ARTS & CULTURE
Moving Forward with Eyes Wide Open As Stephanie Gularte leaves the helm at American Stage, she confronts uncertainty about her eyesight and contemplates a reimagined future. BY CINDY STOVALL This is not a story about theater. It’s a story about grace. Confession: This article is personal. Personal because of the openness and candor of Stephanie Gularte – who, by the date of publication, will be the former CEO/Producing Artistic Director at American Stage Theatre Company. Personal because she is a friend that I care very much about who is facing a difficult health challenge, to wit: It can be difficult to separate the journalist, not only from the friend, but from the nurse – which I was for so many years. It’s important to me that I honor our conversation and relay it in a way that not only informs, moves and inspires, but, above all, respects her and reflects exactly what she told me. That’s why, for the most part, Stephanie Gularte is narrating this piece. Over the past six years Gularte has been the guiding light at the helm of St. Petersburg’s top professional equity theater overseeing a half dozen annual productions, including the popular American Stage in the Park outdoor summer series, and a full schedule of summer workshops, apprenticeship programs and community outreach. This interview took place in June, literally on the eve of Raise the Curtain, the 2021-22 season announcement gala – and the last official function of Stephanie Gularte at American Stage. ***
PHOTO/JOEY CLAY PHOTOGRAPHY
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StPeteLifeMag.com
July/August 2021
“I’ve long noticed the little changes,” begins Gularte, referring
to her eyesight. “I have a difficult time adjusting from bright light to darker areas. In theater, that’s a pretty frequent occurrence,” she smiles, “so it became a bit of an inside joke that I often needed help off stage.” “I had experienced some increase in night blindness and at times, just general eyestrain in reading or computer work. But everyone experiences that, right? It didn’t occur to me, as I made an appointment with an optometrist in February 2020, that it could be anything serious. I was noticing changes in my peripheral vision as well. Still, I could never have anticipated what came next.” A Very Bad Day “Friday, March 13, 2020, was not a good day,” explains Gularte. “As the seriousness of COVID-19 became an unavoidable reality for American Stage, it was the day we decided to ‘turn the lights out’ on live performances – hoping, of course, that it would only last a few weeks or maybe a month or so at most. “For me personally, it was the day I received the official result, almost a month after my initial exam, of genetic testing that had been done to confirm a diagnosis of Retinitis Pigmentosa. I had no idea, at that time, what the ramifications were or what it really meant.” Retinitis Pigmentosa, or RP, is a genetic disease of the eyes effecting about one in 4,000 people. It usually appears in childhood, often unnoticed, but can occur at any age. The genetic component of RP is a difficult to isolate gene(s) mutation that causes damage to the light
