ONE YEAR LATER: David and Catherine Straz Editor’s note: We conducted this interview at the home of David and Catherine Straz two weeks before Mr. Straz’s passing on Monday, Nov. 18, 2019. Like the Strazes themselves, the interview was heartfelt, full of laughter and a testimonial to their commitment to supporting arts and education. Below... Continue Reading →
Jobsite’s Theater’s first performance of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] on our Riverwalk Stage. (Fotoset by James Luedde) While emphasizing health and safety and mandating socially distanced seating configurations and the wearing of masks, on Friday, Oct. 2, the Straz Center cautiously and thoughtfully began a slate of live, in-person performances -- the first performances... Continue Reading →
The Straz Center will be bathed in red light tonight as it joins 1,500 venues across North America in support of #WeMakeEvents’ “Red Alert Day of Action” to raise awareness of the financial impact COVID-19 is having on the live event industry. We are excited to support this movement by lighting our building red tonight,”... Continue Reading →
While the extended intermission continues at The Straz and the earliest Broadway will open is January 2021, all due to COVID-19, performing arts administrators have been working with national health professionals to formulate reopening plans and safety protocols to put patrons back in the seats. Since April, Straz COO Lorrin Shepard has chaired the Performing... Continue Reading →
Guest blogger Zachary Hines (left) is a local performing artist and a member of the marketing team at The Straz. An avid theatergoer since he was a child, his greatest passion in work, and in life, is to share the joy of experiencing live performance. This week he shares his thoughts on gay pride and... Continue Reading →
With performing art centers, such as The Straz, temporarily shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, cable networks and streaming services are tapping into a large bank of available documentaries centered on the performing arts so we can satisfy our appetite for theater, dance, opera and more. And though documentaries generally don’t bring in Marvel box... Continue Reading →
By guest blogger Alex Stewart, Straz Center media relations manager We’re back with more feel-good movie recommendations from the Straz Center staff. Since you can’t get out of the house to see a show, we’re bringing the shows to you and your couch. We curated another list of our staff’s favorite performing arts flicks, this... Continue Reading →
By guest blogger Alex Stewart, Straz Center media relations manager A lot of us are looking for ways to feel good right now, and nothing lifts the spirits quite like a bit of song and dance - and maybe a good-looking performer or two. I asked the Straz Center staff to share their favorite performing... Continue Reading →
Club Jaeb artist Kyshona Armstrong talks about the music that made her and her journey from a music therapist into a singer-songwriter in this exclusive interview. Caught in the Act caught up with folk musician Kyshona Armstrong while she was on the road to Missouri for a gig. She appears next Monday, Dec. 16 as... 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 →
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 →
And other helpful tips concerning theater etiquette We’re always finding things our guests leave behind (like shoes … how do you leave only one shoe under your seat, people? Is it when you get home that you look down and say ‘oh, I’m only wearing one shoe! Well, I don’t feel like driving back.’?). A... Continue Reading →
The performing arts are big business. In this industry, we have a lot of super important jobs for people who love the theater but who may have no interest in performing professionally. This week, we sat down with Gerard Siegler, Straz Center director of production services, who plays a huge part in making sure the... Continue Reading →
On the far side of the indoor basketball court, a line of wobbly-kneed elementary school kids stomps through a sequence of shuffle-step, shuffle-step with their dance teacher clapping time. Their shiny, tiny tap shoes clobber the gymnasium with sounds, their faces an endearing mix of intense concentration and unadulterated joy. Out of context, this line... 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 →
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 →
The importance of recitals in arts education Summer at the Straz Center means a windfall of students leaping, singing, tapping, tuning, rehearsing, running lines and taking selfies with beloved teachers in our many, many (many, many) summer camps and classes. We enjoy the nonstop energy all year long at The Straz, but the exuberance of... 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 →
The Art of the Cabaret Singer In Parisian cafes after the Franco-Prussian war of the 1870s, discontent grew. People were sick of social repression, war and constraints to expression. Artists, writers and other interesting people gathered to speak freely, often sharing their art with each other in small cafés. Eventually, these small gatherings became formal... Continue Reading →
