Test Drive Your Seats

COME VISIT US. TOUR OUR 5-THEATER COMPLEX.

Take some seats for a spin and find the perfect one to enjoy all of the magic live theater has to offer.

WHILE YOU'RE HERE, SUBSCRIBE to the Bank of America Best of Broadway Tampa Bay Series, Opera Tampa's season, Club Jaeb Series presented by Merchants Association of Florida or to the Jobsite Theater Play Series. Introduce your family to live theater through our Kid Time or Wee Folk series.

From Billy Elliot or The Merry Widow, from Mindgame or singer/songwriter Jeffrey Foucault – there's a season ticket package, and a price point, that will fit your budget and your busy schedule.

Use your season tickets as a family outing, or that much needed date night! Come to the theater to be swept away to another world – worlds of imagination, intrigue, laughter, learning and passion.

More stinky cheese!

The New York Times has reported that the author of "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales" has been named the first national ambassador for young people's literature, a post that was compared to a children's book version of the Library of Congress' poet laureate program.

Jon Sciezka, 53, will "evangelize the need for reading" during talks with parents, teachers and children.

He is a former schoolteacher and frustrated adult novelist. But he said he discovered his real audience of young people sitting right in front of him in his classrooms.

"There's a huge population of kids who would be or can be readers, but just choose not to," he said. "... Parents and booksellers and teachers are dying for some help."

TBPAC patrons may be familiar with "The Stinky Cheese Man" since it was offered as a theaterical presentation in April of 2006 as part of our Kid Time Series, productions aimed at those aged 5-11. We also provide a series for those 3-5 called the Wee Folk Series.

Still scheduled this year for Kid Time: "The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Eric Carle Favourites" on April 6 and "Addy: An American Girl Story" on April 9.

For the Wee Folk Series: "Silly Stuff," Jan. 20; "Harry the Dirty Dog," April 5; and "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," April 26.

It's very cool that this new position has been created. The love of reading is a very inexpensive and rewarding trait.

As a famous psychologist once said: "We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading." -- MichaelK

Season tickets: Opera, Play, Broadway and more!

There are a lot of good deals out there on tickets if you're paying attention. The best deal is always season tickets. TBPAC offers a ton of packages, and we'll actually be rolling out a few more in the coming months.

Ticket packages, or season tickets or subscriptions - whatever you like to call them - are completely win-win propositions. Yes, the company sells a bunch of tickets at one time, thereby reducing the work we need to do later - but the patron also gets a great deal and guaranteed seats. These seats are almost always better than what a single-ticket buyer can get just by the sheer virtue that season ticket holders get their tickets first. It's pretty simple when you think of it that way.

Opera Tampa's Homes by Helen Opera Series season tickets are available to the public as of June 1. If you're a current opera subscriber, you can renew your seats through May 31.

Jobsite Theater Play Series season tickets just became available today. Anyone who signs up by June 29 gets the early bird rate of 30% off the price of single tickets. As of June 30 the discount changes to 20% off. I posted an entry to the Jobsite blog earlier today as to why season ticket sales are so important. (Disclosure: I am also producing artistic director for Jobsite).

The wildly popular Bank of America Best of Broadway Tampa Bay series features the absolute best shows touring right now in the United States. The line-up features juggernauts like Jersey Boys and Avenue Q as well as returns for the The Lion King and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. TBPAC is known nation-wide for our incredible facility and first-rate Broadway series. The only way you can guarantee your seats to these shows is by becoming a season ticket holder.

I'm telling you now so hopefully you're not calling me in February of next year wondering why you can't get good seats to anything ...

As to other ticket packages we're looking to offer: a Club Jaeb package of 6 shows for under $100, an improved "cultural passport" type offer where you can sample a variety of shows at a greatly reduced price, and of course we'll soon be selling season tickets for our very popular Kid Time and Wee Folks series as well. Stay tuned for all that.

Aside from spending the money up front, the biggest knock I hear on season tickets is that people are concerned something will come up that would keep them from their show when it comes around. We all know people get busy, and we know things come up. Every one of our season ticket packages offers exchanges if you're not able to make your scheduled performance. All you need to do is call in to the ticket office and move your tickets to another night. Simple! First exchanges are always free and it's just $1 per ticket to exchange after that. Convenient!