Patsy Cline’s biggest hits were about heartbreak, lost love and loneliness. You can feel the pain coming through that magnificent contralto voice on songs like “Crazy,” “I Fall to Pieces,” “Sweet Dreams” and “She’s Got You.” Once she was asked to explain the emotion in her songs and she replied, “I just sing like I... Continue Reading →
Actor, director and teacher Giles Davies has happily been working with Jobsite since the 2011 production of Quills. He has been seen in the company’s productions of Othello, 1984, The Tempest, Cloud Nine, Twelfth Night, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Macbeth, Fahrenheit 451, his one-person show POE and the Job-side project Check (which he co-wrote).... 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 →
Recently appointed to the position of interim director of education and community engagement, Straz staffer Alice Santana has a lifelong love of the arts and deep-rooted passion to make an impact in her community. Her journey with the Straz Center began in January 2016 when she was hired to work in the Patel Conservatory as the student affairs and community relations coordinator. As she flourished... Continue Reading →
Over the loud lightning strikes from our seemingly daily thunderstorms we’ve heard your cries: “Break’s OVER.” The Straz Center and its resident theater company, Jobsite Theater, have worked during our COVID-19 intermission, with intermittent pauses to lounge on our chaises of course, to bring performances back to our stages with appropriate social distancing and cleaning... 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 →
For the past five months, theaters across the globe have gone dark due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Find out how you can help “Save Our Stages” here.) Many artists and arts workers have had their livelihoods thrown into chaos as they try to navigate the unknown - and while our stages are silent, the need... Continue Reading →
When the Straz staff was sent home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we started looking for ways to stay connected to each other while apart. We’re a group that loves gathering – and one that loves gathering with food. When we’re in the building, we celebrate special occasions or large staff meetings with food, and... Continue Reading →
August 17 is National Nonprofit Day, which recognizes the positive impacts nonprofits have on their communities. Emily Dey, the Straz Center's senior director of individual giving, muses on the current state of The Straz. The Straz and its $130,000,000 overall contribution to the local economy reinforces our commitment to the area’s cultural and economic prosperity.... Continue Reading →
Just because the Straz stages are on intermission during the COVID-19 pandemic, doesn’t mean our Opera Tampa singers are home resting on their laurels – well, not all of the time. About a month ago we caught up with Annie Scott, Alec Brown and Dana Clark, who also are roommates here in Tampa. Scott is... Continue Reading →
By guest blogger Suzanne Livesay, Straz Center Vice President of Education and Community Engagement Mask wearing has been a topic of conversation in the United States for almost three months and counting. A required piece of attire as we reintroduce our on-site summer camps at Patel Conservatory will be the mask. No matter how one... 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 →
All the press of late about recording stars on Broadway has been about Bruce Springsteen and David Byrne -- and for good reason. Those two shows energized audiences and possibly brought to the Great White Way an audience who might never have thought to touch foot in a Broadway theater. But Springsteen and Byrne were... Continue Reading →
One Patel Conservatory theater instructor’s journey to the big time in the big top and how realizing his dream helps students reach theirs. Just a few years back, Patel Conservatory theater faculty member Matthew Belopavlovich stood stranded atop a 25-foot tower while a handful of clowns, dressed as knights, circled beneath, trying to figure out... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
The music chair at the Patel Conservatory, Dr. Lauren Murray, shows you fun, simple instructions for how to make your own instruments using household objects. Today we’re offering up an activity of note where you can conduct an experiment of symphonic proportions. We invited Lauren Murray, chamber musician extraordinaire and the music chair of the... Continue Reading →
The Straz Center’s senior writer gives you fun, simple instructions on how to write a script you can produce, direct, perform and film at home. Hello, everybody! Marlowe Moore here, the Straz Center senior writer, with a step-by-step guide for writing a script with kids from middle school to high school. You can easily adapt... Continue Reading →
Last Monday, March 9, the Straz Center said goodbye to Opera Tampa’s founding artistic director and one of the most colorful characters to grace our halls and stages. Here, we recount some of our favorite things about Maestro Anton Coppola. On March 21, 1917, Anton Coppola arrived to Italian-American parents in a country that was... Continue Reading →
Fiddler on the Roof is arguably one of the most important musicals ever staged. Let’s talk a little about this show, and then we have some Fiddler fun facts we’d love to share. The show opens here on Nov. 5. “You want us to put up how much money for a show about a Jewish... Continue Reading →
