When Venice Theatre agreed to move forward with hosting its fifth international festival of community theater, Executive Director Kristofer Geddie was still hopeful that reconstruction of its mainstage Jervey Theatre would be completed in time.

“That turned out not to be the case. But we have faced our fair share of obstacles and apparently this one wasn’t a big enough obstacle to say no,” said Geddie, who is preparing the theater to welcome 11 theater troupes from around the world (four from the United States, including one local production) June 15-20.

“The idea of being able to bring world theater into the United States, at a time when we need world theater more than ever, helped buoy us forward to say we’re going to do this,” he said. “It’s the love of theater and the admiration we’ve grown and built for these other companies.”

WorldFest was launched by the American Association of Community Theatre in 1990 in Des Moines, Iowa, and was presented by different theaters around the county every four years until its debut in Venice in 2010.

By 2014, the organization asked Venice Theatre to become a permanent host, and the theater eventually made plans to start presenting it every two years. But Covid canceled the 2020 festival and Hurricane Ian forced the cancellation of the 2024 event.

Alyssa Goudy, the theater’s special events production manager and WorldFest coordinator, said the theater was upfront with the troupes it was inviting about the potential limitations of its performance venues to make sure the shows could fit in either the Raymond Center, the temporary venue created quickly after the destruction of the mainstage Jervey Theatre, and the more intimate 90-seat Pinkerton Theatre.

Two productions were added within days of the festival, one from Ghana and another called “Voces: Voices of Adolescence,” which is based on interviews with people from the Hispanic community in Manatee and Sarasota counties.

Special events, like the opening ceremony, will be staged at the gazebo in nearby Centennial Park, and the closing ceremonies will be held under a tent outside the Raymond Center.

“It has proven an interesting challenge to pivot, but at the same time, it’s a statement of what Venice Theatre does,” Goudy said. “When the hurricane hit, I saw posts online about the total loss of the facility. ‘They’re never going to be open again.’ But we were determined. We’re going to do the absolute best no matter what the circumstances.”

The 11 troupes are bringing more than 90 performers and stage crew personnel. The theater feeds the theater troupes three times a day and the actors and crew stay with volunteer host families in the area.

Goudy said the theater started reaching out to theaters that have participated in the past and to others about a year ago, asking for details and videos of the performances they wanted to present.

“This year the application was very specific and detailed and straight up honest,” she said. The theater needed to be sure any of the shows could work in either open venue.

Venice Theatre hoped to welcome 15 theaters but some dropped out because of concerns about their ability to raise the funds to travel to Florida, while others “felt it was not the best time to travel here” because of political issues.

The theater requested visas for the troupes, but what once took two to four weeks now can take up to 10 or more months. “We lost two troupes strictly because there was no way to get the visa in time,” Goudy said.

Four troupes that previously performed in Venice are returning, including Scrambled Egg Theatre Company from London; the Yoram Loewenstein Acting School from Tel Aviv, Israel; Maner Manush, which specializes in commedia delle’Arte, from Italy; and Theater Zapadnia from Poland. This year’s festival also includes new troupes from Switzerland and Slovakia and three U.S-based companies that work in the style of traditional companies from the artist’s native countries.

The Mandi Theater from the Chicago area, presents traditional Hindi theater; Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre produces theater from various Latin traditions in Tennessee; and a play called “Common Air” features a Ukrainian woman and a Russian woman searching for common ground amid the many political, social and cultural differences between their two countries.

The shows are presented in blocks of two or three performances in both afternoons and evenings. Each show is presented twice. The theater is selling passes, some covering all events, performances and daytime workshops, and others providing access to main theater shows only. They range from $250 for local residents to $620. Day passes will be sold if seats are available.

Geddie said because the Raymond Center is significantly smaller than the Jervey, there will be fewer seats available for those performances.

Several training workshops are scheduled, though fewer than in years past because of space, and each evening ends with an “Afterglow”reception in the Raymond lobby following the last performance.

For more information, details about the shows, tickets and schedules, visit venicetheatre.org/international

Below are brief descriptions about the theater troupes featured in WorldFest 2026

Venice Theatre, 140 W. Tampa Ave., Venice

venicetheatre.org/ 941-488-1115

Opening Ceremonies

7-7:45 p.m. June 15

Gazebo at Centennial Park

Closing Ceremonies

8:30-9:30 p.m. June 20

Backlot, Raymond Center parking lot

Switzerland

Theatre Studio BELOE

“Sweet Addictions” 

8 p.m. June 15, 2:30 p.m. June 16

55 minutes; Raymond Center

“Sweet Addictions” is described as a physical theater “full of drama, life, love and music” focused on ways to escape your reality and cope with a constantly changing world. The show takes audiences on a “boat full of addictions to find out, together, the way out to the pure sea of freedom and happiness.”

United Kingdom

Scrambled Egg Theatre Company

“Exposure”

9:30 p.m. June 15, 1 p.m. June 16

One hour; Pinkerton Theatre

Scrambled Egg Theatre Company returns with “Exposure,” which is inspired by classic films by Alfred Hitchcock from the 1950s and 1960s. It is an action-packed thriller with tension, suspense and intrigue, requiring the physicality of each performer, lots of props, sound effects and music drawn from composer Bernard Herrmann.

Israel

Yoram Loewenstein Acting School

“Haviva, You’re Fired”

6 p.m. June 16, 4 p.m. June 17

50 minutes; Raymond Center

This dark comedy is set in a small municipal office that helps women in crisis. The normal office routine collapses when the AI employee Haviva joins the staff, triggering feelings of exposure, rivalry and intimacy.

Italy

Maner Manush

“The Sky in a Room” Maner Manush

7:30 p.m. June 16, 2:30 p.m. June 17

55 minutes; Pinkerton Theatre

Maner Manush, an Italian troupe featuring Cinzia Grande and Andrea Latari who specialize in commedia dell’Arte traditions, has been part of the WorldFest since it first came to Venice Theatre. Thi production is a comedy about a man and a woman locked in a room and isolated from the world. The room becomes the setting of their lives, prompting transformations and revelations and different points of view as their souls are changed.

Slovakia

dNO Company

“Playing God” 

9 p.m. June 16, 1 p.m. June 17

55 minutes; Pinkerton Theatre

This piece looks back at the mass murder in a church in Namestovo, Czechoslovakia in 1960. The killer, just 21, was a chronic alcoholic, thief and rapist. It is considered among the great crimes in the history of Slovak history. The play focuses on the individual and the state “who have usurped the divine right to decide life and death.” The troupe said it looks “at this tragedy with a generational distance and with a focus on the continuing dangers of alcoholism, individualism and mutual ignorance.”

Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group

Memphis, Tennessee

“I Was There: Memories of Those Who Had No Choice”

6 p.m. June 18, 1 p.m. June 19

45 minutes; Raymond Center

This Tennessee-based company was founded in 2010 to bring together diverse communities through the arts and celebrate Latino culture. It is the only bilingual (Spanish-English) theater group in the mid-South. Its shows are designed to be accessible for all audiences, no matter the language or cultural background.

Poland

Theatre Zapadnia

“Whispering in the Dark,” Theatre Zapadnia

7:30 p.m. June 18, 2:30 p.m. June 19

One Hour; Pinkerton Theatre

Another returning troupe, Theatre Zapadnia presents a show about female community, memory and history passed from one generation to the next with themes of sexuality and repression and the conflict between desires and traditional norms. It is presented with a mix of ritual, poetic theater and political performance.

Mandi Theater

Buffalo Grove, Illinois 

“Kathputli”

7:50 p.m. June 19, 1 p.m. June 20

Raymond Center; 45 minutes 

Mandi Theater produces traditional Hindi theater in the Chicago area. “Kathputli” is about Sugni, a young woman with two children married to an older, disabled man, whose angry past lover returns demanding an “agni pareeksha” or trial by fire. 

Ukraine/Russia

“Common Air”

9:10 p.m. June 19, 2:30 p.m. June 20

Raymond Center

Olga Sanachina was born in Moscow. Her stage partner Iryna Kirichenko was born in Ukraine. Both now live in the United States. In “Common Air” they share their stories, their views of one another and their countries and the things that we all have in common.

Ghana

“Walking with My Ancestors”

9 p.m. June 18, 4 p.m. June 19

Raymond Center; 50-55 minutes

This one-woman show, performed by its creator, Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum, explores the experiences of “the nameless African women, men and children who once languished in the dungeons fo the Cape Coast Castle and suffered the agony of the middle passage,” according to a description of the show. It features live drumming, singing, dancing and acting.

U.S. Latino

“Voces: Voices of Adolescence”

6:30 p.m. June 19, 4 p.m. June 20

Pinkerton Theatre

A cast of four working with director Yinoelle Colon shares stories and testimonies about the experiences of people in the Sarasota-Manatee area Hispanic community, with a focus on adolescenes and the challenges facing young people and their triumphs. It is based on interviews with local residents. Each performance is followed by a talkback tith the audience and performers to discuss the impact of individual experiences. testimonies