This week, we are pulling a little sleight-of-hand by sharing this “Behind the Persona” feature from the Straz Center’s INSIDE magazine featuring Yu Ho-Jin, The Manipulator, from The Illusionists, which returns to Tampa Sept. 23. How did you get started in the business? I got into magic at the age of nine after witnessing a... Continue Reading →
I. The Lesson, Part 1 “Don’t be scared! You’re tip-toeing like you’re nervous.” We were nervous. There we were, in Gumbi Ortiz’s private recording studio in Gulfport, FL, getting an impromptu conga lesson—and Gumbi Ortiz is, after all, one of the greatest percussionists alive. We don’t play drums. “Put the tips of your hands here... Continue Reading →
In the early 1990’s, a young professor in the Department of Modern Languages at Carnegie Mellon University happened to join a walking tour of Ybor City with renowned local history experts, Dr. Gary Mormino and E.J. Salcines, during a small gathering of peers at the University of South Florida. The tour concluded in the ornate... Continue Reading →
Raising funds for a not-for-profit as large and ambitious as the Straz Center creates some interesting challenges for the people who run our development department. In this exclusive profile in honor of Give Day Tampa Bay and The Straz spring membership drive, Caught in the Act introduces you to some of the delightful people who... Continue Reading →
The Straz Center @ the Riverwalk offers a medley of interactive objects encouraging everybody to stop by and play with us. For 27-year-old architect Ryan Swanson, the moment of clarity came when he stood alongside his pop-up public art installment that included a 12-foot beach ball in downtown Tampa. A homeless man approached Ryan and... Continue Reading →
The Tampa-Cuba cultural connection There was a time not so long ago when Tampa belonged, in heart and mind, to Cuba. In late 19th century Ybor City and West Tampa, Cuban immigrants recreated their homeland, to the best of their ability, while they powered the burgeoning cigar-making industry. Cuban-flavored Spanish rippled through the factories as... Continue Reading →
Early childhood research reveals the critical developmental need for youngsters to participate in the arts, and many performing arts schools ensure there will be a future generation of outstanding American artists. What we sometimes forget to talk about is who, if anyone, will be in the theater seats when this next generation takes the stage.... Continue Reading →
Pull a string tight enough, thump it, and make a sound. Strap that string to a box with a hole in it, and voilà! Guitar. Or violin. Perhaps cello or double bass. Forty-seven strings on a frame equals one harp, and if there’s a complex enough box and frame built around 230 or so strings,... Continue Reading →
An in-depth conversation with National Geographic photographer Jodi Cobb At the turn of the millennium, National Geographic took a huge gamble on a vague pitch by photographer Jodi Cobb: documenting 21st century slavery. What she discovered, and captured on film, led to a 20+ page story that elicited one of the strongest reader-responses in Geographic... Continue Reading →
The tricky business of adapting an animated movie into a stage musical “The book was better.” So goes the typical critique of movies based on novels, but one rarely hears “I liked the cartoon better” as audiences stream from theater venues where their favorite Disney film characters sang-and-danced through a musical version of the animated... Continue Reading →
Art and the performing arts are, at their basic level, a means of creating community and expressing our understanding of the world and ourselves. They have been interwoven with our natural world since human beings evolved to make art – our unique language of creativity that has incredible power. Perhaps not unexpectedly, evidence for both... Continue Reading →
We’re celebrating the arrival of the Broadway blockbuster bromance Kinky Boots and wanted to take a minute to talk about how much drag queens have contributed to the joy that is the performing arts. And transgender folks. Oh, and cross-dressers. And gender-benders. Of the many perks of life in the performing arts is the singular... Continue Reading →
Straz Center theater professionals share the gruesome details of great horror makeup with step-by-step instructions for creating our favorite look, “Festering Wound with Pencil.” Happy haunting, arts lovers! Makeup is magic. It has the power to transform one’s outside and one’s sense of self. Great makeup can help create a great character. With most makeup... Continue Reading →
The fascinating story of acoustics in Morsani Hall Next time you take in a concert or opera in Morsani Hall, also take in the acoustical secrets that hide in plain sight–the doors, the interior chambers between the lobby and the hall, and the cavity at the top of the theater. All of them work in... Continue Reading →
Speak and Be Known The theater as a place of personal and social power This blog is the last in a series of five on Art as a Survival Tool, blogs that examine the crucial role art plays in the fulfillment of the human experience. When pernicious ideas overtake the rules of man, performing arts... Continue Reading →
Remembering Oliver Sacks and Musicophilia This blog is the fourth in a series of five on Art as a Survival Tool, blogs that examine the crucial role art plays in the fulfillment of the human experience. On August 30, 2015, the beloved neuroscientist Oliver Sacks died in his Greenwich Village apartment in Manhattan surrounded by... Continue Reading →
Good Vibrations Polyrhythms, sound healing and the significance of vibration This blog is the third in a series of five on Art as a Survival Tool, blogs that examine the crucial role art plays in the fulfillment of the human experience. Famed scientist Nikola Tesla once revealed “if you want to know the secrets of... Continue Reading →
Creativity and Mental Illness Embracing a Life ‘Touched with Fire’ This blog is the first in a series of five on Art as a Survival Tool, blogs that examine the crucial role art plays in the fulfillment of the human experience. VanGogh and his ear. Marilyn Monroe and her everything. Mozart. Robin Williams. Nina Simone.... Continue Reading →
Several weeks ago, we came across the remarkable 2012 documentary Trash Dance that follows Austin choreographer Allison Orr as she collaborates with the sanitation workers of Austin, TX, whom she has cast as the stars of her latest community dance project. Not all of them are enthusiastic about it. Orr, whose other projects include firefighters,... Continue Reading →
The Straz happened in the 80s, not exactly an era marked by prioritizing green buildings. So, we have challenges as we improve sustainability. Fortunately, we have great local partners helping us figure out what to do next. Here’s who they are, and what’s ahead for The Straz’s eco-lution. Sustainable facilities isn’t the sexiest topic in... Continue Reading →