World Premiere · Venice Centennial 2026
A New Full-Length Historical Drama by Tom Erb
We build the city. Then we tell you how it was done.
“In August 1925, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Fred Albee stood on thirty miles of Gulf Coast wilderness and saw something no one else could see — a White City on the Gulf. He hired the most celebrated city planner in America to make it real. What Albee didn’t know was that the men who would buy his dream were already hiding a secret that would destroy it.”
The Play
This is the true story of Venice, Florida. And it has never been told on stage.
Building Paradise is a production-ready historical drama that reveals, for the first time on any stage, the documented history behind the founding of Venice, Florida — strategically positioned to headline the city’s 2026 Centennial celebration.
The drama is driven by three interlocking storylines, three extraordinary figures, and one devastating collision between visionary idealism and financial betrayal. It moves across two acts and three decades, from the original dream through the Brotherhood’s spectacular rise and ruin, to the moment the city finally holds.
It is a story with no villains. Every one of these people believed they were building something honest. Every one of them was right — and wrong — in ways they never lived to fully understand.
The Characters
The Builder
An orthopedic surgeon and pioneer of bone grafting, Dr. Fred Albee purchased thirty miles of Gulf Coast wilderness in August 1925. He dreamed not of a resort or a speculation — but of a place where people live. When financing failed and he was forced to sell his dream to the Brotherhood, he returned as a consultant to witness the wreckage — and ultimately purchased back key properties to save the city’s future.
The Planner
John Nolen believed that a well-planned city is a moral act. In 1925, he drew the most complete plan of his career — designed for the city that would exist in fifty years. When the Boom collapsed, Nolen refused to compromise the bones of his design. His 200-foot-wide Venice Avenue remains a testament to his refusal to let corruption dilute the plan.
The Inheritors
Led by William Prenter, the Brotherhood used the Venice development to secretly cover a $4 million deficit. Ninety-one thousand members’ money poured into a city rising out of Florida swampland — and watched it collapse when the land boom died. Prenter was removed in 1927, leaving Alvanley Johnston to begin the work of moral repair.
Now Casting · Summer 2026 Workshop
We’re casting all eleven named roles below, plus stage managers, stagehands, directors, and lighting designers/directors. Additional ensemble roles may be announced as the production develops. Auditions are private and scheduled individually, based on your headshot, resume, and location. Register for casting consideration and the SW Florida Actors Registry →
Ages 49–56
Maine-born surgeon and bone grafting pioneer. A dreamer who purchased thirty miles of Gulf coast frontage to manifest a medical paradise, he sold his vision to the wrong hands, and returned to save the city as its first mayor.
Ages 56–63
Cambridge city planner. Small, ruddy, blue-eyed, with the alert stillness of a man always composing what he sees into a plan, he serves as the play’s hinge, whose 1926 design remains the honest foundation that still shapes the city.
Age 64
Grand Chief Engineer of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. He built a financial empire of thirty-five banks and appeared on the cover of Time magazine, but died leaving a $4 million deficit, appearing only in Act One as the weight of a failing institution.
Ages 60–68
Chicago socialite and landowner. She purchased 80,000 acres and platted Venice in 1915, insisting on the railroad extension before signing, she appears in Act Two memory sequences, privately battling breast cancer while acting as the steward for the bones of the city.
“My father taught me that land does not lie — what you build honestly on honest ground does not disappear. The bones are honest and they will hold.”
50s
BLE President. Stone’s successor who inherited the hidden deficit and chose the Florida real estate venture to cover the union’s losses, he attempted to navigate a path out of financial ruin, eventually being removed from office in 1927.
Ages 45–50
BLE Realty President. He ran the development on the ground and built an opulent Spanish-styled mansion at 605 West Venice Avenue while union funds burned, eventually dying penniless in a Miami hospital in 1956, far from the city he exploited.
Age 52
1927 Reformer and Grand Chief Engineer. He inherited the wreckage of the Florida venture and became the man who tells the truth into the chaos of the financial collapse, seeking to rebuild the Brotherhood on a foundation of honesty.
Age 50
Black farmer from Chicago. He was brought south by the Palmer operation to build the very avenue and infrastructure used to exclude him, representing the difference between February and July, he stands as the moral witness to the Ring Fence that contained his own city.
Age 86
Henry Hamilton Honoré. He is Bertha’s father, a real estate pioneer who taught her the fundamental principle that land does not lie, and that every piece of ground is merely preparation for the next.
Ages 59–60
Son of President Ulysses S. Grant. He appears in historical memory as Bertha’s brother-in-law, a soldier who believed in serving things larger than oneself and recognized Bertha’s rare talent for reading the value of the earth.
Age 44
Bertha’s elder son. He was tasked with being the steward of her vision and the Venice land, promising to keep the holdings whole, and to ask what the land needs rather than what can be taken from it.
Casting & Doubling Notes
In this Centenary Production, the doubling is thematically deliberate: the actor playing the antagonist William Prenter also portrays the reformer Alvanley Johnston, embodying the cycle of moral failure and subsequent repair.
The actor portraying George T. Webb also takes the role of Bertha’s father, H.H. Honoré, bridging the opportunistic present with the foundational past.
The roles of Dr. Fred Albee and John Nolen are portrayed by the same actors throughout both acts to provide a continuous moral center for the narrative.
The role of Warren Stanford Stone is limited to the financial reckoning of Act One, while the character of Elias cannot be doubled, as he remains the singular, uncompromised witness to the city’s construction.
The Conscience of the Play
The Woman Who Built It Before Anyone Arrived
Long before the surgeons and the union men and the city planners arrived, there was Bertha Honoré Palmer.
Chicago heiress, confidante of presidents, the most powerful woman in American business — Bertha purchased 80,000 acres of Gulf Coast land in 1910. She insisted on the vital railroad extension that would make a city possible. She platted the original Venice in 1915 and personally named the roads that still define the geography today — Honoré, Lockwood Ridge, Tuttle, Webber, Macintosh.
She died in 1918 and never saw the city she made possible. Her bones are underneath everything they built.
“Land does not lie.”
H.H. Honoré · Bertha’s Father
In Building Paradise, Bertha appears in Act Two memory sequences — the ghost who already knew the answer. A figure of quiet authority against the chaos of the Florida Boom. While men manipulate stock prices and paper over four-million-dollar deficits, the land remains the final, immutable truth. Bertha is the moral spine of the play — the Foundation and the Conscience of everything that follows.
Support the Production
GoFundMe Target: $51,600 · 2026 Venice Centennial Production
To meet the 2026 Centennial opportunity, Sarasota Stage Works has established a GoFundMe campaign with a target of $51,600 — meticulously allocated to cover venue rentals, professional stipends for our 8–10 actors, evocative design elements, and the professional production of our companion docuseries. Every dollar brings this story one step closer to the stage it deserves.
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Founder · $5,000+ Named Founding Sponsor in all production materials · Private reception invitation · Framed production print |
Patron · $2,500 Named Patron in playbill and docuseries · Opening night invitation · Signed playbill |
Advocate · $1,000 Named Advocate in playbill · Opening night invitation |
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Supporter · $500 Named Supporter in playbill and GoFundMe updates |
Friend · $100–$499 Named Friend in the program and GoFundMe recognition |
Tom Erb · Founder, Sarasota Stage Works · 1201 N Indies Circle · Venice, FL 34285 · (941) 716-0970 · tomcerb.playwright@gmail.com
Companion Docuseries
The Making of Building Paradise — A Behind-the-Scenes Docuseries
Beyond the stage, Building Paradise lives on through White City on the Gulf — a companion docuseries documenting the high-stakes process of bringing this history to life for the first time. The series follows the production from concept to curtain call, capturing the historical context, the casting process, the table work, the rehearsals, and ultimately opening night.
| 01 | The historical introduction to the play and the city |
| 02 | Open auditions and the casting of the First Trinity |
| 03 | Table work — actors grapple with the documented record |
| 04 | Rehearsals, blocking, and the physical realization of 1920s Venice |
| 05 | Technical rehearsals and the pressure of the Centennial schedule |
| 06 | Opening night and initial audience reflections |
For Theaters & Producers
Building Paradise is available for review by theaters, literary managers, producers, and artistic directors. The script is production-ready and fully documented with historical sources.
| Cast | 16M / 6F |
| Genre | Biography · Docudrama · Historical · Drama · Period |
| Format | Full-Length · Two Acts |
| Status | Production Ready · Available for Licensing |
| Available Via | New Play Exchange |
Companion Production
A companion chamber play providing an intimate, interior perspective on the life of Bertha Honoré Palmer. Where Building Paradise tells the epic public story of the city’s founding, Cissie goes inside the private world of the woman whose vision and land made it all possible.
Inquire About Cissie →