{"id":80188,"date":"2025-12-12T02:00:49","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/80188\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T02:00:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:00:49","slug":"council-celebrates-city-theatres-100th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/80188\/","title":{"rendered":"Council celebrates City Theatre\u2019s 100th anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During the St. Petersburg City Council\u2019s meeting Thursday afternoon, Councilmember Lisset Hanewicz read a proclamation acknowledging the 100th anniversary of St. Petersburg City Theatre into the record.<\/p>\n<p>One of the country\u2019s longest continually-operating community theaters, the organization began in 1925 as the Sunshine City Players. From 1933 to 2011, it was known as the St. Petersburg Little Theatre.<\/p>\n<p>The proclamation, signed by Mayor Ken Welch, called SPCT \u201ca definite part of the civic and social life of our community that provides an opportunity for self-expression, growth, and goodwill through the Arts of the Theatre \u2013 welcoming, without barrier, all members and ages of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Councilmembers Corey Givens Jr. and Copley Gerdes commented that they, too, had performed onstage with the Little Theatre as youngsters, and carried fond memories of the experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of people don\u2019t know this,\u201d Givens said, \u201cHollywood actress Angela Bassett got her start on that stage 50 years ago.\u201d Bassett, an Academy Award nominee for What\u2019s Love Got to Do With It and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, grew up in St. Petersburg and attended local schools.<\/p>\n<p>City Theatre board president Stefanie Lehmann, who spoke during the council meeting, is Associate General Manager at New York\u2019s Lincoln Center. For the theater\u2019s 2026 production of A Christmas Carol, opening Friday, Lehmann wrote an opening scene based on an actual event from City Theatre history.<\/p>\n<p>During World War II, the company performed a \u201cradio theater\u201d version of the Dickens classic, broadcast live over WSUN, St. Petersburg\u2019s only radio station at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Lehmann\u2019s opening scene, a preface to a contemporary \u201cradio theater\u201d performance of A Christmas Carol on the City Theatre stage, is set in 1942 and introduces a cast of theater employees and volunteers \u2013 all of whom were real people \u2013 as they prepare for the subsequent \u201cbroadcast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The production will be broadcast live on Radio St. Pete tonight at 7:30.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spcitytheatre.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">St. Petersburg City Theatre website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-110044\" class=\"wp-image-110044\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/St.-Pete-City-Theatre-Christmas-Carol-2025-300x190.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"444\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-110044\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The \u201chistoric\u201d radio theater production of \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d opens Friday and will continue through Dec. 21 at St. Petersburg City Theatre.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the St. Petersburg City Council\u2019s meeting Thursday afternoon, Councilmember Lisset Hanewicz read a proclamation acknowledging the 100th&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-80188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}