Rotary Happenings: Rotarians hear from artistic director at Florida Rep
At its recent meeting, the Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club heard from Greg Longenhagen, artistic director for the Florida Repertory Theatre — a hidden jewel in the heart of Southwest Florida. Affectionately known as the Florida Rep, it is a fully professional theater company committed to providing first-class comedies, dramas and musicals since 1998. Longenhagen is a member of the original founding company and is honored to be entering his third decade with the Florida Rep. An accomplished actor, director, producer, teacher and coach, he has enjoyed a career of more than 30 years with professional theater, radio, television and film. Since 1998, Longenhagen has worked on 64 productions at the Florida Rep, either as an actor, director, fight choreographer or dialect coach.
He shared with us some interesting inner workings of a theater, that unless you have worked in a theater, you may not give much thought to. Things such as all the extraordinary work that goes into creating the sets, specific to each production, the costumes and the lighting, which is also very specific to each production.
In addition to its work on the stage, the Florida Rep has a very active and vital education and outreach arm that includes Theatre for Young Audiences & Lunchbox Theatre, Camp Florida Rep, an audition-only Theatre Conservatory Program, classes for youths and adults, and artist in residency programs. If you have never been to the Florida Rep, it is highly recommended that you attend a production. You will not be disappointed and you may even be hooked!
Longenhagen was last seen on the main stage as Bob Cratchit in “A Christmas Carol.” He has many directing credits at the Florida Rep and has choreographed fight scenes for and voice-dialect coached more than 29 shows. Longenhagen served as an assistant professor of theater at Florida Gulf Coast University and was chair of the theater program’s Marketing and Recruitment Committee. He spent two years touring the United States as a public speaker, conducting workshops on real estate investing. In 2006, Longenhagen joined Abbott Productions, ascending from office manager to vice president of marketing, to president and chief of operations. He has been responsible for the production of numerous national advertising campaigns and video projects across numerous businesses.
Longenhagen holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Pittsburgh and is certified with the Society of American Fight Directors at Carnegie Mellon University. He also has a Bachelor of Arts in speech communication from West Chester University. Longenhagen has been a proud member of the Actors Equity Association since 1993.
The Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club holds a meeting on Fridays at 7:15 a.m. at The Community House, at 2173 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel, and via Zoom; doors open at 6:45 a.m. To attend in person, email William.Harkey@gmail.com before the meeting. For more information, visit sanibelrotary.org or www.facebook.com/sancaprotary.