This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:04] Robert Bannon: Are you ready? It's the Roundtable with me, Robert Bannon.

[0:08] Robert Bannon: Well, welcome to the Roundtable, everybody. My name is Robert Bannon. You're listening to us on Broadway World over here on the Broadway Podcast Network, iHeartSpotify, wherever you get your news about artists.

[0:17] Robert Bannon: Speaking of artists, firstly, thank you to Andy, because we did this interview already, and Robert Bannon deleted it. So I want to thank or a big app that I use, deleted it. I'm gonna say that I won't use their name, Andy, because I'm not trying to sure.

[0:31] Robert Bannon: Yeah, I don't want to get you, you know, defamation lawsuits. No defamation lawsuits, but Andy Sandberg, I hear everybody, has the most incredible place in Florida that is an artist retreat that is gorgeous, and you can be a part of it.

[0:44] Robert Bannon: They have concerts, they have shows, they have events, and you could support it. And some of the awards that were nominated for Tony Awards literally this week, this morning, got a birthplace and started their life right down there in Florida, where Andy is overseeing all the things. Welcome to the show.

[1:01] Andy Sandberg: Thank you very much.

[1:02] Andy Sandberg: Yeah, we are very, very excited because Bess Wall won the Pulitzer yesterday and then Tony Award nominations, and we're rooting for the big win for her.

[1:10] Andy Sandberg: And that was some of the first excerpts of that beach were seen by the public. Sorry, first excerpts of that play. I swear I speak English.

[1:18] Andy Sandberg: Were first shown on the Hermitage Beach right here, kind of somewhere sandwiched between there. So Bess reading some of those monologues that later became somewhat iconic, and that play is extraordinary. So we're very proud of her and thrilled for her.

[1:31] Andy Sandberg: We're all just doing backflips over here. Shout out to her. Shout out to that cast, Whitney White and everybody who put that gorgeous, incredible show up.

[1:38] Andy Sandberg: Your place, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, which you go to the Hermitage Artist Retreat.org and find out what they do, who they are, the events and artists and everything that happened, is this gorgeous like oasis in Florida that just so happened to have just been expanded by a 12 million dollar gift.

[1:56] Robert Bannon: Whoever gave that 12 look, I'll just take 100 grand. You got 100 grand in a bag, I'll never talk to you ever again. What an incredible that's just proof to the incredible work that you do.

[2:06] Robert Bannon: Tell us about the location and the space.

[2:08] Andy Sandberg: So this is what you're looking at behind me here is the historic campus, which the Hermitage has been on for 23 years, but it dates back to 1907.

[2:17] Andy Sandberg: And literally just a five-minute walk south of us on the beach. This wonderful family, the Morrison and Staines family, two sets of cousins who had this as a family compound, have been wonderful supporters and friends of the organization and saw our need, particularly after the hurricanes, and they donated their entire property, the land, buildings, and assets to us.

[2:42] Andy Sandberg: So we've really doubled the size of our operation. And what's especially beautiful and exciting about that is here we are tenants of Sarasota County. That's a complicated story for another time, but we outright own that property.

[2:55] Andy Sandberg: And separately, we were also just gifted by Ringling College, who's one of our collaborators and partners in town, the Englewood Arts Center. So directly across the Bay from us, so about a 10-minute drive either direction, is a beautiful 11,000 square foot art center facility to complement the six and a half acre Gulf to Bay residences.

[3:14] Andy Sandberg: So it's been an exciting and rapid year of growth, but all very fun and much needed because it's what is keeping development and incubation alive for so many artists, and it's just been really thrilling to see their reaction to this.

[3:29] Andy Sandberg: I joke, and I'm as you were talking, I was gonna joke and say, you know, when the only thing I'm gonna probably get gifted is debt, and a lot my parents will probably leave me bills, and but the fact, but jokes aside, this family and the space, before we move on, they believe this people of the area believe in what you're doing so much because some of the greatest art and some of the most incredible artists have used your space to be inspired and come up with it.

[3:58] Robert Bannon: What's the history of it? And who can you tell? Can you give us a little glimpse about some of the people who have may have used your space to be inspired?

[4:05] Andy Sandberg: Yes. Well, I can now say it's 19 Pulitzer Prize winners adding Bess to that list, along with 14 finalists. That's across all disciplines, dozens of Grammy Oscar Tony winners.

[4:17] Andy Sandberg: We're so proud of all of them. Mark Sonnenblick certainly was notably writing Golden and also was shown early on our beach, shortly around the time that movie came out, and he's now won every award under the sun and just such a talented guy.

[4:32] Andy Sandberg: I've known him separately from the Hermitage for years. Gavin Creel's musical Walk on Through. You know, Lady Jess, who's been touring and composing with Beyoncé on various things, some Lynn Nottage, who is also now a member of our curatorial council.

[4:47] Andy Sandberg: I'm naming some wonderful theater names. We just announced we have a cool program coming up with Sam Beam, Iron and Wine, and Lindsay Ferrentino, they're gonna be down.

[4:56] Andy Sandberg: Michael R. Jackson was just back down recently, said it's kind of his favorite place to write and create. So some I feel awful just naming like a handful that I've been dealing with today, because there are truly now a thousand alumni across all disciplines from all over the world who have generated some of the most extraordinary and interesting work that may or may not have ever been conceived had they not sort of touched the magic here, which we're very excited by.

[5:25] Robert Bannon: It's incredible. So when Michael writes The Next Strange Loop or Lindsay writes the next beer of 13, you can know that they may have gotten it started right there.

[5:32] Robert Bannon: So you're not it's not like a hotel. Like I can't just say, hey Andy, I want to write the next episode of my pilot or I want to write my novel or I'm gonna write the next big Broadway musical. How do people get to be a part of no?

[5:47] Andy Sandberg: It is not, it is not a pay to play or sort of knock on the door and show up. We have a national curatorial council made up of arts leaders and people who really have their finger on the pulse of new work.

[5:58] Andy Sandberg: That's a rotating body that is approximately anywhere from 14 to 18 members in all different disciplines, and they are asked to think of who's gonna make the most of this opportunity, who's gonna make the most of multiple weeks at the Hermitage developing their craft, elevating it, thinking outside the box, and they are really extraordinary and put a lot of thought into it.

[6:20] Andy Sandberg: It's a great gift for them, I guess, to be able to pay it forward too. But they really do all take it seriously, and kind of the North Star is who's going to elevate their craft at whatever level they're at, whether early career or advanced career, and it's all they nominate and friendly fight it out to a selection process, and it really is kind of a gift from the sky.

[6:41] Andy Sandberg: The artists often go, wait, I thought the email was spam until this kind of gift invitation with a shell and shark's teeth showed up in my mailbox, and I was like, Oh, maybe it's more real, maybe it's anthrax, but it sounds real now.

[6:54] Robert Bannon: Is that what really come?

[6:56] Andy Sandberg: That really comes to their house. We do. It's really we think it's cute. This has been happening. I can't take credit for this. This has been happening for 20 plus years, and I've been here only six and a half.

[7:05] Andy Sandberg: But we send an invitation after the email goes out with a physical mailing with a card from the curators as well as some sharks' teeth, because our beach here is famous for fossilized old sharks' teeth.

[7:18] Andy Sandberg: Not because we have a lot of sharks, and a sort of fighting Florida conch shell, and say you've been chosen among millions and an infinite number really of extraordinary talent, just as there's an infinite number of extraordinary shells, and you've had the great fortune to be chosen. So come on down.

[7:34] Andy Sandberg: It's a little special invitation, isn't that charming?

[7:39] Robert Bannon: I think it's so cute. Andy, look, I know your board's not gonna like this idea, but you know, you're you Andy, you could make a you Airbnb this place.

[7:49] Robert Bannon: You would make a killer. Look, all you gotta do is throw 10% my way. I'll tell nobody on the board.

[7:54] Robert Bannon: Look at that bit. You see this big house right here? That is a good Airbnb.

[7:59] Andy Sandberg: I wish. No, I don't act. You know, it's so funny because even if we wanted to, we can't. I mean, there are very sort of specific regulations around this land and this property that make sure that that can never happen.

[8:12] Andy Sandberg: So kind of it's a mutual win for us and for the property and for the island that it's saved from developers. You know, that's kind of we're here in addition to being an arts organization and a community organization.

[8:23] Andy Sandberg: I always emphasize we're also a historic preservation and ecological organization, because without the Hermitage here or at the new property for that matter, God knows what might come of it.

[8:34] Andy Sandberg: So I think everyone would be disappointed by that. It needs to be protected and saved for sure. It's gorgeous.

[8:40] Robert Bannon: So how do you I'm I don't think you're asking Lynn Nottage to put her credit card down and to be a part of it. So, how do you sustain? How do you make them run? You have people have you have a staff, there's upkeep, there's things like that.

[8:53] Andy Sandberg: No, it's pretty remarkable that we are one thing people don't always realize is as an arts or even performing arts organization, we have no earned revenue because these programs we do for the public, 50 or 60 a year, they're free.

[9:06] Andy Sandberg: The artists get a stipend, they don't pay, it's they don't pay in. It's not one of those residencies or programs where they have to cover their own costs.

[9:15] Andy Sandberg: But we have generous donors and supporters, and it's people who trust and believe in new work. I often say, I steal Doug Wright's words, playwright, Pulitzer, Tony Winner on our board, and he says it so much more articulately than me.

[9:30] Andy Sandberg: But what he often says is what draws him to the Hermitage and to this board and to this organization is he's surrounded and feels this from the donors and the fellow trustees that there are people who want to take a chance on incubating a work of art without a guaranteed return.

[9:45] Andy Sandberg: You know, if you invest in a show, whether you win or lose, if nothing else, you know you're gonna get to see a show and there you're gonna be at the opening and whatnot.

[9:53] Andy Sandberg: Even if you donate to a regional theater, you may or may not like the show, but you're part of that. Here you're literally putting trust and handing money over to us to say, I believe in supporting new work, no qualifications, no what do I get for it?

[10:06] Andy Sandberg: And that's an incredibly generous and truly philanthropic spirit that makes that possible. But I think the proof is in the pudding, because now everyone who's ever contributed to the Hermitage can take pride in liberation success, right?

[10:20] Andy Sandberg: We don't take financial participation in that, but we have the little byline there, and that means so much to the people who go and see it. It means it introduces us to new people who go, Oh, that's where liberation started.

[10:31] Andy Sandberg: I want to follow what they're doing and maybe support that because if I if that doesn't happen, then that next great play might not be there for me to option and produce and invest in down the road.

[10:42] Robert Bannon: It's what's incredible about it, and it's so amazing to the people who donate and understand the value of art and new art and the idea of the create the most the greatest creative thinkers in this country in the world need a place to have refuge and peace and a space to be able to create the next great work.

[10:59] Robert Bannon: So what is their day like? Do you give are there parameters? Are they going to like group yoga on the beach? Or are they free to run and be and be creative?

[11:05] Andy Sandberg: Great question. They largely it's their time. We don't hover over them. There's no specific deliverables. We do have a couple of notable commission programs, which I can share a little more about.

[11:23] Andy Sandberg: But for the general pool of artists who are the Hermitage Fellows invited each year, the 90 to 100 new people who come down, they come and they're given a few weeks over a couple of years, and many of them break it up into segments, and so they might arrive here. Well, today's Tuesday, it's our arrival day.

[11:40] Andy Sandberg: So we're gonna have a welcome dinner on the beach to introduce everyone.

[11:43] Andy Sandberg: Some people have been here from the week before, some people are arriving just now. Uh, one's an alum, some are new. So there's a real mix of kind of who's the new kids, who's the returning kids, who's the sort of I've been here for four weeks and I know exactly what's going on, kids. Um, and some classes, as we call them, are more social than others, but at the end of the day, we give them a stipend for travel and groceries, and there are a few other select meals and opportunities. But one thing I thought when I started here as artistic director was hey, surely you're gonna want more regularity around gatherings and meals. And every artist said, Hey, one of the best things is not having that.

There are great programs that do that, but they said, What I like about coming to the Hermitage is I get to make my schedule and my hours. That you trust me, you support me. If they need a keyboard, we bring them a keyboard. They need headphones, we bring them headphones. Whatever they need, we try to support with and provide. We think about it in advance. We're there, we're very hospitality-oriented. But we are largely saying, here's your stuff, you do you, we're over here if you need us, but we're not gonna hover over your shoulder. And then they do their community program, which is often a good engagement opportunity with other artists and audience, and many of them really fall in love with our audience and go, I didn't expect, I thought this was gonna be one of those sort of like backers thing where I had to do this thing, and we I didn't believe you literally meant do whatever you want, work in process, and people would literally sit there on the edge of their seats excited to hear it.

So, but that is who our audience is as well. So it's kind of a beautiful synergy, and that's been really rewarding as we've grown our public programming. We're now doing 50 or 60 events per year, about half here, and then through others with partner organizations throughout the region. Um, our artists have said that's something they feel we do really well, that in some places they feel like it's very dog and pony, and we've heard that for them it's actually nice that if they're like, I would rather talk to a group of students, we arrange a school visit. If they're like, I want to show my new work, but I don't want to dress up and make it formal, I want to do it in flip-flops. We say, cool. So when Janine Tessori was here, she was like, Can I have a glass of wine and be honest about the making of West Side Story?

And we said, please do, people will love that. Um, we just promise no critics, no reviews. We just promise kind of a safe creative space and no admission charge. So there's not a pressure of, oh God, these people paid a lot of money, so I better deliver. It's they're here to experience you as much as they can without detracting from the bulk of your time, which is for you to work. So it's not that regimented aside from a couple of checkpoints here and there. But yeah, that's kind of how it works.

[14:25] Andy Sandberg: If you are um, I'm not speaking out of turn, I don't think, because it's on your website. But if you go on and look at like who is particular this year, if you love Leslie Critzer, if you love Joey Conis, if you love uh Britton Smith's an incredible songwriter, singer, a person. There's an incredible list of people who are all there this year working, and I can't wait to see what comes out of it and who comes in the future. Plus so many more. So the events that you have for the community, Florida okay, Florida showing up and out here. You know, it's funny. I I uh we have this big poster now in uh Sarasota Airport, and it sort of says, you know, the most innovative, the theater, this and that, and it says not what you expect in Florida, huh?

And and we mean that because there is an F-word stigma around Florida. People have a lot of predetermined assumptions around the politics, the people, the retirement, the this, the that. And I don't think our audience or our organization or even this little dot that we're in is representative of a whole state, right? You could say the same about New York, very different in wherever you drive within 30 minutes, an hour. But um I I think our main core is that we don't restrict artists. We say we're not filtering or censoring what you do. It can be finished, it can be half finished, it can be experimental, it can be super commercial. We've had it all. And I think one of the things that's been really special is that to say to an audience member or a supporter who wants to donate and engage with the Hermitage, listen, if you want to come one week, come one week.

You want to come all 50 weeks a year, you're gonna go on the it's a small world tour of arts and culture, right? Are you gonna love all 50? Probably not, unless you just love everything. You may love a lot, we hope you do, but they're gonna be so different. So if you come one week and there's a you know contemporary opera and that's not your thing, come next week, you might see, you know, uh a pop hip-hop dance the following week you might see a a new play or musical. Every week is gonna be different. And you really do. I think of I grew up in New York, and I didn't get a taste of the cultures of the world the way that you could by just attending Hermitage programs week after week.

[16:33] Andy Sandberg: Well, I'll tell you, the lineup is incredible. The pricing is like you you can't get see the shows that you for what you all are doing, and some of the things there's events that are as little as five dollars five dollars. You can't I can't even go get two diet sodas at the 7-Eleven for five dollars, and you can see some of the greatest to ever do it. You don't have to do PR for this, you don't have to talk about it, Andy. So why what do you want people to know about what you mean? You have this, you have these people that donate, you have these incredible artists who get invited and go there. Why do you want the public and the masses to know about what you all are doing?

[17:08] Andy Sandberg: Because we want people to understand the importance of new work. I come from the commercial theater world and have been a part of many projects where you know, after a long time in development, some amazing, wonderful supporters, investors, producers come on to the opening night and say, hello, artist, actor, writer, director, I'm so thrilled to be here at the beginning. And you know, out loud I say thank you, and I mean it genuinely. But the quiet part that I usually have to stop myself from saying is you do know the actual beginning was 12 years ago when we were supporting it ourselves and figuring out what the heck it was, right? And I don't think there are enough organizations that celebrate that.

That's what drew me here. So I want to spread that gospel. You know, we I I always say the phrases I've banished from any Hermitage paperwork or hidden gem or best kept secret. Let's celebrate proudly the importance of supporting that early development. So that's why I want people to know about it. We have partnerships that are all over the world. We did a workshop with one of our commissions with the National Theater. We've got a partnership with Roundabout Theater, we're working with the Aspen Music Festival, just to name a few. We want people to, you know, still celebrate and understand the importance and the relevance of this aspect of the creative process. Because I think a lot of people feel like, and nothing wrong with wanting to feel like you're supporting at whatever level, support regional theaters, support Broadway, support at all levels.

But I do think people sometimes are afraid to get in at the true beginning because they don't know what it is. And you're not buying a chicken, you're not even buying an egg. You're buying sort of, you know, an acre of land that might eventually house chickens that make eggs. What a weird metaphor I just gave you. I get it. But you get it. So I think that we want more people to get it. And we want more people to be aware, whether it's through the Hermitage or other organizations, that it's important to support places like this because you hear horror stories of a lot of our peers and development institutions falling apart because they don't have the generous supporters who are understanding that.

So we're really trying to spread the gospel of the importance of supporting new work. It is fantastic if you support your regional theater that's doing all the shows we know and love, but carve out something for new work because if you don't, you are killing the next generation and you're taking for granted what you might appreciate on your own as an audience member. We need new work, and we need the work that they're writing now, is going to dictate and show and be a part of the history of future generations of the times we're living in now. Art is so important because it really documents our times and it is what's going to be documented when they're showing up to write tonight and they move in for dinner, they're going to start the next piece that may just so happen to change the world or or move people to feel a certain way that they've never felt before.

And that's what's incredible. And you don't take a piece of these shows. You know, a lot of reach they don't, they're not here to take their cut. We don't know. And in fact, actually, separate from our traditional residency program, we offer two $35,000 commissions the Hermitage Major Theater Award and the Hermitage Greenfield Prize, which also come with workshops and other things. So we we don't, but what we ask for is the recognition and the celebration of where it started, because in a way that is more valuable. You know, I I can't speak to the details, but I know Lynn Manuel Miranda is a generous supporter of the O'Neill, you know, and it's not just because of whatever that's not a participation deal.

He wants to give back to that organization that gave back to him and supported his new musicals and new works in the early days. And we don't ask that a formally in big ways from artists, but we know there's um a real awareness and pay it forward. And when we get singing on the byline of a Broadway show or an opera at the Met or wherever it may be, someone notices and says, What's this place? I want to learn more about them, and they might become a donor. So I actually think you know, the recognition is the priority for us over the financial participation because whatever little half a point, don't get me wrong, we'd all love a little half a point of Hamilton and you know, mailbox money for our organizations.

But at the end of the day, it's much like why we don't have a subscription or membership base. You know, people show up, it's free. They have their five dollar registration charge, like you mentioned. But uh, some people say, Oh, could you make it easy? Well, just be a subscriber. And I go, it's not about subscribing, it's about showing up each time, time and time again. Um, subscribers sometimes limit what they do, and when someone loves what we do and it's free and they can afford a $50,000 gift, then they proudly raise their hand to do that. And that's more meaningful than just sort of if we were collecting whatever few hundred a year from them just to say we did.

[21:51] Robert Bannon: Absolutely. I will I want to say kudos to what you do. It's incredible. I'm obsessed. I hope you have a pull out couch because I'm coming over. And I love it. Everybody can go to Hermitage Artistretreat.org. You can get all the information if you're in Florida or going to Florida or gonna be in the area. You can see the events that are coming up, and you can be a part of it, and you could check out what they're doing and what's going on. All the information is going to be clicked below. And this time, Andy, I swear to God, I'm gonna save this. I'm gonna upload it right now.

[22:19] Andy Sandberg: I believe you.

[22:19] Robert Bannon: I believe you. This will be I am never Andy. I will the only time I'm talking to you again is when you come back and want to talk to me, not because this magically ended up erase somewhere. I I love it, and there will be other opportunities, I'm sure. So appreciate our making this happen again. Can you see how unprofessional I am? Why nobody has nominated me to hang out at the Hermitage yet? No, bastards, but there you you must have you must have pissed off the wrong person. No. Um, one day, well, I've I keep joking with Candy. She's like, We should have an open press day. And I'm just like, We'll figure out the how. But I was like, let me we'll be on you'll be on the list if we can ever make that.

[22:54] Andy Sandberg: All right, done. I'm coming. I'll have my sunscreen, I'll have flip-flops. I'm ready. I want to be right at that be right right there in that spot right there with my chair. Ready to go. Love it. Thank you so much, Andy, for being here. Congratulations. What you do is incredible. I'm such a fan. I think it's amazing.

[23:09] Andy Sandberg: Thanks, Robert. Appreciate it. Have a good one.