Bonnie Silvestri speaks with Ransom Riggs, a graduate of Sarasota’s Pine View School whose novel, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, charted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and is slated to be made into a motion picture by Tim Burton.

Bonnie Silvestri decided to overlook the roller skates and take a chance on this musical revue, which features the works of songwriting duo John Kander and Fred Ebb. She’s glad that she did! Bonnie writes, “This is a first-class show that is well worth your time.”

Through the thrilling medium of song and dance, Noah Racey’s Pulse at the Asolo Rep tells the individual stories of how a group of performers became the exceptional artists they are today.

This week, the Florida Studio Theatre finished this season’s “Write A Play” program, in which 21 winning plays from over 3,000 submissions were staged by a small FST cast. Over 300 people, including the winning young playwrights and their families, traveled to Sarasota to watch their plays and receive recognition at an awards ceremony.

In a small theater north of downtown, the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe (WBTT) raised the roof in a rousing production of It Ain’t Nothin But the Blues, which runs through May 12. Tickets to the season’s remaining shows are scarce, and it’s no wonder.

Bonnie Silvestri interviews art critic Jerry Saltz about his desire to move away from the vertical model in which the art critic tells everyone else what to think. Using online media, Saltz opens up a “more horizontal platform” in which everyone has a voice in the creative and critical process.