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A coast away from her roots, American Stage's Stephanie Gularte is soaking up Florida

 
Stephanie Gularte, who arrived in the Tampa Bay area 2 ? years ago to become producing artistic director of American Stage, strolls along Coffee Pot Bayou in St. Petersburg with Milo, her 
8-year-old Boston terrier.
Stephanie Gularte, who arrived in the Tampa Bay area 2 ? years ago to become producing artistic director of American Stage, strolls along Coffee Pot Bayou in St. Petersburg with Milo, her 8-year-old Boston terrier.
Published Sept. 21, 2017

ST. PETERSBURG

The last clear day before the storm, Stephanie Gularte looked at Milo, her 8-year-old Boston terrier.

"You ready for action, bud?"

It was the kind of day you couldn't complain about, if only because the previous week was hotter and even more humid. But a breeze blew off the bay as Gularte, 46, walked her barrel-shaped companion past Coffee Pot Park.

She prefers taking him when it's cool, in the morning or evening. "These smush-faced dogs, they don't handle heat real well," she says.

Her parents had been calling from California with nervous questions about Irma. But since arriving 2 ½ years ago to take over as producing artistic director of American Stage, she has been all in.

"I'm a Floridian now," she says.

Her arm stiffens and moves like a weather vane as Milo checks out this scent or that.

"He's the boss."

At home, the dog sits beside her on the couch, his nose never far from the popcorn as she watches Homeland or Bloodline on Netflix.

Between board meetings, rehearsals and the pressures of running the city's largest theater organization, these are the kind of simple pleasures she craves.

FALL THEATER PREVIEW: The stage is set for the 2017-18 season.

• • •

Two converging winds nudged Gularte to seek the American Stage job vacated by Todd Olson in 2014. Capital Stage Company, which she co-founded in Sacramento, Calif., in 1999 and where she served as artistic director, no longer needed getting off the ground.

In 2011, Mendy Gularte, her 36-year-old sister, died of cancer. She regards the loss as a turning point.

"The loss of my sister stopped me in my tracks," Gularte says. "And ultimately, made me really think about the preciousness of life and of time. Leaving California and joining American Stage wasn't about leaving something I was dissatisfied with. It was about seizing an opportunity to explore a new experience with the hope of making an impact in a new place.

"Losing someone who was such a profound part of my life, and losing her at such a young age, has left me with a strong drive to honor the time that I've been given by living life as fully as possible."

More recently, a marriage to fellow Capital Stage co-founder Jonathan Williams (who directed Monty Python's Spamalot at Demens Landing in 2016) ended.

"Unfortunately, the marriage did not survive the move," Gularte says.

Growing up in Placerville, Calif., she waited tables and helped manage her father's Italian restaurant. She earned two bachelor's degrees at California State University, Sacramento (in theater and political science), and worked as an actor while selling designer clothes and cosmetics at Macy's.

"I come from a family that runs small businesses, and so I've been around that kind of culture of entrepreneurial focus all my life," she says.

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Her family and theater ties in California remain strong. A recent photo on her phone shows Gularte with her daughter, Morgan Rivera, 24. The women are standing at the edge of a canyon at Yosemite National Park, smiling.

• • •

American Stage, which celebrates the 40th anniversary of its first show on Oct. 6, didn't quite break even in 2013. While tax records since then are not yet accessible to the public, the overall trajectory is good, Gularte said.

"We experienced increases in every category of contributed income as well as significant increases in single-ticket sales this past year," Gularte said. "So we ended the year very strong."

The theater's reach seems to be expanding. American Stage and Capital Stage, her old company, have teamed up on a joint production of Marjorie Prime, a Pulitzer finalist by Jordan Harrison about an elderly woman whose memory is assisted by a handsome robot. The same cast and designers, directed by Gularte, will perform the show at American Stage (March 9-April 1), then in Sacramento (May 2-June 3). (Marjorie Prime also has been adapted into a 2017 film starring Lois Smith, Jon Hamm, Geena Davis and Tim Robbins.)

She's focused on building the brand at American Stage, which to her means powerful, well-written stories, performances that take big risks and people still talking about the show the next day. For the first time since taking the reins, Gularte will appear in an American Stage production, as Beatrice in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (Nov. 10-Dec. 10).

The walk ends, Milo panting quietly beneath a picnic table. Gularte asks a reporter about places to go in Florida. She'd like to go tubing down the Withlacoochee or check out Cedar Key.

In the meantime, she says she couldn't be happier than to be in St. Petersburg, a city long memorialized as "God's waiting room."

"When I first heard that idea of God's waiting room," she said, "I thought what was meant by that was that this was the nearest place to heaven."

When it's time to go, she looks under the table to address Milo, who is wagging his tail.

"You've been a good boy," she says. When they get home, she'll make his favorite treat — peanut butter toast.

Contact Andrew Meacham at ameacham@tampabay.com or (727) 892-2248. Follow @torch437.