Cigar City Chroncles - free pre-show discussions!

We are hosting a series of discussions in conjunction with the world premiere of Cigar City Chronicles: A musical history of Tampa. Pre-show talks will be held at the John Germany Library auditorium (often referred to as "the big egg building" or simply "the egg") across the street from TBPAC. In addition to the scheduled scholar, a CCC representative, such as director Claude McNeil, Rick Criswell from our producing department, composer Stan Collins, a cast member, or another TBPAC representative will be in attendance.

Come and dig a little deeper into our collective history with the scholars who helped advise the playwright, then enjoy the show!

*EDIT* New event added!

Informance lecture, Monday, Feb. 5
TBPAC will offer a free Cigar City Chronicles Informance lecture on Monday, Feb. 5, at 7 p.m., in the Jaeb Theater. Featuring members of the creative team and cast the Informance will include the audience in a discussion on the process of what it’s like to build an original musical from scratch. Those who attend will learn about the history of Tampa and the many sources of inspiration for this ambitious and entertaining tribute to the city and the people of Tampa. Informances are for everyone, novice and expert alike.

Panel will include: Claude McNeil – Author, Lyricist, & Director / Stan Collins – Composer / Rick Criswell – Project Director / Alison Burns – Performer / Rodney Kite-Powell – Scholar

Thu., March 29 from 5:30 – 6:30 PM

USF History professor, author and Tampa Tribune history columnist Dr. Gary Mormino will speak on the history and contributions of Italians in Tampa followed by Q & A from the audience.

Gary R. Mormino, the Frank E. Duckwall Professor of History, is co-director of the Florida Studies Program at USF St. Petersburg. He is a prolific writer, author of a wide range of academic and popular books. Immigrants on the Hill (University of Illinois press, 1986) won the Howard Marraro Prize as the outstanding book in Italian history. The Immigrant World of Ybor City (University of Illinois Press, 1987) received the Theodore Saloutos Prize for the outstanding book in ethnic-immigration history. In addition, two of his articles have received prizes for the best writing in Florida history. He has written for the St. Petersburg Times, Orlando Sentinel, and Miami Herald. He currently writes a bi-weekly column on state and local history for the Tampa Tribune.

Almost two decades ago, he began to research a social history of modern Florida. Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams: A Social History of Modern Florida was published in the spring of 2005 by the University Press of Florida. Readers have called it a seminal study in state history.

Michael Gannon, Distinguished History Professor at the University of Florida, writes that Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams “will be the book by which all future studies of modern Florida will be measured.” In 2006, the Florida Historical Society awarded the book the Charlton Tebeau Prize.

Dr. Mormino received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina and has taught at USF since 1977. In 2003 the Florida Humanities Council named him its first Humanist of the Year.

Sat., March 31 from 12:30 – 1:30 PM.

Scholar and discussion TBD. I'll be sure to post more when I get the information.

Thursday, April 19 from 5:30 – 6:30 PM

Dr. Kenya Dworkin y Mendez, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at Carnegie-Mellon University, will talk about the history and cultural importance of Spanish theater in Ybor City, followed by question and answer.

Dworkin y Mendez received her Ph.D. from the University of Hawai’i. Her current research involves an analysis of the cultural and sociolinguistic survival of a unique Latin community in Ybor City, Florida, through its tradition of Spanish-language and particularly Cuban theater. More specifically, the project also involves an analysis of the U.S. government's WPA Federal Theater Project during the 1930s and 1940s and its assimilatory goals with respect to the Spanish-speaking community in Ybor City. Other projects include 1) a sociolinguistic, ethnographic study of the circumstances surrounding the emigration of Puerto Ricans to Hawai’i; 2) a psycholinguistic and cultural analysis of the literary production of Latino monolingual, bicultural writers; and 3) an analysis of the self- contradicting discourse of identity and independence in late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Cuba. She has published in Nuevo Texto Crítico and Lucero: A Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies.