Stageworks’ new space in the Channel District of Tampa held its groundbreaking last week, and celebrating the moment were Mayor Pam Iorio, City Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena, Arts Council Executive Director Art Keeble, writer/philanthropist Elaine Shimberg, developer Ken Stoltenberg and a host of other luminaries and well-wishers. Anna Brennen, long the producing director of Stageworks, gave a welcoming speech in which she announced that the new location “will be a sanctuary for artists where they will congregate, create and perform … We will be a home for diverse youth … to learn and ‘do’ theater … [and] lastly, I wish us to stake our claim, without irony or arrogance, to becoming a world class theater community.”
But wait a minute – wasn’t this new space supposed to be finished a few years ago? I have in my files a blue Stageworks flyer that says the theater “will have a home [in the Channel District] by fall 2007.” Now Brennen says that “we’re hoping that that whole thing gets finished by January 2011.” What’s holding up the show?
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2010.
