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 wasnt 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 were hoping that that whole thing gets finished by January 2011. Whats holding up the show?