FORT PIERCE \u2014 The Sunrise Theatre\u2019s new management just announced the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n
It includes comedies, legends of classic rock, high-flying circus acts, and talented tribute acts.<\/p>\n
After a years-long search, VenuWorks, a national leader in venue management for more than 30 years, was selected to take over operations of the city-owned historic theater in June. The employee-owned company manages more than 65 venues in 28 communities across the country.<\/p>\n
At its helm is Executive Director Numa Saisselin. The venue executive has decades of experience leading historic theaters to success.<\/p>\n
Booking a 1,200-seat performing arts venue like the Sunrise can take years of planning, logistics and negotiations. Most of the 26-27 season was already booked when Saisselin took over in July.<\/p>\n
The entertainment veteran is hard at work adding more shows and is already working on the 27-28 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople love the tribute bands, so they are not going away,\u201d Saisselin said. \u201cBut we hope to flesh out the calendar with some original artists and diverse entertainment. Many more shows will be coming along.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new team also plans to expand the lineup at the Sunrise\u2019s smaller black box theater with a wider range of offerings, such as educational speaker series or social events.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to make a closer connection to the local cultural community to work on filling out the black box calendar,\u201d said Saisselin.<\/p>\n
Currently, the black box is booked every 2nd and 4th Saturday with the popular Casey N\u2019 Spaz Comedy shows.<\/p>\n
As far as ticket prices go, Saisselin, who has booked acts such as Lynard Skynard, Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi at other venues, reminds fans that the artist sets the price \u2014 and bigger names mean higher prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy experience is people are gonna pay for the performer they want to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first major change theater goers might notice is a new third-party ticketing vendor. Once on the Sunrise Theatre web site, buyers will be redirected to TicketMaster for purchases.<\/p>\n
VenuWorks has a nationwide agreement with the ticketing giant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe City of Fort Pierce decided to engage VenuWorks to manage this building and that included TicketMaster coming along. It\u2019s just a piece of software we use to process sales,\u201d Saisselin said.<\/p>\n
Season memberships, which offer pre-sale access to tickets, and other perks are on sale now. Fans can sign up for the Sunrise newsletter and receive early access to the full show line-up and weekly updates.<\/p>\n
Ticket sales open to the public Sept. 8, and to members on Aug. 11.<\/p>\n
Saisselin\u2019s goal is to serve everyone by offering a diverse lineup of shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether your Black, white, Latino, Asian, pink, purple, young, old, male, female, Boomer or Gen Z-er, my goal is to have at least one show that everyone wants to see. I want people to look at our calendar and say \u2018Oh, I want to see that!\u2019,\u201d said Saisselin. \u201cCheck back in 12 months and you\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n