2026 – 27 Season
The 2025 Creative Loafing Best of the Bay Award winner for Best Professional Theater splits time between Straz’s intimate 98-seat Shimberg Playhouse and 320-seat cabaret-style Jaeb Theater offering daring, engaging work.
In addition to the six mainstage shows, stay tuned for some very exciting news about a special collaboration with projectALCHEMY dance collective as part of their season at Ruth Eckerd Hall in spring of 2027. projectALCHEMY’s founder and artistic director Alexander Jones also serves as Jobsite’s resident choreographer, winning a Best of the Bay Award for his work on The Rocky Horror Show.
Tickets
A season pass is the best way to save money and provide meaningful support to Jobsite. A pass for the five announced mainstage performances will be available May 11 for $175, with no added fees. Passes are not subject to additional per-ticket fees or demand-based pricing (saving folks up to 80%), they come with unlimited free exchanges (up to 24-hours in advance of the show), a swap-a-show perk once per season, and passholders may purchase additional tickets for friends for $35. A special preview pass is available for $150 and carries all benefits except free exchanges.
A special Rock Star package is available with a $1,000 donation and includes two season passes, entry to Jobsite Rocks!, and special benefits unavailable to the public like reserved seating in the otherwise general admission Shimberg Playhouse. Rock Star donations may only be made directly to Jobsite and are not available from Straz Center.
Single ticket prices vary by title and seating location, and will increase by date based on demand. Single tickets are subject to ticketing and restoration fees levied by Straz Center. A schedule of when single tickets to the individual shows go on sale will be released this summer.
Mainstage Season
Misery
By William Goldman, adapted from the novel by Stephen King
Directed by Paul Potenza
Starring Summer Bohnenkamp, David Jenkins, and Joshua Goff
Oct. 14 – Nov. 8, 2026
Jaeb Theater, Straz Center
Jobsite offers the highly anticipated return of this award-winning production from 2023 scaled up to the much larger 320-seat Jaeb Theater – just in time for Halloween! Summer Bohnenkamp’s turn as the legendary Annie Wilkes won her both a Creative Loafing Best of the Bay Award and a Theatre Tampa Bay Award in a run that sold out for five straight weeks.
True life becomes stranger than fiction when acclaimed romance novelist Paul Sheldon is rescued from a wintery car crash by his “number one fan,” seemingly-kind nurse Annie Wilkes, and wakes up captive in her secluded home. While Paul is convalescing, Annie reads his latest book and becomes enraged when she discovers the author has killed off her favorite character. Annie forces Paul to write a new novel, but he realizes Annie has no intention of letting him go anywhere. The irate Annie has Paul writing as if his life depends on it – and it does.
“… dynamic performances … [Bohnenkamp] owns this role … [Jenkins gives] an intensely physical performance, and you feel his pain” – Tampa Bay Times. “Top-notch” – BroadwayWorld. “a delight” – Creative Loafing.
Much Ado About Nothing
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Katherine Yacko
Featuring an original score by Jeremy Douglass
Jan. 13 – Feb. 7, 2027
Jaeb Theater, Straz Center
“I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.” Shakespeare’s OG rom-com (and one of the few where the female lead doesn’t dress up at some point as a dude), Much Ado About Nothing features the classic couple Benedick, an arrogant and confirmed bachelor, and Beatrice, his favorite sparring partner.
While the feisty couple hides their infatuation beneath witty barbs, young love blossoms as Hero and Claudio race to the altar. When the noble Don Pedro’s wicked brother Don John conspires to break up the wedding, will false accusations and misunderstandings prevent a happy ending? Will the weird Dogberry and his misfit watch save the day? Witty wordplay, passionate poetry, and clever plot twists make this the perfect romantic evening to share love and laughter.
This show is also offered as weekday field trip matinees for high school students Jan. 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, Feb. 2, 3 and 4. Please write to fieldtrips@strazcenter.org or call 813.222.1016 to learn more or make your reservation!
John Proctor is the Villain
By Kimberly Belflower
Mar. 10 – Apr. 4, 2027
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center
At a high school in a one-stoplight town in Georgia, a group of lively teens navigate young love, sex ed, and a few school scandals while studying Arthur Miller’s The Crucible in English class. As the students delve into the American classic, they begin to question the play’s perspective and the validity of naming its hero. With deep wells of passion and biting humor, this dramatic comedy captures a generation mid-transformation, running on pop music, optimism and fury. Alternating between touching, unsettling and bitingly funny moments, these teens discover that their future is not bound by the past and that they have the power to change it all by writing their own coming-of-age story.
With a Broadway cast led by Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink, John Proctor is the Villain was listed by Entertainment Weekly in the top 3 Broadway shows of 2025. It’s the winner of two Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Outstanding New Broadway Play. It was nominated for seven 2025 Tony Awards, including Best Play, and four Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Play. Tampa audiences will get a chance to see this red-hot play before it hits the big screen – a film adaptation produced by Sadie Sink and Tiny Fey was announced in January.
Proof
By David Auburn
May 12 – June 6, 2027
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center
This Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play offers a haunting story of brilliance, inheritance, and belief. The brilliant but restless daughter of a renowned mathematics professor is thrust into turmoil when a notebook containing a revelatory proof is discovered after his death. As debate erupts over its true authorship, she must confront the power of legacy, and the cost of proving herself.
The current New York revival of Proof starring Don Cheadle and Ayo Edebiri is wowing audiences and critics while being called “the best on Broadway right now” (Deadline). This show is widely regarded as one of the most significant and acclaimed plays of the 21st century, Jobsite is champing at the bit to bring it to Tampa Bay area audiences.
The Hobbit
By Greg Banks
Based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien
Original music composed by Jeremy Douglass
Jul. 14 – Aug. 8, 2027
Jaeb Theater, Straz Center
Our unlikely hero, Bilbo Baggins, would much rather be sitting in his cozy Hobbit Hole with a cup of tea and a plate of bacon and eggs. However, he somehow finds himself on a magically mystical adventure. Staged with speed and surprises, audiences of all generations will love this multidisciplinary theatrical spectacle accompanied by live musicians. Five agile actors and healthy dose theater magic come together to create 13 dwarves, a wizard, a hobbit, elves, goblins, wolves, and more! Bilbo travels on an epic journey over freezing mountains and a frightening forest, meeting all sorts of fierce creatures – some become friend and some foe – and discovers that some things are truly worth fighting for. Isn’t it time for an adventure?
The Hobbit is a wonderful way to experience this story for the first time at the same time it will surely delight the staunchest Tolkien enthusiast.
Special Add-On, TBA
Aug. 18 – Sep. 5, 2027
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center
This one’s just not ready, so you’ll have to wait! This show will be available to subscribers at a greatly discounted rate as an add-on to the season package. Will it be a musical? An encore? Something else entirely? Stay tuned!
Special Productions
