J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan” has delighted children and adults, alike, since the early 1900s. Over the past hundred years or so, there have been numerous adaptations in the form of plays, novels and movies−some good and some not so good.

Stage West’s current production, “Peter and the Starcatcher,” first performed in 2009, captures the whimsy and innocence of the original story. The play went on to become a hit both off-Broadway and Broadway, where it won several Tony awards.

According to one review, it “playfully explores the depths of greed and despair, and the bonds of friendship, duty and love.”

“Peter and the Starcatcher,” is actually a prequel to “Peter Pan” that provides a backstory to the characters of Peter Pan, Mrs. Darling, Tinker Bell, and Hook. It answers some of the questions that the original story lays out, such as how an orphan named “Boy” becomes Peter Pan, how Tinker Bell came to be and how Captain Hook got his name. It also introduces new characters, such as Black Stache (portrayed by Ryan Bintz), Mrs. Bumbrake (played in drag by Kenneth Grace) and Molly Aster (played by Jess Virginia), in addition to characters from the original, such as Peter Pan (portrayed by Grant Sparr) and Smee (played by Mark Sanders). Seasoned director Mark Burdette brings the whole production to life.

Burdette has directed dramas and comedies, including “The Glass Menagerie,” “Steel Magnolias,” and most recently the hit comedy “Four Old Broads.”

When asked if he has a preference, Burdett replied, “I love both. I think any good comedy must have a bit of drama in it and any good drama has some comedy. Art imitates life.”

Every production is a cooperative effort among director, cast and crew that requires hours of hard, yet fulfilling work−a musical, even more so. “I had an amazing choreographer, Jeanine Martin-Rogers, to assist with all the movements that had to occur in sync with specific music. This was also my first time working with a musical director, Brady Lay, and a live pit,” Burdette states.

A live pit refers to the fact that there will be live music performed by musicians playing in the orchestra pit, instead of recorded music.

Although “Peter and the Starcatcher” has had its challenges−nearly 200 different lighting cues and elaborate costumes, along with the cast mastering the singing and choreography−Burdette has found the experience worthwhile.

“The most rewarding part has been the new and lifelong friendships I’ve made working with these magnificent people.”

Grant Sparr, who plays the lead, has been involved in theatre since kindergarten, but really became involved during his sophomore year of high school. Coincidentally, it was also a production of “Peter and the Starcatcher” that got him interested in the art form.

It’s common for actors to have some feelings of insecurity and Sparr is no exception. “The most rewarding thing about acting is allowing yourself to be vulnerable and seeing it pay off. I am an anxious person and, as an actor,

I have the opportunity to shed that and be whatever I want. It’s almost like therapy, I get into a character and just disappear into that until bows are over,” Spar admits. “It’s the most wonderful feeling when you put everything you have emotionally on the line and complete strangers receive it and understand it.”

For Sparr, one of the most challenging aspects of acting is, “self-criticism and the hardest part in my career has been shedding that to be completely in the moment.”

Because he does tend to be serious, Grant finds that one of the best things about playing Peter is being able to “play.” He likes the physicality of the role and the challenges that it has presented.

Mark Sanders plays the part of Smee, a well-known character from the original “Peter Pan” story. In this version, he is first mate to Black Stache, who incidentally goes on to become known as Captain Hook.

Sanders started in theater in high school and since then has been involved in all different facets of theatre−acting, directing, producing and even playwriting. His favorite role has been Oscar Madison, the slobbish half of the pair in “The Odd Couple.”

Sanders remarked, “When I played the role, I looked for every opportunity to demonstrate Oscar’s messy habits. It was so freeing to play that part.”

He finds a number of rewarding aspects to being involved in theatre. “Acting allows escapism. I can break free from the stress of the real world. My worst days working in theatre are always better than my best days in my daytime job. You get the opportunity to do things you wouldn’t normally get to do in real life. Like with ‘Peter and The Starcatcher,’ I get to live the life of a pirate for the sake of outrageous comedy.”

The majority of Mark’s acting experience over the past thirty-five years has been non-musical comedies and dramas, so being in a musical has been somewhat challenging for him.

“It is three times the work of a non-musical as you have to commit to not only acting but singing and dancing. Because I have two left feet, I definitely feel a little overwhelmed,” Mark admits.

Kenneth Grace, who plays Mrs. Bumbrake, is experienced in performing in drag. In fact, in a play that he did with Mark Burdette entitled “Greater Tuna,” Grace played ten different characters, two of which were female.

“I think you get a certain latitude playing a woman in a comedy and it’s also funnier I think when the role is played by a man because it’s silly and ridiculous, the way I play it anyway,” Kenneth remarked.

What he liked best about the role is the fact that it’s different and he enjoyed the challenge and the opportunity to grow as an actor.

Grace got his start in acting in a rather unusual way. He did trial team in law school where he acted as a witness sometimes and as an attorney at other times. This whetted his appetite for acting. His first role on stage was in a production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” in 2015.

“One of my favorite roles was Captain Keller in ‘The Miracle Worker.’ He was a former military, a lawyer, husband and father…as was I,” Grace stated.

What he finds most rewarding about acting is transporting the audience to a different place and time and making them feel something…“AND doing it WELL,” he emphasized.

The only female in the cast is Jess Virginia who plays Molly. The character of Molly is described as “A 13-year-old apprentice Starcatcher desperate to prove herself to her father. Highly intelligent and physically adept, she remains socially awkward and something of a know-it-all.”

Jess studied at Florida School of the Arts and spent time acting in New York City. Among her roles at Stage West was Fiona in “Shrek.”

Burdette and the team that has put together “Peter and the Starcatcher” are justly proud of their work. As Burdette remarked, “It is a truly unique experience. It is a visually stunning show and one that challenges the audience to use their imaginations.”

Performances of “Peter and the Starcatcher” take place November 4, 5, 11, and 12 at 7:30 pm and November 6 and 13 at 2 pm. Stage West Playhouse is located at 8390 Forest Oaks Blvd, Spring Hill. Tickets can be ordered online at www.stagewestflorida.com or by calling the box office at 352-683-5113, Tuesdays – Saturdays 10 am – 2 pm.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., June 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Heritage Capital Group, Inc. ("Heritage"), an investment banking and financial advisory firm serving middle-market and emerging growth companies in the US and worldwide, is pleased to announce that its client, Sparr Building & Farm Supply ("Sparr" or the "Company"), has been purchased by Nation's Best.

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Sparr Building & Farm Supply is a family business that has served customers in Central Florida for more than seven decades. The Company has four stores that blend the best characteristics of a lumber yard with a farm and ranch store. The Company's "one-stop-shop" experience makes it easy for customers to pick up livestock feed, animal nutrition products, fencing, lumber, lawn and garden, pet supplies, building materials, paint, and many other products. The rich equestrian history of Ocala, Florida also led Sparr to develop expertise in horse fencing and products.

Nation's Best is one of the country's fastest growing independent home improvement companies. Sparr will join Hall's Hardware & Lumber and Panhandle Lumber & Supply in Florida as Nation's Best extends its presence in the Southeast. As part of Nation's Best's strategy, Sparr Building & Farm Supply will maintain operations under its existing name with its key leadership team overseeing company operations alongside Nation's Best, which will provide the strategic and financial support necessary to drive optimal growth and profitability.

Heritage served as the exclusive financial advisor and intermediary to Sparr Building & Farm Supply. The deal team included Bill Nicholson and Doug Kravet.

"Doug and Bill had the perfect combination of M&A and real estate deal experience that we needed," commented Sam Howard and Paul Howard, owners of Sparr. "They helped us navigate a complex transaction and keep our team well-coordinated as we tackled both big and small issues. Looking back, it's hard to imagine completing this transaction without them."

Heritage Capital Group provides objective advice to private companies in the areas of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, business valuations, debt and equity capital raises, corporate restructurings, and financial and strategic advisory services focused on enhancing the value of business enterprises. Heritage Capital Group is a FINRA registered broker-dealer, and a member of Oaklins, the world's most experienced mid-market M&A advisor, with 850 professionals globally and dedicated industry teams in 45 countries worldwide.

Media Contact:Katie Quackenbush904-354-9600337900@email4pr.com

SOURCE Heritage Capital Group

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NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis announced three initiatives aimed at recruiting and retaining teachers in Florida, which will be proposed during the next legislative session.

DeSantis said the initiatives include:

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DeSantis announced the proposals from River Ridge High School in New Port Richey.

Pasco County Schools entered the first week of classes with 350 teacher vacancies. Pasco Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning said one week later, 195 openings remain.

"Which is much better, not as good as where we were this time last year," he said. "I believe that the initiatives that the governor is proposing today will go a very long way to helping us recruit and retain great teachers in Pasco classrooms."

Hillsborough Classroom Teacher's Association President Rob Kriete said the governor's plans are focused in the wrong direction.

"We love our veterans, and we love our first responders. We would argue that our teachers and support professionals are already first responders, doing what they can for our students every single day and that they need to be paid what they deserve," said Kriete.

Kriete said Hillsborough County is down roughly 900 teachers. He said the key to get them back is better pay and more time to focus on their job.

"The job is more difficult than ever before. I mean, the mental health challenges that students are exhibiting puts more pressure on our employees, our teachers, and support professionals," he added. "Those that are actually working in the schools are working wall to wall. They're not getting a period off where they could actually work on their lesson plans or grade papers. They're exhausted, so people are leaving the field."

Kriete said the answer isn't to borrow workers from other professions.

"We train teachers through the programs that we have in the district, through the state certifications, and quite frankly, through our universities to get prepared for that. Whether that is in how we operate our classroom, how we design our lessons, and how we actually diagnose and help each student in the classroom. That's much more nuanced and difficult than maybe the governor actually understands," Kriete added.

Florida Education Association President Andrew Sparr mirrored Kriete's sentiments and said this announcement is too little, too late.

"What the governor should be talking about is instead of waiting till the next legislative session, he should be talking about what he's going to do today," Sparr said.

Sparr agreed teacher pay is a high priority. Florida ranks 48th in the nation for teacher pay.

But DeSantis said his administration has taken great strides to increase pay.

"We have done the largest teacher pay increases in the history of Florida over the last two to three years. And we focused a lot of that on increasing the average minimum salary across the state of Florida. Three years ago, it was barely $40,000. Now with the budget we just enacted, the average minimum salary throughout the state will be over $48,000," DeSantis said.

"In 2010, the average teacher pay ranked 36th in the nation. Today we rank 48th. While average teacher pay ranks 48th in the nation, beginning teacher pay has actually gone up to 16 in the nation, which means he's literally taken money out of the pockets of experienced teachers and giving it to those just coming into the profession," said Sparr.

Florida's 2023 legislative session starts on March 7.

Military service could count towards obtaining a temporary teaching certificate in place of a 4-year college degree

Gov. Ron DeSantis has approved a new law to create an alternative temporary teaching certificate for military veterans, saying that their prior military experience will have value in the classroom. But the law would get around a prerequisite expected of thousands of teachers in Florida — a bachelor’s degree.

Instead, the military veteran would be allowed five years to teach in a classroom while finishing a four-year degree.

While supporters of the move suggest it will help with new teacher hires, others worry that military experience may not be adequate training for public school classrooms.

A Thursday press release from the governor’s office states that the Florida Board of Education must consider a new rule that would get the new program in place.

“Our veterans have a wealth of knowledge and experience they can bring to bear in the classroom, and with this innovative approach, they will be able to do so for five years with a temporary certification as they work towards their degree,” DeSantis said in a Rumble video Thursday. Rumble is a fringe video-sharing website, similar to YouTube.

Right now, a typical teaching degree requires a bachelor’s degree or higher, along with other qualifications to be able to obtain a professional teaching certificate.

A temporary teaching certificate also requires a bachelor’s degree. The educator, who can teach in a classroom, is allowed for three years to finish additional requirements to procure the professional teaching certificate.

But in the case of the new law, the “Educator Certification Pathways for Veterans,” certain veterans will be able to bypass the baccalaureate requirement in the temporary teaching certificate, so long as they have served four years of active-duty military service and they were honorably discharged. In addition, those veterans would need 60 college credits and earn a grade point average of at least 2.5. (A four-year degree typically requires 120 college credits.)

Darzell Warren, the president of the Escambia Education Association, previously told the Phoenix that before she was a teacher, she served in the U.S. Air Force for several years.

“There are some military vets who are going to be awesome coming into the profession, but then there are going to be vets who are going to struggle, because the military is different than coming into a classroom,” she told the Phoenix last week. “I’ve been on both sides of that.”

She added: “Yes, they have leadership skills, but you can’t treat students like you might want to treat a military subordinate.”

Teacher mentors

In addition, a veteran seeking this temporary teaching certificate pathway must be assigned a “teacher mentor” for at least two school years. The mentor is required to hold a professional teaching certificate, has at least three years of classroom experience teaching in K-12, and must be deemed “effective” or “highly effective” on aperformance evaluation in the year before.

“We do have mentor programs right now,” Andrew Spar, president of the statewide teacher union called the Florida Education Association, told the Phoenix. “But I can tell you that very often the mentor teacher is overwhelmed. And so, as a mentor teacher, they may not get to spend as much time as they would like, or as the new teacher would like, in really supporting that new teacher.”

During the Thursday Rumble video about the teaching opportunity for veterans, DeSantis blamed unions for “rigid” teaching requirements.

“For too long, the requirements to be a teacher have been too rigid, with union bosses insisting that all educators get certain credentials that often have little impact on teaching performance,” DeSantis claimed.

Spar pushed back on that notion, saying that the union has advocated for relaxing certain requirements set by the state, while still maintaining a standard of teaching quality.

“I think this is just another one of those issues for the governor to try and undermine the profession,” Spar said.

“We have a code of ethics for every teacher right now that we should maintain those ethical standards, and we should be doing everything we can to accommodate teachers once they become teachers, or when their meeting their requirements for testing and the like, in a way that makes sense. We should have that flexibility.”

“But doing away with standards does not make sense. And saying that we do not need highly trained, highly-skilled individuals in the classroom does not make sense,” Spar said.

Does not extend to military spouses

In June, DeSantis held a press conference that went over several new laws from the 2022 legislative session that involved employment opportunities for military members and their spouses, one of which included the temporary teaching pathway for veterans.

At the time, unclear messaging from the governor’s office and the Florida Department of Education led some to believe that the veteran temporary teaching certificate pathway would extend to the spouses of veterans as well.

However, the legislation that creates the temporary certificate for veterans does not include spouses in that manner, only making slight changes to fee waivers that military spouses were already eligible for.

The Florida Department of Education has since updated its webpage on the military temporary teaching certificate pathway to clarify:

“Military spouses and families are not eligible for this program,” according to the DOE, with the emphasis added.

Ocala Star-Banner

Dear friends,

Thank you so much for your letters describing your fun summer adventures, I am so glad everyone had a joyful break! I myself enjoyed a summer full of sunbathing and swimming. However, now that the break is over and school is back in full swing, I am super curious: What is your favorite part of school? Lunch time with friends? Or perhaps learning about manatees in science? Whatever it may be, please let me know!

Your friend,

Matt

Editor's note: Please send letters, pictures and jokes to calendar@starbanner.com and write "Matt Manatee" in the message line. The deadline is 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16. A selection will be published on Friday, Sept. 30. We are not providing T-shirts any longer.

Previous Matt Manatee mail:Ocala/Marion County students tell Matt Manatee their favorite activity from this year

Dear Matt Manatee,

I had a fun summer break. I went to the Silver Springs where I saw a manatee and monkeys. It was so much fun.

Your friend,

Dahlia Vogt

Second grade, Ocala Springs Elementary School

Dear Matt Manatee,

I had a fun summer break. I went to the water park where I saw a bunch of water and people. It was fun but I got sunburned.

Your friend,

Alice Glass

Second grade, Ocala Springs Elementary School

Dear Matt Manatee,

I had a fun summer. I went to Long Island. My favorite part was seeing the Statue of Liberty.

Your friend,

Dylan Mendoza

Second grade, Ocala Springs Elementary School

Dear Matt,

The most fun thing I did this summer was go to my cousin's birthday party. First, I ate. Next, I played with my cousins. Lastly, there was cake! I will never forget my cousin's birthday party.

Your friend,

Kayslee Chavez-Gibbs

Second grade, Sparr Elementary School

Dear Matt,

The most fun thing I did this summer was go to Tennessee. Next, I went to the game room. Lastly, I went to the hot tub. I’ll never forget going to Tennessee.

Your friend,

Paige Geurts

Second grade, Sparr Elementary School

Dear Matt,

This summer I went to South Florida to visit my family and I went on a bike ride on the trail. I also went to the pool every week and sometimes my cousin would spend the night.

Your friend,

Jaiden Hodge

Fifth grade, Sparr Elementary School

NOW THAT’S FUNNY!

Q: What does a Gorilla learn in school?

A: His Ape B C’s!

Jacob Taylor

Fifth grade, Sparr Elementary School