And Baby Makes 7

The best thing about the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center is that our five theaters allow for live performance in all shapes and sizes. Whether you are getting excited for the spectacle that is Wicked in the 2600 seat Carol Morsani Hall (tickets go on sale Sept. 19th!), or you can’t wait for Spanish Lyric Theater's Anything Goes in the Ferguson Hall (Oct. 10) or the kick off of Club Jaeb with Anne McCue on Sept. 28 - you'll find there is something for everyone! It’s like Goldilocks and the Three Bears – some theaters might be too big for you, some might be too small, but I guarantee you’ll find one that is juuuuuuust right.

I’m biased, as a board member, performer and director of the Jobsite Theater, my favorite space is the Shimberg Playhouse. This black box space is the smallest at TBPAC with around 100 seats. In my mind, it’s the biggest stage in town. So much happens on the Shimberg Stage and so many local actors have once-in-a-lifetime opportunities in the space. In addition to the Jobsite Theater, Stageworks has been a regular company that has performed in the space. Of course, Stageworks is getting ready for their big move to their brand spanking new theater in the Channel District, but I bet if you asked Anna Brennan, she’d have some fond stories of the Shimberg. (If you want to see Stageworks in action – don’t miss the acclaimed My Children! My Africa! in its closing performances this weekend).

The Shimberg is a busy little space. With not a week off in between productions, Jobsite Theater will mount And Baby Makes 7 on Sept. 24. Anna, Ruth and Peter await the arrival of their newborn child, but first they must rid the crowded apartment of their three imaginary children. Hilariously startling and brilliantly funny, Paula Vogel (The Mineola Twins, How I Learned to Drive) redefines the meaning of family and completely blurs the lines between illusion and reality, power and subjection, friendship and love, female and male.

Come out and try the little theater with the big heart and support local theater!

-Kari G.

Best of the Bay at TBPAC!

There was a lot at TBPAC that ended up being chosen as Best of the Bay by Creative Loafing. Take a look!

Best Artistic Director: Judith Lisi

Best Theater Company: Jobsite Theater (TBPAC's resident theater company, Shimberg Playhouse. Also a finalist for the Reader's Poll award, the winner of which will be announced at the awards ceremony on 9/24. Jobsite has now been named Best Theater Company in '04, '06 and '07.)
Best Actor: Steve Garland (The Pillowman, Jobsite Theater)
Best Actress: Ami Sallee Corley (Woman in Mind, Jobsite Theater)
Best Costume Designer: Katrina Stevenson (Jobsite Theater)

Best Play: Frozen (Stageworks in the Shimberg Playhouse)
Best Director: Anna Brennen, Stageworks (The Sisters Rosensweig and Frozen in the Shimberg Playhouse)
Best Set Designer: R. T. Williams, Stageworks (The Sisters Rosensweig, The Mystery of Irma Vep in the Shimberg Playhouse)

Between the body of work contributed by both Jobsite Theater and Stageworks, our very own Shimberg Playhouse had the work of seven Best of the Bay Award winners!

Other Reader's Poll finalists include Ryan McCarthy, Larry Buzzeo and Richard Coppinger for Best Actor; Ami Sallee Corley and Eileen Koteles for Best Actress and Patel Conservatory Instructor and Jobsite Theater performer "ranney" as Best Local Comedian

CONGRATS TO ALL!

(Disclosure: I am also the producing artistic director of Jobsite Theater, but am genuinely exceedingly proud of all that TBPAC has to offer, expecially the most mightiest of mites in the building in our own beloved Shimberg Playhouse.)

Sara Felder photoset

Found this while googling Sara Felder, who appears here in the Shimberg Playhouse April 27-29 doing her one-woman show June Bride - which deals with a "traditional" Jewish lesbian wedding. During the show she uses music, acrobatics, storytelling and juggling. Lots of juggling.

This show should be a lot of fun.

-dj

Sound Board operator needed!

The Shimberg Playhouse has an immediate need for a sound board operator for Nine Parts of Desire.

This person needs to be available basically 10a-6p from Fri., March 2 (tomorrow) through Wed. March 7, then needs to be available the nights of the show March 8-18.

Please call Karla Hartley at 222.1087 for more details. This is paid position.

TBPAC's Shimberg Playhouse tops in Tampa says CreLo!

Creative Loafing publishes an annual list of Top 10 area theater productions, which is reserved for local productions from professional theater companies (as opposed to the many touring Broadway shows that also come to town).

TBPAC is typically well-represented in this annual list, and this year we're proud to report that all of the top 3 plays came straight from our own Shimberg Playhouse:

1. The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?

Edward Albee's scandalous play is about a world-famous architect who falls in love with a goat, has sex with her and then faces the rage and bafflement of his wife and son. As brilliantly acted by Steven Clark Pachosa in a Jobsite Theater production, protagonist Martin Gray was truly in love; and as he challenged all our assumptions about what is permissible, he made playwright Albee's real theme -- the question, is there an infallible source of our moral law? -- painfully clear. Monica Merryman was terrific as Martin's wife, and Eric Burgess as his gay son was desperately in need of a father he could respect. Director Karla Hartley treated this uniquely passionate and philosophical play with all possible seriousness, and the result was stunning.

2. Frozen

The deliberate murder of a child is among the most horrific of all crimes. But author Bryony Lavery, in her riveting play Frozen, asks us whether a man who himself has been abused and damaged since early childhood can be forgiven for such an atrocity. Lavery shows us the twisted, hateful perpetrator -- played brilliantly by Richard Coppinger -- and also the dead child's stricken mother -- played with heart-rending realism by Monica Merryman. Then she asks us to judge. As directed by Stageworks' Anna Brennen, Frozen was chilling and sad and relentlessly original.

3. The Pillowman

A writer, Katurian, is hauled into a police station in an unnamed totalitarian state. As two cops alternately manhandle and interrogate him, he learns that someone has been carrying out the details of his most violent tales. Is it he himself, or perhaps his mentally challenged brother? Is Katurian culpable for imagining such violence, and is there anything in the world besides story, story and story? Jobsite Theater brought us Martin McDonagh's amazing play in a formidable production, with splendid acting by Steve Garland as Katurian and Paul Potenza as his pitiful, unpredictable brother. The experience was fascinating -- and harrowing.

Another round of applause for these great shows - and also for those who took the time to come and support them, helping ensure that theater stays alive and well in Tampa and at TBPAC. Jobsite Theater, the resident theater company in the Shimberg (and yes, my baby) is gearing up for their production of All the Great Books (abridged), which opens Jan. 12.

It's no secret that the Shimberg is my favorite room on the TBPAC campus. An intimate space that seats up to 130, this black box space ensures you're close enough to see every facial expression and always be engaged by the action. We're hearing more and more from subscribers from our more popular Broadway and Opera series that they absolutely love the variety and quality of the productions. If you haven't seen a show in there before - or if you haven't visited us in a few years - we'd love for you to give us a look.

-dj

An interview with Wilson Loria

Wilson Loria will play the Shimberg Playhouse this weekend with his one-person show To the Winners. I hope you enjoy this interview with him.

If you had to describe your show in one or two sentences, what would you say?

It is a solo where an actor makes use of mime, music and dance to tell a story about a young man's search for the answer of a question which was whispered to him on the day he was born.

Above and beyond your description of the show, why do you think people should see it?

There's too much paraphernalia on stage in theater today and the actor is being considered one more element of the whole process. Over there, in back of the stage... With To the Winners -- and also according to my belief of what theater should be -- I try bringing the actor to the apron of the stage, so to speak. I want the actor to be the main element of the performance and that should be a very big reason for people to come and see my work.

It seems your show incorporates a lot of forms - theater, music, dance - tell us about how you developed the piece.

In 2002, I was doing my Master's in Performance Studies at NYU's Tisch School the Arts where and when I met my dear friend and director Fernando Calzadilla, a director from Venezuela. I had written To the Winners as a short novella many many years before that. One day, I decided to transform that story into a monologue. After having completed the text as a play, I asked Fernando to read it, with the perspective of mounting it for the stage. Voilá! He liked it a lot and soon we started rehearsing both at his house and in the same room which served us as a classroom at NYU during the weekdays. Of course, we used it on the weekends. Why a lot of forms? I do believe that the actor should develop his art continuously. If the actor only acts or sings, he or she, in my humble opinion, is just a theater worker and not an artist.

Where have you been with the show, and how was the show received?

To the Winners has been presented in Miami (for its open to the public rehearsal), São Paulo and Curitiba (Brazil), New York, Gulfport (St. Petersburg), Tampa, Orlando, Montreal (Canada), Santo Domingo (the Dominican Republic), and Minneapolis. I believe the show has been received very satisfactorily by the public and the critics, in general. In Canada, for example, To the Winners was awarded Best Text of the 2005 Montreal Fringe Festival.

What's been the most fulfilling moment up to this point for you as an artist?

Being able to develop my work as a solo artist. Everybody knows how hard it is to be accepted as a newcomer. But I believe that people are slowly acknowledging me as an artist. And that's definitely wonderful.

Ok, now to lighten things up - what's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you on stage?

I would not say embarrassing but definitely funny ... This happened when I was about 16 in Brazil. I was in a play where I played the role of a blind person. People in the cast were supposed to place me in front of a microphone stand. Well, the play went on and on and on, my cue was about to happen any minute, and nobody came to take me to the microphone. It stood in front of the stage. Miraculously, I walked straight to it without any hesitation or help from anyone. That was pretty funny. But the story follows ... At a certain moment, a child, from the audience, ran right in front of me and tripped over the microphone stand. Guess what? The blind man, me, once again miraculously grabbed the phone so that it wouldn't fall down on the stage floor.

Who are some of your role models/heroes in regards to your life in art?

I enjoy and respect Robert Wilson's work very much as well as Brazilian actress Denise Stoklos with whom I had the pleasure of working at the legendary theater La MaMa, in New York, a few years ago. Working with Mr. Wilson is still a dream of mine...

Anything else you'd like to add?

I will be presenting To the Winners in Orlando at the Studio Theater on January 26, 27 and 28, 2007. I would also like to add that Broadway is unquestionably important to the world's theater scene. No question about that. But the new artists are the ones who need the most support they can get from the public. How many times does a person need to see Oklahoma, for example? Just kidding ... Please, support the new faces, the new voices, the new theater!