2017 – 18 Season
O brave new world that has such people in’t!
The Tempest (V.i. 186-187)
Creative Loafing Best of the Bay
- Best Live Theater You Missed Because You Were Netflix and Chilling – Tampa International Fringe Festival (presented by Jobsite Theater)
The Flick
By Annie Baker
Directed by Summer Bohnenkamp
Sep. 1 – 24, 2017
Thu. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm
Tickets: $29.50
Preview Performances: Aug. 30 – 31 | Wed. – Thr. 8pm | Tickets: $15
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Due to Hurricane Irma, an additional performance was scheduled for 8pm, Wed., Sep. 20
In a run-down movie theater in central Massachusetts, three underpaid employees (Brian Shea, Thomas Morgan, and Georgia Mallory Guy) mop the floors and attend to one of the last 35-millimeter film projectors in the state. Their tiny battles and not-so-tiny heartbreaks play out in the empty aisles, becoming more gripping than the lackluster, second-run movies on screen. With keen insight and a finely-tuned comic eye, The Flick is a hilarious and heart-rending cry for authenticity in a fast-changing world.
The Threepenny Opera
Books and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, music by Kurt Weill, English adaptation by Marc Blitzstein
Directed by David M. Jenkins
Oct. 20 – Nov. 12, 2017
Thu. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm
Tickets: $29.50
Preview Performances: Oct. 18 – 19 | Wed. – Thr. 8pm | Tickets: $15
Jaeb Theater, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Theatre Tampa Bay Award
- Outstanding Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical (tie) – Colleen Cherry
- Outstanding Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical (tie) – Maggie Phillips
Theatre Tampa Bay Nominated
- Outstanding Director of a Musical – David M. Jenkins
- Outstanding Choreography/Fight Direction – Alison Burns
- Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Musical – Jonathan Harrison
- Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Musical – Fo’I Meleah & Giselle Muise
- Outstanding Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical – Jennifer Casler
- Outstanding Lighting Design – Ryan E. Finzelber
- Outstanding Costume Design – Katrina Stevenson
- Outstanding Ensemble
Theatre Tampa Bay Recommended
The Tempest
By William Shakespeare
Directed by David M. Jenkins
Extended! Jan. 19 – Feb. 11 + Feb. 17 – 18, 2018
Thu. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm
Tickets: $29.50
Preview Performances: Jan. 17 – 18 | Wed. – Thr. 8pm | Tickets: $15
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Theatre Tampa Bay Award
- Outstanding Performance by an Actress while hanging upside down on a silk – Katrina Stevenson
Theatre Tampa Bay Nominated
- Outstanding Music Direction – Jeremy Douglass
- Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Play – DeQuan Mitchell & Giles Davies
- Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress in a Play – Roxanne Fay & Katrina Stevenson
- Outstanding Costume Design – Katrina Stevenson
- Outstanding Sound Design – David M. Jenkins
- Outstanding Ensemble
Theatre Tampa Bay Recommended
On a distant island a woman (Roxanne Fay) waits. Robbed of her position, power, and wealth her enemies have left her in isolation. But this is no ordinary woman, nor an ordinary island. She is a magician, able to control the very elements and bend nature to her will. When the vessel carrying those who wronged her appears in the distance, she creates a vast magical storm to bring them to her – then they awake finding themselves in a place where nothing is as it seems.
HIR
By Taylor Mac
Directed by David M. Jenkins
Mar. 9 – Apr. 1, 2018
Thu. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm
Tickets: $29.50
Preview Performances: Mar. 7 – 8 | Wed. – Thr. 8pm | Tickets: $15
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Creative Loafing Best of The Bay
- Best Script-Flipping on Sexual Abuse
Theatre Tampa Bay Nominated
- Outstanding Director of a Play – David M. Jenkins
Theatre Tampa Bay Recommended
1984
Adapted by Michael Gene Sullivan from the novel by George Orwell
Directed by Shawn Paonessa
Apr. 27 – May 20, 2018
Thu. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm
Preview Performances: Apr. 25 – 26 | Wed. – Thr. 8pm | Tickets: $18
Special Matinee – 10:30am, Tue., May 8. All seats $11.50
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Theatre Tampa Bay Award
- Outstanding Sound Design – Shawn Paonessa
Theatre Tampa Bay Nominated
- Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Play – Giles Davies
- Outstanding Choreography/Fight Direction – Giles Davies
- Outstanding Lighting Design – Brian Smallheer
- Outstanding Set Design – Brian Smallheer
Theatre Tampa Bay Recommended
1984 warns us with the story of Winston Smith, a small cog in the giant machine-state of Oceania. Physically and mentally under the omnipresent eye of Big Brother, Winston has been caught struggling for scraps of love and freedom in a world awash with distrust and violence. With the brutal “help” of four Party Members, Winston is forced to confess his Thoughtcrimes before an unseen Inquisitor and the audience – who act as a silent witness.
This ferocious and provocative adaptation of one of the most prescient works of literature was commissioned in 2008 by the Actor’s Gang under the direction of Tim Robbins.
Dancing at Lughnasa
By Brian Friel
Jun. 15 – Jul. 8, 2018
Thu. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm
Tickets: $29.50
Preview Performances: Jun. 13 – 14 | Wed. – Thr. 8pm | Tickets: $18
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Theatre Tampa Bay Nominated
- Outstanding Production of a Play – David M. Jenkins
- Outstanding Sound Design – David M. Jenkins
This extraordinary play is the story of five unmarried sisters eking out their lives in a small village in Ireland in 1936. We meet them at the time of the festival of Lughnasa, which celebrates the pagan god of the harvest with drunken revelry and dancing. Their spare existence is interrupted by brief, colorful bursts of music from the radio, their only link to the romance and hope of the world at large. From small events spring the cracks that destroy the foundation of the family forever.