Theatre Conspiracy

This week, two shows close, eight continue their runs and there are six limited engagements at Southwest Florida equity and community theaters.

This week, four shows open, one show closes, six continue their runs and there are five limited engagements at Southwest Florida equity and community theaters.

“Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me But Banjos Saved My Life” debuted in Fort Myers during Fringe Fort Myers in 2024. The show’s originator, Keith Alessi, returns this week as part of Theatre Conspiracy’s Farewell Tour. Alessi’s four performances will benefit six local nonprofits.

This week, five shows close, nine continue their runs at Southwest Florida equity and community theaters and there is a limited engagement of a student directed and staged musical at Fort Myers Theatre.

This season will be Theatre Conspiracy’s last in Southwest Florida. Founder and Producing Artistic Director Bill Taylor has announced a lineup of 11 blockbuster shows for its farewell tour. Since the company is no longer at the Alliance for the Arts, it has arranged to stage this season’s shows in the Off Broadway Palm, Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium and The Laboratory Theater of Florida.

This week, theatergoers have 17 productions from which to choose, including one new play and performances of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker by Gulfshore Ballet and Sarasota Ballet.

“Clown Bar 2” is the most immersive theater experience Southwest Florida audiences will ever experience, bar none, and while it's not a musical, the show's songs really advance the action in the clown noir whodunit.

In addition to shows that afford opportunities for actors of color and discourse on the Black experience in America, under Bill Taylor’s tutelage, Theatre Conspiracy has pioneered efforts to produce plays written by female playwrights and that provide strong female characters. Going forward, it will be embracing programming derived from fringe festivals.

Theatre Conspiracy at the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers is performing August Wilson’s Pulitzer-prize winning drama “the Piano Lesson,” marking the company’s fifth production of plays from Wilson’s American Century Cycle, which is a series of 10 plays thatexamine the Black experience in the U.S. throughout the 20th century.

Theatre Conspiracy at the Alliance for the Arts is mounting a production of August Wilson’s play “The Piano Lesson.” Ahead of opening night, we explore the play in a conversation with director Sonya McCarter and actor Renee Freeman.