Here’s what’s behind the curtain this week in Tampa Bay theater…
ONE TEEVEE SHOW KNOWS WHAT’S UP: While local arts get scant coverage from our two daily papers and virtually none from local TV, one network affiliate program alone has consistently aimed its cameras at the Tampa Bay theater and cabaret scene, and recognition is overdue. Broadcast live every weekday morning at 9:00 a.m. on WTSP TV (CBS channel 10), Studio 10 mixes national lifestyle & entertainment stories with coverage of local arts and events, and brings local artists on-air for interviews and even quick performances. Today, hosts Debra Schrils and Roxanne Wilder chatted with the playwright of freeFall Theatre’s now-playing The Buffalo Kings, and recently the program touched on Tampa Repertory Theatre’s Imagining Madoff (closing after this weekend). Next Thursday, the same day CL has its weekly spot, Studio 10 will hit American Stage Company's Radio Golf, the closing entry in August Wilson's Century Cycle (opens this Friday). Kudos to WTSP for making its viewers better informed about the rich fabric of Tampa Bay arts events than the people who watch Dog the Bounty Hunter in the same timeslot.
FROM WITHIN, ON THE SIDE: Tampa theatergoers with flexible entertainment schedules and adventurous tastes are coming more and more to the the Straz Center’s Shimberg Playhouse for Jobsite Theater’s ongoing Job-side series of off-the-wall fare nestled in the scheduling nooks when most local theaters go dark. This Sunday through Tuesday, the series presents From Within, the premier of a dark comedy written and directed by April Bender and co-produced by Ghost Light Theatre Productions, which also brought the spooky A Haunting at the Meteor to the Silver Meteor Gallery last Halloween. Promising to “change the way we see ourselves and the world around us,” the whole affair is a little mysterious, but the billing of the sound designer as “Lord of the Auditory Senses” offers a clue as to the comedy’s cheeky sensibility.
ROMEO, ROMEO, WHEREFORE ART THOU SOMEBODY ELSE? Local actor/musician/writer J. Elijah Cho (Jobsite’s Much Ado About Nothing) was all set to assay Romeo in the inaugural season of the outdoor Tampa Shakespeare Festival this March, but has now been stolen away to shoot a juicy featured role in a cable TV series about which SCENE BREAKER will reveal more as soon as Cho’s nondisclosure agreement wears off. As for who will play Romeo, the Dick Sargent to Cho’s Dick York will be Jamie Jones, now earning raves for his bones-free performance as Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Jobsite’s Twelfth Night.
MISSED IT BY ONLY 1,002 MILES: Apparently this has been going on for several years, but it has only just come to SCENE BREAKER’s attention that: A) BroadwayWorld.com hands out annual Tampa Bay theater awards, B) There is a Tampa Bay branch of BroadwayWorld.com, and C) There is a thing called BroadwayWorld.com, which covers “Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional and international theatre.” Those undeterred by geographical discontinuity can read online the full list of winners for 2014 shows, including nods for Best Director Karla Hartley and Best Set Design(er) Brian Smallheer.
Got a tip for SCENE BREAKER? Email Scene Breaker in care of A&E Editor Julie Garisto, julie.garisto@creativeloafing.com.
This article appears in Jan 15-21, 2015.