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April 21, 2009 

Today’s Program: American Stage Speaker: Todd Olson 

Todd Olson is in his 6^th year as Producing Artistic Director at American Stage Theatre Company in St. Petersburg. He is a recent graduate of Bank of America’s Neighborhood Excellence Leadership Program, and has directed over 120 plays, musicals, and operas, including My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra, (which he co-created) at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville. As an author, Todd’s My Way has enjoyed over 300 productions worldwide.  

For American Stage Todd has directed several plays which have been recognized by Creative Loafing as “Best of the Bay” Awards for “Top-10 Productions of the Year” and “Best Director,” including Stones in His Pockets, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Much Ado About Nothing, and Anna in the Tropics. Other American Stage credits include Suddenly Last Summer, Crowns, Three Days of Rain, The Exonerated (with Sandy Duncan and Antonio Tarver), I Am My Own Wife, Dennis Lehane’s Coronado, The Pirates of Penzance, Pinter’s Betrayal, and Dinner with Friends. Original works having made their world premiere at American Stage include Lysistrata, I Left My Heart, and Casa Blue, the last moments in the life of Frida Kahlol.

In 2007 American Stage was voted “Best Theatre Company” in the Tampa Bay-area by both Tampa Bay Magazine and The Weekly Planet. Todd received his M.F.A. from The University of North Carolina, and is a graduate from the Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard where he took classes with David Mamet, Peter Sellars, Andrei Serban, Robert Scanlan, Robert Woodruff, Anna Deveare Smith, and Robert Brustein, among others. While at Harvard, Todd directed productions of Cervantes’ Judge of the Divorce Court, Brecht’s The Informer, Pinter’s Betrayal, Chekhov’s The Seagull, and Shakespeare’s Coriolanus Bacchae (for Francois Rochaix) and Woyzeck (for Marcus Stern). He was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard and has taught classes at Vanderbilt, Boston University, University of North Carolina among other colleges.  

Todd lives in Seminole with his remarkable wife Charlotte and their constantly surprising and wonderful children Jonas and May.

NOMINATIONS FOR OFFICERS

President-Elect: Tom Nelson, Cyndi Mulligan

Vice-President: One of the above (after the Pres Elect voting), plus Ron Braun, Steve Cunningham 

Director: Pat Kraujalis, Bret Jahn, Paul Misiewicz, Candice Nyarkoh, Karen VanDePutte, and Hunter Booth.

NEW MEMBER

Biff welcomed our latest new member and presented her with an apron– Lisa Darretta, sponsored by Jane Baldwin. 

ANNUAL BOAT TRIP 

Weyman Willingham announced that there are only four more openings for the April 22^nd Annual Boat Trip – contact him immediately if you are interested. 

GRANT GIVEN

On behalf of the Boys & Girls Committee, Bob Byelick awarded a grant of $1,500 to PARC’s Director of Fundraising, Elliott Rakosky, who indicated it would be used to purchase books for their Adventures in Learning Preschool program for children ages 2 mos-6 yrs. 

DOORWAY SCHOLARSHIP RECIPENTS

Bob Byelick read several letters from Doorway Scholarship recipients:  a  9^th grader who wants to be a lawyer/therapist/motivational speaker, a 7^th grader who wants to go to NYU for grad school, an 8^th grader who loves volley ball and swimming, an 8^th grader who wants to go to pharmacy school at U of M and an 8^th grader who wants to be biologist.   

FISCHER/CARR MEMORIAL BIRTHDAY BASH

There is no golf tournament this year, so it is critical that the Birthday Bash generate revenue to fund scholarships, as it is the sole fundraising event! It is important that all of the club members get involved and help make this Birthday Bash a great success.  

PARKING CHANGES

The First United Methodist Church has upgraded their (our) parking lot with new top coat and parking lines. Please note the following changes:

·         Direction of some bay lanes have changed. Please be sure to check the arrows.

·         Park in spaces with orange stripes or Orange Blossom bumpers.

·         We have more parking spaces in the southwest area (closet to OBC).

·         Parking spaces near the FUMC Youth “Old Owl Building” (across the street) are primarily along the alley way and not behind the north side of the building.

·         Rule of thumb: look for the orange stripes or bumpers.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Last Week at Kiwanis

Kiwanian of the Day, Scott Boyle, introduced our speaker, Rhonda Sanborn, Hospitality Education Director for Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater. She shared the interesting facts below: 

• Tourism generated $7 billion in Pinellas County in 2008 – the smallest county in the state with the highest population density
• 35% of the funding for Penny for Pinellas projects is generated by tourism dollars
• Florida has no state income tax - due in large part to sales tax revenue that is paid largely by visitors.

How we attract tourists:       

• Sports – especially amateur sports like little league baseball and football, triathlons, etc.
• Meetings/Conventions: Gov. Crist has required “green lodging” for association business and that helps our hoteliers; Pinellas County has 63 venues with meeting space
• Film: infomercials and television; each can employ up to 100 people locally
• Advertising:  now promoting Pinellas County as a beach destination and then some with visuals of beautiful beaches and icons that represent other attractions (i.e., Andretti on the beach:  Honda Grand Prix; sponge diver on the beach: Tarpon Springs).

What is done to ensure visitor enjoy their stay (and come again)?

• Training for front-line service industries to emphasize the importance of gracious hospitality (i.e., training taxi drivers prior to big events like the Super Bowl and Honda Grand Prix – they are our first ambassadors for visitors arriving by plane.)

How can we as residents help?

• Encourage any professional associations to which we belong to hold meetings/conventions here
• Keep the money home – “vacation” locally

Thanks, Rhonda, for the great information about our area’s promotional efforts.

ATTENDANCE

We had 49 members and 6 guests attending on April 14, 2009.

Frank Ji, Nicolas Cerf, Youki Revell and Kacy Fry, all St. Petersburg High School Key Club members; Frank Ji is the incoming Florida District Key Club Lt. Governor.

Elliott Rakosky of PARC (received grant from Boys & Girls Committee)

Eunice Harris, visiting Kiwanian from Kiwanis Club Cambria Heights, New York.

TODAY’S QUIZ

1. 1.       Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

2. 2.       Only three words in Standard English begin with the letters ‘dw’, and they are all common words. Name two of them.

3. 3.       What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?

4. 4.       What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

5. 5.       In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn’t been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ

1. 1.       In 1957 St. Petersburg Beach become an incorporated as a city.

2. 2.       In 1994, the citizens voted to shorten the name to St. Pete Beach to lessen the confusion with the City of St. Petersburg, located on the mainland to the east.

3. 3.       There are twelve traffic lights (not including blinkers) in St. Pete Beach.

4. 4.       The year round population of St. Pete Beach is 10,032.

5. 5.       St. Pete Beach has 2.04 square miles within it city limits.

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