This holiday season, eight ballet companies are performing “The Nutcracker” 27 times across Southwest Florida. Gulfshore Ballet in Fort Myers will be responsible for four of those performances. While the story is the same, the choreography will be different this year because three former students will be dancing the roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Dew Drop, Marzipan and the Christmas Fairy.

Many sports have their heroes, but basketball has an uncanny ability to turn stars into legends and build fuel for both the history of the game and the heroes that have mastered the hardwood.

Sarasota Cuban Ballet presents “The Nutcracker” at the Sarasota Opera House on Friday. That performance will obviously feature classic choreography and the beauty of Tchaikovsky’s score. But as Administrative Director Barbara Worth explains, there’s more to this production.

Arts Center Theatre on Marco Island is doing something different this holiday season. Instead of staging a full-scale production of a Christmas show, they’re reading selections from David Sedaris’ “Holidays on Ice.”

As records from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case begin to come forward from the Justice Department, we re-visit our conversation with Julie K. Brown, the Miami Herald reporter who dug most thoroughly and persistently into the case.

Responding to the high demand for tickets, Florida Studio Theatre has extended its two cabarets, “Feeling Good” and “Three Pianos.”

The Florida Gulf Coast University Library will begin evaluating proposals Tuesday for the design and live installation in the spring of a mural that will be located between the Circulation and ITS Help Desks at the library. FGCU undergraduate and graduate students were invited to apply.

From Sarasota to Marco Island and Venice and Sanibel to Arcadia and LaBelle, Southwest Florida is home to more than a dozen art centers. Most host visual art exhibitions showcasing member, regional and nationally renowned artists that change every month. In December, there are 23 shows at these venues, underscoring the importance of the arts in our part of the country.

This week, eight shows open, three close and 12 continue their runs at Southwest Florida equity and community theaters.

This season, Southwest Florida is home to more than two dozen holiday concerts ranging from Handel’s “Messiah” and FGCU’s “Joyful & Triumphant” to Gulf Coast Symphony’s “Deck the Halls” with aerial violinist Janice Martin and the Naples Philharmonic’s “Holiday Pops.” Here's WGCU's guide to all of these shows.