In 1624, the poet John Donne, in a work of prose entitled “Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions,” gave us the line that is still quoted, and may be even more relevant today. “No man is an island, entire of itself.”
Ask anyone what this phrase means to them; the responses will likely be similar. For Andrew Kato, the Producing Artistic Director/Chief Executive of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, it all comes down to family and community, a theme he’s very familiar with. As Kato tells us, “It speaks to the collaborative nature of our business. How interdependent we all are. As a producer, I’m nothing without talented entertainers who know how to put on a show. I think it’s also the nature of live performance because you’re connecting live one-on-one.”
And with that idea in mind, he’s created a musical series called “A Night on the Island” with six musicians of different genres who will be appearing for one night only in the Maltz’s intimate black-box venue, The Island Theatre. Hand-selected by Kato, along with Virginia Sinicki of WRMF FM’s The KVJ Show, the artists were chosen based on a number of factors, including a strong desire to utilize talent with a background in South Florida.
All of them in one way or another have a tie to our area. “We cast locally,” Kato says, “because to be a good community member, it’s vital to do so.”…