The 2023-24 season is Jobsite’s 25th year of bringing the Tampa Bay area exciting, engaging live theater experiences between the Jaeb Theater and Shimberg Playhouse as the Straz Center’s official resident theater company.

After several years of disruptions and devastating losses, this current season is our most successful to date. Productions of Dracula and Hamlet both set records as back-to-back #1 best-sellers, and our current production of Misery is quickly climbing up our top 5. Producing Artistic Director David M. Jenkins notes, “for 2022-23 we had very honest conversations as to how critical it is for our survival we line up a season that would be hard for audiences to resist while staying true to who we’ve always been artistically” – a methodology that is now undeniably successful. The 2023-24 25^th Anniversary Season doubles-down on this approach while achieving important goals for us in how we compensate our artists.

“The 25^th anniversary season sees artist payroll increase straight down the line between 25-50%, with weekly employees like actors and stage managers seeing a 41% increase. No one will work for us in any position for less than $20 an hour. We had a plan to raise wages in 2020, but, well, we all know what happened,” Jenkins offers. These raises put Jobsite’s pay scale above the national average for theaters of our budget size, according to the most recent salary survey from Theatre Communications Group.

The success of the current season and a strict commitment to “on-brand” programming has secured these adjustments simply from increased box office revenues. We are also unique in how we offer profit-sharing to most artists, splitting any net revenues past breakeven expenses directly with those who create the work.

“Jobsite was founded as an artist’s company, as an eclectic ensemble across disciplines, and we will continue to do all we can to take care of those who generate the work. This also means in how we commit to those who commit to us — not just in terms of pay scale, but in providing them more consistent work.”

Giles Davies, long-time Jobsite collaborator, has been added to our now 15-member panel of Artistic Associates, the group that serves as the de facto artistic brain-trust for the organization, advising Jenkins on play selection and other initiatives.

Jobsite will soon unveil a new logo and branding kit along with the official 25th Anniversary poster designs, and curtain times will change for the first time in 20 years with all evening performances taking place at 7:30pm and weekend matinees moving to 2pm.