As president of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Judith Lisi has made an immeasurable contribution to the local arts world. Even when the now-precious Jobsite Theater was still developing its personality, she saw its promise and made it the resident company in the Shimberg Playhouse. Last season she brought such important Broadway plays as The Light in the Piazza, Spamalot and Doubt to the Morsani Hall and brought back Rent, Hairspray and Wicked. Her love of opera meant that local audiences had a chance to see Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Verdi’s Il Trovatore, and she tried — nobly, if unsuccessfully — to make Tampa history into a work of art with the musical Cigar City Chronicles. Whatever your pleasure — dance or cabaret, Broadway spectacular or one-woman performance art — Lisi made a place for it in her nationally celebrated theater complex.
This article appears in Sep 12-18, 2007.
