Editor’s Note: Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, its Straz run rescheduled due to the COVID-19 crisis from May 5-10, 2020 to July 13-18, 2021, was to be featured in the Straz Center’s publications this month. The article features Tampa DJ Ann Kelly of WDUV-105 FM, who accompanied The Straz team last year to preview the... Continue Reading →
Jobsite Theater’s latest production, Doubt: A Parable, features wife-and-husband team of Summer Bohnenkamp directing and David Jenkins in a lead role. How do they do it? This week, Caught in the Act takes a deep-dive into the working-life-partners relationship of Summer Bohnenkamp and David Jenkins. The pair talks about the tricky business of work-life-love balance and... Continue Reading →
The essential guide to cult classic catch phrases This week, Caught in the Act welcomes guest blogger Alex Stewart, media relations manager for The Straz and a big fan of the Mean Girls movie. Our resident subject matter expert on the most memorable lines from the film, Alex agreed to take us through this Mean... Continue Reading →
Opera Tampa, the resident opera company of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts, celebrates its 25th anniversary season with three electrifying main stage performances. This article first appeared in the Jan/Feb 2020 issue of Tampa Bay Magazine. We are happy to have permission to reprint it for our blog, in honor of the upcoming... Continue Reading →
What started as a conversation about celebrating the Tampa area's rich artistic heritage turned into a free concert series drawing unexpectedly large crowds. The Straz Center's Arts Legacy REMIX was a long time in the making and looks like it's here to stay. After a brutal warrior’s stint in Vietnam that gave him an ultimatum... Continue Reading →
There are two stars in this Christmas story, and they’re actors Spencer Meyers and Derrick Phillips. The first wave of the Tuna, Texas two-man laugh-a-thons roared through theaters in the 90s, drawing tons of attention to the original actors, Jaston Williams and Joe Sears. The guys concocted a series of stage plays about a fictional... Continue Reading →
A first for The Straz, the new fabric designs represent a wild collaboration between dance costuming and graphic design. When people think of the graphic design department in a performing arts non-profit, they may imagine program layouts, banners, signage, logos and the like. They may not consider a couture collaboration to produce custom costumes specifically... Continue Reading →
The Straz Center arts education partnerships program with Tampa’s The Centre for Girls In addition to our many performances, lectures, classes and workshops, the Straz Center hosts a super cool outside-of-the-spotlight arts education partnership program which brings us into fruitful, fun and inspiring relationships with many organizations around the area. This semester, one of our... Continue Reading →
The Straz Center’s self-serve candy station in Morsani Hall is a year-round Halloween dream come true. No tricks here. It’s just all candy all the time, and we love it. Each year, we buy about 2,100 pounds of candy. That much candy is roughly the weight of two full-sized grand pianos. Each month, our guests... Continue Reading →
This interview, a bonus in our series on non-performing jobs in the performing arts, features one of your friendly neighborhood performing arts center IT guys, Sam Luis. Maybe you think it’s all tights, pancake makeup and “take it one more time from the top” over here, but the Straz Center relies on massive amounts of... Continue Reading →
This interview, the second in a two-part series on non-performing jobs in the performing arts, features two of our extraordinary bartenders: Diane Jones and Suzanne Rubin. If you’ve been coming to The Straz for a few seasons, chances are you’ve found yourself face-to-face with the Straz Center’s dynamic duo of drink slingers hustling and jiving... Continue Reading →
Like peanut butter to jelly, like Siegfried to Roy, what would the performing arts be without sequins? If the performing arts were a country, the flag undoubtedly would be made of gaff tape and sequins. What material would befit the banner of our happy little nation-state more? When we think about a few American performing... Continue Reading →
Under a tight schedule, it takes eight weeks to replace one stage floor. Last summer, we had only five. And two enormous stages. Life is not fair. But, if you have a good sense of humor, it is funny. Running The Straz takes an enormous amount of effort on what we call the “back end,”... Continue Reading →
How a Russian defector built couture fashion from ballet costumes during the rise of New York City Ballet Chanel. Gucci. Givenchy. These famous fashion houses earned notoriety for their signature styles, making their designs easily recognizable – the Chanel suit, the Gucci bag, the Givenchy dress. In the golden age of American ballet, during the... Continue Reading →
The Straz Center’s Manager of Special Events Nicole Stickeler dons a bum roll to change into her next role for Opera Tampa. In show business, you’re considered a triple threat if you can sing, dance and act. In the performing arts, you’re considered a triple threat if you can sing, act and raise money. The... Continue Reading →
Approaching 30 years since his death, Dr. Seuss sits poised to publish a new book from his perennial throne on the bestseller lists (WHAT.). Meanwhile, the Straz Center’s Patel Conservatory musical theater department rehearses Seussical, Jr. down stairs from the blog office for its run in the TECO theater April 25-28. Why do we love... Continue Reading →
Ultra fan fave Tap Dogs returns with new blokes, new moves and new drummers—the jaw-dropping duo of Warped Tour veteran Caitlin Kalafus and Final Fantasy percussionist Noriko Terada. For those of us who were around in the 90s when Tap Dogs made its first tours in the United States, the sight of barrel-chested, be-jean-shorted Aussie... Continue Reading →
An Ivy League tradition shed the shackles of the patriarchy, gaining a glorious new talent with Sofia Campoamor. Yale University’s formerly all-male a cappella group The Whiffenpoofs began in a delightfully Victorian upper-crust circumstance involving a local tavern, a freezing New England evening and a handful of Glee Club members with access to beer. The... Continue Reading →
Longtime Opera Tampa and Straz Center photographer Rob Bovarnick reveals the secrets behind capturing that Pearl Fishers photo. Cardboard box. Plastic bag. Three thousand white beads ... What sounds like either the making of a Mardi Gras costume or the making of a very bizarre murder comprised the basic backstage ingredients of one of the... Continue Reading →
The true story of the accused but acquitted Chicago beauties who inspired musical legends Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly The Bob Fosse masterpiece we know and love today as Chicago the musical actually started with two real women and two real murdered men. In Chicago. In the Roaring 20s. 1924 to be exact. In March... Continue Reading →