COURTESY PHOTO
Q. What do you enjoy the most about what you do?
A. The variety! My job is never boring whether I’m covering an event, writing about an interesting subject, or directing a play — every day is always different.
Q. What would your best friend say is your best quality?
A. Loyalty.
Q. When you get time off, what do you like to do in town?
A. My husband and I have an Airstream travel trailer and we love taking it out to Periwinkle Park on Sanibel and enjoying the island — we always take our bicycles — the bike paths out there are the best!
Q. What story about you might others find interesting who don’t know you?
A. A lot of people don’t know that I only went as far as the eighth grade in school. There wasn’t a theater program at Cypress Lake High School at that time, so I was bored and dropped out in the ninth grade.
Q. How did you get into your career? What has been one of your fondest moments in it?
A. in the late ’80s and early ’90s, my girlfriends and I used to go to South Beach in Miami for weekends to go dancing or see plays or concerts — there wasn’t much culture in Lee County back then. I loved reading a columnist in the Miami Herald called the “Queen of the Night” — in the late ’90s, I decided that downtown Fort Myers needed something similar, so I came up with the “Downtown Diva.” I have thousands of great memories, but the one that stands out the most was working with Meryl Streep when she hosted Arts for ACT in 2000.
Q. What are you reading or watching that you enjoy nowadays?
A. I Just finished up season two of “Ted Lasso” and it’s brilliant. Currently watching “American Crime Story: Impeachment” (about the Monica Lewinsky scandal) and I just started the latest season of “Succession.” Q. Favorite ice cream? A. Anything with peanut butter in it.
Q. What gives you the greatest inspiration?
A. My friends inspire me — their experiences, their stories, our discussions.
Q. Who do people tell you that you look like that is famous?
A. I used to get Marilyn Monroe — I still do on an occasional good hair day.
Q. If you were stranded on an island stocked with food, shelter, and water, what one item would you pick to bring?
A. My iPhone
Q. Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
A. Hopefully, we’ll be doing a lot of traveling in our Airstream, and I’ll be taking photos and writing about those travels. If not, I’ll be a published novelist after writing an “In the Garden of Good and Evil” type story about Fort Myers — stay tuned! ¦
— Stephanie Davis is a regular contributor to Florida Weekly.
Have a suggestion for someone you think our community should get to know a little better? Send it along to eraddatz@floridaweekly.com
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