Former Fidelity exec heads up $45M theater campaign

NAPLES — Steve Akin, a former executive with Fidelity Investments and Sprint, among other entities, has been named chairman of Gulfshore Playhouse's Next Stage Capital campaign.

The campaign is centered on Gulfshore Playhouse's new headquarters and theatre facility project, a $45 million planned development in downtown Naples. Plans for the new Gulfshore Playhouse complex include a 50,000-square-foot building on two acres and a 400-seat main-stage proscenium theater with sloped stadium seating. A separate studio theater will offer seating for more than 150 patrons and there will also be a grand airy lobby, bar, gardens and an exclusive patron lounge. (Gulfshore's current home, the Norris Community Center on Eighth Avenue South, has some 200 seats.)

Akin is currently on the Gulfshore Playhouse board of directors, according to a statement. He was also chairman and remains a trustee emeritus of the Boston Lyric Opera, the largest and longest-operating full-staged opera in New England. Akin also served on the board of the New England Conservatory and was president of the Kansas City Lyric Opera and Mansfield Ohio Symphony.