We listen back to our April show featuring Emmy-nominated jazz trumpeter, vocalist and composer Benny Benack III performing live in studio with the Florida Gulf Coast University Jazz Combo.

The third annual Fringe Fort Myers runs May 29 – June 1, 2025. Ahead of the opening “Flamingle with the Artists” at the Alliance for the Arts, we talk with one of this year’s nine featured performers, Dawn Truax, about her one-woman show “Genius, Madness and Murder: Tales of the Scandalous Family of John Wilkes Booth.”

Players Circle Theater is mounting the Southwest Florida regional premiere production of “Vanities: The Musical.” Adapted from Jack Heifner’s stage play, it’s a coming-of-age story exploring the joys and challenges of long-term friendships through the lives of three women as they navigate high school, college, and into adulthood, where they’ve grown into very different people. We’ll explore the show in a conversation with director Ted Wioncek, and actors Elizabeth D’Aiuto, Natalie Brouwer, and Kimberly Suskind.

Southwest Florida-based playwright Joe Simonelli is the Artistic Director of the region’s newest theater venue “Cape Café Theatre,” which is now working on it’s third production of Simonelli’s work. Meanwhile, Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre is mounting a production of Simonelli’s hilarious farce “Half Baked.” Simonelli joins us to talk about the unique Off-Broadway repertory theatre experience the new café theatre gives audiences and to explore his creative approach to playwright.

The 15th annual Fort Myers Film Festival kicks off next Wednesday and runs through May 18. Over the course of the five-day event, attendees will get to screen a wide variety of feature films, short films and documentaries from filmmakers here in Southwest Florida and from around the world. We’ll get a preview of this year’s offerings with Fort Myers Film Festival Founder Eric Raddatz and Steve Hilfiker who produced and stars in a film called “Daniel, My Brother” about his own experience as a heart transplant recipient.

Florida Repertory Theatre’s production of playwright David Ives “Venus in Fur” explores themes of power and dominance, gender roles and feminism, sexuality and desire, and transformation and revelation. We take a deeper dive into the play with actors David McElwee and Kathleen Simmonds in a conversation recorded on the set of the play.

As April marks Autism Awareness month, we explore how The Naples Players works to make theater accessible to neurodivergent audiences and performers. Such efforts include relaxed performances, educational programs geared toward people on the autism spectrum, and a new first-of-its-kind sensory viewing booth.

Players Circle Theater is mounting a production of the psychological thriller, “The Business of Murder” April 15 – May 11. We explore the play in a conversation with playwright Richard Harris, the show’s director Bill Taylor, and Players Circle Theater cofounder and Artistic Director Bob Cacioppo.

Blues musician/instrument maker James “Super Chikan” Johnson

Composer, performer, author and inventor of the Mutantrumpet, Ben Neill, has written a new book titled “Diffusing Music: Trajectories of Sonic Democratization,” which explores how AI and other technology is transforming how we create and experience sound. He joins us ahead of his concert event, March 27 at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Florida Southwestern State College.