Drama Alum Opens Theater Company in South Florida
South Florida’s theater landscape is about to get richer, thanks to the efforts of Drama Directing alum Stuart Meltzer ’02 and his talented colleagues of playwrights, directors, and actors.
The new Zoetic Stage (the name is from the Greek word zâçÆĂŹ, meaning of or pertaining to life, ) is the brainchild of artistic director Meltzer, playwrights Michael McKeever and husband-and-wife creative team Christopher and Stephanie Demos-Brown. It is our goal to present top-quality theater to the South Florida audience,, Meltzer says. We want their experience to be the best it possibly can be. Everything, from production to script to the venue itself, needs to be the highest quality we can possibly present. We are talking about a company of extremely committed artists with years of experience behind them.,
Zoetic Stage kicked off its inaugural season last December with the world premiere of McKeever’s play South Beach Babylon, a dissection of Miami’s infamous Art Basel art festival. The season also included the world premiere of Demos-Brown’s Wrongful Death this past spring. In fact, all of the company’s productions this season were world, regional, or Florida premieres. Company members include some of South Florida’s most celebrated artists. We pride ourselves on being a creative artistic ensemble with a tight-knit family of directors, actors, playwrights, and designers,, says Meltzer.
Meltzer previously served as the artistic director of City Theatre in Miami, where he oversaw and expanded the Summer Shorts Festival. He was head of theater at Gulliver Preparatory and a faculty member at New World School of the Arts, where he directed Brecht and Weill’s Threepenny Opera, Weiss’ Marat/Sade, and Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, staged at the Colony Theatre. His South Florida directing credits include Kiss of the Spider Woman, Painted Alice, Barefoot Boy With Shoes On, and Everything Will Be Different: A Brief History of Helen of Troy, at Mad Cat Theatre. This winter, he will direct Melt at the Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables.
Visit www.zoeticstage.com for more information.