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 →
We know Tampa Bay is home to many talented performers – from actors and musicians to comedians and wrestlers. We host local talent on our stages regularly, giving them a platform to share their art with our beloved community. But did you know these famous performers have ties to Tampa Bay? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy1lWiHHHFY Patrick Wilson Tony®, Golden Globe® 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 →
Before COVID-19 disrupted the world, The Florida Orchestra’s table at The Straz in May was set with "Beethoven’s Fifth," Superhero Soundtracks and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. https://youtu.be/t7XBpHFpmuw When announcing the cancellation of the remainder of the orchestra season, TFO noted its instinct was to provide hope, comfort and healing with the power of music.... 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 →
The Patel Conservatory theater department presents a great idea for an easy, fun, at-home performing arts game you can do as a fam. If you’ve got random household objects plus a restless young'un or two running around, then you’ve got just about everything you need for this quick-to-arrange, easy-to-cleanup theater game from our pros in... 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 →
Jobsite Theater’s latest production, Doubt: A Parable, features wife-and-husband team of Summer Bohnenkamp directing and David Jenkins in a lead role. How do they do it? This week, Caught in the Act takes a deep-dive into the working-life-partners relationship of Summer Bohnenkamp and David Jenkins. The pair talks about the tricky business of work-life-love balance and... Continue Reading →
Shout! The Mod Musical in the Jaeb Theater, March 2020. SHOUT! The Mod Musical is returning to The Straz, so now is the perfect time to take a strut down memory lane with a few of the show’s mega-hits from the 1960s. We put together this fab list of choice info to give you the... Continue Reading →
We enlist the help of Paul Bilyeu, our senior director of communications and the former lead publicist for dance at The Kennedy Center, for a little dance appreciation 101 about this must-see modern dance company. 1970s Omaha, Nebraska. Not exactly a progressive hotbed of boy ballet students, but there our senior director of communications Paul... Continue Reading →
Consummate storyteller John Tesh speaks in this exclusive interview with the Straz Center A few months ago, our senior marketing manager Carol Cohen interviewed John Tesh over the phone for his current Q&A in the back of The Straz’s official publication, INSIDE magazine. The interview covered some interesting ground that we had to edit from... Continue Reading →
The Straz Center’s Wee Folk series is designed specifically for the toddler set. Welcome to the room where wiggling is allowed. You may not know this, but on the ground floor behind Morsani Hall, we have a large, tall rehearsal room that regularly sees Opera Tampa rehearsals, ballet classes, chamber music practices and the occasional special event. However, three... Continue Reading →
The essential guide to cult classic catch phrases This week, Caught in the Act welcomes guest blogger Alex Stewart, media relations manager for The Straz and a big fan of the Mean Girls movie. Our resident subject matter expert on the most memorable lines from the film, Alex agreed to take us through this Mean... Continue Reading →
A Straz Center exclusive interview with National Geographic LIVE! wildlife photographer Shannon Wild. On Jan. 21, our popular National Geographic LIVE! speaker series kicks-off with Australian-born photographer Shannon Wild. Caught in the Act writer Marlowe Moore caught up with Shannon via phone at her home in Africa, where Shannon is currently working on a documentary... Continue Reading →
What started as a conversation about celebrating the Tampa area's rich artistic heritage turned into a free concert series drawing unexpectedly large crowds. The Straz Center's Arts Legacy REMIX was a long time in the making and looks like it's here to stay. After a brutal warrior’s stint in Vietnam that gave him an ultimatum... Continue Reading →