Fri. Mar. 27, 6-10 p.m., Tampa Museum of Art, 120 W. Gasparilla Plaza, downtown Tampa, cltampa.com/GASP. Advance tickets: General admission, $25, $15 student; VIP, $55. Day-of tickets: General admission, $30, $20 student; VIP, $75.

Prepare to be surprised, the mantra for GASP!, CL's multi-disciplinary fringefest at the Tampa Museum of Art, is admittedly oxymoronic. Like, if you're prepared, you can't be, you know, surprised.

But heck, we were surprised last year, and we planned the thing. Whether it was the red balloons that ascended (sort of against museum policy) into the ceiling during Moving Current's entrance, or the flames brandished (also sort of illegally) by Human Blockhead Daniel Funk on the museum plaza, our jaws dropped right along with yours.

But it wasn't just the illicit stuff that got people buzzing. Ned Averill-Snell as an enraged Trojan warrior startled ticketbuyers at the Will Call table; Susannah LaMarquand's UT dancers danced with themselves, in the form of video images conjured up by Santiago Echeverry; the solo shows by incandescent actors Roxanne Fay, Joanna Sycz and Bridget Bean were standing room only.

This year, to ensure the surprise factor, we're presenting an almost entirely new roster. We're welcoming not just one improv troupe, but eight, from Tampa, Orlando, Sarasota and Miami, taking part in all-night Improv Marathon organized by the estimable folks at Post-Dinner Conversation. We've got some wonderful new solo performers, including Karleigh Chase, with her hilarious take on the secret lives of famous muses, but we're also introducing audiences to the work of Stageworks Theatre's Teen Creatives troupe, who will be doing a series of 10-minute Bully Plays. You've met Zachary Hines and Colleen Cherry, aka Coco & Homo, but their new piece for GASP!, part of their new Avant Guardian project, is nothing like C&H. Our musical guests are all kinds of unpredictable, from the Mobile Itinerant Funk Unit to UNRB to Bayfolk to Sparky! (exclamation included). We've got two dance troupes from opposite, um, poles: Collective Soles and Impulse Pole Dance. We've got a performance/video hybrid from the New Music Conflagration and sound-and-image explorations from the inimitable Jesse Thelonious Vance.

Not to worry, we will have some returnees. The ever-lovely host and hostess with the mostess, Scott & Patti, will be back to emcee. The indefatigable Ward Hall will be on hand with his old-timey brand of ventriloquist's magic. There'll once more be culinary wonder-working from the kitchens of Sono and Mise en Place. And, as always, the museum will be open to GASP! patrons, so you'll have the opportunity to check out the blockbuster Norman Rockwell show that night, a wry chaser to the evening's anarchy.

So yes, prepare to be surprised. We sure will.

PERFORMERS

  • Jeanne M. Adams: Tales Untold
  • Avant-Guardian: The Artist
  • Bayfolk w. Hector Mayoral & Paul Gianotti
  • Karleigh Chase: Memoirs of a Painted Woman
  • Collective Soles Dance
  • Ward Hall
  • Impulse Pole Dance
  • Improv Marathon hosted by Post-Dinner Conversation
  • MIFU (Mobile Itinerant Funk Unit)
  • Autumn Widdoes and Elizabeth A. Baker with the New Music Conflagration
  • Scott & Patti
  • Stageworks, Teen Creatives: The Bully Plays
  • Marc Sterling: Sparky!
  • UNRB, w. Noel Rochford
  • Jesse Thelonious Vance

DO keep checking cltampa.com/GASP between now and Mar. 27. We'll be updating the lineup into early March, and we'll post the schedule well enough in advance so you can plan your evening.

DO try a little bit of everything, dance, theater, food, music, improv, etcetera ? particularly the etcetera. The potpourri is the point.

But DO have a plan of attack. Once the schedule?s posted next month, make sure you know when your personal must-see acts are performing.

But DON'T panic if you miss something you wanted to see. There?s bound to be something else around the corner.

DO look for GASP! offers at CL Deals, and DO buy in advance. You'll save money either way.

This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2015.