Curtain going up on Tampa Bay Theatre Festival ’23
The Tampa Bay Theatre Festival, Friday through Sunday (Sept. 1-3), is kind of the live-onstage version of a film festival: A lot of people with similar interests get together, watch some stuff, learn some more stuff, then have a party – or two – to celebrate.
There will be six full-length plays during this year’s event, none of them previously produced (theater aficionados are particularly fond of new works), along with a collection of “shorts” (each approximately 10 minutes in length), a monologue competition and workshops with theater professionals.
And plenty of opportunities for networking.
Venues include the Hillsborough Community College theaters and rehearsal hall (Ybor campus), and the Jaeb and TECO theaters inside the Straz Center for the Performing Arts and Stageworks Theatre.
Rory Lawrence
Playwright and actor Rory Lawrence founded the Tampa Bay Theatre Festival in 2014, “for people who want to see theater, and for people who want to come and learn and grow, as actors and as writers.” Submissions are received from all over Florida, and all over the country.
By day, Lawrence manages retirement funds for Raymond James Financial. But when the sun goes down, he turns into Mr. Theater.
Lawrence and his team put a lot of sweat equity into this project. “We have the blueprint now,” he says. “But that still doesn’t change the fact that every year we have to hustle to get the same things done. I think people don’t understand what it takes to get so many different people to do so many different things on one weekend. And for it to run like a well-oiled machine.”
It didn’t run like that in 2020 or ’21 – as a matter of fact, it didn’t run at all. Like so many components in the big American theater machine, the Tampa Bay Theatre Festival was sidelined by Covid-19.
Lawrence and company came back with a vengeance in 2022. “We canceled the parties, and the networking events,” he explains. “We were just playing it safe.”
To their surprise, “Last year was one of our biggest successes since we started. We came back and were like hey, we’re going to commence soft … we’re not going to do a whole bunch a stuff, because we don’t know if people are going to come. We know people are nervous.
“And a lot of the plays sold out. The workshops filled up. People really wanted to get back out and do this theater thing.”
For tickets and additional information, visit the Tampa Bay Theatre Festival website.
Schedule
Friday, Sept. 1
Opening night show: Trying to Make It by Rory Lawrence. A group of strangers are stuck together for weeks in an Airbnb due to a reservation mishap. Tempers get hot and patience runs thin, but ultimately they are simply trying to make it. 7:30 p.m., Jaeb Theater.
Saturday, Sept. 2
Workshop: Learning How to Direct from the Inside Out with David Jenkins, producing artistic director, Jobsite Theater. 8:30 a.m., HCC Ybor – Rehearsal Hall.
Workshop: Truth In Improv with Gavin Hawk. 10:30 a.m., HCC Ybor – Rehearsal Hall.
Full-length play competition: The Ropes by Gabe Flores, HCC Ybor – Mainstage Theater; Dear Yellow, Love Red by Jessie Dorsey, GCC Ybor – Black Box Theater; Punk Grandpa by Laura Scruggs, Stageworks Theatre. 12-2 p.m.
Monologue Competition, 1 p.m., HCC Ybor – Rehearsal Hall.
Harry Lennix: Photo: The Hallmark Channel.
Harry Lennix Celebrity Master Class, 3 p.m., HCC Ybor – Rehearsal Hall.
Full-length play competition: Not Guilty by Dray Vaughn, HCC Ybor – Mainstage Theater; Single Black Female in the Navy by Kimberley Mullins, HCC Ybor – Black Box Theater; Searching for Abuelo by Gretchen Suarez-Pena, Stageworks Theatre. 6-8 p.m.
TBTF AfterParty. 9 p.m., Stageworks Theatre.
Sunday, Sept. 3
Short Play Competition, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Straz Center – TECO Theater.
Awards Party, 7-10:30 p.m., Straz Center – Maestro’s Restaurant.
