Summer Bohnenkamp is Straz’s chief commerce and marketing officer/executive producer. Her husband, David Jenkins, is Jobsite Theater’s producing artistic director. They’ve been together for 27 years and between them have been involved in so many theatrical productions it would make your head swim. They’ve worked together professionally many times but perhaps never so famously as... Continue Reading →
A couple of years ago, Jobsite added a one-woman show to its upcoming roster. It had a great run at Joe’s Pub in New York City, and David Jenkins, Jobsite’s producing artistic director, knew just who he wanted for the show’s only role. That play, Penelope: An Epic New Musical, with Jobsite Artistic Associate Colleen... Continue Reading →
The Brass Mug was more crowded than anyone could remember. The USF-area Tampa bar usually presented local alternative, metal or punk acts. On this evening in early 1993, the Mug featured some out-of-towners — a spiky punk trio from the other Bay area that was building a buzz for its short, fast and hook-filled tunes.... Continue Reading →
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, presented by Jobsite Theater and running through May 31 in Shimberg Playhouse, tracks a courtship that’s profane, violent but also tender. It shows two bitter, guarded people, each finding something in the other that lets vulnerability slip through. A rom-com this isn’t. Danny (Alex Teicheira) and Roberta (Georgia Mallory... Continue Reading →
Director Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was a smash hit and the movie that made him Hollywood royalty. Making the movie, though, was a royal pain. Filming on Martha’s Vineyard put cast and crew at the mercy of the weather. Filming on the ocean, as Spielberg insisted on doing, revealed all the reasons no one ever films... Continue Reading →
For every chosen one, there is a multitude of the non-chosen, the ones whose resumes will be kept on file in case something opens up. For every boy wizard destined to save the universe there is the rest of his magic school graduating class, competent spell-casters destined to pull rabbits out of hats at children’s... Continue Reading →
It’s a busy time here at the Straz, so busy we’ve had to find creative ways to get the word out about all our shows. We want to make sure you know that Jobsite is presenting another of their bloody great Shakespeare productions. Macbeth runs Jan. 15 through Feb. 9 in the Jaeb Theater. https://youtu.be/C0WYHmP4wOQ... Continue Reading →
We’re in the middle of a contentious presidential race, exacerbating the already deep divisions in our electorate. Jobsite’s production of POTUS, then, will remind audiences that there’s at least one thing the left and right can agree on: government and politics are still comedy gold mines. Subtitled Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying... Continue Reading →
Well before the play’s first murder, Lady Macbeth establishes her place among Shakespeare’s most treacherous characters with this invocation: Come, you spiritsThat tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,And fill me from the crown to the toe top-fullOf direst cruelty. Make thick my blood.Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse,That no compunctious visitings of... Continue Reading →
Starring in Jobsite’s production of The Rocky Horror Show has extra significance for Clay Christopher. He’ll be stepping into a role originated by one of his favorite actors, Tim Curry. “I am a huge, huge Tim Curry fan,” Clay said, “his artistry, his films, his work, just him.” Clay became a fan of Curry’s for... Continue Reading →
By David M. Jenkins In 2003 we staged our first play by London-bred Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, The Beauty Queen of Leenane. During that run, Straz Center then-CEO Judy Lisi made us an offer to become their resident theater company and effectively take over programming of the Shimberg Playhouse. Now that our residency is old... Continue Reading →
Giles Davies is a fright. Well known for his Shakespearean roles, he’s also carved out a niche – with a large, blood-stained knife, no doubt – as Jobsite’s go-to ghoul. He’s chilled audiences in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dracula. Next, he’ll play the titular doctor in Frankenstein who discovers, as most parents do,... Continue Reading →
Lizbeth A. Borden was a frequent theatergoer. Single and wealthy, Borden often attended performances in New York City and Boston, travelling from her home in Fall River, Mass. Ms. Borden passed in 1927. Had she lived a few years longer, she would have had the opportunity to see herself portrayed on stage. The Lizzie Borden... Continue Reading →
Eighty-six pages – that is how long a book needs to be to become one of the most beloved novels of all time, inspiring the imagination of millions of fans year after year. At least that is the case for Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. First published in 1865, Wonderland was an immediate... Continue Reading →
Jobsite’s 2023 production of Misery was a huge hit, with crowds packing Shimberg Theater show after show. We are, of course, thrilled that Misery will return in an upscaled production presented in Jaeb Theater Oct. 14-Nov. 8. We chatted with the play’s stars, Summer Bohnenkamp and David Jenkins, before the initial run. To whet your... Continue Reading →
In 1966, Broadway impresario Harold Hecuba stunned critics and audiences alike when he staged Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a musical. Hecuba’s audacious move created a sensation and the Hamlet musical was a hit. The celebration soon was overshadowed by scandal, though, when a group of mostly amateur actors claimed to have not only written the musical... Continue Reading →
The intellectual distance between Steve Martin’s early, catchphrase-heavy stand-up comedy and his first full-length play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile might seem great. Fear not, though, as fans of his early, funny stuff should recognize the same absurdist spirit that ran through Martin’s early routines in Picasso. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mCYzJu12zI “He used a lot of irony. He... Continue Reading →
The art of origami might mean more than you think Photo: Ned Averill-Snell Mother Nature loves to fold. Flowers, wings, you name it. Just look at us, human beings: our brains and guts are wrinkles doubling back on themselves; proteins, the building blocks of life are intricately folded amino acids. And if those amino acids... Continue Reading →
Jobsite Theater is returning to the Shimberg Playhouse after nearly two years and Producing Artistic Director David Jenkins sounds like a man finally heading home. “The last performance Jobsite did in the Shimberg was March 12, 2020, our preview for ‘Doubt,’” Jenkins remembers. “We were supposed to open the next night. And we got notified... Continue Reading →
There seems to be an almost cultural fixation with firsts – first car, first kiss – who are we not to play along? Later this month, Jobsite Theater opens its season with Dr. Ride’s American Beach House, a play set on the eve of astronaut Sally Ride’s historic 1983 launch as the first American woman... Continue Reading →