Sights + Sounds at Waterside Place: Asolo Rep on Tour - Shakespeare 45
On an October evening, Shakespeare may be found not in an Elizabethan playhouse but beside the lake at Waterside Place, where the rhythms of Sarasota’s newest gathering spaces will give way to the cha
By Edit Sarasota Staff
On an October evening, Shakespeare may be found not in an Elizabethan playhouse but beside the lake at Waterside Place, where the rhythms of Sarasota’s newest gathering spaces will give way to the charged language of the stage. For one night, Asolo Rep will bring its touring production Shakespeare 45 to the Pavilion, offering an abbreviated, lively passage through the playwright’s vast and still-astonishing world.
Created by Terrance Jackson, Asolo Rep’s director of education and engagement, Shakespeare 45 is built as a revue rather than a single play. Scenes, sonnets, and soliloquies will unfold alongside reflections on Shakespeare’s life, his theatrical inventions, and the enduring legacy of his work. The format promises both recognition and surprise: familiar lines may arrive in unexpected company, while lesser-known passages can reveal the wit, appetite, tenderness, and volatility that continue to make Shakespeare feel less like a monument than a living conversation.
That sense of conversation is central to Asolo Rep’s role in Sarasota. The company is widely known for its ambitious mainstage productions, but its education and engagement work extends the theater’s reach beyond the walls of the historic FSU Center for the Performing Arts. With Shakespeare 45, the company takes its craft into a public setting, meeting audiences where they gather and making room for newcomers as well as longtime theatergoers. In a community shaped by both serious arts institutions and informal outdoor social life, the pairing feels especially apt.
Waterside Place, with its lakefront promenade, restaurants, residences, and event spaces, has become a natural stage for that kind of communal exchange. The Pavilion offers a more relaxed atmosphere than a traditional theater, yet Shakespeare’s language needs little ornament. A voice, a gesture, a charged silence—and perhaps the dark water beyond the audience—can be enough to turn a familiar evening into something theatrical.
Seating for the performance is limited, and guests are welcome to bring a lawn chair for the outdoor setting. Outside food and drinks are not permitted. Shakespeare 45 will be presented Friday, October 9, 2026, at Waterside Place Pavilion, 1560 Lakefront Drive, as part of Sights + Sounds at Waterside Place, a performance and fine arts series that places culture directly in the flow of Sarasota’s community life.