Both of these theaters have become essential to the Tampa Bay area, and both amply deserve to be considered this year’s “best.” Jobsite’s season offered plays of Off-Broadway quality like Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune — one could hardly imagine a better production of this work — Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog, Edward Albee’s scandalous The Goat, and Dario Fo’s We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! Meanwhile Stageworks continued to bring us plays of international significance — Caryl Churchill’s A Number and Molière’s The Miser — along with stateside hits like Diana Son’s Stop Kiss, in a riveting production, and Donald Margulies’ Collected Stories. If you care about serious theater, you’ve got to love these two companies.
This article appears in Sep 13-19, 2006.