2008 – 09 Season
Creative Loafing Best of the Bay
- Best Theater Company
Mainstage Season
Blackbird
By David Harrower
Directed by Karla Hartley
Sep. 11 – 28, 2008
Thu. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm
Tickets: $24.50
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
A southeastern US premiere! Two people who once had a passionate affair meet again fifteen years later. Ray is confronted with his past when Una arrives unannounced at his office. Guilt, rage and raw emotions run high as they recollect their relationship when she was twelve and he was forty. Without any moral judgments, the play never shies away from the brutal shattering truth of the abandoned and unconventional love. After years in prison and subsequent hardships, Ray, fifty-six, has made a new life for himself with a new identity, thinking that he could no longer be found. Una, twenty-seven, has thought of nothing else, and on finding a photo of him, sets out to find Ray. Though she seeks answers and not vengeance, the consequences are nevertheless shattering.
The History Of The Devil
By Clive Barker
Directed by David M. Jenkins
10th Anniversary Production
Oct. 30 – Nov. 16, 2008
Thu. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm
Tickets: $24.50
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Jobsite’s 10 year anniversary production, and by all accounts the show that put Jobsite on the lips of area theatergoers. Jobsite is excited to revisit this epic courtroom drama where the Devil is up for parole that sold out every performance in 1999. The trial of the new millennium is about to begin – and you’ve been called for jury duty! Old Nick believes he’s done his time and deserves to be readmitted to heaven. History is examined (Christ’s temptation, Nazi crimes), witnesses are called (including a belligerent Dante Alighieri), and the audience is left to consider whether the Prince of Darkness has spent his time as an outcast, as a mastermind or in the service of man in this black comedy.
Picasso At The Lapin Agile
By Steve Martin
Directed by Kari Goetz
Jan. 8 – 31, 2009
Thu. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm
Tickets: $24.50
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
This long running Off-Broadway absurdist comedy places Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso in a Parisian cafe in 1904, just before the renowned scientist transformed physics with his theory of relativity and the celebrated painter set the art world afire with cubism. In his first comedy for the stage, the popular actor and screenwriter plays fast and loose with fact, fame and fortune as these two geniuses muse on the century’s achievements and prospects as well as other fanciful topics with infectious dizziness. Bystanders, including Picasso’ agent, the bartender and his mistress, Picasso’s date, an elderly philosopher and an idiot inventor introduce additional flourishes of humor. The final surprise patron to join the merriment at the Lapin Agile is a charismatic dark haired singer time warped in from a later era.
The Lieutenant Of Inishmore
By Martin McDonagh
Directed by David M. Jenkins
Extended! Mar. 19 – Apr. 12, 2009
Thu. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm
Tickets: $24.50
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
A Tampa Bay premiere!
On a lonely road on the island of Inishmore, someone has killed an Irish Liberation Army enforcer’s cat. The enforcer loves his cat more than life itself, and when he returns from a stint of torture and chip-shop bombing in Northern Ireland, someone is going to pay.
Rabbit Hole
By David Lindsay-Abaire
Directed by Paul J. Potenza
Jun. 4 – 21, 2009
Thu. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm
Tickets: $24.50
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
A Tampa Bay premiere!
Becca and Howie Corbett have everything a family could want, until a life-shattering accident turns their world upside down and leaves the couple drifting perilously apart. Rabbit Hole charts their bittersweet search for comfort in the darkest of places and for a path that will lead them back into the light of day.
Pericles
Based on the play by William Shakespeare
Music by Joe Popp, Brian McCabe and Tylor Durand
Lyrics by Joe Popp
Book by Neil Gobioff & Shawn Paonessa
Directed by David M. Jenkins
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
World Premiere!
Jobsite Theater proudly concludes their 10th anniversary season with the world premiere of a rock musical based on William Shakespeare’s Pericles. Joe Popp brings his power-punk music and oddball sense of humor back to Tampa and teams up with perennial Jobsite contributors Neil Gobioff & Shawn Paonessa in this 11th year of bringing new work to the stage. Jobsite’s Pericles is a wholesale adaptation of Shakespeare’s play Pericles, Prince of Tyre – shifting in time and space to modern era United States. Perry, “Prince of Tires”, gets caught up in a web of intrigue, incest and the mafia as he tries to balance having a family while also running a “family.” As his epic journey reaches an end, he learns that saving both his biological family and his mafia family are rooted in truly understanding the value of loyalty, honor and love.
Ensemble
Job-side Productions
LOL: An Evening With Tony Gaud
Jun. 12 – 13 & 19 – 20, 2009
Fri. & Sat. 11 pm
Tickets: $5 at the door; FREE for Jobsite season ticket holders.
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Tony Gaud has attitude and confidence that set the tone for his personal perspective and fearless observations. He unapologetically tackles life with hilarious resolve. He spellbinds with stories, hits hard with truth, and converts with lies. He is the guilty laugh you have when no one else is looking. So WTF? OMG, come LOL with Tony Gaud.
Short Comings: Over The Edge
Directed by Ami Sallee
Jun. 13 – 15, 2009
Sat. 3pm, Sun. – Mon. 7pm
Tickets: $5 at the door; FREE for Jobsite season ticket holders.
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Ami Sallee coordinates an evening of short pieces of theatrical tastiness, including new work, by up-and-comers and old friends.
Jails, Hospitals And Hip Hop
By Danny Hoch
Directed by Christopher Rutherford
Featuring Curtis Belz
Aug. 16 & 18, 2009
Sun. & Tue. 8pm
Tickets: $5 at the door; FREE for Jobsite season ticket holders.
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Job-side Staged Readings
The Ballad Of Johnny 5 Star
By David Hauptschein and David Vlcek Directed by Lori Shannon Nov. 10, 2008 Mon. 7:30 pm Tickets: $5 at the door; FREE for Jobsite season ticket holders. Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Yellowman
By Dael Orlandersmith
Directed by Karla Hartley
Featuring Fanni Green
Feb. 2, 2009
Mon. 7 pm
Tickets: $5 at the door; FREE for Jobsite season ticket holders.
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Yellowman, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, opened at the Manhattan Theater Club in October 2001. It is a two-actor piece in which each actor plays multiple roles. Orlandersmith examines intraracial racism and its effect on friends and eventual lovers Alma and Eugene, chronicling their relationship from childhood to adulthood in spare, uncommonly beautiful language with a South Carolinian/Gullah inflection. Their families and “friends,” fueled by alcohol and incomprehensible rage, bend this relationship to the breaking point.
Brown Silk And Magenta Sunsets
By P.J. Gibson
Directed by Lori Shannon
Feb. 23, 2009
Mon. 7:30 pm
Tickets: $5 at the door; FREE for Jobsite season ticket holders.
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Regrets don’t fade just because the sun goes down. In fact, they take on a life of their own. Ugly things come in pretty packages in this psychological drama.
Starring Sybil Barnes Johnson, Jayne Trinette (from The Lion King), Joshua Goff, David Wharton and Tia Jemison.
Two Gentlemen Of Corona
By Jim Geoghan
Directed by Lori Shannon
Mar. 30, 2009
Mon. 7:30 pm
Tickets: $5 at the door; FREE for Jobsite season ticket holders.
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
A workman is only as good as his tools and a criminal is only as good as his cohorts in this tale of criminal intentions set at the 1964 World’s Fair.
Starring Jan Ray.
Pericles Staged Reading
Lyrics by Joe Popp, book by Neil Gobioff & Shawn Paonessa
Directed by David M. Jenkins
Jun. 8, 2009
Mon. 7:30 pm
Tickets: $5 at the door; FREE for Jobsite season ticket holders.
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Catch a preview of Pericles and see how a show gets created, as the cast, director and writers meet for a public staged reading to prepare for our next World Premiere!
Nerve
By Adam Szymkowicz
Directed by Lori Shannon
Jul. 13, 2009
Mon. 7:30 pm
Tickets: $5 at the door; FREE for Jobsite season ticket holders.
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Nerve is a dark comedy about falling into a relationship on the first date. Elliot has never had an online date before…at least not one that showed up. Susan has had far too many but would prefer not to discuss them. When they meet in a bar one night, all their personality flaws are revealed, along with a puppet, some modern dance and a desperation that may or may not be love.
Black Girl Speaks
Directed by Lori Shannon
Jul. 20, 2009
Mon. 7:30 pm
Tickets: $5 at the door; FREE for Jobsite season ticket holders.
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
This one woman show features internationally acclaimed artist, Talitha V. Coverson performing a series of monologues and poetic pieces that illustrate the black female experience. The show has been performed throughout the country but never fully duplicated. Bring your mothers, sisters, aunts, daughters and anyone who was born of a woman to this evening of cultural exploration.
The Sublet Experiment
By Ethan Youngerman
Directed by Lori Shannon
Aug. 17, 2009
Mon. 7:30 pm
Tickets: $5 at the door; FREE for Jobsite season ticket holders.
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
This romantic comedy revolves around mistaken identity and psychological voyeurism in very cleverly written package.
