Sip, our new outdoor bar made from a 1966 Airstream Safari, mixes retro with metro. Wally Byam did not mean to start Airstream. What he meant to do was devise a way to go camping with his wife so she wouldn’t have to sleep on the ground in a tent. She also suggested it would... Continue Reading →
If the phrase “magic performing chihuahua” didn’t have you clamoring for tickets on our website, maybe this down-and-dirty Q&A with said pup’s pet human—wacky magician Piff the Magic Dragon—will give you a little more hype for this unusual show arriving in early April. The Straz Center’s INSIDE magazine managing editor Carol Cohen caught up with... Continue Reading →
Chazz Palminteri took a moment of his childhood and parlayed it into the cultural phenomenon known as A Bronx Tale. We’ve seen him in The Usual Suspects, Bullets Over Broadway, Analyze This and as a cop, mobster or some form of tough guy in a ton of other film and TV roles. We caught up... Continue Reading →
We carol. We wassail. Well, we used to wassail; but, we still carol about wassailing. Why? And what is a wassail, anyway? The performing arts are such an integral part of the holiday season that we hardly even remark about how much this time of year we spend going to shows, singing with family, performing... Continue Reading →
The first words are “wait for it …” as in “we still have no idea when single tickets will go on sale.” The second is “yes,” as in, “there’s a best way to get the best seats at the best prices and that’s strazcenter.org.” Otherwise, you might get sucked into a bad situation by ticket... Continue Reading →
In honor of National Take Your Dog to Work Day on June 22, we’re introducing you to some of the pups of The Straz. Pet Sitters International launched National Take Your Dog to Work Day in 1999, right as American culture reached its tipping point about pooch pets, launching us precipitously over the edge of... Continue Reading →
PROLOGUE: JOSE PERFINO EL INDIO A CUBAN PIRATE KILLED 1850 MR. HUBBARD A CUBAN PIRATE FOUND DEAD IN WOODS JUNE 18, 1850 Just beyond these square chunks of gray granite nestled amid the carpet of dead leaves in Oaklawn Cemetery lurks the city bus station. People get on and off the buses. The buses heave,... Continue Reading →
Internet musical parody sensation Randy Rainbow launched his life in musical theater right here on Straz stages when he was a high school Thespian. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S10DtYaIg0g As many, many, many, many, many high schools in Florida know, this week is State Thespian Week, when almost 8000 students, teachers, chaperones and judges descend on The Straz and... Continue Reading →
The Straz Center’s 96-year-old volunteer extraordinaire, Margaret Goodson, dishes on her love of Forever Plaid. There are certain things people just know about Tampa: Cigars. Cuban sandwiches. Sports. Magic Mike. And Margaret Goodson. If a place is lucky, it will have one spectacular person so ingrained in its culture and identity that you can’t separate... Continue Reading →
First, let’s dispel the double-jointed myth. Joints don’t come in multiples; however, they do come with what science dubbed hypermobility or joint laxity, both terms for people who can stretch and bend naturally farther than anyone else at the cocktail party. In certain cultures, or in certain eras – such as the heyday of the... Continue Reading →
This year, Macy’s hosts its 91st Thanksgiving Day parade. With all the costumes, singing, dancing, choreography, floating sets and music, a parade represents an oft-overlooked cousin in the performing arts family. Human beings and parading have a long love affair, from early uses in rites of passage to military victories to funeral processions to the... Continue Reading →
Governor and former Tampa mayor Bob Martinez on growing up Tampanian, the creation of The Straz and what it meant for the growth of Tampa. With Caribbean blue eyes, an easy smile and a rambling drawl that flows through stories of Tampa history like the Hillsborough River ambles through this vast county, Robert “Bob” Martinez... Continue Reading →
It’s hard not to love a holiday that involves dress up, set design, hair, makeup and sound effects. Oh, and free candy. Straz staffers offer up some of their go-to DIY tricks and treats for this weekend’s festivities. To make fake blood that will wash out of clothing use clear dish soap or laundry detergent... Continue Reading →
Caught in the Act gets astrophysical with Neil deGrasse Tyson in this pre-show interview about dancing, dealing with Twitter haters and why Neil won’t ever be “on brand.” Early in October, we grabbed almost an hour of time with the fun, funny and brilliant Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson over the phone (for the record, he... Continue Reading →
How to avoid online ticket scams. The lowest-priced tickets *always* come from strazcenter.org. Straz Center season tickets are about to go on sale to the public. We feel it’s our duty to remind you to buy straight from our website if you want the lowest ticket prices. The other websites look legit, but they’re tricking... Continue Reading →
The true tale of a dream that could only happen in Florida. In a certain well-known story playing at The Straz this July, a certain red-headed mermaid desperately wants to become human. In Florida, however, there are certain humans who desperately want to become mermaids. And, because this is Florida, they can. One hour north... Continue Reading →
Jim and Joan Jennewein helped shape the Straz Center in more ways than one. In the spring of 1981, a young visionary architect named Jim Jennewein walked across a scraggly five-acre parking lot alongside the Hillsborough River. In his mind, he built a future performing arts center for the people of Tampa Bay. The plans,... Continue Reading →
The FY2018 federal budget proposes to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Here’s a brief look at the creation of the agency and the reasons why a national investment in the arts makes dollars and sense. “The Arts Endowment’s mission was clear – to spread this artistic prosperity throughout the land, from the... Continue Reading →
How artists in a top-secret U.S. Army unit pulled the ultimate fast ones on Hitler In 1943, the good guys in the Great War needed to start thinking outside-the-box if they were going to beat the Axis powers crawling over Europe and Asia. Thus the creation of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, the “Ghost Army,”... Continue Reading →
The performing arts and conflict resolution If the folks at (TITLE) for Dummies® or the Idiot’s Guide™ to (THIS THING) ever wrote a how-to guide on building a better world, certainly there’d be a chapter or two on the performing arts. Much has been said on the value of elevating culture and artistic achievement as... Continue Reading →