During 12 years of planning seasons and keeping the Urbanite Theatre running, whenever Summer Wallace feels like she’s getting a handle on how everything works and what audiences want and when, outside forces always provide reminders that nothing is ever routine.

The theater she co-founded downtown in 2014 enjoyed a robust debut and a period of steady growth before the COVID pandemic shut down operations and changed ticket-buying habits in a way that made her and leaders of other theaters question how they do things. Then, just as Urbanite was getting back into a steady rhythm, hurricanes Helene and Milton disrupted the launch of the 2024-25 season, and impacted attendance last season as well because seasonal residents returned later than in the past.

“We’re still sussing out what season used to be and what it’s becoming,” said Wallace, an actress and director who co-created a theater that focuses on new, thought-provoking and emotionally complex plays that weren’t getting produced at other local theaters.

“We used to feel a big pre-season pop in November and we got very busy and it would just continue all year,” Wallace said. “But now, season seems like it’s not launching until January. You can tell when you’re driving. Everything feels like it’s been delayed.”

Her latest challenges include the impact of the impact of the United States’ war against Iran, which has sent costs skyrocketing, leading to uncertainty among ticket buyers and donors.

She also made a difficult decision in July to reject the possibility of a $40,230 Sarasota County tourist tax grant because it would require her to sign an acknowledgement that Urbanite would not violate a new state law prohibiting counties from using public money to support diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. That law takes effect Jan. 1.

Urbanite is the lone arts and culture organization in the county to refuse to sign the acknowledgment, but Wallace said she has been encouraged in her decision by support from theater supporters and some in the arts community.

“We’ve raised a little bit of money, nothing significant yet, but all the donations have been extremely meaningful,” she said. A set design donated part of their stipened to support the theater’s position. “There’s been an outpouring of love and support from the theatrical community, which has really been wonderful.”

The grant decision was made after she had selected and announced the lineup for the theater’s 13th season, which will have more new works, a continued focus on female playwrights and artists and a slightly lighter tone.

Despite a slow start, Wallace was encouraged by how audiences responded to the back end of the 2025-26 season. Many performances of “Job,” “The Apiary” and “Who is Eartha Mae?” were sold out, and some performances were added.

“It was successful in terms of programming and relationships with the playwrights,” she said. “And audiences responded.”

Over the last few years, the theater has cut back the number of its performances from 41 to 35, with the option to add some if demand warrants..

Wallace, who took over as sole producing artistic director in 2023 after the departure of her co-founder Brendan Ragan, has been working hard to strengthen the theater’s finances. Support has been strong enough to invest in a full-time marketing director to help with promotions and fundraising efforts.

Preparing a new season

Season 13 will launch in September with the theater’s seventh Modern Works Festival.

Running Sept. 17-27, the festival is a 10-day event of three new play readings, discussions, a party and a chance for audiences to vote for their favorite play. The special guest speaker is playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger, who may be familiar to Sarasota theatergoers from her plays “Backwards Forwards Back” at Urbanite and “Babel” at Florida Studio Theatre. Wallace said Goldfinger has been commissioned to write a new play for Urbanite.

The festival also will include five performances of Erika McDonald’s one-woman play “Tea Time,” which had its debut at the 2025 Cincinnati Fringe Festival and was seen at the 2026 Orlando Fringe. Orlando Week described it as a “funny, strange and unexpectedly moving solo show that turns tea into a full emotional love language.”

The regular season opens with “Ahoy-Hoy” by Jenny Stafford (Oct. 30-Nov. 29) which was a finalist in last year’s Modern Works Festival, and has become part of the National New Play Network’s rolling world premiere program, in which several theaters stage different productions as a kind of joint world premiere to give new works a boost.

“It’s a delightful, farcical romp about what happens when someone invents the telephone three hours before you do,” Wallace said. “What she has done is take historical fact about the invention of the telephone, primarily credited to Alexander Graham Bell, but Elijah Gray also had something to do with it.” 

She describes it as a rare opportunity for Urbanite to present a “comedy where you belly laugh out loud but that also leaves you thinking and wanting more.”

Lindsay Joelle’s “The Garbologists” (Jan. 8-Feb. 14) introduces audiences to two Staten Island sanitation workers who work the same route “who are so different but have so much in common. We don’t give our blue collar workers enough recognition for what they do to make the world work.”

One major challenge, she said, will be figuring out how “to get a functioning garbage truck on stage.”

Stacey Isom Campbell’s “1999” (March 19-April 25)  also was featured at the Modern Works Festival. It shifts between 1999 and 2019 and touches on the #metoo movement and how it impacts older art.

“It delves into cancel culture, art and how do you celebrate art or do you even look at art made by art makers who are maybe not the best human beings,” Wallace said.

The season’s final play is “Black Bastard” (June-27),  a one-person play written by and starring Jon Gentry, who co-starred in Urbanite’s “Monsters of the American Cinema” last season.

It’s loosely based on his life, or at least a fictionalized version of himself. “He plays a multitude of characters and you meet young Jon on a journey discovering who he is and navigating who his dad is, and when he meets him, he’s not quite what he imagined. It’s what it feels like to find home and what home means,” Wallace said.

The casts are small – one to four actors in each show – which is typical for Urbanite considering the intimate space and costs involved in each production.

“With only 65 seats, we need to fill every single seat and we still can’t exist without donations and grant funding,” she said. Grants have been more of a challenge with reduced funding from the state in the last few years. That’s one reason why tickets prices are going up. Regular tickets will be $52, up from $44, and tickets for those 40 and younger will be $32, up from $30. Students can still get tickets for $5.

Urbanite Theatre is at 1487 Second St., Sarasota. For ticket and subscription  information: urbanitetheatre.com; 941-321-1397