American Stage gears up for new outdoor season in Demens Landing Park with Ragtime

American Stage’s production of Footloose in Demens Landing Park in 2022 | American Stage

Demens Landing Park is again abuzz with the sounds of construction as American Stage gets ready for its 38th park production, which runs from April 12th to May 14th and will feature a production of “Ragtime,” a Tony Award-winning musical that debuted in 1996 in Toronto.

Since 1986 for the debut of the theater company’s production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, American Stage’s park production has been a fixture of springtime in St. Pete. The only exception being in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic prevented performances from being held.

The performances attract an average of 17,000 attendees over a five-week period, according to Production Director Timon Brown, who said the American Stage’s park production crew starts the planning process 12 to 18 months in advance.

Raucous, crowd-pleasing musicals such as Hairspray, Spamalot, Mamma Mia!, Little Shop of Horrors, and The Producers are popular choices, but because the organization builds its venue from scratch every year, it can choose from a wide variety of shows to perform.

Since 1986 for the debut of the theater company’s production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, American Stage’s park production has been a fixture of springtime in St. Pete | American Stage

“We try to pick shows that lend themselves to the type of performance space we’re creating, and that can change from year to year,” Brown said. “One of the benefits of doing it out in the city park is that it allows us to broaden the types of shows we do, shows that we would not be able to do in our indoor theater space.”

Set in early 20th-century New York City and New Rochelle, New York, Ragtime is a work of historical fiction that focuses on the experiences of a wealthy white couple, a Jewish immigrant father and his daughter, and an African American ragtime musician. Along the way, the characters encounter famous figures from American history such as Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan, Harry Houdini, and Booker T. Washington.

Ragtime is based on E.L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel of the same name. The late, great Terrence McNally, a five-time Tony Award winner who was born right here in the Sunshine City and passed away in 2020 at age 81, wrote the stage adaption, while Stephen Flaherty wrote the music, with lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. McNally, who died at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, was one of the first notable victims of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The show has been through several revivals, starting in 2009 in Washington, D.C., and then moving to Broadway. The latter production garnered six Tony nominations.

Demens Landing Park is again abuzz with the sounds of construction as American Stage gets ready for Ragtime, its 38th park production | American Stage

Brown, however, said the American Stage’s park production team plans to put its own unique spin on Ragtime and has a budget of roughly $670,000 to play with.

“Visually, it's going to be different than traditionally what you've seen,” he said. “There won't be the traditional presentation where you only see what's happening on stage and we mask everything else. We’re toying with that idea, toying with those conventions.”

The show’s creative team will, if nothing else, have a much larger canvas, so to speak, to work on. American Stage has a permanent, indoor performance venue located at 163 3rd Street North in downtown St. Petersburg, but the Demens Landing Park installation dwarfs that space.

“Our normal mainstage space is approximately 30 feet, left to right, and then up to down about 25 feet,” Brown said, whereas the Demens Landing Park stage “is approximately 80 feet from left to right. So, twice the amount of performance base, which then obviously allows you to have a larger cast. You can have more choreography, larger scenery, all of the things that go with that — and a larger audience.”

A normal American Stage production, at its indoor venue, typically attracts 3,000 theatergoers, Brown said, but American Stage’s production in Demens Landing Park has no capacity limit.

“If everybody gets a little closer together, it’s like, ‘Oh, look, we just got 200 more people,’” he said.

According to Brown, a full-fledged professional creative team — director, choreographer, music director, scenic designer, costume designer, lighting designer, prop coordinator, etc. — is assembled soon after a show is chosen, which occurs about 14 months in advance of opening night.

“By six months out, we’ve locked down the scenic design,” he said.

The cast and crew of American Stage’s park productions, Brown said, tend to be a mix of locals and theater professionals from across Florida and even out of state. In the case of Ragtime, the director, music director, costume designer, and lighting designer are from St. Pete.

“The performers run the gamut, some local to Tampa Bay, some not,” he adds. “It's about half and half when it comes to the performers.”

Creating a large theater space in the middle of a public park presents a range of logistical issues, such as providing dressing rooms for cast members, but many years ago the City of St. Petersburg installed permanent electrical outlets that can power American Stage’s park production lighting and audio equipment without the need for noisy generators. But recent advancements in lighting automation technology, Brown said, have also made a world of difference.

“It used to all be done conventionally,” he said. “That was the only way. Now, I can do all that through digital automation. You used to have to get up and hand focus every light where you wanted it on stage. And now because it’s all automated lighting, a smaller number of lights can be allocated to cover a larger amount of space.”

Gala Under the Stars is American Stage’s largest fundraising party of the year held on the opening night of American Stage’s production in the park. This photo is from American Stage’s Gala Under the Stars on the opening night of The Producers in 2018 | American Stage

American Stage will host a special Gala Under the Stars presentation of Ragtime on Friday, April 14, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Single tickets are $200 each, or you can book an entire table for $2,200. All proceeds support American Stage, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Apart from the gala, ticket pricing for the production’s April 12th to May 14th run ranges from $25 to $45.