freeFall opens The Frogs — and a new theater complex
“What better way to open a theater than ‘Gods of the theater, smile on us?'” asks freeFall Theatre Company Artistic Director Eric Davis (left, with Producing Director Kevin Lane). That will indeed be the first line spoken in the first show at freeFall’s new home: The Frogs, opening Feb. 4. Adapted from Aristophanes by Stephen Sondheim and Burt Shevelove, it’s a musical satire in which the Greek god Dionysus goes to Hades in search of a great playwright, and Davis says it “singularly captures freeFall’s attitude toward the selection of work.” With a script that name-drops everyone from Shakespeare to Ibsen to Shaw, all of whom freeFall plans to produce, “it squeezes the essence of what we want to be: an eclectic company that can bounce around from different periods and genres, and people keep being surprised when they come to us.” The latest surprise will be unveiled on opening night: freeFall’s transformation of a Christian Science church campus on Central Avenue in St. Pete into a sprawling theater complex. The Frogs is being staged in a black-box theater space that used to be the Sunday school (when the walls were pink); the gods of the theater are already smiling. (Feb. 4-20, freeFall Theatre Company, 6099 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, 727-498-5205, freefalltheatre.com).
TEN MORE MUSTS
Billy Elliot (Feb. 2-20, Straz Center for the Performing Arts, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa. strazcenter.org). Elton John’s award-winning Broadway musical is based on the hit movie about a boy boxer turned ballet dancer.
Here’s to You, Harold Pinter (The Late, Great Harold Pinter) (Jan. 27-Feb. 6, Studio@620, 620 First Ave. S, St. Petersburg. 727-895-6620). Revolve Theatre Co., 2010 Best of the Bay Winner for Most Auspicious Premiere, pays tribute to the master of uncomfortable silences with one-acts Victoria Station, Ashes to Ashes and A Kind of Alaska.
A Lesson Before Dying (April 7-April 24, Stageworks Theatre Company at Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center, stageworkstheatre.org). An adaptation by the late, great Romulus Linney of Ernest J. Gaines’ 1992 book about a black man put to death for a crime he did not commit.
The Othello Project: The Moor of Venice, Wound-Up and Unwound (Feb. 22-27, in and around Theatre 2, USF, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa, 813-974-2701). USF’s British International Theatre program combines two different approaches to Shakespeare’s Othello: Physical theater company Frantic Assembly works with USF performers to create a production that integrates the students’ own life experiences, while veteran London director Paul Miller takes a more traditional tack.
Disco Pigs (March 3-20, Silver Meteor Gallery, 2213 E. Sixth Ave., Tampa, 813-300-3585). A bittersweet coming-of-age tale by ballyhooed Irish playwright Enda Walsh. Dahlia Legault and Nic Carter star.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (March 8-13, American Stage, St. Petersburg, 727-823-7529, americanstage.org). Christine Decker, a formidable Mother Superior in Doubt, returns to American Stage to play another intimidating creature: Martha, the unholy harridan in Edward Albee’s searing portrait of marriage as battlefield.
Yellowman (March 10-27, Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center, jobsitetheater.org). Jobsite Theater presents Dael Orlandersmith’s acclaimed play about intraracial prejudice and its effect on the romance of a dark-skinned woman and a lighter-skinned man in South Carolina’s African-American Gullah culture.
An Inappropriate Evening with Klaus Kinski (April 14-May 1, Gorilla Theatre, 4419 N. Hubert Ave., Tampa, 813-879-2914, gorillatheatre.com). Aubrey Hampton’s original play delves into the maniacal mind and oddly tender sensibilities of cinema’s most politically incorrect mad genius.
Murder Ballad (April 21-30, Studio@620). Blue Scarf Collective performs a play by Heather Jones set in Knoxville, Tenn., one year after the end of the Civil War.
Mauritius (April 22-May 8, Eleanor Dempsey Performing Arts Center, 13651 Hays Road, Hudson, 727-857-2604). Hat Trick Theatre presents a life-or-death sibling rivalry drama by Theresa Rebeck involving, of all things, stamp collecting.
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2011.
