judge Williams, the steering committee is represented by Mayor Willie Shaw, Trevor Harvey, Regional Director of the NAACP and Tom Tryon, Op-Ed Editor The Sarasota Herald Tribune. We have designed a cross section of programs throughout our two counties. Some of them beginning this week are:

• Panel Discussions that will be live streamed to all libraries and to ABC7.

1. Topic this week is "The Impact of the Tuskegee airmen on Civil Rights and Where was Sarasota in 1943?”

• Bookstore Luncheon with author J. Todd Moye. “Freedom Flyers: The Oral History of the Tuskegee Airmen”
• Post show discussions begin
• PSA announcements round the clock on ABC7 with community leaders asking our community to join the discussion. (This includes the Chief of Police, Our Newscaster, and a prominent psychiatrist asking you to step forward and join a dialogue)
• “Speaking Race from the Pulpits” - Sarasota Ministerial Association
• On-line forum with Pulitzer Prize Winner Gilbert King, FST-blog.com

This is our focus for this week.

Questions from LMDA:

What is your definition of dramaturgy?

I love to walk by the literary office and just sit in. There is a presence there, and this presence has many meanings for me. It is both comforting and energizing. Dramaturgy is the necessary communal eye of the play and the theatre. By that I mean, dramaturgy brings us to the whole play - its research and meanings both historical and cultural as well as the plays structure when necessary and its implications. Yet its purpose is fluid and changing. For the Dramaturge not only identifies new plays, but reaches beyond the four walls of the theatre—moves the themes and ideas like finger lakes into the community- into discussion. Dramaturgy is the nexus of thought for the entire creative process; Inside the world of the play and outside into the world of the community.

What is your dream project: This is my dream project. An exciting play that explodes with contemporary significance and then, making that play engage the community in every possible way, in surprising ways. See the play. Then, turn on your television and see the Weather Person talking about Race. On the weekend, go to your synagogue, church or mosque and hear it from the pulpit. Stop at your local library and there is a discussion there. Have your children come home from school having seen the play and wanting to talk about ostracism and fear of the ‘other.” The audience seeing the play is the hub of the conversation and then it moves out from there, like spokes on a wheel into every part of our life.

Follow along: @LMDAmericas