Arts Council of Hillsborough County Grants Program

Help us save the Arts Council of Hillsborough County Grants program!

The Arts Council of Hillsborough County’s grant program provides essential annual support to local cultural organizations that add $292 million to the local economy and employ more than 8,000 people.

The Hillsborough County Administration has proposed to eliminate funding for this critical grant program for the coming year.

You can help us save this valuable grant program by participating in this petition. It will be presented to the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners in July to urge their continued support for the Arts Council Grants Program.

If you’d like to help, simply click here http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveartscouncil2010funding/and add your signature to the petition. In the "comments" box, please type your zip code i.e. Hillsborough 33601.

Also, the site randomly asks for donations to "IPetitions." This is not necessary since it counts your signature if you simply "X" out of the site from the donation window. We need as many signatures as possible from Hillsborough County by JULY 14, 2010.

To learn more about the importance of supporting this petition, please read on…A strong cultural community is a vital economic engine in Hillsborough County.More than 4.2 million residents and visitors attend arts and cultural events year-round in Hillsborough County.

Thousands upon thousands of Hillsborough County school children benefit from arts education programs provided at little or no charge by local arts and cultural organizations.The arts are an important policy asset and prosperity generator for local government. In addition to their inherent value to society, our local cultural organizations are:

• ECONOMIC DRIVERS: The arts create jobs and produce tax revenue. The arts sector stimulates business activity, attracts tourism revenue, retains a high quality work force and stabilizes property values. The arts have been shown to be a successful and sustainable strategy for revitalizing rural areas, inner cities and populations struggling with poverty.
  
• EDUCATIONAL ASSETS: The arts foster young imaginations and facilitate children’s success in school. They provide the critical thinking, communications and innovation skills essential to a productive 21st‐century work force.
  
• CIVIC CATALYSTS: The arts create a welcoming sense of place and a desirable quality of life. The arts also support a strong democracy, engaging citizens in civic discourse, dramatizing important issues and encouraging collective problem solving.
  
• CULTURAL LEGACIES: The arts preserve unique culture and heritage, passing precious cultural character and traditions along to future generations.
  

Hard times require public officials to make the most of every asset and to adopt policies that maximize recovery potential. The arts are a proven part of that mix. The arts are a recovery asset that supports jobs, stimulates commerce, stabilizes property values and provides many other economic benefits.

In addition to their many economic advantages, the arts offer timely assistance with educational and civic challenges that tend to escalate during tough times. The arts are also central to community resiliency. Whether facing economic distress, natural disasters or other adversity, the arts are a powerful force for recovery and healing, a benefit that few other industries offer.

We hope you will join us by supporting the arts in Hillsborough County by participating in this petition.

Tony Wrap Up

Well the spinning disks have been distributed, the jewels have been returned to Harry Winston and the marketing groups are furiously tagging ads with "Winner of ____ Tonys."

What did you think?

Or did you watch the Celtics romp the Lakers?

Or did you watch True Blood?

Be honest.

If you need a Tony wrap up, you can check out the run down from the NYT. Congrats to Red and Memphis for their big wins. Lots of Hollywood stars took home Tonys including Scarlett Johansson, Denzel Washington and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

We posted frequently on www.twitter.com/strazcenter and www.twitter.com/whobroadway so we hope you followed along.

What were your favorite (or least favorite moments)? How did Sean do as host? What shows do you want to see come to the Straz Center? Share your thoughts and let us know what you thought.

- Kari G.

Wonderland Meets SYTYCD! TONIGHT!

Get your DVRs ready for tonight's SYTYCD on Fox! You may see someone you know - from down the rabbit hole...

Two of our talented Wonderland cast members will be on So You Think You Can Dance TONIGHT!

Ashley Galvan, one of the Fembot dancers and Melinda Sullivan who was a versatile and talented swing. Melinda went on for almost all the roles she covered and did a phenomenal job!

Please cheer them on and support them with your votes!

-Kari G.

Miss Abigail's World Premiere!

Gather your girlfriends, your boyfriends, your best friends or even your frenemies (especially if they are known for dating your exes!) and come down to the hilarious world premier of Miss Abigail's Guide to Dating, Mating and Marriage!

Miss Abigail will teach you how to find and keep your perfect mate and gives you classic romance advice from yesteryear!

It’s like Late Nite Catechism, but about love!

Let Miss Abigail take you back to a simpler time ... when the divorce rate wasn’t 50% and when fidelity was more than an investment firm! During this 90-minute comedy, Miss A will teach you how to have the perfect kiss, what you should (and should not) talk about on a date, and how to let a man think he wears the pants.And who knows? Maybe during the show, Miss Abigail will learn a thing or two about love herself from her sexy, young assistant, Paco.

You can get 50% off the June 9-13 performances with the promo code SOCIAL.* Don't miss this great event!

-Kari G.

*Limit 4 tickets. Not applicable to prior sales. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Subject to availability.

MAMMA MIA! to Become First Major Western Musical to Recieve Chinese Production

MAMMA MIA! will be come the first major western musical to be produced in Chinese for a run in China. The website reports: "[China Arts and Entertainment Group] CAEG, which promotes Chinese-language productions of musical theatre masterpieces, signed the licensing agreement [with European music company Littlestar] at a ceremony in Beijing on Wednesday (June 2, 2010), and is now set to produce "Mamma Mia!" 13th foreign-language version, following its original English...Zhang Yu, president of CAEG, said "Mamma Mia!" will be the first worldwide musical masterpiece to be produced in Chinese..."

Can't wait to see Mamma Mia in Chinese (which according to Google Translate is Māmā mī ya)? Well get a healthy dose of ABBA when Bjorn Again The ABBA Experience comes to the Straz on June 26!

-Kari G.

London/Broadway, 'Red'/Pink

NYC – Two shows that seemingly had little in common joined forces at one of the Broadway League’s Creative Conversations during a recent conference.

Alfred Molina and Eddie Redmayne from “Red” (the story of artist Mark Rothko) sat with Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge from “La Cage aux Folles” (a revival of the musical that resulted in the movie, “The Birdcage”).

One common element – and the one that prompted the joint setting – is that they both started as smaller London productions before moving to Broadway. Grammer joined the cast in NYC, co-starring with Hodge, who had been in the London production.

“Red” began at the Donmar Warehouse and “La Cage” at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

Here’s what the stars said about their shows, and about differences between London and NYC.

La Cage

"Certain lines in London that got enormous laughs there that get nothing here. Certain lines here that get enormous laughs got nothing here." – Douglas

"I knew George Hearn years ago. We used to get drunk together after the show, but I never saw it." – Kelsey

“People seem surprised that I’m English. I must have slowly shifted into ‘American.’ ” – Douglas

"There was a traffic pattern that had been laid out [in London]. There was a luxury to having it blocked already … freedom to find the heart, to find the laughs. The piece resonates so much on an emotional level." – Kelsey

"I secretly play the first scene a little bit slower to give people a chance to dip in …" – Douglas

"There's no greater place in the world than Broadway. It is the pinnacle in my own life. It's a great place to do the work." – Kelsey

"The musical is sort of the hallmark of what you think of as Broadway … I've never been in any situation in the theater where there's so much light and joy and love … I'm not sure I'm ever leaving. It is an amazing experience for me. I couldn't be happier." – Kelsey

Red

"It's the most exciting and rewarding and fulfilling experience I've ever had working as a stage actor – working on Broadway." – Alfred

“It was one step removed in London because of all the cultural, geographical references. … it is a quintessentially New York play.” – Alfred

"He [Alfred] was talking about the Broadway community – not so much a club … a grouping of people. The way he was describing it sounded almost too good to be true … just a sense of being a part of a very specific and welcoming and supportive tribe. … It means a great deal." – Eddie

“Everyone you meet seems to know what you're in and what you're up to. … they feel a common ownership, very positive sense of pride." – Alfred

"When it's good, it's great. When it's not so great, it can be awful. Some of those who didn't like me before now are so far up my bum they could have a weekend place …” –- Alfred

"In England, if you're enjoying the work it's almost unseemly to celebrate that." – Eddie

Answering “What is that red paint made of”:
"Blood, mad desire and passion …” – Eddie
“Broken marriages, phone calls you never get replies to." – Alfred

“Red” is at the Golden Theatre on 45th Street. “La Cage” is at the Longacre Theatre on 48th Street. – MKilgore

Star Shine Brings Money, Talent

All those TV and movie stars on Broadway this season helped gross a total of $1.02 billion during the 09-10 season, according to The New York Times.

The revenues are up despite a slight decrease in attendance, perhaps attributable to the non-reporting of numbers for “Young Frankenstein” because of that show’s policies.

But the stars are bring in more than box office revenues; they’ve got talent, too.

Consider that all five of the Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play nominees are better known for their movie work:

Jude Law, “Hamlet
Alfred Molina, “Red”
Liev Schreiber, “A View From the Bridge:
Christopher Walken, “A Behanding in Spokane”
Denzel Washington, “Fences”

In the Best Actress in a Play category, sit-com vets Valerie Harper and Linda Lavin were both nominated for “Looped” and “Collected Stories.” (Laura Linney, nominated for “Time Stands Still,” is equally at home in TV/film and on stage.)

In the Best Actor in a Musical category, Kelsey Grammer for “La Cage aux Folles” and Sean Hayes for “Promises, Promises” successfully made the switch from sit-coms to Broadway.

Add Catherine Zeta-Jones, Leading Actress in a Musical nominee, and Scarlett Johansson, Leading Actress in a Drama nominee, and you can see the tremendous impact these double- and triple-threat performers had.

See the Tony Awards on June 13 at 8 p.m on CBS. – MKilgore

Bending 'Fences'

"Fences," the play by August Wilson at the Cort Theatre, is attracting some of the biggest buzz on Broadway and not just because Denzel Washington is in it (although that doesn't hurt).

Wilson, who died in 2005, won the Pulitzer Prize for "Fences" in 1987. (He won again for "The Piano Lesson" in 1990.)

Cast members Washington, Viola Davis, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Mykelti Williamson and director Kenny Leon, who has Tampa Bay area roots, were among those who participated in a recent Creative Conversation about the work at a conference.

Washington and Davis are both nominated for Leading Role Tony Awards and Henderson has been nominated for his Featured Role. Leon was nominated for Best Director of a Play and the entire work has been nominated for Best Revival of a Play.

Here are their thoughts about "Fences," their roles and August Wilson:

"What's fantastic … is that he writes just about people, in relationships with their wives, with their sons. It's something that's going to touch you, something that's going to move you. Just ordinary people, people going through their lives who are just like us." -- Viola

"I think our play looks more llke America than any other play on Broadway. And I'm proud of that." -- Kenny

"I thought I was too young until I read it and found out i was almost too old. I had never read it. I had seen it, but i had never read it." -- Denzel

"It's [always] a different river, because August really examines relationships …" -- Stephen

"There are no specific physical movements that I had to stick to. Like any great play, it's open to interpretation. The greatest compliment is that they've seen this play before but they're never seen it like this before. That's the testament to a great play." -- Denzel

"Everybody in this room is the truth. And everybody is their version of the truth." -- Stephen

"I'm digging deeply to find out what he meant … the farther you fall, the higher you bounce. " -- Mykelti Williamson

"This was an earlier work. And now that he's completed the cycle, you look back and have a keener focus and a keener eye toward what he was trying to say. My approach to the work is different … how can you inform the work differently." -- Stephen

"Last night, some man screamed out, 'Man, don't do it, Denzel!' When I see those heads go down, I know it's the men in the audience." -- Denzel

"They [the audience] are coming to see this and they're hoping it will shed some light on their lives." -- Kenny

"Don't try to get it right, get it true. August has laid some serious track. " -- Stephen

"Fences" runs through July 11 with limited ticket availability.

-- MKilgore

Expanding Broadway's boundaries

As recent innovative shows such as "Fela!", "Spring Awakening" and "American Idiot" join a relatively small set of risk-taking, more-niche-than-rich shows that actually made it to Broadway, a group consisting of a producer, a presenter and an artist paused during a recent conference to discuss what new types of content mean to both Broadway and the road market for Broadway.

The cast for the session was:

Bill T. Jones, Tony Award-winning choreographer for "Spring Awakening" and Tony-nominated for Fela!"

Kevin McCollum, Tony Award-winning producer of "In the Heights," "Avenue Q" and "Rent"

Michael Reed, senior director of Cultural Participation and Programming, ASU Gammage

Culled from a lengthy and fast-moving session, here are their comments:

"We do ourselves a disservice when we talk about these new productions like they're different from 'traditional Broadway.' When I think about 'traditional Broadway,' I think about 'The Music Man.' No, it's just a beautiful evening in the theater." -- Kevin

"Great art isn't necessarily for everyone." -- Bill

"People come to your shows because they trust you. And people know when they come to our building, they know that whatever on that stage will be respectful, will be worthwhile. The relationship is there." -- Michael

"For people who have never bought a ticket to Broadway to realize that a show reflects their own cultural experience … that to me is a hit. It's not about dollars." -- Kevin

" 'Rent' has permeated the consciousness of America. And I'm very proud of that. And we had to give the Hispanic community their own musical vocabulary through 'In the Heights')." -- Kevin

"We live in an era of diminished curiosity." -- Bill

"It's alchemy. You never know what will work." -- Kevin

"I was struck by the musical vocabulary [in 'Fela!']. We can't afford to react to the ordinary. We're a lifestyle choice. Profit is about making sure you're about exceeding the expectation." -- Jones

"I'm in the musical storytelling business. Storytelling is about surprises. Listen to what you hear when you're walking down the street and think how can I tell a story with that ..." -- Kevin

"All of my shows that have been hits started off-Broadway. You need to be able to able to watch your shows without hemorrhaging $250,000 You need to be able to watch it while hemorrhaging $30,000 to $40,000." -- Kevin

"We sang before we spoke. There's something in our DNA that makes us respond to music." --Kevin

* This was a free-flowing conversation and I confess to having done a bit of a mash-up rather than a chronological account.

-- MKilgore

MACY’S AT WIREGRASS COMMONS PRESENTS A SPECIAL EVENT WITH A PERFORMANCE FROM MARY POPPINS

Macy’s shoppers invited to a free performance from the Tony Award-winning Broadway show during the local engagement

WHAT: Macy’s at Wiregrass Commons is hosting an event for the whole family, with a special performance by cast members from Mary Poppins, playing at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts May 20 – June 6. Cast members will perform a medley of Mary Poppins favorites including “Jolly Holiday,” “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” and “Feed the Birds,” plus a song specially written for the stage production, “Practically Perfect.” Additionally, customers will have the opportunity to receive two tickets to the Wednesday, June 2 performance at the Straz Center with a $100 purchase store-wide at Macy’s during the event.*

Additionally, Macy’s, the Tony Awards and CBS will be giving customers the opportunity to win a chance to go to the Tony Awards on June 13th. The Macy’s Ticket to the Tony’s nationwide contest will give two lucky fans the opportunity to walk the red carpet, attend and be featured on live television at the Tony Awards. Visit www.CBS.com/tonys for more details. The Tony Awards will air on CBS on June 13th.

* Only valid on purchase made at Macy’s at Wiregrass Commons on May 29, 2010. While supplies last. Gift with purchase. No refunds on qualifying purchase, exchanges only.

WHEN/
WHERE: Performance by the cast of Mary Poppins
Saturday, May 29, 2010 at 12:00 PM
Macy’s at Wiregrass Commons – Women’s Dress Department
28233 Paseo Drive
Wesley Chapel, FL 33543

MORE: The Macy’s Ticket to the Tony’s contest is available at www.CBS.com/tonys. Contestants, ages 13 and over, can upload video content of themselves singing one of the following Broadway tunes:

· 96,000, In the Heights
· Gimme, Gimme, Thoroughly Modern Millie
· Good Morning, Baltimore, Hairspray
· I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Outa my Hair, South Pacific
· The Lonely Goatherd, The Sound of Music
· Maybe, Annie
· One, A Chorus Line
· Stars, Les Misérables
· Ya Got Trouble, The Music Man

Entries can be uploaded on www.cbs.com/tonys starting on April 27 at 3:00 PM, ET and ending on May 27 at 3:00 PM, ET, at which point public voting for selection of the five finalists commences, closing on June 1 at 12:00 AM, ET. On June 3, the five semi-finalists will be announced. The five finalists will be flown to New York City to participate in a live sing-off in Macy’s Herald Square on Friday, June 11 – where a panel of Broadway stars and experts, along with the online votes, will choose two finalists who will win the opportunity to walk the red carpet at THE 64TH ANNUAL TONY AWARDS at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 13. The two finalists will be red carpet ready with a $1,000.00 gift card from Macy’s.

Finalists will be featured on The 64th Annual Tony Awards, Sunday, June 13 (8:00-11:00 PM, live ET) on the CBS Television Network. Semi-finalists will win the opportunity to attend the full Tony Awards Dress Rehearsal.

No purchase necessary to enter or win. For complete rules, go to www.cbs.com/tonys.

Tennessee and the Tonys

With both "Memphis" and "Million Dollar Quartet" nominated for the Best Musical Tony, this seems to be Tennessee's year in the spotlight.
They're up against Green Day's "American Idiot" and "Fela!"

From the official "Memphis" web site:

From the underground dance clubs of 1950s Memphis, Tenn. comes a hot new Broadway musical - inspired by actual events - with heart, soul and energy to burn. He's a young, white radio DJ named Huey Calhoun (Chad Kimball), whose love of music transcends race lines and airwaves. She's a black singer named Felicia Farrell (Montego Glover), whose career is on the rise, but who can't break out of segregated clubs. When the two collaborate, her soulful music reaches radio audiences everywhere, and the Golden Era of early rock 'n' roll takes flight.

A thrilling theatrical event that combines Broadway splendor with the roots of rock, Memphis features an original story by Joe DiPietro ("I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change") and a brand-new score with music by Bon Jovi founding member David Bryan. Directing is Tony® nominee Christopher Ashley ("Xanadu") and choreography is by Sergio Trujillo ("Jersey Boys"). The cast also features Derrick Baskin, J. Bernard Calloway, James Monroe Iglehart, Tony nominee Michael McGrath and Cass Morgan.
Both of the leads, Kimball and Glover, were nominated for Tony Awards in their categories.

"Million Dollar Quartet" is about the historic night in 1956 when Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis ended up in the studio together.

Levi Kreis, who figuratively set fire to his piano as Jerry Lee Lewis, was nominated as Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

You can read more from the creators of "MDQ" in an earlier post. --

-MKilgore

DVR Alert! 9 to 5!!!

SET YOUR DVR - IT'S 9 to 5!

Dolly Parton will be the featured guest on OPRAH Friday, May 21st Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Dollywood - and will no doubt mention the 9 to 5 TOUR! (Coming to the Straz Center Oct. 26-31).

Have a happy Friday and set your DVRs!

-Kari G.

Tuesday (morning) with Sean

Sean Hayes, the former star of "Will and Grace," and the current star in "Promises, Promises," provided an early-morning wake-up to the nearly 600 attendees of the annual Broadway League Spring Road Conference -- a gathering on industry producers, presenters, agents and affiliated industries.

He found humor in everything from his early speaking time Tuesday morning ("Good evening. In the world of the theater, I'm just going to bed") to the name of the Broadway League itself ("How many teams are there?").

"I kid because I'm tired," he said.

But he turned serious to praise Broadway and "the overwhelming joy it brings audiences."

"If it weren't for people like you, there's be no chance for actors like me," Hayes said.

"Good night." (And then he probably went off to find breakfast.)

-- MKilgore

Elvis, Perkins, Cash and Jerry Lee: One amazing night

NYC -- On Dec. 4, 1956 the cornerstones of rockabilly and rock 'n' roll convened on Memphis' Sun Studios for a legendary jam session.

As the creators of the new Broadway musical, "Million-Dollar Quartet" explained it, this was a relatively spontaneous event during a nominal Carl Perkins session. Sun's owner Sam Phillips helped pull it together.
Jerry Lee Lewis was Perkins' piano player at the time. Elvis Presley, who had recorded for Sun, had jumped to a bigger label. And Johnny Cash was worried about the emergence of this new rock style that threatened to end his career.

In the actual recording session, the quartet mostly sang the music that had influenced them. In a small bit of dramatic license, the musical actually features their greatest hits because that's really what audiences want to hear.

"We took 18 months of Sun Records history and condensed it to one night," they said.

Here's what the creative team had to say about their Best Musical Tony-nominated show:

"We kept it to the raw emotion and the journey these guys were on."
"We wanted to capture one historic moment that featured the of rock 'n' roll."
"You can see their torment. Their preachers said this was the devil's music. They had no education and were suddenly big stars."

"They're actually playing onstage; it's all spontaneous."

-- MKilgore

Come Fly Away With Green Day?

NYC -- Normally blase theater professionals went all gaga twice Tuesday, first for a regal appearance by the choreographer/writer/director Twyla Tharp and then for a charming sit-down with Broadway's newest surprise -- Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong.

Former dancers now in arts management clogged the front row for Tharp, just as their younger colleagues did later on for Armstrong.

Tharp, of course, helped start the most recent trend toward "Rockway" with her work on "Movin' Out," based on the works of Billy Joel. Following a short run with a show using songs by Bob Dylan, she's back with "Come Fly Away," which puts Frank Sinatra on Broadway and is billed as "A new musical love affair."

Sinatra apparently came to see one of Tharp's earlier works using one of his songs.

"I cried. I want to be a dancer," Sinatra supposedly said.

"You are a dancer," Tharp said she told him. You're great in all the movies. (Pause.) But I wouldn't quit my day job."

Director Michael Mayer, who most recently did "Spring Awakening," and composer and orchestrator Tom Kitt worked with Armstrong to turn the band's 2004 Grammy Award-winning sixth CD "American Idiot" into a new Broadway musical, supplemented by a few songs from the group's latest recording "21st Century Breakdown."

Here are some random quotes and observations from those two sessions:

American Idiot

"I wanted to create a different texture for the theater, but you still felt it was Green Day." -- Kitt

"I was in the middle of 'Spring Awakening' and I was listening to the album a lot. I started to hear a very clear narrative." -- Mayer

"We always thought it should be staged somehow -- film or whatever." -- Armstrong

"I wanted to show the band I would take care of their baby." -- Kitt

"I looked to The Beatles and George Martin … 'Yesterday' … you always knew it was The Beatles." -- Kitt

"The record was perfect … The extra narration was inside the music -- even in the drum beats, the guitar breaks." -- Mayer

"I had no preconceptions about Broadway " -- Armstrong

"This probably has been the greatest experience of my life." -- Armstrong

"There's something happening here, and it's hopeful and exciting." -- Mayer
Come Fly Away

Tharp on the origins of the musical:

"We set out to find some of the narrative he created in the great American songbook." -- Tharp

"We tell the story through the deed because words lie." -- Tharp

Tharp on working with familiar dancers:

"You love them. You know what they can do. You can try things with them because of trust."

Dancers on working with Tharp and with Sinatra material:

"We call each other gladiators. It's a different level of focus, a different level of commitment than I've ever experienced." -- Karine Plantadi

"He [Sinatra] is a male artist who can care … without being wimpy, who can show strength without being arrogant. I wanna dance like that guy sings. … I didn't know that before two minutes ago." -- John Selva.

-- MKilgore

Sights and sounds in and around the annual Broadway League Spring Road Conference

NYC -- Spotted Tuesday night at the Lunt-Fontaine Theater seeing "The Addams Family": Neil Simon, whose "Promises, Promises" with Sean Hayes is up several blocks away.

NYC -- Overheard Tuesday night in the mezzanine during "The Addams Family": "There's nothing like a Broadway musical." And, no, it wasn't from an industry professional.

-- M Kilgore

Broadway League Spring Road Conference

Once again many of us at the Straz Center find ourselves left to our own devices as our fearless leaders have ventured up to NYC for the Broadway League Conference. This is where all the Performing Arts Centers and "road houses" meet to see what Broadway is offering this season - thereby indicating what the road will have to choose from next season.

It is a wonderful conference full of panels with creative teams, performers and industry professionals. They get fabulous show swag, lots of attention and an opportunity to meet and learn from their counterparts around the country.

As for us? We were pondering turning the cube farm into a miniature golf course today...

Michael Kilgore the VP of Marketing for the Straz Center will be posting some cool tidbits from the conference - so keep checking back with the blog this week.

-Kari G.

We Love Our Interns!

Every summer we take on an intern (or two) and enjoy watching them learn the ropes here at the Straz Center. They are usually conflicted by two profound emotions - How AWESOME it can be to work here and how BORING it can be to work here. Let's face it, we have Mary Poppins loading in even as we type this, yet that doesn't mean that those Club Jaeb flyers are going to go down to the photocopy machine and create themselves! We try to give them an honest view of both sides of our industry.

For a short period of time we have Intern L. She rocks a whole bunch and currently she is rocking a social media project that is going to put the Straz Center in a very good place in a very short period of time. So we like that lots. We asked Intern L. if she wouldn't mind sharing with you what it is like to be an intern here - this is what she submitted (and she was not paid to say how cool Kari G. is - we promise!).


As many of you may know, a senior’s last three weeks of high school tend to turn into something of a joke: Classes are winding down, AP exams are done, and you don’t even care because you already got into college! To rid their halls of teenagers affected with the potent “Senioritis”, and to give us a taste of what the real world is like, my school’s administrators came up with a creative, effective way of keeping us prep-school rabble-rousers out of trouble: Internships. So, every year when May comes around, the seniors of the school are rounded up and shipped off to prey upon businesses and offices all around Tampa Bay until graduation.

A lot of us are stuck working in the offices of mortgage brokers, or babysitting at our old schools, but some kids are lucky enough to land spots at places like Radio Disney, NBC, and, of course, the Straz Center. As you could probably tell by where you’re reading this blog, I was one of the lucky ones.

I’m proud to be my high schools’ resident “theater geek”. I’ve been in all of the school plays, and was even the Production Manager this year! (a.k.a. I got the director coffee and took notes). My iPod is full of Broadway musicals, and if you ask me about anything you think a normal teenager would know, like, “What is My Morning Jacket?” my answer will probably be, “A jacket your wear in the morning.” (If you’re like me and don’t know, it’s actually an American rock band known for their eclectic mix of music genres. See you just learned something new!). I’m also eager to learn about advertising and running a business (living the American Dream and all that good stuff), so the Straz Center’s marketing department was pretty much the perfect place for me to work for three weeks.

Now, you’re probably thinking “What on earth could anyone get done in just three weeks?” I’ll admit I was wondering that too, until Kari G. introduced me to this crazy thing called Social Media, which is all of the social networking sites (like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc.) that many companies use as marketing tools. However, there is no one place where someone can go and see what all the other major theaters in the country are doing with social media—until now.

Kari G. bequeathed upon me what we have come to call “The Mother of All Social Media Projects” and for the last week I have been compiling a data base for her and all the other fine folks at the Straz Center that has links the Facebook-esque pages and blogs of American theaters. Pretty cool, right?

However, the end of this internship is rapidly approaching, and before I’ll know it I will be off to the University of Central Florida in the fall (Go Knights!). Thanks to Kari I was fortunate enough to meet a successful UCF grad, Courtney M., the other day. As an aspiring performer, I’m ready to learn all I can about succeeding in theater. Kari and Courtney gave me valuable insights and tips that will definitely be of use to me in the next few years.

As a recap: I’m a crazy theater fanatic doing an awesome internship with the lovely Kari G. at the fantastic Straz Center, and then I’m going to college, and then who knows what?

Wish me luck!

The GOP is coming!

Get ready Tampa because the announcement has just been made! The GOP National Convention will be in Tampa in 2012!

According to Tampa Bay & Co. This is a very exciting time for the Tampa Bay region. The 2012 Republican National Convention will bring over 40,000 visitors to Tampa Bay the week of August 27, 2012 and potentially provide an estimated economic impact of nearly $170 million.

This will in fact be the LARGEST NON-SPORTING EVENT TAMPA HAS EVER HOSTED.

Hey Elephants - we have a couple of meeting spaces we think you would like...

- Kari G.

Tourism Tampa Bay

May 11 - 14 is National Tourism Week. This may not be as exciting for (insert the name of a town in an undesirable location known only for The World's Fattest Cat) but here in the Tampa Bay region, we take our tourism pretty seriously. We have a lot to celebrate and show off in our area and nobody puts us in the spotlight like Tampa Bay & Co.!

Today was their Tourism Luncheon - an event that everybody looks forward to every year. From the spectacle of performance to the exciting upcoming events and conventions coming to our area (We'll find out tomorrow if the GOP has sand in their shoes for the 2010 Convention!) everybody has a great time! In fact, even our President, Judy Lisi found herself in the show today. The picture is a little grainy - but she's the shorter one!

Congrats to all the hard working folks at Tampa Bay & Co. for another great luncheon. And we hope that everyone enjoyed the Mary Poppins presence - after all the show is less than a week away here at the Straz Center! Just part of the fun when you visit Tampa Bay!

-Kari G.