Crowns was one of the highlights of the Straz Center’s 2021-2022 season. Playwright Regina Taylor’s musical celebration of the proud and faithful women of the African-American church was such a hit with Straz audiences that it’s returning to the Jaeb in a new, intimate presentation. Tampa playwright-poet-stand-up comic-etc. R.M. Lawrence, better known as “ranney,” will direct... Continue Reading →
All they wanted was a play that had a role for each of them. The play they created has been running for more than 40 years. It’s probably being staged even as you read these words. It’s an interactive-whodunit-murder mystery-comedy that was first produced before anyone used the word “interactive” to describe a theatrical experience.... Continue Reading →
It’s good that Aaron Castle likes Christmas music. The Tampa Bay Area actor is in the cast of the Straz-produced Plaid Tidings, the holiday-themed sequel to Forever Paid, and will be hearing, and singing, a set full of holiday tunes many, many times between now and Christmas. The cast of Plaid Tidings performing on stage... Continue Reading →
The final Straz-produced presentation of the season is Avenue Q, and actor Spencer Meyers is going to have his hands full. Literally. Full of fabric and foam. Spencer will have his hand inside the puppet head, puppet heads, actually, of two of the musical’s characters – Princeton, a recent college graduate looking for his purpose... Continue Reading →
Matthew McGee didn’t set out to be the Tampa Bay area’s most popular drag performer. When he entered Georgia’s Valdosta State University in 1994, he wanted to be “a character actor like Christopher Lloyd,” McGee said. McGee’s appreciation of an entertainer known as “The Brazilian Bombshell” started him down the path to sequins and stiletto... Continue Reading →
June 13 is National Sewing Machine Day and if you’re wondering what that has to do with the arts, meet Anne Rosato. Anne makes and designs costumes for a living. Straz audiences first saw her work in the recent production of Little Shop of Horrors. Like any professional, the tools of her trade are important... Continue Reading →
Crowns, a celebratory musical about church hats, kicks off a series of Straz-produced shows Photo: Joseph Brown Apostle Paul was adamant about this point. When a man prays or prophesizes, his head must not be covered. Women, on the other hand … "But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her... 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 →