Jobsite is thankful to have taken this year’s Critic’s Pick for Best Play (Ros & Guil), Best Costumes (Katrina Stevenson) and Best Artistic Director.
We are also very proud of our history. We’ve taken three Critic’s Picks awards three different times in the past five years: Best Theater Company (’04, ’06 and ’07), Best Play (’03, ’06 and ’08) and Best Costumes (’03, ’07 and ’08). Two of those years I’ve been honored to get Best Artistic Director (’06, ’08), and we’ve had three actors be recognized in that time (Ami Corley and Steve Garland in ’07 and Steven Clark Pachosa in ’06). We’ve now amassed a grand total of 28 Best of the Bay Awards (Critic’s Picks and Reader’s Poll combined) in nine years, averaging over three per year.
Jobsite is also exceedingly proud that our 2007-08 season once again broke all of our records. Our final mainstage attendance figures were 14% higher than they were for 2006-07. Our gross box office receipts were a whopping 30% higher than they were just a year ago. To make sense of the 14% vs 30% with tickets to dollars – that just shows we’re giving away less free tickets and having more people come and pay full price, which is always great news! We’re also now officially 34% over our final season ticket sales for 2007-08, and we typically continue to pick up season ticket holders through the new year. We’re going to keep reaching for a 50% increase. Why not?
This area has been pretty good to us thus far, even if there’s always room for improvement. Thank you for becoming season ticket holders so that we can continue to concentrate more on the work we’re doing instead of on how we’re going to get people in the theater from the ground up every time. Thank you for becoming donors or sponsors of Jobsite, ensuring we continue our work for years to come, and so that we can continue to improve what we do and achieve the financial stability we so desire that will make it possible for our artists to be paid a proper, living wage.
We know we have the artistic product and artistic home we’ve wanted and we know we have an audience – now it’s time to once and for all get the funding we need to make this thing permanent. With people like you and the true support of this area, we feel good we can do it.
On behalf of the Jobsite board and ensemble – thank you, Tampa Bay for another great year.
If you have not yet made it out to the acting clinic being put on by Paul Potenza and Caitlin Eason in Blackbird, the 2008-09 10th anniversary season opener, you owe yourself (and these gifted actors) to get out and see it. As one might imagine, the subject matter of the play is not the easiest thing to sell to people, but I guarantee that you will not be disappointed with your experience.
