Kari Goetz is the director of marketing at Tampa International Airport and an artistic associate and board member at Jobsite Theater, the resident theater company at the Shimberg Playhouse in the Straz Center for the Performing Arts.
An actress since childhood, Goetz, 38, cut her teeth on The New Mickey Mouse Club alongside Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Ryan Gosling and Keri Russell. After earning a degree in theater from the University of Florida, Goetz spent five years in California hamming it up with Second City, a legendary sketch comedy theater in Los Angeles.
Burned out on L.A.’s entertainment scene, she returned to Florida in 2004 to get involved with Jobsite, which was co-founded in 1998 by friend and fellow UF alum David M. Jenkins. Now in her 10th season with the company, Goetz is virtually a household name in the Tampa theater world. Her plucky 2012 performance as a clever canine in the Stageworks production of Sylvia earned her a Jeff Norton Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play, and she co-directed Crimes of the Heart for the company’s 2013-2014 season.
The tireless Goetz, who is also a board member at Girl Scouts of West Central Florida, has taught improv for seven years to business students at the University of South Florida, where she is currently working toward her Ph.D. in Organizational Communication. A proud resident of Tampa’s Seminole Heights neighborhood and married to attorney Crawford Long, she’s going to need a break soon: she’s about to have her first child, a boy, in June.
Best airport souvenir: Cigar City Brewing t-shirts. “I have a habit of buying them for my friends. They’re cool and not your usual souvenir gift.”
Favorite place to grab a drink after landing:First Flight Wine Bar. “You don’t have to twist my arm too tight to get me down to First Flight. It’s run by Mise en Place, so it’s very classy.”
Best place to achieve Zen at the airport: The 9th floor of the parking garage. “You get a nice 360 of the area. There are no announcements, no busy travelers. It’s calm, quiet and you can watch plans take off and land.”
Best airport reading material: The Thought Book in the Airport Chapel. “People write the most fascinating things in it. You’ll get people who’ve just sent off soldiers and they’ll ask God to keep them safe, or just reasons why people are flying. Reading it will put you in an interesting place.”
Best kitschy airport trinkets: The mom-and-pop shops in the Marriott Arcade. “Most people don’t even realize there’s this little strip of shops as you walk to the Marriott. There’s some odd stuff back there, stuffed animals for desperate parents, saltwater taffy, tacky keychains and bootleg Disney shirts. It’s small business at its finest.”
Best airport people-watching: The Level 2 ticketing counters. “On the days there are flights to Cuba it’s amazing to watch the check-in counter. People take the most radical things to Cuba — dorm refrigerators, flat screen TVs, artificial Christmas trees … I once saw an inflatable Nativity set go through.”
Most comfortable airport seating: The big black couch between Airside A and C. “It’s a huge sectional sofa that we move to different spots. It frequently has people sleeping on it. It’s without a doubt the most comfortable place to sit or sleep.”
Best new Tampa restaurant: Rooster & the Till. “It’s a great concept and a really cozy place that’s indicative of the kind of unfettered optimism you’re starting to see among businesses in Seminole Heights.”
Favorite Sunday morning tradition: Browsing the Seminole Heights Sunday Morning Market. “There’s a guy there who makes the most wonderful things out of found objects like birdhouses out of license plates and bracelets out of spoons or watch gears.”
Favorite breakfast joint: Three Coins Diner. “Fluffy pancakes are kind of my weakness and everyone there calls me honey or darling, which I find great. I’m like, ‘Call me that as many times as you want.’”
Favorite way to navigate the Hillsborough River: Rent an eBoat at the Tampa Convention Center Docks. “My husband and I will tool up and down the river. We’ll stop at Rick’s on the River, slurp down some oysters and beer and head back home. The boats don’t go very fast, so you can’t do any damage.”
Best live theater: Jobsite Theater. “Jobsite is more subversive than your usual theater company. Even when we do something mainstream we manage to mess with it so it’s still unexpected.”
Best live animals: Lowry Park Zoo. “When we moved into our house in Seminole Heights one of the first things we did was get a membership to the zoo. The coolest thing is when the macaws fly freely. During certain intervals in the day you can literally reach out and touch them.
Best rugged dog park: Enterprise Dog Park in Clearwater. “It’s more than a dog park. It’s an experience –– especially for your dogs. You can actually hike with them. Our dogs love it. They feel like they have a purpose. They can explore.”
Best airport celebrity sighting: One Direction. “Hordes of teenage girls, like 4,000 teenage girls showed up at the airport after they heard (via Twitter) that One Direction had landed in Tampa.”
This article appears in Mar 6-12, 2014.
